4GB memory with Vista (32bit) ?

Hi all,

I know the 3Gb memory limit in XP 32 bit.
Is there also a memory limit in Vista? Or can organs be loaded in 4GB of memory?
In that case, it would be worth to upgrade.

Anton

[mdyde]

Hello Anton,

32-bit Vista has the same memory limits as 32-bit XP, i.e. 2 GB by default or up to about 2.7 GB with a boot setting change. See also the 'operating systems' section here:

http://www.crumhorn-labs.com/Hauptwerk- ... ites.shtml

Best regards,
Martin.

Hi Anton,
I use Vista 32 bit with 4 GB (on a Dell with AMD 5000 dual core processor) with a EMU0404.

32 bit Vista can allocate a maximum of 4 GB.
But because Vista uses (reserve) about 0.5 GB address space for drivers etc, so there is address room for 3.5 GB of Virtual Memory in total.

First I thought "than I can better buy 3.5 GB memory: 3x1 GB + 1 x 0.5 GB" but the the memory is faster when the banks are filled equally, so 4 x 1GB is faster (dual channel can be used).

Standard there is a 2GB limit per application. With the 'bcdedit /Set IncreaseUserVa 3072' command you can increase that limit to about 3GB. Windows doesn't guarantee that it always works, but for me it works ok.

Summary Memory usage: 3GB for HW + sample set, 0.5 GB for Vista, 0.5 GB unused (not possible to address).
3 GB is sufficient for a lot of sample sets. I can load the full Litomysl wet (16 bit, compression, without spuck etc) and play it Full Tutti (HW advanced is needed because the 1024 polyphony limit is exceded).

Regards,

Gert

Activating IncreaseUserVa
Warning: - As mentioned above, please note that activating this switch may prevent the machine from booting properly. As such, make sure that you read through this entire document before following these steps. It is strongly recommended that you write down the instructions in the following section for recovering from a failed boot.

Go to the Start menu and type 'cmd' in the search field.
When cmd appears in the applications section above, right click on it and select 'Run as Administrator'.
If prompted, click 'Allow' to permit elevated permissions on this DOS prompt.
When the DOS prompt is shown, type the following to back up the current settings:
bcdedit /export "C:\BCDBackup"
If there were no errors, type the following command:
bcdedit /Set IncreaseUserVa 3072
Once the change has been made, type 'exit' to close the window.
Reboot the computer and it will attempt to boot with this setting activated.

In Case of Trouble
If the computer fails to boot after making this change, you likely have a driver that will not function in the standard IncreaseUserVa mode, so you will either have to disable the switch or fine tune the setting. To reverse the change, you will first need to restart the machine in Safe mode. To do this, perform the following steps:

As the computer restarts, but before Windows launches press the F8 key to get the boot menu (Windows may do this automatically for you).
Highlight the 'Safe Mode' entry with the up and down arrows and press enter to begin booting.
Windows will now boot into safe mode, with the IncreaseUserVa switch temporarily disabled.
Go to the Start menu and type 'cmd' in the search field.
When cmd appears in the applications section above, right click on it and select 'Run as Administrator'.
If prompted, click 'Allow' to permit elevated permissions on this DOS prompt.
When the DOS prompt is shown, type the following to restore the previous settings:
bcdedit /import "C:\BCDBackup"
Once complete, type 'exit' to close the window.
Reboot the computer and it will start up with existing settings.

If you would like to fine-tune the settings, the IncreaseUserVa option allows you to specify an exact amount of memory to allocate to the user mode. To do this, perform the following steps:

As the computer restarts, but before Windows launches press the F8 key to get the boot menu (Windows may do this automatically for you).
Highlight the 'Safe Mode' entry with the up and down arrows and press enter to begin booting.
Windows will now boot into safe mode, with the IncreaseUserVa switch temporarily disabled.
Go to the Start menu and type 'cmd' in the search field.
When cmd appears in the applications section above, right click on it and select 'Run as Administrator'.
If prompted, click 'Allow' to permit elevated permissions on this DOS prompt.
To set the amount of memory allocated for user mode, type the following command but replace n with a value between 2048 and 3072:
bcdedit /Set IncreaseUserVa n
Once the change has been made, type 'exit' to close the window.
Reboot the computer and it will attempt to boot with this setting activated.

This switch allows you to adjust the exact amount of memory allocated to the user mode, so it can often overcome problems that the standard configuration runs into. There is no guarantee that this will resolve the problem, however, so you may need to return to the standard configuration.

Thanks Gert for this explanation!

I use Vista 32 bit with 4 GB (on a Dell with AMD 5000 dual core processor)

But why didn't you use 64 bit Vista on this processor? Your maximum polyphony would increase significant (and you're using the HW Advanced, aren't you?).

Anton

Because Dell didn't suppport and sell it and I wanted a Dell. That was the only reason.