Dell XPS M1710 and issue with 4Gb RAM?!?

Trevalen · Jan 31, 2008, 08:43 PM

I just upgraded my Dell XPS M1710 to 4Gb of RAM, but for some reason in the BIOS it shows the 4096 installed, but only only 3300'ish bytes of RAM available due to some being "reserved for system use". Anyone seen this and know how to fix it? According to the Intel and Dell sites, the system supports 4Gb of RAM... This is annoying...

BlueMak · Jan 31, 2008, 09:10 PM

it's normal for 32bit OS. Nothing to worry about. You need 64bit OS to use all 4GB, or more, of memory.

Dooghy · Mar 28, 2008, 06:02 PM

I have the same laptop, Dell XPS M1710 and have the same problem. This laptop has a 64 bit CPU. Of course, a 32 bit OS has a limit on how much memory can use, due to 32 bit memory address allocations. Still, the question asked in this topic is about the BIOS settings, which has nothing to do with the OS. For some reasons Dell decided to reserve some memory for the system and allow only the remaining (~3.3GB) for the OS. Unfortunately they also made this as read-only in BIOS ; there is no chance for the end-user to change this BIOS setting.

Therefore, regardless of what architecture your OS is based on (32bit or 64 bit) it will still use the remaining RAM as set in the BIOS, e.g. ~3.3GB.

To me, the only solution is to upgrade or reinstall the BIOS ... which usually is something I don't like to do (I had in the past a lot of issues when doing this ... but this really depends on the computer vendor).

BlueMak · Mar 28, 2008, 10:27 PM

If that is true, that sucks.

**kris23** · Mar 29, 2008, 01:31 AM

Dell puts their BIOSes on lock down unless the systen was meat to be OCed like that one preOCed XPS system.

[hobo]eclipse · Mar 29, 2008, 01:58 AM

it cant be for the GPU, this an XPS here? WTF is it being used for?

Is it possible the bios can not handle 4 gig? (like a 32bit bios or something?)

PangingJr · Mar 29, 2008, 06:19 PM

i think the chipset must support at least 8 GB of address space, if this is Intel's chipset, then starting from Intel 965 chipset upwards.

i didn't check your laptop's chipset , but a quick google, i think here (below) is an example of the similar problem in Intel 945 chipset laptop.
DV9000T & 4G RAM revisited [Archive] - Notebook Forums and Laptop Discussion

***temeteus82*** · Mar 30, 2008, 03:27 AM

I think that XPS model has Mobile Intel 945PM Express chipset. So it is not supporting 4 Bg of RAM. And there is no way it can be fixed.

PangingJr · Mar 30, 2008, 03:53 AM

i think the OP's laptop system board must has supported for upto 4GB at least. that is how he was able to install 4GB RAM on the system.
however, there must be a BIOS limitation for a certain chipset that supports 'only' upto 4GB.
again, i have not checked into any info on the specific laptop system, so this is all just a guess.

***temeteus82*** · Mar 30, 2008, 03:58 AM

PangingJr@ I've looked the link from your post #7 and found out that it supports memory space to 4Gb's but as usual you need to make the math and calculate the gfx cards ram to that. So in the end the total amount of RAM used by the OS will be less than 4Gb.

And I found this from Intel's site : ftp://download.intel.com/design/mobi...s/30921905.pdf

PangingJr · Mar 30, 2008, 04:21 AM

oh boy, what an English language i have there.

Dooghy · Mar 31, 2008, 09:27 PM

I'll check today when I get home the exact chipset model (it is Intel, but don't know the model). Anyway, I bought the laptop from Dell with 4 GB of RAM; I didn't upgrade it by myself. So I would be surprised if they have powered the laptop with a chipset that doesn't support 4GB of RAM; that would be doggy and I don't think Dell would do something so stupid.
I'll come back with the chipset details.

[hobo]eclipse · Mar 31, 2008, 10:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dooghy

I'll check today when I get home the exact chipset model (it is Intel, but don't know the model). Anyway, I bought the laptop from Dell with 4 GB of RAM; I didn't upgrade it by myself. So I would be surprised if they have powered the laptop with a chipset that doesn't support 4GB of RAM; that would be doggy and I don't think Dell would do something so stupid.
I'll come back with the chipset details.

givem a call, and givem an earfull if they give you the run around!

sure sounds like some sort of HW limitation

Dooghy · Mar 31, 2008, 11:41 PM

Yep, so the chipset is a Mobile Intel 945PM Express that supports up to 4GB, so it should be fine.
I'll contact them to find out they limited the amount of memory used by the OS. I'll keep you posted on this.

