1GB RAM is missing.

[pgega]

Hi all,




I just builded mo own x86 machine , and I am quite surprised ,because
1GB of RAM is missing (1GB of 4GB) and my Debian's boot time is 10
minutes.

Moreover when I take off one RAM stick (which will give me 3GB RAM) my
system boots in 40 seconds - I am amazed.

All of RAM sticks are fine, I tested all of them together and
separately. I just cannot use them together.


My problem is I want to use 4GB RAM at full power, and have no idea
what might be the problem.
I must use 3GB to make my system booting quickly.(not only booting,
system works faster with 3GB)


Please save my poor life.


And the machine is

AMD Athlon x2 4000+ (I use 32bit Debian now)
MSI K9A Platinum motherboard
2 sets of Geil 2gb dual channel 800mhz (2x 1GB)
Seagate SATA 500GB HDD

 

[Conor]

Hi all,




I just builded mo own x86 machine , and I am quite surprised ,because
1GB of RAM is missing (1GB of 4GB) and my Debian's boot time is 10
minutes.

Moreover when I take off one RAM stick (which will give me 3GB RAM) my
system boots in 40 seconds - I am amazed.

All of RAM sticks are fine, I tested all of them together and
separately. I just cannot use them together.


My problem is I want to use 4GB RAM at full power, and have no idea
what might be the problem.

You need to use a 64bit version of Linux as 32bit can only address a
maximum of 4GB but that's 4GB minus any memory allocated to hardware so
would be around the 3GB mark you can see.

You may also need to enable "Memory Hole 15-16M" in BIOS as well so
that the motherboard posts with a full 4GB but the main reason you are
having problem with your Linux install is that you need to be using a
64bit version.

 

[pgega]

So OK, we know why I can only see about 3 GiB but , why does system
boot takes about 10 minutes with 4GiB and 40 seconds with 3 Gib ?

Kind regards,
Pawel Gega

 

[DaveW]

If you use a 32 bit OS such as XP or Vista then you ARE limited to the OS
only recognizing up to 3.2 GB of RAM. To recognize all 4 GB of RAM you
would have to install the 64 bit versions of XP or Vista.

 

[John Adams]

If you use a 32 bit OS such as XP or Vista then you ARE limited to the OS
only recognizing up to 3.2 GB of RAM. To recognize all 4 GB of RAM you
would have to install the 64 bit versions of XP or Vista.

Yea, but with 4gb of ram in 32bit XP or Vista doesn't cause a 10 minute
boot time like his Linux install does. I have 4gb in 32bit XP and it
boots the same as it does with just 2gb, can only use 3.25gb is all the
difference is.

 

[Paul]

So OK, we know why I can only see about 3 GiB but , why does system
boot takes about 10 minutes with 4GiB and 40 seconds with 3 Gib ?

Kind regards,
Pawel Gega

Have you looked in "dmesg" after the fact, to see if there are any
messages of interest ? Perhaps the Linux memory management code is
not one monolithic thing, and something is changing as a function of
the available memory ? Why not find a Linux newsgroup and ask there ?

"linux 4gb slow"
http://groups.google.ca/group/comp....read/thread/5324f256de4fca4a/d98ca07d32d10ec4

Paul