Windows 7 - HELP Upgrading!!

Hey guys, so I just upgraded to windows 7 32 bit on my laptop and my RAM was only at 1GB, so I went out today and bought a 2GB stick to put on top of one of my 512MB sticks giving me 2.5GB of total RAM. I was told my computers max is 2GB of RAM. Now I'm being told that if I upgrade to windows 7 64-bit then I can upgrade the RAM even more, is that true? Help guys, thanks!

Processes access virtual memory space, not physical memory. Applications never access RAM directly but only through the memory management interface of the processor. Depending on which version of Windows you are using, and how the program was compiled there is a differnt maximum ammount of addressable memory. All 32 bit processes on 32bit Windows have a 4GB virtual address space. The upper 2GB is common to all processes and is used by the system. The lower 2GB is private to each process and is inaccessable to all others. Unless the program was compiled as large address aware, in which case it will have 3GB of private address space. For 32bit processes on 64bit Windows, each process has 2GB private address space, unless compiled large address aware in which case it has 4GB private adress space. For 64bit processes on 64bit windows each process has 8TB of private address space whilst compiled as large address aware. The 2GB address space limit remains for programs not compiled as large address aware. This is completely independent of the size of RAM or the pagefile. The system maps physical memory into this virtual address space according to both need and availability. At any given time the data in virtual memory space might be stored in RAM, on disk, or both. All of this is totally transparent to all applications. Frequently accessed data will be kept in RAM with the remainder left on disk

I have no idea what that means...LOL I'm sorry. My main question is this: I was originially running Windows XP Media center edition on my laptop, then I upgraded to windows 7 32-bit. Can I upgrade to windows 7 64-bit? If I do can I put in more RAM into my computer?

what kind of laptop do you have?

According to the specs on your laptop, you have 2 slots total for RAM and the largest possible stick that you can install is 1GB. So, I'm afraid your 2GB module is not going to work in this machine.

The version of Windows in this case is irrelevant.

I have an HP DV9000 with intel Core 2 T5600 processor
I just got the windows 7 upgrade assistant. It ran my computer and said that I could upgrade to 64-bit vista if I do the custom install of it.

You most certainly can upgrade to Windows 7 64-bit. Your hardware will support it.

What I am saying is that according to HP specifications, your model laptop will only accept memory DIMM's up to 1GB in size in each of the 2 DIMM slots. Meaning that you get 2GB of system RAM total. Windows 7 64-bit can run on 2GB of RAM and less (although if you have less, you should really stick to 32-bit).

Hmm I'm running 2.5GB on the laptop fine right now. If I upgrade to 64-bit I can't add more RAM? How do I find out what my motherboard max RAM is? Or is the motherboard max 2GB? If it is 2GB then how come my computer works right now with a 2GB stick and a 512MB stick giving me 2.5GB total?

it's access memory, it's not necessarily using what you have in there at the moment. It should read up to 3.** GB of ram but that doesn't mean the board knows what to do with it.

That's a good question. According to the specs that I found, plus a search for your model on http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware-...ial.com....the max capacity is a total of 2GB....with 2 x 1GB DIMMS being the largest option.

Perhaps, HP has a different revision or something. I'd say if you are seeing 2.5...you likely can put in up to 4GB.

Edit: Here is a thread from HP forums, showing another person running 2.5 just like you...who was unable to move to 4GB. This site also confirms my findings that HP says max is 2GB total
http://forums13.itrc.hp.com/service/...readId=1185444