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General discussion

Why would windows Vista not effectively read my RAM size?

Jan 21, 2011 4:14AM PST

I got an Acer Aspire 5738z with 64bits windows 7 but after realizing that is was not detecting internet connection i decided to format it and replace the window 7 with vista ultimate 32bits, i lost most of my drivers which i just recently download on www.acer.com but now, vista show my RAM as just 3GHZ, why? on this same machine ,i have ubuntu which say it is 4GHZ ram present there.On my machine set up it read 4GHZ, where does the other part of the RAM gone to in Vista.
I need explanation and help to make it show 4GHZ on system properties

Discussion is locked

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Why?
Jan 21, 2011 9:11AM PST

Because you went from 64bit to 32bit. There is a cap on the amount of ram that 32bit machines can access...

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And just to add
Jan 21, 2011 9:26AM PST

And just to add, it's GB. GHz is a frequency designation, GB is a capacity designation.

Also, I'll say that there's not really so much a cap as a limit to how many memory addresses can be stored in a 32-bit variable. A cap implies that it's arbitrary, while it's a limitation of the hardware as it's being used. Other than what I might say is a poor choice of words, the other poster is spot on.

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It there not way i can fixed this problem?
Jan 21, 2011 2:53PM PST

It there not way i can fixed this problem?

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Sort of.
Jan 21, 2011 3:50PM PST

Because of all the calls to vendors, Microsoft in some patch has Windows REPORT but not use anymore ram than before.

Maybe install all the patches and see if it reports all ram.

There are not plans to fix this as it's just a 32 bit limitation.
Bob

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In addition
Jan 21, 2011 9:29PM PST

In addition to what Bob mentioned, you could reinstall a 64-bit OS. You'll have to decide between losing about a half-GB of RAM or spending the time necessary to figure out how to get things going with the 64-bit Windows.