I am thinking it is because I only have 2 gigs of RAM. It crashes when I have worked on things a little then try to open several certain plug ins.
I tried installing a second set of 1 gig ram sticks but the computer only showed 3 gigs of RAM so I took it back. My old DAW did show all 4 gigs installed (I seem to recall)
 
Anyways I am thinking a pair of 2 Gig Sticks from Crucial and yanking the pair of one gig sticks.
 
What do you think?
 
Are there any Reg hacks to get XP Pro to recognize all 4 gigs?

I 

XP can't see all of the 4GB. There are ways to maximize the amount of memory it can see, but the best you'll ever get is around 3.6 GB. However, it's still worth adding that extra bit of RAM as it could make the difference between a project being able to run or not.

Cactus Music
I hate to say it but you are really falling far behind. You might even be the last person on earth using XP for a DAW.

 
Thanks but I will upgrade when/if I ever have the need. It has been years since I have been doing any serious recording. I am retired at 71 years old and these days I just want to remix my old tunes, and rerecord some new leads or vocals on some tracks. So I pulled the trigger on a set of Crucial ram 4 gigs in 2 sticks yesterday, a little over fifty bucks. If I get a serious intent on recording ever again I will get new computer to work that. Until then I want to patch the one I have up for little projects.

bitflipper
XP can't see all of the 4GB. There are ways to maximize the amount of memory it can see, but the best you'll ever get is around 3.6 GB. However, it's still worth adding that extra bit of RAM as it could make the difference between a project being able to run or not.

Thanks  I pulled the trigger on 2 2 gig sticks yesterday, we shall see if that helps.

Your system will be plenty "robust" for running 8.5.3
XP is a great OS; I engineered a full band session, 12 mics on the kit, bass, 2 guitars and scratch vocal,
with a similar system, it was X1, but 8.5.3 would have been fine.
My office rig (it is Win7x86) "sees" 3.37 gigs of RAM with 4gb installed.
I'm pretty sure my 4 gig XP system (not a DAW) reports about the same; no "tweaks" just PnP.
i7, x64OS (Win7 or 8.1), 16gb+ RAM; awesome! Necessary; hell NO!
You'll be just fine, way more power than ANY studio in which all the "classics" were recorded.
ENJOY!
Tom

I can only get 3.xx gigs of ram recognized, because there is an on mother board video card & it reserves 256 megs RAM. I went to the Asus forums and it is a common problem, I also have a better video card in there which also reserves another 256 megs.
 
Anyways I got another gig and a third or so of ram for the price which is OK I guess.

I am seeing that I need Win 7 or 8 on a newly built DAW 64 bit and X3

"Anyways I got another gig and a third or so of ram for the price which is OK I guess."
Exactly what Bit and I said to expect.
The question is; did it solve your problem?
 
Tom

DeeringAmps
"Anyways I got another gig and a third or so of ram for the price which is OK I guess."
Exactly what Bit and said to expect.
The question is; did it solve your problem?
 

 
I have not had a chance to try it in a project. I am also a part time masonry estimator, and there have been steady projects since I rebuilt the DAW, so one day, maybe this week if there are no more projects, I can give 'er a go, thanks for your response.......