Question on installing Vista 64 bit with 4gb of ram?

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Don - 17 Feb 2008 04:15 GMT

Hey gang,

I am about to order Vista Ultimate, and plan on installing the 64 bit
version and dual booting with XP Pro. I will also get another sata hard
drive, to dedicate to the 64 bit Vista install.

I have read on some forums, where 64 bit Vista may need a certain hotfix
from Microsoft, to be able to run with 4gb of ram installed. Is this pretty
much the case all around, for those with 4gb of ram? I have seen where it is
recommended, when installing 64 bit Vista on a system with 4gb of ram, to
remove 2gb, install Vista 64 bit, then get the hotfix and install it, then
add the other 2gb of ram.

Is this what I should plan on doing, before even attempting to install 64
bit Vista?

Thanks for any feedback on this,

Signature

Don

EVGA 780i MB
Intel Core2 Duo E6600@ 3.24 ghz
Zalman 9700 NT heatsink/fan
BFG 8800 GTS 640 mb
CoolerMaster 830 Evolution Case
4 gb Corsair Dominator PC8500 DDR2

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Colin Barnhorst - 17 Feb 2008 04:52 GMT

It depends on your mobo. There are a lot of reports of problems running
four dimms of pc6400 ram, whether 4x1GB or 4x2GB on consumer mobos. It
isn't so much the amount of ram as the number of dimm slots filled.

A common resolution is not to use pc6400 or reduce the dram speed to 667.
Mobos with nVidia chipsets are mentioned most often. Nforce4, 650i, and
680i are ones I know about. The problem seems to be a combination of
factors that overload the memory controller at 800 with all four dimm slots
filled. You don't give any specifics of your hardware so that's about all I
can tell you. By the way, the problem isn't confined to Vista x64. It also
exists with XP Pro x64.

> Hey gang,
>
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
>
> Thanks for any feedback on this,

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Don - 17 Feb 2008 11:04 GMT

Thanks Colin,

My system is:

EVGA 780i mb
4 gb ( 4 x 1gb), Corsair Dominator PC8500 ram, running at 1066 mhz
Intel Core2 Duo E6600
BFG 8800 GTS 640mb video card
Creative X-Fi Extreme Music soundcard
XP Pro 32 bit

Signature

Don

> It depends on your mobo. There are a lot of reports of problems running
> four dimms of pc6400 ram, whether 4x1GB or 4x2GB on consumer mobos. It
[quoted text clipped - 25 lines]
>>
>> Thanks for any feedback on this,

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Tony Harding - 18 Feb 2008 07:09 GMT

> It depends on your mobo. There are a lot of reports of problems running
> four dimms of pc6400 ram, whether 4x1GB or 4x2GB on consumer mobos. It
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> hardware so that's about all I can tell you. By the way, the problem
> isn't confined to Vista x64. It also exists with XP Pro x64.

Is this the likely reason for a nasty problem I had with XP Pro x64 over
the weekend, namely I bought 8GB of PC6400 Corsair RAM (4 x 2GB DIMMs)
and installed x64. x64 saw my C:\ & D:\ drives just fine, but showed
"unknown" (instead of "basic") for the E:\ & F:\ drives and insisted
they weren't initialized. It's a Dell mobo (XPS720) with the nVidia 680i
SLI chipset. Video card is an nVidia GeForce 7600GS. My first thought
was that I needed to update the SATA drivers to Dell's newest version,
which took some doing. However, after it was done and I verified the
update's success by going into Device Manager and displaying the driver
details for the SATA/RAID controllers (although I haven't defined any
RAID arrays). Absolutely no difference at all, so as a last resort I
pulled the 8GB of PC6400 RAM and reinstalled the 4GB of PC8500 RAM -
everything was perfect, no OS reinstall required. Should I be
researching the nVidia site?

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Colin Barnhorst - 18 Feb 2008 07:50 GMT

I had issues with a board with an nVidia chipset when I tried to max the ram
with pc6400 under XP Pro x64 so I can believe you might have had issues from
a similar cause but slightly different symtoms.

As to why apparently faster ram works OK, maybe it depends on what speed the
8500 really is running at when you fill all the dimm slots.

>> It depends on your mobo. There are a lot of reports of problems running
>> four dimms of pc6400 ram, whether 4x1GB or 4x2GB on consumer mobos. It
[quoted text clipped - 21 lines]
> PC6400 RAM and reinstalled the 4GB of PC8500 RAM - everything was perfect,
> no OS reinstall required. Should I be researching the nVidia site?

Reply to this Message

Tony Sperling - 18 Feb 2008 08:19 GMT

I just updated my BIOS (Asus M2N32-SLI - nv590 chipset) from '903' to
'1603' (there are at least five updates in between), sometime after 903 they
listed memory timing adjustments as a feature. I belive this BIOS (Award, I
think?) covers many of the newer boards from Asus and although I am only
running 2GB, and never had any trouble of this kind, you might check for an
update whatever board it is you have. I think that few boards were delivered
with complete support for 800 Mhz chips, even a short while ago, since
latency was still an issue just last year and BIOS's are rarely less than
six months old.

