Possible memory/windows utilisation issue

Ronty

Ronty

Ronty

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Joined
17 Aug 2005
Posts
270
Location
Surrey
Hi,

I've recently built a system, which I ran the "Experiance" rating on that gave the memory a score of 7.1 (4GB XMS). I've just run it again and it has reduced to 5.5, without me changing a thing.

Any ideas what it could be? Windows still recognises that there is 4GB there, but only 1.96GB is available.

CoreTemp however is showing on average 1000/2008 MB available.

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks.
 
Crasp said:
Hi,

I've recently built a system, which I ran the "Experiance" rating on that gave the memory a score of 7.1 (4GB XMS). I've just run it again and it has reduced to 5.5, without me changing a thing.

Any ideas what it could be? Windows still recognises that there is 4GB there, but only 1.96GB is available.

CoreTemp however is showing on average 1000/2008 MB available.
Click to expand...

Sorry if I am misunderstanding you but are you saying that even though you have 4GB of physical memory installed, you can only utilise 2GB so its as if you only actually have 2GB of physical memory installed in your system? Or are you saying that you have 4GB of physical memory installed, which you can fully utilise but 2GB of it is currently in use? Therefore, you only have 2GB of available physical memory?

If it's the former, try and test each module separately to see if any of them are faulty. If none of them are, you may well find that simply re-seating them would have solved your issue anyway. If it's the latter on the other hand, how much physical memory is displayed under the "Memory" graph in task manager upon initially logging into your account? While Windows Vista and Windows 7 naturally consume more physical memory than a Windows XP based system, this doesn't mean there is a need for concern. Windows Vista and Windows 7 are much newer operating systems and offer more functionality than Windows XP so it's only really logical to assume they would require more resources.
 
Thanks for the reply, re-reading what I wrote I realise its not very clear!

I have 4GB (2x2GB) installed, which the bios recognises, so I assume that this means the modules are fine.

Task manager reports 2007mb total, but looking at resource manager it shows all 4096mb but 2089mb of it as hardware reserved, which it hasn't before.

A quick google shows that having the memory in the wrong slots/config causes this, but as its happened withing the last 2-3 weeks, months after the system was built, i dont think this is the problem.

Edit: Just had a look around thew BIOS for the memory remap setting, couldn't find it so booted back into windows to check if it was called anything different for my motherboard and it was back up to 4056mb usable memory! I hadn't changed anything in the bios, even of i had i exited without saving any settings just in case.

All was well for 30 seconds then it bluescreened and hung at POST, until i restarted it and left it unplugged for a while. Powered back up and back to where I started, 2008mb usable, the rest reserved.

This is the specs, if it helps at all:

Intel Core i5 760 2.80GHz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £117.23 1 £117.23
Gigabyte GeForce GTS 450 OC 1024MB GDDR5
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599)
MSI H55M-E33 H55 Express Chipset (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard
Coolermaster Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU)
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD105SI)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 939 / AM2 / AM3 / 775 / 1155/ 1156 / 1366)

I've read about conflicting CPU/Memory voltages so will check that out now, but if anyone has any more ideas I'd be grateful!
 
Last edited:
Crasp said:
Thanks for the reply, re-reading what I wrote I realise its not very clear!

I have 4GB (2x2GB) installed, which the bios recognises, so I assume that this means the modules are fine.

Task manager reports 2007mb total, but looking at resource manager it shows all 4096mb but 2089mb of it as hardware reserved, which it hasn't before.
Click to expand...

Oh right, yes, that makes sense. Sorry, I completely misunderstood what you had written.

If you type "Msconfig" (without the quotes) into the start menu search bar and accept the User Account Control elevation dialog if you have UAC enabled. Once the System Configuration window has appeared, click on the "Boot" tab followed by "Advanced options...". On the right hand side, check the "Maximum Memory" option. It should automatically input the amount of physical memory you have installed in your machine. Then restart the system. Hopefully that should sort out the issue which you are having.
 
Just tried that to no avail, still the same available/reserved memory. Although when I went to check I had actually tocked the box, it was ticked but the value was 0, I changed it to 4096, clicked ok then went back again to check and it was back to 0. Don't know if this is an issue at all but doesn't seem right!

And thank you for your help so far by the way!
 
Tried restoring the default settings, hasn't helped either! Now hangs a few minutes after rebooting, on the third time its back to the mamory that was available/reserved when this started. At least it seems more stable though!

Could this be an issue with the memory itself? I'll run memtest when I have more time, can I just pull out 1 module and test 1 at a time without windows throwing a fit?
 
Thought I'd update this thread with what I discovered the issue was and how I fixed it, just incase its helpful to anyone else!

Once I'd taken the time to poke around inside the case rather than whine that Windows had broken, I discovered that one of the clips on a RAM module was not quite in place, and it had worked itself loose meaning it wasnt quite making contact and every time I reset the BIOS it freaked out and set it as hardware reserved.

Morale of the story being make sure you've not been a spacker and overlooked something simple!
 
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