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I just installed Windows 7 Ultimate x86 (32-bit) on a computer with 16GB of RAM, so naturally it won't use all the available memory because my system is 32-bit.

I searched for a solution and found about patching the kernel with PAE. I found a couple packages that are meant for this task:

I tried them, PatchFor4GB adds a boot option to the bootloader list, which is supposed to be the kernel-patched one, but everytime I boot with it, I only get a blank screen on my computer after the Windows logo splash and then it gets stuck there.

With PatchPae, the added loader option just didn't boot the system at all.

However, I also tried this in an installation of a Virtual Machine of the same system, assigning it 6GB of RAM and the patches worked like a charm.

Because I use with my computer some hardware that uses privative drivers made ONLY for 32bit systems, I CANNOT INSTALL THE 64-BIT VERSION OF WINDOWS (they're a bit old, trust me, they don't work in Windows 64-bit). Please eliminate that as a possible answer. Sorry.

Do you know any reliable way to make my Windows 7 Ultimate able to use the total of the RAM my computer has installed? Any graphic or command-line solution is more than welcome and appreciated :D

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that in both of the cases I mentioned, if I boot in Safe Mode (with or without networking/command prompt), I can reach to the graphic interface.

Thanks in advance!!

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    Can you tell us more about the device that is 32 bit only? This is kinda a XY problem, that your device does not support 64 bit. Tell us more about what the device is and how it interfaces (is it a USB device or a PCI device?) and maybe we can solve the root cause and you can move to a 64 bit system. Aug 24, 2013 at 3:52
  • which GPU do you use? Intel HD graphic from an Intel i Core CPU? In this case you're out of luck. The drivers are buggy. Aug 24, 2013 at 5:43
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    Patching PAE is like putting a band-aid on the bloody stump where you just got your arm ripped off. Sure it might stop you bleeding out immediately but just one badly written driver can pop that band-aid and kill you stone dead. You would be better either dual booting to 32-bit, having a dedicated machine for this POS hardware or seeing if you can pass the device through to a 32-bit VM on a 64-bit host OS (it often does work quite well). Using this hardware on a beefy high powered computer with lots of RAM with a 32-bit OS is a waste of a computer.
    – Mokubai
    Nov 4, 2013 at 18:40
  • there's no reason to use PAE. It has worse performance than even x86
    – phuclv
    Jan 21, 2017 at 4:01
  • No it hasn't, tested on both windows and linux, and even theoretically. If any there's no reason to use PAEpatch specifically, given that you can also just directly tinker with the Kernel-WindowsMaxMemAllowedx86 value.
    – mirh
    Oct 29, 2023 at 12:04

6 Answers 6

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No, there is no reliable patch though you could always upgrade to an nvidia/ati graphics card. In fact, poorly written drivers are the reason that Microsoft disabled access to memory above 4GB on 32 bit consumer OSes in the first place.

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  • That's right. As I am told, Windows XP RTM and SP1 could access above 4GB memory limit with PAE but Microsoft disabled this ability in SP2. If I just remembered where I read this...
    – user477799
    Jan 21, 2017 at 10:48
  • Like here? It actually sounds it was more of the other way around though: Microsoft altogether crippled above 4GB access between XP SP2 and Vista RTM. And not only that could have caused less competent developers to "make (wrong) assumptions", but even in cases where you had done your good job they may have broken your otherwise perfectly fine code. With this said then, it is true that even nvidia dragged on with these problems for decades.
    – mirh
    Oct 29, 2023 at 11:08
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Maybe because you're using Intel HD VGA, that's why you're always facing blank screen (BSOD). Intel HD VGA cannot use PAE 32 Bit. Change and use another VGA card (ATI/Nvidia) to solve this problem.

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I made something a bit different.

I was playing with my GF old PC and wanted to make it use more RAM.

INTEL card wasn't letting me to start it.

Simply go to intelhd website, download latest 32bit drivers, install them.

Once installed, start windows with PAE patch, it will start normally, unlike before.

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I also had such a problem. But tried the method posted here to the thread (thanks to the author). I tried uninstalling the HD graphics driver. The desktop settings were reset and the generic driver was automatically installed. Then I installed PAE and rebooted my computer. The computer booted up without a black screen. After that, I downloaded the appropriate HD driver and it installed. After the reboot everything worked.

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I know this is an old thread but for someone who might be having the same problem on Win 7 (or Win 10) and looking for a solution.

I had an identical problem (using the PatchPAE patch) to the one stated such that whenever the machine was booted, I also got Win logo and then also a blank, black screen, and then nothing. Moreover, this happened on two machines. I was able to restart with the original unpatched kernel and all worked well. It was not that the patch was not working but there was some kind of compatibility issue related to NVIDA display card. This is a known problem. I discovered this on wj32.org discussion of the PachPAE patch. I changed to ATI and bingo! It worked like a charm.

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  • This does not answer the author's question because its very likely you had an entirely different problem than the author.
    – Ramhound
    Jan 21, 2017 at 6:13
  • Welcome to Super User. You can freely edit your own posts but for your protection, this must be done under the original user account. It looks like you have created a second account, which will also interfere with your ability to comment within your thread. See Merge my accounts to get your accounts merged, which will solve the problem. For reference, the answer was posted under superuser.com/users/688346/janusz and the edit was proposed under superuser.com/users/688359/janusz.
    – fixer1234
    Jan 21, 2017 at 7:39
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Try this before patching:

  1. download latest driver
  2. uninstall current Intel hd driver from control panel
  3. patch it with pae
  4. restart it (Intel driver)
  5. now try reboot, press f8 and enter safemode
  6. install your new driver in safe mode

If you can run aero with max ram that means vga driver is working fine.

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