And so the problems begin Simple one first I hope: I have 4gb of RAM, its only showing up as about 2.8gb That is depressing me. Any ideas? (I have vista ultimate and a core2duo e6600) Oh and I have a virgin media cable modem that connects via Ethernet. I don't quite get what it needs to install, but it seems to want to, however, the installation software isn't detecting the Ethernet port. I know its (the Ethernet) working as I've already had a nice stable link going between old and new PC's transferring files. This is probably going to be a driver issue but just in case anyone else has had and solved this problem...
This is a known issue, do you have the latest BIOS installed? Some motherboards have a setting relating to Memory Remap (or Address remap) that allows windows to see all the RAM. What motherboard are you on. As to the Virgin modem, it shouldn't need any software after its installed (IIRC you need to connect over USB first to set it up)
I take it you have the 32-bit version of Vista, then? The reason is simple. Windows XP and Vista 32 bit version can access 4Gb only in theory. In practice they address 2Gb for the kernel, 2Gb for applications. Many devices such as graphic and soundcards are "mapped" to an area of memory, which means that they eat up some addressable space. You can enable PAE (Physical Address Extension) on some motherboard chipsets to expand the address space to 36 bits, but the drivers of some aforementioned devices may stubbornly insist that they are mapped in 32 bits. Some BIOSes have a Memory Hole Remapping option however, which will get around the problem.
About the model, have you set an IP for the ethernet or is it using DNS? If DNS is on in the cable model and you have a static IP in your lan-settings then that most likely will cause problems. But like DougEdey said, USB is a good way to configure/see the settings of the box.
Should I have got the 64 bit? I did read the rest of your post... but it sounded complicated and I don't think I understand it.... but are you saying that basically, vista doesn't support 4gb of ram... Last time I built a PC it was so much easier...
What Nexxo's saying is: Windows 32-bit can only address 2^32 memory locations, i.e. from 32 0's in a row to 32 1's in a row (binary, of course). This means your maximum number of bytes is 2^32, i.e. 4294967296 Bytes. (Exactly 4GB.) But Windows is a bit of a fairy, and you get losses from things like soundcards and graphics cards wanting space. This means that windows is distracted by them, wanting to only address less of your RAM, because it's busy with other items too. The solution is either to enable something called "PAE" in your motherboard's BIOS, which makes everything go up to 36-bits, which will allow you to use all of your RAM and devices too, but sometimes devices like soundcards will instist that this is nonesense and demand the original, 32-bit mapping, eating up some RAM. The way to get around that is to enable the "Memory Hole", or similarly named option, to move the address of your RAM around the graphics/soundcards etc that demand their original space.
Ahh, OK Cheers to both of you. I'm sure this is a really stupid question... but could/should I have got the 64 bit version of Vista? I've been trying to find out but I'm really not up to speed on these things any more and everything I read just confuses me further... edit - I've just read a Wikipedia article and I think it says I should have done...
Not necessarily. Although Vista 64 is very nice and powerful on today's 64 bit CPU's, many even quite common devices do not yet come with stable 64-bit drivers, if at all. Many games do not run under 64-bit Vista. Compatibility wise, Vista 32 is the better option for now.
Ahh, good. I was starting to think that I'd just dropped a hundred quid on the wrong OS version :S I'll let you know if I get the RAM problem sorted.
you also already have the 64 bit version - Ultimate ships with both the 32bit and 64 bit binaries. MS don't make a distinction, license-wise, between the two, so any time you feel like installing the 64bit version, you can easily give it a try. For any other version other than Ultimate, you have to request the media from MS. you pay for "shipping and handling". or you could just download the ISO from... somewhere. (not illegal!)
You can use your liscense on any binary version of the same OS (so same SKU). Just go and get a 64-bit version off torrents or something.
Unless it's an OEM license - AFAIK, the OEM license only covers 32-bit or 64-bit (depending on which you buy), not both.
OEM dvd's are 32-bit or 64-bit specific, you will only have one version on there. retail and upgrade versions have both
