4Gb only 2gb usable in BIOS and Windows

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lazyboy947

lazyboy947

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Jun 11, 2012
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Have a MSI 890fxa-gd65 with a x6 1055t and 4x1gb 1333 Samsung ram, and never noticed before as the pc doesnt get used much but when i tried to OC and run IBT it didnt run as there was not enough ram for the default 1gb and then noticed that only 2gb was usable but it recognized 4gb.

Reset bios to defaults & Fail-safe, and even ran memtest with no errors, cant seem to find a answer else where, settings Windows max memory to 4gb or checked off does nothing(it resets to 0), and the board does not have on board video and uses a radeon 5770. Windows resource monitor put 2gb with use towards hardware( BIOS/Peripherials/drivers etc). Cannot seem to find any sort of bios settings to change this or windows setting.

Both Windows and the Bios now show 2gb usable but sees every stick of ram in the slots and 4Gb is there.

Tested with a 2x2gb kit and a single 2gb stick and only works when two sticks are in slot 1&2 and any other config does not post, a single stick does nothing, but with all four sticks in it still shows only 2 usable. Only thing I can think of would possibly be bad Dimm slots, but if they were bad why would Bios and windows still see 4gb?

Bios Version is 18.9 which is the latest and did not recently update has been at 18.9 for a few months and dont recall it showing 2gb usable before, nor if it was actually using all 4gb at all.
 
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photonboy

photonboy

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Jun 20, 2006
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The manual portion on DDR3 memory is poorly written, but these configurations are approved:

Single stick (Single Channel) - DIMM1

Two sticks (Dual Channel) - DIMM1, DIMM3

Four sticks (Dual Channel) - DIMM1,2,3,4

It does not indicate if DIMM1 + DIMM2 would operate in single-channel or simply not detect the second stick.

*If MEMTEST detects all of your memory then Windows should too. There's also no logical reason why all 4GB wouldn't work with a single stick in 64-bit Windows.

**EXACTLY where does it specify that there is only 2GB (2048MB) in the Resource Monitor?

Is it under the "Installed" heading?
 
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lazyboy947

lazyboy947

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Jun 11, 2012
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As i said the bios shows 2gb in system spec, but shows all 4 dimms occupied with a single 1gb stick, and windows system spec where the WEI is shows 4gb(2gb usable). In resource monitor under the memory tab it breaks down the total memory into categories on hardware resources, used, free, etc something like that - pic link here - http://makingwindowseasy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/windows-resource-monitor-memory.png - , not my pc but where this one shows 35mb in the hardware section mine shows 2gb.

All the ram is being recognized and i was assuming the no post thing with different config has to deal with channel configurations or something and when ram is put into corresponding dual channel it boots and with all 4 it does.

Basically the pc recognises the 4gb of ram but some how 2gb is being allocated for hardware reserved and even after a clear cmos, bios default and fail safe reset bios and win shows 2gb but all of it appears in both spots as 4gb but only 2 usable

The dimm situation they work fine in 1 and 2 as labeled on the board or going in order as u show 1 and 3.

Have yet to try an 8gb 2x4gb kit or two 8gb kits for 4x4gb and see what happens but i will assume only half will show each time and getting 16gb to use 8 is a terrible idea lol
 
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photonboy

photonboy

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Jun 20, 2006
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Update:
This issue has been caused by a very slightly bent pin on CPU's. I'm not saying that's the only cause though.

The solution in that case was to:
1) Shut down, remove CPU (anti-static etc).

2) Inspect CPU carefully to look for bent pins

3) Very, very carefully re-align pin with credit card or similar
 
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lazyboy947

lazyboy947

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Jun 11, 2012
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cpu has had bent pins but was fixed and used in my crosshair IVF for over a year no problem with the RAM, was transfered to the msi board and never noticed the problem until now.

But think i figured it out, i tried an 8gb 2x4gb kit and it recognized both with all usable, then tried another 8gb 2x4gb kit for 4x4gb and recognized 16 but only 8gb usable. The config was dimm 1&2 for the matching kit, and then 3&4 for the other two, and according to the board the first kit is Dimm 1&3 and other kit was 2&4. So assumed it was two faulty dimm slots, then took both sticks out and tried the 2x2gb kit again and went back to 4gb(2usable) in the same slots that the first 8gb kit was working fine in. Then made sure that the sticks were snug and making contact and powered up and is currently working fine in the first two slots, have yet to try all slots. Havent moved the pc but is still running fine, more testing to do to see if its the dimm slots or something else
 
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