Guide to enable windows XP to use more than 3.25GB ram

These are the same steps that were used in post #16, but with a different computer.

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This is what I did today in my Dell Precision M6400 laptop which has the following:
Windows XP Professional SP3 32-bit (up to date to May 2019)
Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 2.53 GHz processor
8 GB(2 GB x 4) DDR3-1066 RAM (3.48 GB usable)

1. Download and save the 64 GB PAE patch
https://download850.mediafire.com/vozw7lu6yfvg/i7nhh6hj8af63ui/Gamersky-WindowsXP_64G_RAM.7z
and then extract its contents.

2. Copy the ntkl64g.exe and hal64g.dll files into the C:\Windows\system32 folder.

3. Replace the contents of the C:\boot.ini file with this text:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /kernel=ntkl64g.exe /hal=hal64g.dll /fastdetect /PAE /noexecute=alwaysoff

4. Restart the computer.

(Note: This is assuming Windows XP SP3 32-bit is installed in the C: drive)

Upon restart, everything loaded and worked fine.
The amount of usable RAM increased from 3.48 GB to 7.98 GB.
 
Well, I tried again, twice. Even downloaded the file again in case it might be corrupted. Same results both times. Carefully followed instructions (above & instructions in the zip file) Same results, both times. No Go.
 
cornemuse:

I'm not there to see what you're doing, so I can only assume you're doing something wrong.

You are using Windows XP Professional SP3 32-bit?
 
I have used this method of recognizing all Ram above 4G on a few machines now..... When you make the edit to your Boot.ini file be sure to use an ascii text editor such as Notepad.

Also, the line.....

"multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /kernel=ntkl64g.exe /hal=hal64g.dll /fastdetect /PAE /noexecute=alwaysoff"

This is one continuous line..... not 2 lines as appears here with word wrap mode.
 
Here's a copy of my Boot.ini

Also, even after using PAE to detect all installed ram on XP, I still use the paging file. As I understand it, this swap file is not really used until the system runs out of usable ram for pending operations. It did make a noticeable difference however when I removed the page file from the Windows install HDD, and put it on another HDD.
 

Attachments

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Well I tried the hack with Win XP/SP3 32bit on a Quad Core Intel Q6600 Asus P5B MB with 8GB RAM.
Initially the hack worked and the RAM went from 2.93 to 6.93 GB. The computer seemed faster.
However, after a little use I realised the system had become too buggy so had to remove it.
Problems:
1) Hibernation no longer works. The Hibernation tab is missing from Power Options.
Have to put the system in Standby instead or turn off.
2) From My Computer, R-clicking a drive and formatting no longer works. Just hangs and doesn't complete. After the hang, computer won't shut down properly and have to do a hard reset.
3) Macrium Reflect no longer works. Tried to clone a disk, it starts the cloning process, but just hangs and doesn't finish. After the hang, computer won't shut down and have to do a hard reset.
4) Win XP's Disk Management no longer works properly. Just hangs on formatting a hard disk.
5) Camfrog software no longer works. It loads, but its video function no longer works properly. After loading Camfrog, computer won't shut down and had to hard boot.
6) Every time I restarted the computer, CHKDSK said there was a problem with my drives and scanned them, but found no errors.
So sadly ended up removing the hack.
There were likely more problems I had yet to find since I only tested it for a day.
Funnily enough browsing in Firefox worked ok with the hack, but it still had the same memory problems despite having the extra RAM to draw from ie it still began to freeze up with too many tabs loaded and when its memory reached about 1.3GB.
 
I don't use any of the functions and software that you listed, so that didn't effect my Dell OptiPlex 980 minitower or Dell Precision M6400 laptop.
The only issue that I noticed is with using a USB thumb drive.
Since I use Windows XP Pro SP3 32-bit only for testing purposes, I can live with that.
 
WindowsCP:

If you follow the steps correctly that are in posts #16 and #21, it should also work for you.
 
Be carefull guys. This is nice hack that enables PAE so virtual memory adressing is
now 36 bit (64GB). But, there can be a problems.. drivers.. If driver is not correctly written (assuming 32bit addressing mode) you will get bluescreens. So after applying hack, be sure to stress test the system so you are sure its 100% stable.
I was fighting BSOD on my Win2003 for few months (16GB ram here) before
finding a faulty audio driver.. Luicky, managed to find alternative drivers and stuff become stable.
 
tried this and not working on my optiplex 780 ,guess mine aint as good as it could be but works fine :)

long live xp :)
 
Sixthofmay said:
I've never had any luck disabling the paging file on any Windows version. One is always created somewhere. I just put the pagefile.sys on a fast dedicated disk.
Click to expand...