Shadowarriorx · Apr 9, 2008, 11:27 PM

I just recently upgraded my laptop to 4Gb of ram. And i've read quite a bit of info saying that the XPS in 32 bit OS only reads up to 3.3Gb.

I also asked if I should upgrade to the 64 bit OS, and I called 3 times to get 3 opinions. All three of them said not to upgrade to the 64 bit operating system.

So....was it useless to upgrade to the 4GB of ram if it won't all be used??

Tipstaff · Apr 9, 2008, 11:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadowarriorx

I just recently upgraded my laptop to 4Gb of ram. And i've read quite a bit of info saying that the XPS in 32 bit OS only reads up to 3.3Gb.

I also asked if I should upgrade to the 64 bit OS, and I called 3 times to get 3 opinions. All three of them said not to upgrade to the 64 bit operating system.

So....was it useless to upgrade to the 4GB of ram if it won't all be used??

Well, it's not actually useless. Even if you don't use all 4GB you are using more than what you had previously. With desktops most come with 4 ram slots, so you can juggle sizes, such as putting in exactly 3.5GB, which is the limit of a 32bit OS. With laptops though, you only have 2 ram slots, so you are stuck at 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, and so on. Yes, you don't have 4GB, and you're stuck at 3.3GB thanks to Dell, however this is still 1.3GB more than your next choice down, that being 2GB. Either way, you should still see a large overall speed improvement.

Shadowarriorx · Apr 10, 2008, 02:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tipstaff

Well, it's not actually useless. Even if you don't use all 4GB you are using more than what you had previously. With desktops most come with 4 ram slots, so you can juggle sizes, such as putting in exactly 3.5GB, which is the limit of a 32bit OS. With laptops though, you only have 2 ram slots, so you are stuck at 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, and so on. Yes, you don't have 4GB, and you're stuck at 3.3GB thanks to Dell, however this is still 1.3GB more than your next choice down, that being 2GB. Either way, you should still see a large overall speed improvement.

I know you can use all 4gb in 64bit, only problem is that it needs more headroom, therefore you essentially have the same amount of ram available. Only problem I've heard is that some things run slower because they are not optimized for 64 bit and that some drivers are very unstable. Not to mention that some programs are incompatible with 64 bit.

I just am unsure if its worth going to 64 bit for the bit of increased speed, because I'm also getting a new harddrive for my computer as I need more space.

BTW, i've also heard that something from remapping or something like that will allow you to use all 4 gb and make sure your video card doesn't use up that space.

***temeteus82*** · Apr 10, 2008, 02:20 PM

WOW64 is the solution for 32-bit apps to run in 64-bit Windows.

All the drivers are rather good at least in Vista 64-bit. Some older intel mobile chipsets has some hardware limitations in the memory controller that don't allow over 4 Gb ram, note that the gpu ram is counted in.

***Zardon*** · Apr 10, 2008, 03:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadowarriorx

I know you can use all 4gb in 64bit, only problem is that it needs more headroom, therefore you essentially have the same amount of ram available. Only problem I've heard is that some things run slower because they are not optimized for 64 bit and that some drivers are very unstable. Not to mention that some programs are incompatible with 64 bit.

Well im not specifically sure to which drivers you are referring but this site is developed, maintained and content is designed on 64 bit Vista (on two 8 core systems) and I have yet to experience an issue (and im running 32 gb of ram in one and 16gb in the other). All programs I use work, on a professional level and I haven't experienced a game released in the last year which gives the os an issue either.

Quote:

I just am unsure if its worth going to 64 bit for the bit of increased speed, because I'm also getting a new harddrive for my computer as I need more space.

It is well worth it on a variety of levels. more ram = better multitasking. 64 bit apps run faster, even games like crysis which have 64 bit exe's (32bit apps tend to run equal or a few percent slower in a worst case scenario - the OS is a strong state right now and dont read the fud you see on many of the "news" sites).

**kris23** · Apr 10, 2008, 05:45 PM

XP x64 has a couple problems

Vista x64 has even less, i personally like it.