Is the 3gb Switch required for Max 64 bit with XP 64bit?

[mr. a]

I have a system with XP pro 64 bit and am running Max 9 64 bit. I noticed when the system starts up it only displays 3.5 GB of RAM even though I have 4 GB installed.

I have been ignoring this but I am back to crashing max again so i am wondering if the system is using all available RAM. Do I need to use the 3GB switch? Also, are there any there settings that need to be modified so that Max will not be limited in memory?

(My motherboard will take up to 6GB so I don't think the memory is unsupported).

Thanks.

[davexl]

Check your bios for a memory remap feature - this is hardware thing.

[Clifton Santiago]

3 gig switch is only for 32 bit systems. 64 bit apps are allowed by 64 bit windows to use all available memory. This has no relation to your problem.

If you have 4 gigs and it s only showing up as 3.5, as davexl said, its a bios thing. Your mobo defaults may be reserving your "missing" ram for a "memory hole" for hardware components. Find out which setting is doing this in the bios and set it to minimum.

[mr. a]

that all sounds good.....
but how do I to do that?

[Clifton Santiago]

Go into your bios and find the setting that controls the memory hole. The exact setting name is going to vary depending on your bios. Your mobo manual should explain all the bios settings.

[mr. a]

ok- I found 2 areas that seem to match what you are talking about:

1) H/W memory hole remapping (described as '...enables hardware to remap the physical mamory to the address higher than 00E0. Setting options [disabled], [enabled]')

2) H/W memory hole interlock (described as 'this setting controls the hardware memory hole interlock times. Options [at least not], [all present are]')

Is either one of these settings what you are talking about?

Thanks.

[Clifton Santiago]

Just experiment and see what happens. If you screw anything up just go back into your bios and reset everything to default.

[mr. a]

oK, I have 4 GB og RAM now!
After finding the courage to change Bios settings the system now reads all available memory. Today is off to a good start.

THANK YOU!

[Da_elf]

and dont forget your allowed up to 128gb physical ram and 9tb virtual ram (or was that 19 i forget) its fun to crank up the computers page file on huge scenes just to see how much memory you can consume