4 GB memory on standard Vista

I brought an Inspiron 1525 laptop with 4 GB memory with Vista Home Premium.
I just found out that Vista Home Premium (not 64 bit) could only use 3 GB
memory. Only the 64 bit versions are able to use 4 GB memory. Why does
Dell do this? Is there something I'm missing?
Ken Tak

"ken tak" wrote in message
m...
I brought an Inspiron 1525 laptop with 4 GB memory with Vista Home Premium.
I just found out that Vista Home Premium (not 64 bit) could only use 3 GB
memory. Only the 64 bit versions are able to use 4 GB memory. Why does
Dell do this? Is there something I'm missing?
Ken Tak


Dell doesn't do that. Microsoft does that. You'd see the same thing out of
any new OEM notebook using a 32-bit version of Windows.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...nized&aq=f&oq=

"ken tak" wrote in message
m...
I brought an Inspiron 1525 laptop with 4 GB memory with Vista Home
Premium. I just found out that Vista Home Premium (not 64 bit) could only
use 3 GB memory. Only the 64 bit versions are able to use 4 GB memory.
Why does Dell do this? Is there something I'm missing?

Dell doesn't do it. The Binary number system does it.

A 32-bit machine can address only 4 GB total (2 ^ 32).
Hardware needs some address space to run. If you fill
up the address space with 4 GB RAM, the hardware has
to take some back to use. HP computers do it, Gateway
computers do it and so do almost every other brand
(Even Apple!)

Think of a 4-quart jar. Now think of hardware as being rocks.
put some rocks in the jar. Is the jar's capacity 4 quarts? Yup.
Can it hold 4 quarts of water? Nope. The rocks take up some room.

Is your computer's capacity 4 GB? Yup. Can you fill it all with RAM?
Nope. The hardware takes some room.

Tom Lake

You need 64-bit version of Vista. Same thing with Windows XP.

"Tom Lake" wrote in message
...


"ken tak" wrote in message
m...
I brought an Inspiron 1525 laptop with 4 GB memory with Vista Home
Premium. I just found out that Vista Home Premium (not 64 bit) could only
use 3 GB memory. Only the 64 bit versions are able to use 4 GB memory.
Why does Dell do this? Is there something I'm missing?

Dell doesn't do it. The Binary number system does it.

A 32-bit machine can address only 4 GB total (2 ^ 32).
Hardware needs some address space to run. If you fill
up the address space with 4 GB RAM, the hardware has
to take some back to use. HP computers do it, Gateway
computers do it and so do almost every other brand
(Even Apple!)

Think of a 4-quart jar. Now think of hardware as being rocks.
put some rocks in the jar. Is the jar's capacity 4 quarts? Yup.
Can it hold 4 quarts of water? Nope. The rocks take up some room.

Is your computer's capacity 4 GB? Yup. Can you fill it all with RAM?
Nope. The hardware takes some room.

Tom Lake

S.Lewis wrote:
"ken tak" wrote in message
m...
I brought an Inspiron 1525 laptop with 4 GB memory with Vista Home Premium.
I just found out that Vista Home Premium (not 64 bit) could only use 3 GB
memory. Only the 64 bit versions are able to use 4 GB memory. Why does
Dell do this? Is there something I'm missing?
Ken Tak


Dell doesn't do that. Microsoft does that. You'd see the same thing out of
any new OEM notebook using a 32-bit version of Windows.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...nized&aq=f&oq=



I think he is asking, why is Dell selling a Laptop that is 32bit with 4
Gigs of Memory?

Tom Lake wrote:


"ken tak" wrote in message
m...
I brought an Inspiron 1525 laptop with 4 GB memory with Vista Home
Premium. I just found out that Vista Home Premium (not 64 bit) could
only use 3 GB memory. Only the 64 bit versions are able to use 4 GB
memory. Why does Dell do this? Is there something I'm missing?

Dell doesn't do it. The Binary number system does it.

A 32-bit machine can address only 4 GB total (2 ^ 32).
Hardware needs some address space to run. If you fill
up the address space with 4 GB RAM, the hardware has
to take some back to use. HP computers do it, Gateway
computers do it and so do almost every other brand
(Even Apple!)

