XP 64-bit can. And that wouldn’t explain how it worked fine but only somewhat recently started doing all the weird stuff. It’s not an OS problem.
Even windows 7 64bit only supports up to 3gb of ram on some machines like my ThinkPad T60.
That might not necessarily be the OS, some motherboards limit the ram you can use I believe
You can try checking the bottom of the mobo. If there are some brownish spots under the mobo, then you definitely have to change it. Same applies to the PSU. And post the specs already.
My (now dead) machine read 3.8Gb of my 4Gb total ram and i use 32bit XP Pro.
in case i decide to install >4Gb of ram in the new PC i’m building, how can i use all of it? i’ve heard it’s got something to do with both your bios and OS. XP typically reads only 3Gb, but i somehow read more than that. i’ve read that Win7 can only read as little as 2Gb in some rare cases.
-Kawai Tei-
Windows 7 64bit should read as much ram as you can physically install on any modern PC with at least DDR3.
Intel 965 chipset and newer should be OK for >3gb.
To Kawai Tei: have you check the hard-disk? Similar problems happened to my computer time ago: slow start-up, random crashes…
Look at temps - Realtemp is what I use for CPU temps and GPUZ to monitor CPU temperatures.
CPU should be less than 40c at idle really (although not a biggie if it is over) and less than 70c on full load - some CPU’s can go higher but as you have not posted specs I cannot assume you have older hardware.
GPU will probably idle around the 50c ish mark and max out 95c - although it shouldn’t be getting this hot really. Double check your drivers are compatible with windows XP.
Next check your RAM with something like Memtest86+, without doubt the most common physical problem with PCs is the RAM becoming faulty. This causes all sorts of problems. If you get errors test each DIMM on it’s own in each slot to identify the faulty DIMM or RAM slot.
Check BIOS updates for fixes to the problems you are seeing, don’t bother if the change logs don’t look as if they fix anything relevant as it is a risky procedure.
Please post results here so we can check them out for you.
It should, but depending on which version you get there are apparently limits.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa366778(v=vs.85).aspx#physical_memory_limits_windows_7
Although I doubt that you plan to install more than 16 gb of ram.