BioStar Motherboard eaten my RAM ???!!

[Hari Hari Mau]

Hello all !

Just recently I upgraded my PC to 4GB of DDR2 RAM --- 2 X 2GB DDR2 RAM
Modules.

But when I plugged in the memory modules and powered up my PC, I got
an unpleasant surprise !!

Somehow the 4GB of RAM only shows up as 3587072K of Memory !! That's a
whooping 600MB of memory ****missing**** !!!

The motherboard for my PC is Biostar's P4M890-M7-SE and so far it
hasn't given me any problem.

The motherboard has a built-in vga, which I use. I allocate 16MB of
RAM as "shared memory" for VGA, and the "AGP-Aperture" I give it 32MB,
all min figure.

When I first built the PC, I used a 1GB DDR2 memory module. The mobo
showed me the correct mem figures, ie., 1GB (1024MB) MINUS the 16MB
(of shared memory) and a 1MB of "T-Seg memory".

When I purchased a second 1GB DDR2 memory and plugged it in, again the
mobo didn't give me any problem. It correctly gave me the 2GB (2048MB)
MINUS the 17MB of shared and T-Seg memories.

However, when I plugged in the recently purchased 2 X 2GB DDR2 mem
modules, the problem occurred !!

Instead of giving me 4GB (4096MB) MINUS 17MB, all I got is 3587072K
(around 3.42GB) of memory, plus the 17 shared and "T-Seg" memories.

What's going on???

What can I do to get back the 600MB of my RAM that is
****MISSING**** ????

PLEASE HELP !!!

Thank you !!

 

[Paul Montgomery]

Hello all !

Just recently I upgraded my PC to 4GB of DDR2 RAM --- 2 X 2GB DDR2 RAM
Modules.

But when I plugged in the memory modules and powered up my PC, I got
an unpleasant surprise !!

Somehow the 4GB of RAM only shows up as 3587072K of Memory !! That's a
whooping 600MB of memory ****missing**** !!!

It's normal for a 32-bit system.

http://members.cox.net/slatteryt/RAM.html

 

[Conor]

It's normal for a 32-bit system.

http://members.cox.net/slatteryt/RAM.html

Stupid shit...that's the POST amount he's showing and its got **** all
to do with 32bit.

 

[Conor]

Hello all !

Just recently I upgraded my PC to 4GB of DDR2 RAM --- 2 X 2GB DDR2 RAM
Modules.

But when I plugged in the memory modules and powered up my PC, I got
an unpleasant surprise !!

Somehow the 4GB of RAM only shows up as 3587072K of Memory !! That's a
whooping 600MB of memory ****missing**** !!!

The motherboard for my PC is Biostar's P4M890-M7-SE and so far it
hasn't given me any problem.

The motherboard has a built-in vga, which I use. I allocate 16MB of
RAM as "shared memory" for VGA, and the "AGP-Aperture" I give it 32MB,
all min figure.

When I first built the PC, I used a 1GB DDR2 memory module. The mobo
showed me the correct mem figures, ie., 1GB (1024MB) MINUS the 16MB
(of shared memory) and a 1MB of "T-Seg memory".

When I purchased a second 1GB DDR2 memory and plugged it in, again the
mobo didn't give me any problem. It correctly gave me the 2GB (2048MB)
MINUS the 17MB of shared and T-Seg memories.

However, when I plugged in the recently purchased 2 X 2GB DDR2 mem
modules, the problem occurred !!

Instead of giving me 4GB (4096MB) MINUS 17MB, all I got is 3587072K
(around 3.42GB) of memory, plus the 17 shared and "T-Seg" memories.

What's going on???

What can I do to get back the 600MB of my RAM that is
****MISSING**** ????

Go into the BIOS, probably in the Advanced section and see if there's a
"Memory Remap" or "Memory Hole 15M-16M" option and enable it.

 

[|>]

Conor wrote in

Stupid shit...that's the POST amount he's showing and its got
**** all to do with 32bit.

Wrong, as usual, coonertard. It has everything to do with 32-bit.
Everything.

