Win 10 not using full amount of RAM

[katz]

HP rp5700 desktop. Core 2 Duo 3.06/3.06 GHZ. Upgraded from 8 to Win 10 by client. 32 bit OS, x 64 processor.

Installed RAM is 6 GB, yet it is reporting that only 3.49 GB is usable. Tried a bunch of tweaks, nothing seems to change . I recall this being an issue in earlier versions of Windows, but I can't recall what I did to fix it.

Help...

 

[cyabro]

You've only got 32Bit OS version installed.
Max RAM for that is 4GB, including any shared RAM, cache etc, so that's why you see it is only using 3.49GB.
You'll need to wipe and install a 64bit version of Windows.

 

[katz]

Thanks for that info., cyabro. I knew that was a limitation in previous OS's, but for some reason I thought we could get past that in Win 10.

 

[glricht]

Thanks for that info., cyabro. I knew that was a limitation in previous OS's, but for some reason I thought we could get past that in Win 10.

Has nothing to do with the OS. A 32-bit address can only reference up to 4GB of RAM. Requires 64-bit address to reference more than 4GB of RAM.

 

[Porthos]

I am surprised that question was even asked on these forums.

 

[Mike McCall]

I am surprised that question was even asked on these forums.

I dunno. I've asked worse questions.

 

[kurros]

Just to be a pedant, there is no reason a 32-bit OS can’t use more than 4 GB of RAM. Since the Pentium Pro/Pentium II, CPUs have supported Physical Address Extension. The reason “client” versions of 32-bit Windows still can’t properly utilize PAE is largely for historical reasons.

Back in the early Windows XP days you could set a PAE boot flag to use more than 4 GB. Microsoft ended up changing how the flag worked with Service Pack 2. Some 32-bit Windows 2000 server editions could still use up to 32 GB. The reason Microsoft gave is that some PCI device drivers had problems when there was more than 4 GB of address space. PAE could still be enabled to use NX and an early implementation of Data Execution Prevention.

With 32-bit Windows Vista and 7, Microsoft uses PAE by default to support DEP but still limits the address space to 4 GB. Ostensibly for the same driver concerns.

By the time Windows 10 has come around I don’t think the driver concerns are really there anymore, but it’s probably not worth the effort for Microsoft to do QA on.

In the Windows XP SP2 and Windows 7 days there were patches that some enthusiasts had figured out to get full PAE support on 32-bit; probably by diffing some system files from Windows Server.

Edit: of course Microsoft has always liked to differentiate licenses via supported memory. In the client space it was only really a concern with “Starter” editions of Windows. Now Microsoft is asking gaming PC OEMs to ship Windows 10 Pro for Workstations on their 64GB rigs.

 

[fincoder]

I am surprised that question was even asked on these forums

And given the question, @katz might not be aware that Windows can be re-installed as 64-bit using the same license. Problem solved.

 

[MDD1963]

Well, if it is already Win 10, upgraded not much of an issue, right?

I'd sure talk someone into a reinstall to be able to utilize the rest of the RAM....4 GB for Win10 is rather dismal.....; hard to believe MS even made a 32 bit version...

 

[Diggs]

Well, if it is already Win 10, upgraded not much of an issue, right?

Meaning a 32-bit version of Win10 cannot be upgraded to a 64-bit version (to my knowledge).

 

[Markverhyden]

Exactly. This is true of every version of Windows so far - you can wipe it and install a fresh copy of either 32-bit or 64-bit Windows using the same key, but you can't convert a 32-bit version to 64-bit any other way. It's not an unreasonable restriction when you consider how rarely you'd actually need to do this.



No, pretty easy. 32-bit Windows can still run 16-bit programs while 64-bit Windows can't, and there are a lot of low-spec machines (especially in the embedded space) where they're never going to need more than a couple of GB anyway and may be runing software that's twenty years old. Never underestimate the power of backwards compatibility (annd cheapness).

Yep. Same with Linux.