Think of a 4-quart jar. Now think of hardware as being rocks.
put some rocks in the jar. Is the jar's capacity 4 quarts? Yup.
Can it hold 4 quarts of water? Nope. The rocks take up some room.

Is your computer's capacity 4 GB? Yup. Can you fill it all with RAM?
Nope. The hardware takes some room.

Tom Lake



As I already said in the other post.

I think he is asking, why is Dell selling a Laptop that is 32bit with 4
Gigs of Memory?

"Dan Sgambelluri" wrote in message
...
S.Lewis wrote:
"ken tak" wrote in message
m...
I brought an Inspiron 1525 laptop with 4 GB memory with Vista Home
Premium. I just found out that Vista Home Premium (not 64 bit) could
only use 3 GB memory. Only the 64 bit versions are able to use 4 GB
memory. Why does Dell do this? Is there something I'm missing?
Ken Tak


Dell doesn't do that. Microsoft does that. You'd see the same thing out
of any new OEM notebook using a 32-bit version of Windows.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...nized&aq=f&oq=



I think he is asking, why is Dell selling a Laptop that is 32bit with 4
Gigs of Memory?


Fair question. I don't know.

Another question: Why is he buying one with that much (likely unneeded) RAM?

"Dan Sgambelluri" wrote in message
...
Tom Lake wrote:


"ken tak" wrote in message
m...
I brought an Inspiron 1525 laptop with 4 GB memory with Vista Home
Premium. I just found out that Vista Home Premium (not 64 bit) could
only use 3 GB memory. Only the 64 bit versions are able to use 4 GB
memory. Why does Dell do this? Is there something I'm missing?

Dell doesn't do it. The Binary number system does it.

A 32-bit machine can address only 4 GB total (2 ^ 32).
Hardware needs some address space to run. If you fill
up the address space with 4 GB RAM, the hardware has
to take some back to use. HP computers do it, Gateway
computers do it and so do almost every other brand
(Even Apple!)

Think of a 4-quart jar. Now think of hardware as being rocks.
put some rocks in the jar. Is the jar's capacity 4 quarts? Yup.
Can it hold 4 quarts of water? Nope. The rocks take up some room.

Is your computer's capacity 4 GB? Yup. Can you fill it all with RAM?
Nope. The hardware takes some room.

Tom Lake



As I already said in the other post.

I think he is asking, why is Dell selling a Laptop that is 32bit with 4
Gigs of Memory?



It's like a spare tire. If any of the RAM goes bad, he can just revert to a
perfectly reasonable 2gb w/o missing a beat......

g

K2NNJ wrote:
You need 64-bit version of Vista. Same thing with Windows XP.

Vista gets my vote here.

Bob

On Sep 30, 8:32*pm, "S.Lewis" wrote:
"Dan Sgambelluri" wrote in message

...



Tom Lake wrote:

"ken tak" wrote in message
news:UOednSXirNs1C3_VnZ2dnUVZ_vCdnZ2d@earthlink. com...
I brought an Inspiron 1525 laptop with 4 GB memory with Vista Home
Premium. I just found out that Vista Home Premium (not 64 bit) could
only use 3 GB memory. *Only the 64 bit versions are able to use 4 GB
memory. Why does Dell do this? *Is there something I'm missing?

Dell doesn't do it. *The Binary number system does it.

A 32-bit machine can address only 4 GB total (2 ^ 32).
Hardware needs some address space to run. *If you fill
up the address space with 4 GB RAM, the hardware has
to take some back to use. *HP computers do it, Gateway
computers do it and so do almost every other brand
(Even Apple!)

Think of a 4-quart jar. *Now think of hardware as being rocks.
put some rocks in the jar. *Is the jar's capacity 4 quarts? *Yup.
Can it hold 4 quarts of water? Nope. *The rocks take up some room.

Is your computer's capacity 4 GB? *Yup. *Can you fill it all with RAM?
Nope. *The hardware takes some room.

Tom Lake

As I already said in the other post.

I think he is asking, why is Dell selling a Laptop that is 32bit with 4
Gigs of Memory?

It's like a spare tire. *If any of the RAM goes bad, he can just revert to a
perfectly reasonable 2gb w/o missing a beat......

g

Of course, But it is in a way false advertising though as they
saying it has 4 Gigs when it really only has 2 Gigs