- ASUS P5E3 Deluxe
- INTEL Core 2 Duo 3.16GHz E8500 [ LGA775 - 6MB - 45nm - 1333MHz]
- 2x DDR3 2GB [2x1GB] DDR1333 (PC3-10666) - CORSAIR DHX [TWIN3X2048-1333C9DHX]
- ASUS Extreme N8800GTS/HTDP ( GeForce 8800GTS 512MB 2xDVI HDTV HDCP )
- SATA150 74GB - 10000 WESTERN DIGITAL RAPTOR (16MB) [WD740ADFD]
- English Windows XP PRO SP2b OEM

Hey there,

So this is my set up.... I have posted a thread about RAM issues with windows XP, but having read a whole bunch of forums etc, I've come to realize that whilst 4GB of RAM occasionally works with XP, generally it is not meant to.

Question is: Will upgrading to Vista Ultimate 32-bit change anything? or is the 64 bit version required. My PC starts up at the moment with the 4Gb, detects 3.12 in the 'system' in control panel, but upon starting ANY software the software crashes instantly. Windows keeps running though...

Thanks for any help you can give!

P.S. I'm reluctant to go to 64 bit as apparently lots of programs and games have issues with this in various shapes and forms.

Forgot to mention: MEMTESTs shows RAM is fine.... they are 2 matched pairs purchased at the same time (to reduce chance of them being different in any way).

The only issue with 64-bit is that punkbuster doesn't support 64-bit. That means you won't be able to play on PB enabled servers. Other than that, the thing about programs not working is really a myth.

Upgrading to 32-bit Vista should do the trick because it sounds like a bad install if Windows, but you'll only be able to utilize the 3GB still.

re: vista 64. It's over the hump and the hottest thing going now. OEMs are switching over to it, driver support is great, most all apps simply run in the 32 bit mode of the processor. No MS 32 bit consumer OS will get you the use of all 4 gig of your RAM. You will need to go 64 bit. This IS the way to go for now and the future but there are a VERY few apps (some popular VPN clients, 3d mark, and a few others, no 16 bit apps at all unless you run them in a VM) and mostly older hardware that don't work on it yet. The blog post I linked to below at Zdnet addresses this in detail.

Bottom line is Vista 64 is now past critical mass and is the OS of today and the very near future. Games run great on it.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] mory-usage

Vista 32 runs great with 4 gig RAM but like XP it will not use it all. You'll end up with 3 gig +/- or even less if you use multiple video cards with lots of on-board memory. But there are no reports of system crashes in Vista 32 because of simply installing 4 gig.

Bottom line is Vista 64 is now past critical mass and is the OS of today and the very near future. Games run great on it.

mmmm, i've always been curious about how real the whole 'nothing works on vista 64 bit' thing is....

As an afterthought.... Would I be able to only use 3 ram sticks in my motherboard to at least maximize that side of things? or would this cause damage to the motherboard and or RAM?

You mean on Vista 64? Or what? I'm confused.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=506

This article will allay any fears that Vista 64 ain't workin right.

sorry, to clarify.... using 3 of the 4 RAM slots would be with XP as is now or even possibly with Vista 32bit,

Well, short answer is you can always use 3 sticks of RAM but in doing so you will lose dual channel, at least on MOBOs I am familiar with this has been the case for years. The effect of dual channel is somewhat overrated but it still speeds things up a bit so going to three sticks of RAM is a bit of a trade off.

You have 2, 2 gig sticks right? And your board has what, four slots? That's why I'm confused. Were you considering putting in 3, 1 gig sticks instead or adding another 2 gig?

sorry, didn't explain that too well either.... I have 2 sets of matched pairs. In other words, 4x 1Gb.

Will the 3Gb be better than the gain from using dual channel?

With DDR2 so dirt cheap right now, your best bet would be 4 sticks of 2GB RAM; it would only cost you another $40, tops.

32 bit systems can only access 4GB RAM total; counting main memory, GFX card RAM, sound card RAM, page file, etc.

my RAM is DDR3.... and 4 sticks of 2GB would be 8 so I'd have to get vista 64 bit. Can't imagine windows xp being too happy about 8GB of RAM?

32 bits systems can access 3,25 GB ram(as i saw in my friends pc) and yes, th best bet would be 4 sticks of 2GB ram

My only gripe with Vista's 64 bit version is NO VPN SUPPORT. My employer has two different VPNs I can connect to (Cisco & SonicWALL) and neither provides a 64 bit VPN client. The 32 bit VPN client fails on install so I'm gonna have to hold onto my old XP laptop just in case I need to connect back to work... it's not a deal breaker. Being able to use all 4 GB of RAM is nice... Vista 64 has been 100% stable... no crazy reboots/lockups. IE did crash once, but even that wasn't a major event... just re-opened the browser and it was back to normal (for the record I typically use Firefox)

My bad. I saw 2 x 2 gig in your system specs and didn't read inside the parenthesis where it specifies the 2 gig is in a matched pair.

Yes, you can use three sticks. You just lose dual channel.

But this raises a new question: many motherboards have issues running properly when all four RAM slots are filled. This has nothing to do with the total RAM size, it's all about powering and coordinating 4 separate sticks. Not sure if your board has this issue or not. The usual remedy is to do one or more of the following:

1. In the BIOS setup reduce (bus) speed of the RAM down to the next lower level eg. 667 from 800 (try first, this often fixes it)
2. Raise the timings eg. got to 5,5,5,15 instead of 4,4,4,12
3. Bump the RAM voltage very slightly
4. bump up the Northbridge voltage slightly

Also be sure that your RAM is set to mfg spec - if it is spec to run at 2.2 and your board is only giving it 1.8 this could make the system unstable.

All of this stuff is somewhat motherboard specific so it is hard to give you specific advice - but generally these are the tweaks that have gotten 4 sticks stable on other ssytems. You might want to email Asus suipport or pe