14 DAY TRIAL // Windows Vista computers that come equipped with more than 4 GB of system memory have limited shut-down options. Essentially, the Hibernate option is no longer available on Vista machines that feature in excess of 4 GB of RAM. This scenario affects both the 32-bit and the 64-bit editions of Vista, but at the same time also Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Microsoft has confirmed that the issue is related to the large quantity of random access memory.
"This issue occurs because hibernation is disabled on computers that have more than 4 GB of RAM. Hibernation requires sufficient disk space to contain the contents of the computer's memory. Performance is poor on a computer that has more than 4 GB of memory and that has support for hibernation. Therefore, Microsoft has disabled support for hibernation on such computers," the Redmond company revealed.
According to Microsoft, there is a simple solution if users want the Hibernate option back. They only have to take out RAM until the computer goes under the 4 GB mark of system memory. Of course that at this point users have to perform a trade-off, which automatically implies giving up RAM and the associated boost in performance for the ability to put the computer into hibernation. As of yet, Microsoft has not developed a single solution to permit users to use Hibernate on a 4+ GB Vista, XP or Windows Server 2003 machines. On top of this, the company informed that even if the amount of RAM is lowered under 4GB, there could still be problems.
"Sometimes, the Hibernation tab is unavailable even after you decrease the RAM to 4 GB or less. This issue occurs because PCI memory resources are mapped in the middle of 4 GB physical memory address spaces, and the rest of the RAM is mapped to more than 4 GB of physical memory address space. If the value of the highest physical memory address is larger than 4 GB, Windows determines that the computer has more than 4 GB of memory. Therefore, the Hibernation tab is disabled. In this scenario, you must add the /MAXMEM=4096 switch to the boot.ini file to reduce the highest physical memory to 4 GB," Microsoft added.