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Windows 7 32 bit not recognizing ram upgrade...
hi,
i decided to upgrade my laptop from 3gb ddr3 of ram to 8 gb ddr3 , now i faced an odd problem where i got to realize that despite windows recognizing all 8 gbs of ram in system information (msinfo32) under "Installed Physical Memory" i realized that both system information and task manager shows "Total Physical Memory" to be 2.93 gb , i searched the forum throughly up till i came across this thread :
https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...ndows-7-a.html
now i got to realize that 32 bit windows can only handle 4gb of ram .
now trying to sort my options i have a few questions i need to be adressed :
1 - is it smooth to upgrade from 32bit to 64bit of windows , i have heaps of programs installed over years that i cant risk to lose nor have the time to reinstall if i took the fresh installation option :/ if possible then how ? any specific tool or windows version ?
2 - any known porting , utilities or hacks that were made to make 32bit os recognize all 8gb ram ?
3 - if non of the above were valid , if i am to work with only 4 gb , why does my system read only 2.93 gb of which ? i can notice it sums up all spare 5 gb as "Hardware Reserved" . i investigated to see if the extra 1 gb is reserved by graphics card but only to find that my graphics card is only up to 750 mb of shared memory and those already are shared from "Total Physical Memory" and not hardware reserve , so any clue why i have access to only 3 of the 4 gbs of rams i'm allowed ?