A8N Ultra Athlon64 XP (4GB RAM Not Showing Up Completely)

[fcastro]

Hi all,

I have been digging for awhile and I am reading mixed reviews. I just dropped an extra 2GB Mushkin ram (same type I had) into my machine bringing it to a total of 4GB. The memory shows up in the bios when I boot even though now its showing DDR330 CL:2, 2T Dual Channel, 128bit (before it showed DDR400 I believe). When I check Windows it says 3.25 of ram.

Anyways I read that windows xp pro 32-bit cannot use all 4gbs. My question is there anyway to get around this at all? Windows XP 64bit is not an option right now for me because of compatibility issues. I don't want to jump into headaches etc.

My system specs:
- AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3200+ 2.01 GHZ
- Abit A8N Ultra Motherboard
- Windows XP Pro (32bit)Service Pack 2
- 4 GB Mushkin (991434 2x1GB HP3200 DDR 2-3-2-6)
- Gigabyte Radeon x800 XL

[bigdroo]

No man. Sorry. That's as good as it gets with regular XP. I learned that the hard way. 2T on 4 sticks is normal. I'm not sure you can get a board that will run them at 1T, but you might be able to raise the memory frequency to help counter some of the performance drop off...

I'm running 2T on mine, but I am able to pull the full 400+ on memory frequency. The Vista x64, as you suspected, will let you do the full 4gb.

As far as compatibility, my sound card is the only REAL thorn in my side. I have to use some open source drivers and disable driver signatures at boot up so I can use mine.

BUT, thanks to the very public release of Vista x64, you'll see stuff like that get remedied VERY soon. (more people to complain lol)

[fcastro]

bigdroo thanks for the reply. Wow that is unreal...I am so upset at this fact. So not even using the /ape switch will work huh?

I have also read of users who have been having the sound card issue with audigy etc that are using XP 64.

Should I jump and install XP 64? I am so confused now...my XP is so damn stable and everything is compatible. Damn! And I don't know if Microsoft is even going to continue developing xp 64 now that they have Vista 64 you know what I mean...

[bigdroo]

You're welcome! :)

I suspect Microsoft is going togo much more heavily to Vista x64 instead of XP x64. If you're buying a new OS anyway, you might as well go with Vista. The thing is though, I'd hold on to your current setup with XP x86 on it for at least another month. There are a few companies, like CMedia that should be releasing their x64 drivers sometime in April. I'd be very surprised if Creative Labs didn't have an update by that time.

You see, the issues with Vista aren't entirely the sound card manufacturers fault. From what I read, Microsoft eliminated DirectSound in Vista, and all there is is a semi-complete set of driver standards to follow. The only sound card manufacturers that weren't heavily affected were the ones that have essentially no features (no real EAX or DDL etc) available anyway. That's how a crappy chipset maker like REALTEK has a full lineup of drivers, while CMEDIA has virtually none, and Creative has crappy ones.

In short stick with XP 32 bit for at least 1 more month (probably 2) until you see some new drivers start rolling out. THEN GO VISTA x64!!! :)

[bigdroo]

Now when you DO decide to go Vista (or XP) x64, check out this old thread of mine. There could be a setting or two in your BIOS to change to get that extra memory...

http://www.amdzone.com/index.php?name=P ... cebaa72510