I have Windows Vista Home Premium 32 bit and 4 gigs of ram!?

your windows 32 bit will only use from 3 gb to 3.5gb of ram and if youve installed four 1 gb sticks 1 of them will be not used as its a 1 gb stick so to use it it would take it up to 4gb for the system and 32 bit cant handle that so it makes the entire 1 gb stick redundant

you can upgrade to 64 bit dont believe all the crap about programs wont run on it ive got everything i had on 32 bit to run on my 64 bit

First, make sure your computer can handle the 4gb of ram. Next, do not upgrade to windows XP 64-bit edition because it's very unstable. Also, make sure you have a 64-bit compatible chip in your motherboard or else you can't go the whole 4gb(you'll need a core-duo chip). Finally, if your max ram is 4gb then upgrade to vista although that's also a risk, be sure your drivers are vista compatible. Well, that's about it. If I were you, I would upgrade computer all together and make that PC a server lol

The 32-bit version of Windows (XP or Vista) can only access just over 3Gig of RAM. If you want to be able to use all of your 4 Gig, you will indeed need to install 64-bit Windows.

This is the reason that I run 64-bit Vista on my PC, so that I can access all the RAM available on my PC.

Also, contrary to a lot of responses to questions I see, I have not had any problem at all running any older games or other software on my 64-bit Vista platform. No problems whatsoever! :)

With the 64 version you'll be able to use entirely your 4 gb. For now you are stuck at 3 ou 3.5 gb. This is due to the fact that 32 bits of memory adressing is limited to 4gb of data and that some hardware (like video cards) takes a bit of that memory adressing range. Vista 64 is now getting better and drivers are more easily available. I'd go for 64 bits If I were you !

Nope, that's the limit on a 32-bit machine. Upgrade to the 64-bit version of Windows to access the missing memory.

You can only install a 64 bit OS if you have a 64 bit processor.

Where does it show that you have 3 GB? System Properties? If so, that is very likely what you have -- Check the computer BIOS, but do NOT make any changes to it as you can easily brake it if you don't know what you are doing.

How do you know you have 4 GB?

I don't seen this problem. I have a PC with 8 GB Ram I am running Windows vista ultimate 32 bit but my system showing 8 GB ram completely. You check the ram. do you use single chip of 4GB. DDR1 or DDR2 or DDR3 Ok try to contact me.

Mine is the same.

I was told some of it needs to be used to begin with and thats why it doesnt show... you do have 4gig but some of it has to be used on a certain part of your pc so it doesnt bother showing it.

What are the specifications of your processor? It may be because your system cannot handle the 4GB.