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XP Pro 32-Bit, msinfo and RAM

Forum Motherboards & Memory : Memory - XP Pro 32-Bit, msinfo and RAM

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alexprokop   02-18-2009 at 10:50:43 AM

OK, so I've just put my new system together:

Core i7 920
3GB OCZ Platinum
Gigabyte GA-EX54-DS4
Using my old Radeon X300SE for the time being
Windows XP Pro 32-Bit with SP3 (everything fully up to date)

and there are some discrepancies with the amount of RAM reported in the system. Now I know this is pretty normal when you start getting above about 2GB for XP 32-bit, but for me it seems to be the reverse of the norm:

The BIOS is reporting 3GB (well actually its reporting something like 3135247KB)
Control Panel > System is reporting: "2.7 Ghz, 3.00GB RAM Physical Address Extension"
msinfo32.exe is reporting 2048 MB

If anything I thought msinfo normally reported correctly, with control panel > system giving the incorrect value. Is this something I need to worry about? I haven't had time to run a memory check as yet and I'll probably install CPU-Z and see what that reports, it just seemed odd. Is it to do with PAE and should PAE even be enabled when I haven't got more than 4GB installed?

Cheers,
Alex

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Bronze Motherboards badge GhislainG   02-18-2009 at 03:10:21 PM
- 0 +

On my system with 8 GB (Windows XP Pro 32-Bit SP3), msinfo reports 2.31 GB and System Properties is reporting 3.25 GB.

Vista 64 doesn't have those issues.

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alexprokop   02-18-2009 at 04:03:42 PM
- 0 +

I'm not quite ready to go 64-bit.

I'm mainly wondering is if I actually have that 3gb available and should I disable PAE?

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Bronze Motherboards badge GhislainG   02-18-2009 at 04:55:32 PM
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What does PAE provide with 3 GB of memory?

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alexprokop   02-18-2009 at 05:11:33 PM
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That was exactly my point. So I don't really understand why it was enabled automatically

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gamerk316   02-18-2009 at 07:15:21 PM
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PAE should be off, causes more issues then its worth.

What I'm guessing is happening, is 2.7GB is the most the system can use, but with PAE, the entire 3GB is considered usable by the system. The 2GB from msinfo32.exe is probably the amount of RAM reserved for system use, although I could be wrong...

Reply to gamerk316
alexprokop   02-18-2009 at 07:21:52 PM
- 0 +

OK, that makes sense. How can I turn PAE off?

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