3GB RAM switch for Win XPpro?

[Santuzzo]

Hi everybody.

I ran into a problem with my 2GB of RAM when using a music-sampler that needs to load big amounts of sound samples into the RAM causing my sequencer software to crash.

I read about some kind of 3GB switch that could be applied to Win XP allowing for applications to use up to 3GB of RAM as opposed to 2GB.

Do you guys know anything about this? Are there any risks involved in applying this?
And how is this done?

Thnaks in advance,

Lars

 

[UA_Iron]

Look into changing your pagefile size.

In computer operating systems there are various ways in which the operating system can store and retrieve data from secondary storage for use in main memory. One such memory management scheme is referred to as paging. In the paging memory-management scheme, the operating system retrieves data from secondary storage in same size blocks called pages. The main advantage of paging is that it allows the physical address space of a process to be noncontiguous. Prior to paging, systems had to fit whole programs into storage contiguously which caused various storage and fragmentation problems.[1] - Paging - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Apokalipse]

You can't 'activate' more memory like that. But you can add some more RAM to the system.

Paging file is not the same thing. It's a file on the hard drive used when there isn't enough RAM. (and hard drives are typically 50-200x slower than RAM in bandwidth)

 

[Santuzzo]

Thanks guys.

The thing is, I actually have mroe than enough RAM, I have 2times 2GB, but Win XP32 only recognizes 3GB of it, if I recall correctly. And it allows only 2 GB for applications, is that correct?
Now what I read on a different forum is that there is a way to change that, so that applications are allowed to used more than 2GB of RAM.

 

[veg1992]

You're talking about activating all 4GB's in your computer.

Well you'd have to get 64bit edition for that (and that'll require a format). You could try PAE, but I find it doesn't work most of the time.

 

[Apokalipse]

Though there's an important difference between 64-bit edition and x64 edition; 64-bit edition is for Intel's Itanium chips. x64 edition is for AMD64/x86-64/EMT64.

I think XP x64 edition (SP2) is a great OS.

 

[Slaymate]

This is the version I'm using at my office which is what your looking for

Newegg.com - Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2C 64-bit for System Builders - Operating Systems

 

[Santuzzo]

OK, thanks guys, I appreciate your help!

I am not planning on gettign a new OS, I thought there was another way to resolve this issue.
But I will have to workaround it another way.

See, I'm using my PC for home-recording, and my drum software loads huge amounts of samples into RAM, but from what I found out I can activate 16-bit samples for tracking and go back to 32 bit when bouncing into my recording software. This should work just fine.