Windows 7: Can Windows 7 (32-bit) support 4gb RAM?

Hey people.



I own a HP HDX-18 Notebook (it has 4GB RAM), and I installed Windows 7 (64 bit) not too long ago. The laptop was being problematic giving me a blue screen of death with a 'Power_Driver_State_Failure' message, so I figured it could be problems with driver compatibility. I formatted the hard drive again, and installed a 32bit version of windows 7. When I right click and go to 'My Computer', it only acknowledges that 3gb out the 4gb ram is being used. Why is this? Is Windows 7 incapable of supporting up to 4gb ram? Do you guys think I'm better restoring the laptop to factory settings (Vista Home Premium) with the recovery CD?

A

32bit is capable of supporting 4 gigs on mobo's that support it. Most only make abt 3.3 gigs available. Im probably not the person to ask about Vista having had nothing but grief on it. But why go back to vista when you already know that win 7 will run. the bsod was probably caused by a driver and we could help you with that

Hope this helps

Ken

Thanks Ken for getting back to me so quickly.

I was only considering going back to Vista because I assumed Vista made the most out the 4GB of RAM available [It registers having 4GB RAM on the My Computer section, whether or not it utilizes all 4GB RAM I'm not sure about.] Ideally I would love to run Windows 7 Ultimate (64bit). I googled the 'Driver_Power_State_Failure' and there were no obvious solutions to rectify the problem. Immediately after having this blue screen of death error, I was unable to boot to windows 7. What do you recommend I do from here?

whats you current state? is there any way you can get into windows to goto c:\windows\minidump? Can you safe boot?

Ken

Ken currently my computer is running Vista Home Premium after I formatted the Hard Drive. Before, I could access the minidump folder though. I could install a fresh copy of Windows 7 and update all the drivers within the next couple of hours and report back to you?

Sure

Whatever you want to do we will help. Im pretty sure we can get win 7 to work. lets us know

Hi Ken, Windows 7 is installing now. I forgot to say - When my laptop was running windows 7 (64 bit), the problems didn't start immediately. In fact what happened was that the problem initiated when the laptop started running slowly [having installed several 'trusted' applications], and then shortly after (a couple of days, tops?), was I prompted with the blue screen of death. Thought I'd let you know.

Ken, I think I've resolved the issue myself. The NVidia graphic drivers available on the HP website for 64 bit versions of Vista are actually designed for 32 bit (For the GeForce 9600G MT). Nvidia have even released a driver that supports 64 bit versions of Windows 7 on their site. Should the problem arise again I'll be sure to report back on here. Thanks nonetheless