Windows 7, 9Gb detected, 6Gb usable?

jambus

jambus

jambus

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15 Jan 2008
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Location
Petersfield, UK
Hey guys.

Had 3GB Corsair RAM, triple channel, upgraded with another 6Gb of GSkill and switched to a 64-bit OS. In Windows 7 it's saying I only have 6Gb Usable instead of the 9Gb. It says the 9Gb is physically there though and CPU-Z confirms this...

People on google say to turn on some sort of memory-remapping setting within the BIOS, however I don't have that. My motherboard is a Gigabyte EX58-UD4P.

Would greatly appreciate some help with this fellas.

Regards
 
I'd Imagine it's something to do with triple channel memory.
So it only works in configurations of 6gb, 12gb, 24gb, etc.
This only a guess, though I'm sure I'm not far wrong.
 
ajones32 said:
I'd Imagine it's something to do with triple channel memory.
So it only works in configurations of 6gb, 12gb, 24gb, etc.
This only a guess, though I'm sure I'm not far wrong.
Click to expand...

Surely it just wouldn't work in triple channel mode then? and would work in single channel, if this were the case? idk.
 
To be blunt, I'm not entirely convinced it's an issue with the multiple it's in. If that were the case I can't understand why they'd sell 3x1Gb stick sets..

That having been said, I'm purely speculating.
 
There was an issue with Gigabyte X58 boards where they would randomly lose one of the sticks. It was an issue I had and the only way I resolved it was resetting the BIOS back to defaults and then reloading my saved overclocked settings back.
 
Hey Jokester, thanks for the input. Is it possible it could've affected two sticks?

My setup is 3x1Gb sticks and 3x2Gb sticks... so for only 6Gb usable I'd need either all three 1Gb sticks to have failed, or a 1Gb and a 2Gb stick... thoughts?

Again, thanks for the input everyone
 
I guess, it's possible if the two sticks are on the same channel, how do you have them arranged? Is it 1GB + 2GB in each channel?
 
I'm presuming a channel is one arrangement of two slots? In-case, my layout is

Slot 1: 2Gb
Slot 2: 1Gb
Slot 3: 2Gb
Slot 4: 1Gb
Slot 5: 2Gb
Slot 6: 1Gb

Is the different branding and potentially, very slightly different timings a particular issue I should be considering? I'm certainly thinking about flashing the BIOS and starting from scratch to be sure.
 
Just in case we are missing the obvious:

Useable? Are you sure that 3GB isn't already in use, and the 6GB is what is left to 'Use' (i.e free memory).
 
You're having he same issue that I've been having - one of the channels is dropping off - that's 1 set of 1gb and 2gb sticks.

See:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18397287

I've got mine to re-register by re-initialising the bios. I did that on mine by switching from one to another, but loading the setup defaults, or resettting it with the jumper should have the same effect. It may also help to use a later version if such a thing exists.
 
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Also make sure that whatever settings you have set for the memory in the bios, is common to both sets of ram, and that you've not just set it to use the XMP profile, as the XMP profiles might well be different for the sets
 
Reseat your CPU and cooler. I remember one cause of the problem was the cooler being screwed on too tight, and caused some of the CPU pins not to make proper contact with the board.
 
Just updated the BIOS and reset the CMOS to all default values in doing so, no joy.

Will try the CPU reseat and see what happens with that.

As for finding out which channel, could I potentially remove each channel at a time? In doing so, whichever I remove which doesn't alter the "usable" amount of RAM must be the channel with the fault... am I correct in this way of thinking?

One issue I have though, if it's a single channel, surely when I was on a 32bit system and I had only 3Gb in it would have only registered 2Gb as one of the channels was still out of action...
 
Yeah, removing each channel in turn would do the trick.

It could well be that adding the 2nd set of sticks has pushed it over the limit - as such increasing some of the memory voltages a touch might resolve it as well?
 
Fantastic news!

2 Changes made and three things that could've helped fixed the issue.



1. Reseated the memory in a new configuration

Slot 1: 1Gb
Slot 2: 2Gb
Slot 3: 1Gb
Slot 4: 2Gb
Slot 5: 1Gb
Slot 6: 2Gb

This is a reversal of the configuration before. Furthermore, whilst doing so a clump of dust came up from under one of the sticks I'd recently inserted. I'm about 70% sure it came from under the stick at least and this could've faulted the connection. Either that, or it was the reseat and new config which did it, which seems odd to me for one way of arranging them to work but not the other.

2. In the BIOS, I upped the DRAM voltage from 1.5V (stock, which it reverted to under the BIOS flash) to 1.66V. I can't be certain if this is what did the trick as I can't remember if before the BIOS flash, under my last overclock I'd put the DRAM voltage up or not... I think perhaps not as I only had 3Gb of RAM in and I didn't overclock it, but in-fact underclocked it so as to compensate for the CPU overclock.

Anyway, I hope this perhaps helps anyone else solve their issue.

Thankyou so much for your input and suggestions, I really appreciate it!
 
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