--- It's impossible to have a file and a folder with the same name. ---
I create a folder "pagefile.sys" on my drives. I also create files $Recycle.bin (Vista and newer), Recycled (fat32), Recycler (ntfs). I've used this method on many annoying programs to prevent creation of things like cache, temp files, log files, etc.

Even if a program wanted to overwrite a file, likely none of them are smart enough to delete a folder that they expected to be a file, and vice versa. I have yet to find a program (even Windows code) smart enough to beat this.

If we ever find a program smart enough, we can enable the +Read-only, +System, +Hidden attributes on the file or folder.
If a program is STILL smarter, we can pull out the big guns and deny delete/modify/etc permissions for any or all affected files/folders on an NTFS partition (or just start with this and only this, lol.)
 
cornemuse said:
Tried this on another comp. What a can of worms!
Copied the instructions etc


Rebooted, (words to this effect) got black screen = 'start XP-64 or XP? before I could choose machine re booted start safe-normal? etc chose safe, my comp properties = 8 gig ram 2.7? gig available re booted = safe or normal Normal, booted normally, my comp properties = 4 gig ram 2.7? gig available. Fortunatlt I backed up C:\boot.ini file, deleted the *#2 above*

I dont know, , , , ,
Click to expand...
Sounds like you have graphics card drivers that are taking part of your system memory and allocating it to the video card... man do I hate when they do that. Sometimes (like on a GeForce with 128mb) the drivers will let you disable the memory-stealing.

flavallee said:
3. Replace the contents of the C:\boot.ini file with this text:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /kernel=ntkl64g.exe /hal=hal64g.dll /fastdetect /PAE /noexecute=alwaysoff
Click to expand...

You're allowed to specify partitions twice, with different options. Instead of replacing your entire BOOT.INI, simply add that bottom line to the bottom of your boot.ini so that it looks like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=3
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional 32-bit PAE" /fastdetect /PAE /noexecute=OptOut
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional 4gb patch" /kernel=ntkl64g.exe /hal=hal64g.dll /fastdetect /PAE /noexecute=OptOut

It will default to the first multi line it finds, not the second line. Other useful switches you may want to add are /3GB to increase the per-app memory limit from 2GB to 3GB, and /UsePMTimer to increase performance and stability of AMD processors, such as when running virtual machines.
 
Ugh. Do NOT use /3GB switch on desktop. Really, this might be only usefull on server with just one NIC, basic VGA, no audio, no USB and no other drivers. So you can for example run big database. This switch will shrink kernel memory to just 1GB, so all those drivers for fancy GFX and Audio cards, NICs, extra devices you plug in will hard time to squeez themselfs into that limited address space.

If you ever need a lot of memory (more than 2GB per APP), move to x64 system.

I personally never ever had problem w/ 2GB limit per process. For VMs, I can allocate 3.5GB per guest, and this is usually enough. And for this, you dont need /3GB switch at all.
 
Borg said:
I personally never ever had problem w/ 2GB limit per process. For VMs, I can allocate 3.5GB per guest, and this is usually enough. And for this, you dont need /3GB switch at all.
Click to expand...
Yep, I'm really glad for that with VMs, because that would be a showstopper!

I've never tried /3GB myself, did you? Just out of curiosity. I was assuming that with all your memory unlocked via the GamerSky patch, you'd now have 16, 32, whatever GB available to kernel instead of just 1gb. Shrug.

Still seems like it'd be useful to the average user with basic integrated graphics who is only interested in running one or 2 huge webpages (like facebook) with as much speed as possible, and nothing else going on with their computer.

I agree, XP64 conquers all!
 
I tried it. And it was bad experience. Even starting Firefox made system unstable.
There seems to misconception how PAE works on 32bit systems. Lets assume that you have 16GB PC, running Win2003. Kernel (OS) runs in own 2GB address space, where all the importand structures are allocated (PTEs, Pools, Cache, Buffers, etc). And thats it. You cannot have more, whatever you do. Now, the more memory you have in system, the more PTEs needs to be allocated from that 2GB kernel memory to manage entire virtual memory (8GB or 16GB or even more). This is generally OS limitation.

In case of Win2003 the max sane amount of memory is 8GB, absolutly max is 16GB.
If you put more RAM, system will might start to behave weirdly depending on HW configuration. Actually, default Win2003 install is not suited for 16GB at all. PTEs vs Pools and System Cache is not good enough autotuned. System Cache can dominate kernel memory makes system erratic.
 
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