Desktop Memory/Graphics Issue

Laquer Head

Well-Known Member
So I'm sure this is a noob-ish question but I'll ask anyhow,,

Have an older PC with the following specs. (5 years old or so)

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
4GB RAM
500GB HDD 7200rpm
250GB HDD 4200rpm
ATI Radeon 4350 1GB gpu
Windows 7- 64-bit Professional

The RAM is showing 4GB (3.25GB usable)...why is this?

Don't usually get this on 64-bit o/s...

Any other specs needed, just ask..
 
Wouldn't that prevent you from installing the 64bit OS, already installed in this case?

Not at all because the CPU supports 64bit, but the motherboard/chipset may only have a 32bit address bus. I believe this was an issue with older boards, I may be wrong, it has been known.
 
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Hmm, that makes sense..never heard of that before but thi machine is a retail Gateway branded PC.

I'm not with the tower right now so I can't check the model number of the board but I'm guessing that makes sense since it is around 5 years old.

This isn't my PC by the way..I dont believe in retail PC's,,,LOL,, just trying to help a family member! :P

I suppose if it is a limitation of the chipset..etc there is no update or driver to make it 64-compatible? wishful thinking!?
 
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No, I believe that if the motherboard is limited to 32bit, its in the hardware, sorry. Why would you need 4GB RAM on such an old PC to begin with?
 
No, I believe that if the motherboard is limited to 32bit, its in the hardware, sorry. Why would you need 4GB RAM on such an old PC to begin with?

I dunno, I guess they wanted to max out the ram slots...its DDR-3200 so it was dirt cheap when they did it..

who knows what drives people to do different upgrades!
 
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