Tony. . .

>I had issues with a board with an nVidia chipset when I tried to max the
>ram with pc6400 under XP Pro x64 so I can believe you might have had issues
[quoted text clipped - 29 lines]
>> was perfect, no OS reinstall required. Should I be researching the nVidia
>> site?

Reply to this Message

Tony Harding - 18 Feb 2008 17:29 GMT

> I just updated my BIOS (Asus M2N32-SLI - nv590 chipset) from '903' to
> '1603' (there are at least five updates in between), sometime after 903 they
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> latency was still an issue just last year and BIOS's are rarely less than
> six months old.

Good point (i.e., BIOS). For the record, I'm running Dell's latest BIOS
for the XPS720, ver. A05, dated 01/25/2008.

Reply to this Message

Colin Barnhorst - 18 Feb 2008 17:53 GMT

This is a case where the latest BIOS version is not always the right BIOS
version. Usually, but not always. You just have to read through the
descriptions of the versions and use the forum for your board on the
manufacturer's website. The aggregated experience of the users on those
forums is fantastic.

>> I just updated my BIOS (Asus M2N32-SLI - nv590 chipset) from '903' to
>> '1603' (there are at least five updates in between), sometime after 903
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
> Good point (i.e., BIOS). For the record, I'm running Dell's latest BIOS
> for the XPS720, ver. A05, dated 01/25/2008.

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Charlie Russel - MVP - 17 Feb 2008 05:30 GMT

In addition to Colin's comments, there have been sporadic reports of some
systems having issues with 4 GB exactly. For those systems, you pull the two
DIMMs, install, and re-install the DIMMs. You don't need the hotfix at that
point in most cases. But certainly not all systems have the problem, so
don't worry unless you do.

Signature

Charlie.
http://msmvps.com/xperts64
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/charlie.russel

> Hey gang,
>
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
>
> Thanks for any feedback on this,

Reply to this Message

Don - 17 Feb 2008 11:05 GMT

Thanks Charlie, when I get Vista 64 bit, I will go ahead and try and install
as my system is and see what happens.

Signature

Don

> In addition to Colin's comments, there have been sporadic reports of some
> systems having issues with 4 GB exactly. For those systems, you pull the
[quoted text clipped - 19 lines]
>>
>> Thanks for any feedback on this,

Reply to this Message

therese1225 - 17 Feb 2008 23:50 GMT

Hi Don,
Just letting you know I am running 64 bit Vista home premium with 8 gb of
ram (4X2gb). No major problems. I went to the Kingston site and they checked
my system for ram compatibility. Ordered 8Gb's for about $200. The price of
some ram has come down. The only thing is that the systems boots up slower
than it used to, but once booted up runs good. I have a choice of running 64
bit or 32 bit IE7; I run the 32 bit version. I've been using the 64 bit for
about a year now.

Asus P5N32-SLI Deluxe
Pentium D 2.8ghz
BFG 8800 GT OC 512MB GDDR3
8 Gb (4X2) Kingston PC2 5300 667Mhz Value Ram

> Thanks Charlie, when I get Vista 64 bit, I will go ahead and try and install
> as my system is and see what happens.
[quoted text clipped - 22 lines]
> >>
> >> Thanks for any feedback on this,

Reply to this Message

Colin Barnhorst - 18 Feb 2008 00:38 GMT

That's because you are using pc5300. It is pc6400 that is problematic on
the Asus P5N32 SLI Deluxe. I have that mobo in one of my machines and I can
validate that pc6400 causes problems when all dimm slots are filled but
pc5300 is not a problem. The test reports on various ram on the Asus site
for this mobo do list a lot of compatible pc6400 but the test reports on all
the ram never gives any tests with more than 2GB. As a result I bought
pc6400 not realizing the subleties of the test reports and wound up having
to replace with pc5300 in the end in order to max it. It is a good board in
every other respect but like so many consumer mobos the subleties are
sometimes maddening.

> Hi Don,
> Just letting you know I am running 64 bit Vista home premium with 8 gb of
[quoted text clipped - 50 lines]
>> >>
>> >> Thanks for any feedback on this,

Reply to this Message

Don - 18 Feb 2008 11:27 GMT

Thanks for the info, good to know!

Signature

Don

EVGA 780i MB
Intel Core2 Duo E6600@ 3.24 ghz
Zalman 9700 NT heatsink/fan
BFG 8800 GTS 640 mb
CoolerMaster 830 Evolution Case
4 gb Corsair Dominator PC8500 DDR2

> Hi Don,
> Just letting you know I am running 64 bit Vista home premium with 8 gb of
[quoted text clipped - 50 lines]
>> >>
>> >> Thanks for any feedback on this,

Reply to this Message