can I utilize all memory?

we got a paging error on the new machine two days ago - himself was quite upset to see a blue screen on his new computer. This has decided us to get the 64bit OS. I assumed it could be to do with the memory issue.

we built the system, and had already bought a Win 7 disk for the older 32 bit computer, so put that onto the 64bit without thinking about the difference.

I say 'built' but it is hardly that these days - no fiddling with jumpers or worrying about 'chip creep' like it used to be, just fix it all together, press the button and da-da!¬

Don't give the game away dude - I like all that 'wow ain't you clever, I wish I could build computers' . . .

wasnotwas said:

Don't give the game away dude - I like all that 'wow ain't you clever, I wish I could build computers' . . .

oh, sorry wasnotwas. Truth be known though, there is nuttin much clever about 'building' computers today - the cleverness comes in understanding what is going on under the hood and knowing how to fix it when things go wrong - which is where forums like this come into the spotlight. I have 'fixed' many computers for other folk in the last 20 years, and in Win 95 days it was a nightmare - no one to ask, no web to get guidance from,just esoteric blue screens which gave no clear indication as to where the problem might lie. Since XP and the creation of good quality forums like this,the mysteries have been solved much sooner and with less grey hairs. The buffs on here are the clever folk, and hats off to them.

AddRAM said:

Do you have the 64 bit install dvd ?

it came this morning.. now we have to go through the entire clean install process and put-everything-back-where-it-was-before scenario again.... oh joy..

pawz7 said:

I have 'fixed' many computers for other folk in the last 20 years, and in Win 95 days it was a nightmare - no one to ask, no web to get guidance from,just esoteric blue screens which gave no clear indication as to where the problem might lie.

If you want to re-live the good old days of Win 95 - 16MB RAM, DOS, fdisk, format C: etc, can I suggest VMware. I have the full set from Windows for Workgroups 3.11 to present day in VM. Here's my spec for VM W95 -



free VMware Player here

ahh, dear old fdisk... interesting adventure wasnot, but.. no, I will reminisce on the good bits in my idle moments, and try to forget the day I just had a blinking cursor and no clue as to what next to do - THAT was how I got into the fixing business - I could not reinstall Win 95 on a Friday - no ATAPI drivers found for the CD drive - and had to have a load of docs ready on someone's desk by Monday, did not know what DOS commands to put in to see the drive.. I got rescued by a sympathetic young man on the end of a phone (he detected the panic in my voice I think, and it was his magazine's help-line that told me to uninstall Win 95 in first place because of some issue that came on their cover disk), and even though that turned out OK, I vowed never again to be in that position, but to become the master of this smug little beige box. HA! not sure I achieved that, but I muddled through, and it got easier over time..