32 bit and64 bit operating system vs 4 gigs of ram

[socialsupernova]

I need some help. I built a computer 6 months ago with the help of the people on this website (which I greatly appreciate) and something has been bugging me about my build. I bought 4 (1) gig sticks of ram. When all of them were installed my bios told me I had 4 gigs of ram but after windows started up it said I had like 1.8 or something. I cant quite remember as it was awhile back. Anyways I downloaded a few programs for managing ram and it told me the same things windows did. On top of that when all 4 gigs were installed Windows seemed buggy.

So I thought 2 of my sticks might be bad or something. I tried using only 2 and both my bios and windows told me I had two gigs in and everything ran smooth. When I tried putting in a third everything got buggy again. I tried both sets in all 4 slots and everything worked; I just couldn’t have more than 2 sticks of ram in at a time. All I could come up with was my 32 bit version of XP couldn’t take the ram.

Anyways everyday when I go to turn on my computer and I see these 2 sticks. I am waiting for Vista to come up so I can get a 64 bit version and try it but those sticks staring me down everyday is really starting to bother me. I have been doing some reading online and a lot of people say I don’t need a 64 bit operating system unless I have more than 4 gigs of ram but isn’t a 1 gig stick actually 1024 megabytes so actually I have 4.1 gigs? Is my operating system my problem or am I just being a retard?

[pam123]

The 32 bit OS cannot address 4 gigs of ram without tweaks and some help from the motherboard, Abit is said to do best and XP pro is recommended, which is why the recommended limit is 2 gigs.
The 64 bit OS can but then you run into other problems, like drivers.
Read here :
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888137/en-us
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291988/en-us
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888732/en-us