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Losing Ram very confused please help


FrostPaw

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Please can I get some advice about what is happening to my Ram.

 

I have recently built a custom system the specs are below...

 

OS: Win XP2 (sp2)

AMD FX53 2400MHz

Asus A8V-Deluxe Motherboard Bios 1007.002

2 pair of Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3200PT TwinX (2x1GB) (4 banks full at 1024MB per stick/bank)

 

When my system boots up it reads at 3.25GB in System and in Bios it was around 3.6GB until recently but I can't think why its changed except I have installed a Geforce 6800 Ultra in the last couple of days. I have never been able to get the full 4GB to read in windows although it can be read in the Bios if I enable SDRAM Remapping however if enabled windows can only detect 3GB of Ram Should I disable ECC? is 2:1 (DDR400Mhz) the right setting for it?

 

This is giving me a real headache, can anyone help me I'm not that knowledgeable on Ram are my settings the problem or is there a conflict? :[pouts:

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Welcome to the forums! What is the exact part #? If there's no RE in it, then it doesn't use ECC (the R is Registered, the E is ECC, but they don't make non registered, ECC memory). That memory limitation is normal.

 

http://www.houseofhelp.com/v2/showthread.php?t=24918&page=1

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/platform/server/PAE/PAEmem.mspx

 

Someone else also said their ATI based card did it (can't think of how though). They switched to NVIDIA, saw it all, although that was 3 GB total physical memory. What video card do you have?

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As I mentioned I'm using a XFX Geforce 6800 Ultra with 256MB

 

That first link sounds suspiciously like what I have experienced. Since altering the AGP size on the Bios I have lost approximately 500Mb

 

I don't really understand what you mean by what is the exact part #? are you reffering to a serial number on the sticks?

 

Really I have three questions...

 

1) Why do I see more memmory with SDRAM Remapping off in windows when the bios can detect all 4096MB and windows can only detect 3.0GB SDRAM remapping is supposed to make the OS see all the Ram but seems to have a negative effect instead for me. When SDRAM remapping is disabled XP can see over 3.0GB

 

2) If I reduce the AGP size on the socket in bios and that gives me the extra ram back will my graphics card suffer or is the reserved ram totally pointless with such a fast card anyway?

 

3) Any hints at what settings my memmory should be running at would be appreciated I have Bank interleaving on but node interleaving off, ECC is currently turned off and everything else is set to AUTO. The memmory speed has been manually altered to 2:1 DDR400 because on AUTO it was only showing at 333MHz.

 

 

Thanks for your time.

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Just to confirm I put my old card back in for a few minutes and the result was approximately 500Mb increase in Ram not quite but almost as much as I had before I installed the 6800 Ultra the first time. The difference was probably due to the bios settings still being for the new card when the old one was installed.

 

I'd still appreciate some help with the questions above this post if anyone can.

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I understand thats why I have lost some Ram although I fail to understand what use it is being allocated somewhere else, I can't see or feel any better performance as a result of it being allocated and it feels more like its redundant allocation.

 

500mb to my graphics card 400mb to other areas just makes me think what the hell requires all that Ram when with less ram you don't notice a drop in performance.

 

losing 1GB because the motherboard thinks you don't need to make use of it isn't something I would consider a feature.

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  • Corsair Employees

Each of the 4 memory sockets can support 1GB memory module, so it can support up to 4GB memory at most. Please note that if you install four 1GB memory modules the system may only detect a size between 3GB and 4GB because of memory allocation for the devices in your system per PCI specification.

In addition, there is more info on ASUS's FAQ.

http://www.asus.com.tw/support/faq/qanda.aspx?KB_ID=87800

Also Windows XP will only utilize 2GB of your memory module, this is per software limitation.

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