Motherboard Detects Half Actual Amount of Memory

[Michael Kilpatrick]

I recently had to rebuild my pc because the old mobo failed.

I got a new AMD 3000 in a Gigabyte GA-K8VM800M motherboard and new 200 GB
Serial ATA hard drive.

Other components - power supply, DVD reader, DVD burner and memory are
salvaged from the old pc.

It all works fine, except that I have 2 sticks of 512 MB pc333 DDR memory,
but the new mobo only reads a total of 512 MB

The old mobo definitely detected 1024 MB.

The new mobo manual states the following memory types are compatible:
DDR 400/333/266/200 DIMM, 2.5 Volts - same voltage as for the old mobo.

There are 2 memory slots in the new mobo. Both sticks of memory work in
either slot if I install one at a time, but then the mobo only detects 256
MB.

So everything works, but during the bootup memory test I get half the
correct amount of memory and Win XP also reads half the correct amount.

I believe I have pushed the memory into the slots as firmly as I can and the
clamps at either end slot into place with no problem.

I feel I must be missing something obvious, but I'm out of ideas.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Michael

 

[Des]

I have a motherboard that does that, but when i get windows up and
running > got controll pannel > system it gives me the correct answere.
Have a look.

Desmond.

 

[Michael Kilpatrick]

Thanks, but I should have mentioned that Win XP is also showing 512 MB of
memory, as is Adobe Photoshop, which is running quite sluggishly with that
amount of memory.

 

[jaster]

On Tue, 04 Oct 2005 23:24:06 +1000, Michael Kilpatrick thoughtfully wrote:

[snip]

It all works fine, except that I have 2 sticks of 512 MB pc333 DDR
memory, but the new mobo only reads a total of 512 MB

The old mobo definitely detected 1024 MB.

The new mobo manual states the following memory types are compatible:
DDR 400/333/266/200 DIMM, 2.5 Volts - same voltage as for the old mobo.

There are 2 memory slots in the new mobo. Both sticks of memory work in
either slot if I install one at a time, but then the mobo only detects
256 MB. [snip]
Any suggestions?

Thanks, but I should have mentioned that Win XP is also showing 512 MB of
memory, as is Adobe Photoshop, which is running quite sluggishly with that
amount of memory.

recently had to rebuild my pc because the old mobo failed.

Yeah you'd think memory would work now. Maybe either the memory is
defective (yeah really) memtest86 or it isn't compatible with the Gigabyte.

But I think I tracked it down to your motherboard

http://www.gigabyte-usa.com/MotherBoard/FileList/FAQ/faq_amdguide.jpg

Gigabyte claims it's an AMD 754 platform problem. When it's the board
exchange it for another brand or board that WILL work with your memory.