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General discussion

Vista 64-bit won't boot with 4 GB RAM installed

Mar 7, 2007 5:29AM PST

I have a Gateway GT5228 AMD64 X2 4200 with 2 GB RAM (PC-4200 533mHz) installed. When I add 2 GB (2 sticks) of Kingston RAM (same specs as factory), Vista Ultimate (x64) hangs after 10 seconds or so. The screen flashes, becomes pixelated, then the machine restarts. I can boot and have Vista read all 4 GB in Safe Mode. XP Pro x64 boots and reads all 4 GB RAM. SuSE Linux 10.2 boots and reads all 4 GB of RAM. It's not a compatibility issue...it's a Vista issue. Has anyone else had this problem? Any work arounds?

Here are the specs of my Gateway GT5228:

AMD Athlon? 64 X2 4200+ dual-core AMD64 Technology 2.2 GHz
2000 MHz system bus
L2 cache: 512 KB

Discussion is locked

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"Integrated NVIDIA
Mar 8, 2007 1:12AM PST

I'd try it on a system without such an item.

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Doesn't help me
Mar 8, 2007 4:47AM PST

Will do, but that still doesn't solve the issue of why SuSE 10.2 and Xp Pro x64 find all the RAM perfectly and boot whereas Vista will not.

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I think you explained it well in your reply.
Mar 8, 2007 4:55AM PST

If you could see what I'm seeing, you'd be amazed.

Bob

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Diagnostic
Mar 8, 2007 5:03AM PST

I have read that Vista is incredibly picky about the quality. Perhaps you should try running a diagnostic to check the memory? I even read one post that Kingston exchanged a customer's because it wasn't working properly with Vista.

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"Picky Vista"
Mar 8, 2007 6:54AM PST

It's funny....whenever I get to Gateway's tech support, they try to sell me RAM each and every time...at least until I give them the whole spiel about the other OS's booting and reading RAM fine. As for Vista being "picky" about memory, it doesn't surprise me at all. It's discouraging, but hardly surprising. So much for backwards compatibility, right? The main advantage Vista has over XP Pro, at least on my machine, is...well...I really don't know. Maybe when MS releases Vista SP1 (probably a 1.5 GB download), it'll address this issue. But what really chaps me is I have to use open source software (SuSE x64, Fedora x64, Kubuntu x64) to take full advantage of a machine which was marketed and sold as "Vista Ready."

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RAM check
Mar 8, 2007 6:58AM PST

I have run memory checks using both Vista and SuSE. I pulled out the factory RAM and installed the Kingston and the memory check came back fine. Booted up fine, too. Did the same thing with SuSE...memory check came back fine. It's just when I install all 4 sticks, Vista won't boot. I've tried all combinations, and it ends up where Vista simply won't boot with more than 2GB RAM installed in my machine.