Old NF4-939 board with massive RAM issues

FatRakoon

FatRakoon

FatRakoon

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I hit this issues a short while back, as I have plenty of other boards, I simply swapped some parts around and the issue went away, but Im using that board again in another project and now I cannot avoid it.

The board in question is

Foxconn NF4 SLI K8AA

Linky to homepage
http://www.foxconnchannel.com/produ...&Socket=Socket+939&Chipset=NVIDIA+nForce4+SLI

Anyway, the problem is that no matter what, it loses out on RAM.

For example, if I use 4GB then when I boot up, Im actually only showing up 2.7GB.... I know that when I use a 32Bit O/S I can lose a few Megs, and thats fine, but this is in the BIOS... I get 2.7GB whether I use a 32 or 64Bit O/S ???

If I use only 2GB then I still lose out on some RAM, and I get left with about 1.6GB?

Whaaaaat?

Seriously, there must be some reason behind this?

I saw the issues as I said some time ago, and I decided to go back to the ASUS A8N-SLI and I did use this Foxconn over the asus purely because the 7900GTX cards have been using bigger coolers and the ASUS has a 2-slot gap while the fioxconn has a 1 card gap that the 7800GTX are fine with...

Anyway, Im digressing.

Anyone have any ides on curing the foxconn with this RAM eating issue?
 
Seems quite obvious but have you tried resetting the CMOS? There may be some peculiar setting in there that is limiting the ram, does a google search throw anything up incase other people are having the same issue?
 
I have given up on never offering the obvious solutions, it is often the obvious that catches us out im sure you will agree, but no, CMOS reset is getting worn out the number oftimes its been used, and its up to date with the BIOS. I am even considering dropping it back a version or two "JUST IN CASE ?"

Yes, I have googled by nothing obvious is coming up???

I think thats probably down to the fact that its not really a great Mobo so possibly not many people have used loads of RAM / 64Bit / whatever in it... Like I said, its great with 1GB.

Oh, another issue I have with it, is that even with the RAID fully disabled, the RAID setup screen still keeps showing up after the CMOS displays its junk...
 
stulid said:
Onboard graphics helping itself to a chunk of ram?
Click to expand...

Sorry, I missed that when replying..

No, there is no O/B GFX, however I am using a pair of cards in SLI and I do feel that the BIOS may very well have reserved a chunk of RAM for the hardware so its possible yes.
 
Hmm... is there any options in the bios for "memory hole", ">4GB memory remap" or similar?

When the board POST's is there any mention of anything along the lines of "4GB installed (2.7Gb usable)"?

Also make sure that no bios/gfx shadowing options are enabled.
 
Not noticed anything like that?

When it POSTs it only says how much RAM there is, not 4GB but this much usable.

I just downloaded latest BIOS but it has a password on the actual BIN Archive file?

I have the one before that and so Im going to plonk that one on in a few minutes...
 
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