Asus P5B Deluxe. 4GB RAM = 3GB

[Doug Warner]

Win XP Pro, with or without PAE switch, it sees only 2.93 GB RAM.
BIOS shows 3008 MB, unless I enable the Memory Remap Feature in the
North Bridge config. Then the BIOS reports the full 4GB being
present, but Windows then only sees 2(!)GB.

Now, I know it''s common for systems to see only 3.2-3.5GB due to
reserved memory address space below 4GB, but to lose nearly 1GB on a
nonserver board is nuts. Has anyone else managed to squeeze more RAM
out of this board?
(I do have the Intel ICH8 RAID controller enabled, which may be eating
up some of the space..)

It also appears that the remap feature relocates a whole 2GB beyone
the 4G address boundary, putting it out of reach of this 32-bit OS.
I thought about buying 64-bit XP, but I didn't want to go on a big
driver hunt..

 

[caterbro]

Win XP Pro, with or without PAE switch, it sees only 2.93 GB RAM.
BIOS shows 3008 MB, unless I enable the Memory Remap Feature in the
North Bridge config. Then the BIOS reports the full 4GB being
present, but Windows then only sees 2(!)GB.

something else claims part of that memory.

Now, I know it''s common for systems to see only 3.2-3.5GB due to
reserved memory address space below 4GB, but to lose nearly 1GB on a
nonserver board is nuts. Has anyone else managed to squeeze more RAM
out of this board?

this is all as it should be. unfortunate but true. the limit is in the
OS, not the board.

do you have SLI? or just one fancyschmancy gfx adapter?Windows will
tank reserved space based on the needs of the gfx card or other peris
with onboard memory.

trying a Windows Server flavor if you must needs have that memory
available and have a spare $600 floating around.

just, as the man said "the way it is"

carl

 

[Doug Warner]

do you have SLI? or just one fancyschmancy gfx adapter?Windows will
tank reserved space based on the needs of the gfx card or other peris
with onboard memory.

Just one, a ATI Radeo X1900XTX. Unfortunately, the system BIOS
doesn't have a video ROM shadowing option.
I suppose I'll just have to upgrade to XP64 so I can use the memory
after I remap it above 4GB.
The other option is to take one pair of 1GB DIMM's back to the store
and trade them for a pair of 512's. This way, I can save some $$
instead of spending more., and run with an actual 3GB, which is about
all this board can expose to a 32-bit OS.