 

[Andrew Smallshaw]

Its got everything to do with it being a 32bit system. A 32bit system has a
4GB address space. Out of that address space comes all memory mapped

Careful there - even the 386 had a 64Gb logical address space,
although admittedly it could only be directly connected to 4Gb
physical memory. Using this logic the 286 and predecessors would
have been limited to 64Kb memory as 16 bit machines.

There is a work around (on Windows) to access the remaining RAM, its known
as Physical Address Extension. I suggest the OP researches PAE. Basically it
takes advantage of the fact that the all modern PCs are actually running on
64 bit hardware even if the OS is only 32bit. The following article should

PAE predates x86-64 - it was introduced with the Pentium Pro. It
isn't Windows-only either. What you lose is the flat memory model
since 32 bits can't directly address more than 4Gb memory, at least
on a byte-addressed architecture. However, the OS can hide much
of the muckiness from an application perspective provided no single
app needs more than 4Gb memory. If that doesn't hold things get
more interesting. It is essentially similar to the segmentffset
idea used to get the old 16 bit machines to address 1Mb memory.

 

[phwashington]

If Memory Remap is enabled with a 32 bit OS, odds are that only
2GB will be available to the OS. The top 2GB will be locked out,
so you're effectively back to a 2GB system. Memory Remap is for
64 bit OSs only.

The Memory Hole 15M-16M setting is for certain ISA cards only,
and reserves that space for those cards specifically. PCIe MBs
don't have that setting.

I find this rather amusing, because I was at Fry's buying a
motherboard and system and we couldn' t get it to post 4GB of RAM.
The best it would do is 3.3 GB. During reboots it would change. We
tested 4 ECS motherboards. Finally tested an ASUS MB and it posted
4GB. I bought it instead of the ECS.

In all we tested 7 MB. We fried one video card and one south bridge.

 

[SteveH]

Its got everything to do with it being a 32bit system. A 32bit system
has a 4GB address space. Out of that address space comes all memory
mapped devices, the largest of which is normally the graphics card.
For example if you had a 512MB graphic card then that would leave
just 3.5GB of address space for the RAM. (I think the OP stated he
was using 16MB of shared memory which would indicate that the
graphics card isn't the main culpret.) There are other devices which
also have to fit into the address space, all of which reduce the
addressable range left for the RAM. So its normal to expect to see
only about 3.5GB of RAM even though the system has 4GB of RAM
installed. Looking at Paul's post, all of this and more is covered in
the link he provided.

So why don't my or my g/f's PCs show 1.5gig out of 2 gig of installed
memory, considering we both have 512meg video cards?

 

[CBFalconer]

So why don't my or my g/f's PCs show 1.5gig out of 2 gig of installed
memory, considering we both have 512meg video cards?

Because the address space is large enough to address both your own
memory and the video memory.

 

[Paul Montgomery]

Stupid shit...that's the POST amount he's showing and its got **** all
to do with 32bit.

WRONG, bozo.

 

[Paul Montgomery]

Go into the BIOS, probably in the Advanced section and see if there's a
"Memory Remap" or "Memory Hole 15M-16M" option and enable it.

Keep digging that grave Connie baby.

 

[chuckcar]

Stupid shit...that's the POST amount he's showing and its got **** all
to do with 32bit.

Of course it does. Plug in 2^32 into a calculator and guess what you
get? 4 gig. That's *where* the 32 comes from, it's the maximum limit of
memory that can be addressed with 32 bits.

 

[Hari Hari Mau]

Go into the BIOS, probably in the Advanced section and see if there's a
"Memory Remap" or "Memory Hole 15M-16M" option and enable it.

Did that, but my 600MB of RAM still missing !!

And I did some experiments ... if I increase the "shared memory" for
the integrated video function from the current (minimum) 16MB to 256MB
(max), only 2.8GB of the 4GB RAM memory is there !!

No kidding !!

On one hand, the increase from 16MB to 256MB is a 240MB of memory
allocated to video, instead of the 240MB deducted from the main
memory, the mobo somehow decides to deduct 600MB instead !!

