PC RAM

[dombanks]

So im using LabVIEW 2013 and getting ready to take the CLAD exams (and then find a new job hopefully) and then look to the next level and my desktop is stuggling. its pretty old but is fine for the normal word/excell/email day to day stuff.

 

its a core 2 duo running the universities win 7 enterprise (32bit). in a vain attempt ti make labview a bit less jittery i put in some extra ram and went from a whopping 3Gb to 4Gb. the problem is windoze recognises 4gb but says only 3 is useable.

 

why is this and is there anything i can do? (i also upgraded my laptop and put 8gB in that and it was fine with it)

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

It's a li it of 32 bit machines - they will only recognise an absolute maximum of four gig, including ALL memory in the machine, so graphics card memory also counts as part of the memory limit.

 

Thats partly why a lot of machines have gone 64 bit now, they will recognise much more memory. (Note though, that different versions of Windows artificially cap the memory at different levels, IIRC, home is only 8 gig, while Ultimate is 192 gig). Unfortunately you need compatible hardware, it's not enough to just install 64 bit versions of the software.

[OrmusKnight]

Afraid there isn't,

 

- its because your using 32-bit windows. which can only allocate up to 3.5gig of RAM even if you have more (it will detect that there is more in the system, just to confuse matters). The other unit will be using 64 bit windows which can use up to 128gig.

 

If you have devices that use system RAM (like a onboard GPU) this can use the RAM outside of that cap, but in short its a upgrade to 64bit windows or nothing to resolve the issue.

Cheers

Sean.

[Andy Banks]

Pretty much what has been said above, to get loads of RAM you need 64bit Hardware and 64bit Operating System. 64bit version of the specific software will help too.

[Wile E. Coyote]

If you have devices that use system RAM (like a onboard GPU) this can use the RAM outside of that cap, but in short its a upgrade to 64bit windows or nothing to resolve the issue.

 

BUT, as a workaround, buy a SSD for your OS (keeping traditional HDD for additional storage if needed) - you'll get a significant performance boost in pretty much all applications.

 

IIRC, core2duo is 64-bit (or at least some processors in the family are) so you might be able to go to 64-bit Windows.  If the OS was retail boxed, you can chop and change, but if it's OEM then you're stuck unless you re-buy it.

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

I seem to remember some of the Core2's are, but not all the motherboards that support the processor can run 64 bit. (I got caught in that trap, pre Apple)

[Rhett Turner - Black Country AO]

Just re-read the original post and spotted "jittery" this could also point towards the graphics not being up to it. (eg not enough graphics memory)

 

I think some of the memory checker programs (those found on memory manufactures web sets eg crucial) will give up an indication of what motherboard and processor you have, you can then use that information to check to see if it is 64 bit 

[pete275]

Piriform speccy will tell you board, chip and a stack of other stuff including temps etc.

 

http://www.piriform.com/speccy

 

nice tool especially as its free