Physical Address Extension [{ID}] Where and What?

[isepiq]

In order to enable PAE on a Windoze Seven Pc, they say to do the following:

bcdedit /set [{ID}] pae ForceEnable

My problem: What is ID? Where do you get it? Exactly what nfo do they want here.

I Googled for hours and never found the correct nfo so far. Please and Thank You!

IMHO
isepiq

 

[cjmarshall]

This is way beyond me and you may have already seen this and it might be wrong, but it seems to be similar to what you may be looking for.
Using BCDEDIT to change and modify Windows Boot Entries - UnlockForUs

 

[cjmarshall]

or maybe this: Visual BCD Editor - Windows 7|Vista

 

[Layback Bear]

I don't know if I can help but maybe answering some questions will help us.

Isepig what are you trying to do with your system to need to change Physical Address Extension?

Do you have a problem with your system you need help with other than changing Physical address extensions?

What isn't working properly on your system?

 

[LMiller7]

Your profile says you are using 64 bit Windows 7. PAE is for 32 bit systems only and is not supported or needed on a 64 bit OS. On a 32 bit client OS PAE is of very little value. PAE allows accessing more than 4 GB RAM but that is for server operating systems only. If DEP is enabled the PAE kernel will be enabled anyway.

But on a 64 bit OS you can forget about it.

Exactly what are you trying to accomplish?

 

[Layback Bear]

Very good post LMiller.
That is exactly what I'm trying to figure out and why I asked the questions I did.
OP's specs.
OS Windows 7 Home Premium x64

 

[isepiq]

I am installing an OS, W7 Ultimate, on an x32 HP Computer that comes with 4GB of Memory for a disabled person that lives in our apartments. HP made their computer this way. It has an x32 system and 4GB of Ram. Strange configuration. I just need to know what and where to find the [{ID}] mentioned in Windows Dev Center:

Physical Address Extension (Windows)

bcdedit /set [{ID}] pae ForceEnable

From what I can see on my own computer it might be something similar to the following:

computer id: D5445892C1B97392EC7819D81C4D9525B433C353

(Got this from µTorrent log on my system??? Have no idea if this is what the ID should be. If it is, I can temporarily run µTorrent on the neighbors computer to get their ID, if it is the correct NFO???)

Where and how do I find this on the HP Computer???

Thank you
IMHO
isepiq

 

[logicearth]

The ID is the identifier that BCEDIT uses to identify which entry in the list to apply this setting to.

From BCEDIT's list: (See identifier)

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {current}
device                  partition=C:

And yes you do need to include the brackets {}

 

[cjmarshall]

I only have x64 in the house so I can't verify this for you, but from the 1st link I posted for you it says to:
open a command prompt and use this command

bcdedit /export c:\savebcdentry

from what I gather it will save a (txt?) file in the c drive with the ID that you can then use for identifying the proper windows installation.

Here's that link again for more details Using BCDEDIT to change and modify Windows Boot Entries - UnlockForUs

 

[LMiller7]

The purpose of PAE is to allow access to RAM with addresses above 4 GB. The problem is that the kernel in all client versions of Windows will ignore all such addresses. So the bottom line is that PAE isn't going to do anything for you. PAE is useful in server systems to access most of the 4 GB and in some editions much more.

A form of PAE is automatically enabled when DEP is enabled but it seves no other purpose.

In the early days of XP did support PAE to access RAM over 4 GB. But in further testing Microsoft discovered that many drivers behaved badly in these environments so as of SP1 or SP2 this was no longer supported.

In all modern client version of Windows setting PAE does essentially nothing.

 

[Layback Bear]

isepiq I personally don't recommend doing anything with address extensions let along using a torrent as a reference to make changes.
Have a nice day.

Post # 7

(Got this from µTorrent log on my system??? Have no idea if this is what the ID should be. If it is, I can temporarily run µTorrent on the neighbors computer to get their ID, if it is the correct NFO???)

 

[isepiq]

Ok, the problem was that this HP Computer came with 4GB of ram installed from the Factory, and only an x32 (32 bit) system, which did not make any sense to me. It is only showing a little over 2 GB of ram and I was trying to make it show closer to 3 or 4 GB of Ram. I finally got the id thing:

C:\Windows\system32>bcdedit

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume1
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
default {current}
resumeobject {11126ec2-af9a-11e2-ab6e-9db344db0084}
displayorder {current}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 30

Come to find out that if you do not put an id, it just sets PAE for the current system, duh for me.....ugh.

Any ways, is PAE going to help this HP computer see more than 2 GB of Memory??? Thanks for all of your help.

IMHO
isepiq

 

[logicearth]

Any ways, is PAE going to help this HP computer see more than 2 GB of Memory??? Thanks for all of your help.

IMHO
isepiq

No. The missing address space is used by the hardware. You cannot get the full use of it for RAM.

 

[LMiller7]

PAE will not help with this.

In a 32 bit OS a substantial portion of the physical address space is consumed by memory mapped hardware devices. Typically this will leave about 3.25 accessible RAM, sometimes less, sometimes much less. This will be further reduced if RAM is shared with the video system. Note that this is address space that is consumed, not RAM itself. Almost all of RAM could be accessible if we had adequate address space to put it.

Most modern processors have a 36 bit address bus so could theoretically could access up to 64 GB RAM so address space isn't a problem. Most modern systems have an option in the BIOS to move RAM that could not otherwise be accessed to addresses above 4 GB. PAE was designed to allow access to such addresses so it would appear we have a solution to the problem. Almost all of the 4 GB RAM could be accessed.

The above mentioned method actually works in 32 bit server operating systems and it did in XP up till about SP1 or SP2. The problem was that Microsoft discovered that many device drivers behaved very badly in such an environment. I believe that audio drivers were a particular problem. Servers tend to have very basic audio, if it is supported at all. So it was decided that this memory remapping feature would NOT be supported in client versions of Windows. Any RAM with addresses above 4 GB is simply ignored.

So the bottom line is that PAE does nothing useful in client versions of Windows. It is useful in server systems.

 

[isepiq]

Thank you. I am surmising that HP had one of those older OS's installed when it was new and that is probably why they had 4GB of Ram. It has W7 Ult now, so I guess my neighbor is just out of luck on that.... I am pretty sure they would not want to go back to XP now that they are used to 7