Holy cow !!!

 

[|>]

Hari Hari Mau wrote in

Did that, but my 600MB of RAM still missing !!

And I did some experiments ... if I increase the "shared memory" for
the integrated video function from the current (minimum) 16MB to 256MB
(max), only 2.8GB of the 4GB RAM memory is there !!

No kidding !!

On one hand, the increase from 16MB to 256MB is a 240MB of memory
allocated to video, instead of the 240MB deducted from the main
memory, the mobo somehow decides to deduct 600MB instead !!

Holy cow !!!

**** me dead. Ignore the coonertard. You need a 64-bit OS to see all 4GB.

--
Cod Almighty

alt.usenet.kooks
"We are arrant knaves all, believe none of us."
Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1 [129]

Hammer of Thor: February 2007. Pierre Salinger Memorial Hook,
Line & Sinker: September 2005, April 2006, January 2007.
Official Member: Cabal Obsidian Order COOSN-124-07-06660
Official Overseer of Kooks & Trolls in 24hoursupport.helpdesk

 

[Calab]

**** me dead. Ignore the coonertard. You need a 64-bit OS to see all 4GB.

Ya...sure... whatever.

My 32bit WinXP Pro sees all four gig installed in MY PC.

 

[~misfit~]

Somewhere on teh intarweb "SteveH" typed:

So why don't my or my g/f's PCs show 1.5gig out of 2 gig of installed
memory, considering we both have 512meg video cards?

Because, as stated above, 32 bit systems can address 4GB. In you and your
sisters cases it's addressing 2.5GB so it's registering the full amount of
RAM. The problem only arises when you install more than 3GB RAM and have
lots of RAM on your graphics cards.
--
Shaun.

DISCLAIMER: If you find a posting or message from me
offensive, inappropriate, or disruptive, please ignore it.
If you don't know how to ignore a posting, complain to
me and I will be only too happy to demonstrate... ;-)

 

[ranjit_mathews]

Hello all !

Just recently I upgraded my PC to 4GB of DDR2 RAM --- 2 X 2GB DDR2 RAM
Modules.

But when I plugged in the memory modules and powered up my PC, I got
an unpleasant surprise !!

Somehow the 4GB of RAM only shows up as 3587072K of Memory !! That's a
whooping 600MB of memory ****missing**** !!!

The motherboard for my PC is Biostar's P4M890-M7-SE and so far it
hasn't given me any problem.

The motherboard has a built-in vga, which I use. I allocate 16MB of
RAM as "shared memory" for VGA, and the "AGP-Aperture" I give it 32MB,
all min figure.

When I first built the PC, I used a 1GB DDR2 memory module. The mobo
showed me the correct mem figures, ie., 1GB (1024MB) MINUS the 16MB
(of shared memory) and a 1MB of "T-Seg memory".

When I purchased a second 1GB DDR2 memory and plugged it in, again the
mobo didn't give me any problem. It correctly gave me the 2GB (2048MB)
MINUS the 17MB of shared and T-Seg memories.

However, when I plugged in the recently purchased 2 X 2GB DDR2 mem
modules, the problem occurred !!

Instead of giving me 4GB (4096MB) MINUS 17MB, all I got is 3587072K
(around 3.42GB) of memory, plus the 17 shared and "T-Seg" memories.

What's going on???

What can I do to get back the 600MB of my RAM that is
****MISSING**** ????

PLEASE HELP !!!

If your processor is a Pentium and MS Windows is the OS you use, these
are these are the two ways that you can recover the missing 600MB:
1) Install XP64 or Vista64 (if your processor is a Pentium or Core
Duo, you must first upgrade the processor to a Core 2 Duo).
2) Keep your processor unchanged but upgrade your OS to Windows 2003
Server or Windows 2008 Server if you can find a PAE compliant driver
for every piece of hardware with a DMA controller. (32 bit XP and 32
bit Vista are rigged to not allow you to fully enable PAE.)