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    Winxp 64 bit on MBP ?

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by xGeistx, Oct 3, 2007.

  1. xGeistx

    xGeistx Notebook Consultant

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    Is 64-bit Winxp still a no go with bootcamp, or have things changed? If so, what exactly is the problem with it?
     
    xGeistx, Oct 3, 2007
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  2. arikol

    arikol Notebook Geek

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    WinAnything 64-bit is still very dubious on ALL systems..... including Macs with Bootcamp.
    What do you want Xp64 for? Specialized apps?
    If not for something very specialized I can emphatically say that I've not seen a single XP64 installation for general use without it suffering from quite a few problems.

    I don't even know if all the hardware in macs has windows 64 drivers, does anyone know?
     
    arikol, Oct 3, 2007
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  3. xGeistx

    xGeistx Notebook Consultant

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    I surely won´t feel good using 32-bit Xp when having 4 Gb in my MBP, so yes, it´s a point... Is there anything planned for future bootcamp updates concerning 64-bit Xp?
     
    xGeistx, Oct 3, 2007
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  4. system_159

    system_159 Notebook Deity

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    I don't think apple wrote any drivers for xp 64. It's just an uncommon OS, and is mainly used for server stuff or highly scientific programs.

    Just go for standard 32bit XP and be free of problems.
     
    system_159, Oct 3, 2007
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  5. JCMS

    JCMS Notebook Prophet

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    If you want X64, go vista.

    XP X64 is windows server 2003 x64 kernel-wise, so no drivers, whatever your computer is
     
    JCMS, Oct 3, 2007
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  6. hollownail

    hollownail Individual 11

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    Theres nothing wrong with XP-64 :-D
    Lack of driver support? Last I checked, it was still better than Vista.

    Anyway, why do you care about 32 bit and 4 gigs of ram? I believe XP/32 bit limit was 4 gigs, so theres no problem there.
     
    hollownail, Oct 3, 2007
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  7. taelrak

    taelrak Lost

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    XP/32 limit for all practical purposes and intents is ~3GB.
     
    taelrak, Oct 4, 2007
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  8. xGeistx

    xGeistx Notebook Consultant

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    Yes and this kind of worries me.
     
    xGeistx, Oct 4, 2007
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  9. hollownail

    hollownail Individual 11

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    I'm not sure what you mean by practical limit. But XP fully supports 4 gigs.

    I've never heard nor seen anything in regards to it's "practical" limit being 3 gigs. Even MS KB says it fully supports 4 gigs.
     
    hollownail, Oct 4, 2007
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  10. xGeistx

    xGeistx Notebook Consultant

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    Not true, 32 bit XP can´t address 4 Gbs of RAM.
     
    xGeistx, Oct 4, 2007
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  11. hollownail

    hollownail Individual 11

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    Interesting, as 32 bit supports up to 4 gigs... and MS's own KB says it can.

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555223

    Some more pages discussing this...
    http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/99609816/m/331006081831
    http://www.overclock.net/windows/77229-windows-xp-ram-limit.html

    I have yet to see any real resources that say that XP PRO have a real problem. XP Home OTOH is a different story.
    No one I know who runs XP SP2 has a problem with their 4 gigs of ram. While it may reserve some of it for other system uses, it certainly doens't read only 3 gigs.
     
    hollownail, Oct 4, 2007
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  12. taelrak

    taelrak Lost

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    The OS itself cannot see beyond ~3GB of memory. You can toggle switches in the bootini for certain applications to take advantage of all 4 GB, but that's not really a practical workaround. (hence the practical purposes part).

    Actually, here's a msdn blog post about why even though Microsoft says 32-bit systems technically can support up to 4GB, Windows really can only see ~3Gb of it:

    http://blogs.msdn.com/hiltonl/archive/2007/04/13/the-3gb-not-4gb-ram-problem.aspx

    This applies to all versions of 32-bit Windows - from XP to Vista Ultimate.

    Keep in mind that at the time of the article, SR for mobiles wasn't released yet.

     
    taelrak, Oct 4, 2007
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  13. xGeistx

    xGeistx Notebook Consultant

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    It´s ridiculously sad, but it is just like that...
     
    xGeistx, Oct 4, 2007
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  14. system_159

    system_159 Notebook Deity

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    What's so important that you feel you really NEED to have that extra <1GB ram?

    If it were me, I'd take XP 32 over any version of Windows that is 64bit, especially Vista.

    Over 3GB of ram(still acting in Dual channel mind you) should be plenty for anything you might do on a notebook computer.
     
    system_159, Oct 4, 2007
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  15. xGeistx

    xGeistx Notebook Consultant

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    I wouldn´t even consider this when I´d think about buying some random laptop for 1,5k. As for the MBP it didn´t even come to my mind to just forget about 1 Gb... No option. And btw just to point this out: It is really a weak thing that there are obviously no proper drivers so one could run Xp-64...
     
    xGeistx, Oct 4, 2007
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  16. system_159

    system_159 Notebook Deity

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    Well, then how about I point out that apple is nice enough to let you run windows on their machines, and help you out with drivers.

    If you so desperately need that extra gig, then go write your own drivers...
     
    system_159, Oct 4, 2007
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  17. xGeistx

    xGeistx Notebook Consultant

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    :confused: + :no:
     
    xGeistx, Oct 5, 2007
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  18. arikol

    arikol Notebook Geek

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    Apple does help out with drivers for WinXP32 out of sound business thinking, not the kindness of their hearts.
    Because the WinXP64 market is TINY (mostly due to really bad driver support) Apple hav absolutely NO incentive to spend hundreds or even thousands of man hour on drivers for it.... sad, but the issue lies firmly with MS, not Appe. If I read correctly, XP64 suffers from a memory hole as well. If you have 4 GB you'll have only a bit over 3GB available. If you have 6GB there will be a strange piece missing in the 3-4GB range...

    As for utilizing 4 GB, no 32 bit system uses 4 GB properly. Tiger is partly 64 bit. I don't know if it suffers from a 3GB memory hole as one of the issues was chipset/mobo related.

    All the above is written based on my (limited) understanding of the issues. Anyone better versed in this stuff, please comment
     
    arikol, Oct 5, 2007
    #18