Can the e1705 handle 4gb of ram?

Vista64/32 or XP , no diffrence for Dell 1705 and "non Santa-Rosa" laptops , you would only see 3.25gb.
also not too sure what you meant by prices for laptop memory are cheap cause they are still high for the 2gb modules , you should keep in mind you need to use 200pin modules if you aren't allready aware of it.

You'll be surprised just how much 2 gb of ram is...well in xp at least

I'm running 3GB now fine. Incompetent Dell Chat tech told me E1705 only designed for 2GB, - I don't beleive her.

2gb stciks are cheap! Gskills on Newegg are $109 to $124 depending on the latency.

2gb not enough for me in XP. Can't open over 40 web windows.

This has been answered many times on these boards. You can put the 2 GB sticks in and the computer will work. However, you can not get more than 3.25 GB of use from them. This is a limitation of the chipset and not Windows. There is nothing you can do about it. So you can get 2*2GB and get 3.25 GB of actual usable RAM or you can get 1x2GB and 1x1GB stick and get 3 GB RAM and save a little money. The choice is yours.

dougadamsfan, i am sorry but it is not the chipset that is the problem, if it would been the chipset then dell wouldn't be selling 4 gb's on the e1705 or any other laptops.

Zainali, the only problem of using 4 gb is you have to be sure that the OS and the processor has to be 64 bit, other wise the OS will only read about 3.25 GB of your ram. But the other remaining memory (800 MB) will go to you graphics card and other parts for your computer.

If you have the Core 2 duo processors, they are already 64 bit, so the only thing you need to be concern is the OS version. Vista supports 64 bit, but i am not sure how to determine if you get the 32 or 64 bit version of windows vista. Just call up dell and ask them if your getting the 32 or 64 bit version of Vista.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605

If you don't believe me, then go to the link above, it links to Microsoft page on why 4 GB's of RAM is not being read.

So to answer your questions
1.) The Dell E1705 does support 4 GB of RAM (it has been support since last year)

2.) You will need Vista 64 Bit version to read all 4 GB of RAM.


Hope this clears everything up for you Zainali

well that's just not true
E1705 Chipset (i945PM) IS limited to 4gb total memory, thus making RAM avaliable to user only 3.25 (after Video RAM deduction ..).
you can look here for the info :
http://support.intel.com/products/ch...45PM/index.htm
look under features - memory.

santa-rosa will support 4gb and more.
and in the mean time just use 3.25 max , and btw this is not just a Dell issue.. most laptops have this "problem"

if it were a chipset problem, then why does the BIOS reads 4 GB? shouldn't it read 3.25 in the BIOS? No

If you read, it supports up to 4 GB of memory, if it were a chipset problem then the BIOS would have downgraded the memory to 3.25 GB, but in certain post some people have taken pictures of the BIOS supporting up to 4 GB.

Its the problem of software, not hardware.

Update!: Hey, if you want to know exactly why about the problem, i have a website so you all can read.

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000811.html

in short, 32 bit OS is limited to 4 GB and nothing more, but as stated it eats the ram to give space for the graphics card and BIOS rom. (or what i stated above)

The problem with your argument gamer135, is that even in 64-bit operating systems you can not use the entire 4 GB on these laptops. Many users with 64 bit vista and linux have reported this already. It is a PCI hardware limitation. The 945pm chipset utilizes 32-bit addressing.

This has been a known issue with the 945pm chipset for sometime. I don't understand why this same argument has to happen everytime someone asks about this.

Gamer135,

You're not listening. This is a KNOWN limitation with the 945 series of chipsets from Intel. All 945-based notebooks - including my XPS M1710 - are limited in this way. On my system, BIOS reports 4GB, however, Vista 64-bit shows only 3.25GB. The memory physically is there (2 sticks of 2GB G-Skill at 667MHz), however, the chipset needs to map a whole bunch of stuff into the upper 1GB range in order to function: Video memory, PCIe addresses, etc.

Note: Santa Rosa doesn't have this limitation since its memory controller can address greater than 4GB, and thus can map the I/O stuff outside of physical memory. My OptiPlex 745 mini-tower doesn't have this limitation, either. It shows all 4GB available under Vsita 64-bit.

If you still don't believe us - even after offering copious evidence - I suggest you double check the product pages at Dell.com. My M1710, for example, comes with a disclaimer that, even though it supports "4GB," not all of it will be available to the OS (something I wish I'd read before I bought it).

RCK

case closed

If this is a known limitation, then it seems that there should be a lawsuit brought to intel and dell because they are false advertising the laptop line.

I hate when people gave a wrong information and keep sit there debate about it so before you try to give someone information do your research correctly look at first picture in this post http://www.notebookforums.com/thread194699.html , it is clearly stat in the BIOS memory available to the system only at 3.25GB even I have 4GB install, so never mind about 32bit OS, 64 bit OS or gazzillion bit OS, if BIOS only allow 3.25GB then that is all you get for the OS. The article above from MS quote as "The system memory that is reported in the System Information dialog box in Windows Vista is less than you expect. For example, the System Information dialog box may report 3,120 megabytes ", this article assume that bios will allow all 4GB available to the system, not 3.25GB.....so if you read it again System Information can only be pull from OS install, in this case OS was never and can not install in the BIOS, unless you want to sit there debate with me OS can be install in BIOS.. Unless you still want to debate with me on this, otherwise start this article to see why it was hardward limited to 3.25GB http://www.interact-sw.co.uk/iangblo...05/is3gbenough until the system hardware can see all 4GB correctly, then you can use /PAE and /3G per the article above from MS, otherwise you are limit to what system hardware can see and allow. BTW this is not just Dell, Asus and some other brand name systems has a same problem

I don't know if they still do, but it used to be that if you configured a system on dell.com with 4GB RAM it would say that due to system limitations you would not be able to utilize the full 4 GB. And Intel never false advertised, they said the system can address up to a max of 4 GB of memory. And it does. But part of that addressing is reserved for things like the video memory.

lol anyone remember the days of HIMEM.SYS

I do.... 640k FTL

you're lucky , I had 256kb

lol First computer class had a PDP8 with 4k of Bubble memory