Have 6Gigs of RAM, OS shows 4. Help, please.

ytzerg

May 5, 2009 2:09:50 AM

I just spent a bit of money getting new hardwear and softwear for my computer, but when I put it all together and ran it.... Went Kaput. Have 6 Gigs of ram, and system only shows 4.

Softwear: WinXP Pro x64 sp2 (System is all updated and has all the latest drivers)
Hardwear:
MoBo: Asus M2N-E (Got the latest Bios)
CPU:AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM2 125W Dual-Core Processor - Retail
RAM:
Crucial Ballistix 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail [Timing 4-4-4-12]

G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail [Timing 5-5-5-15]

My Mobo Manual states:
"This motherbaoard can support 8 GB physical memory on the operating systems listend below. You may install a maximum of 2 GB DIMMs on each slot."

And it lists the OS I am currently running, which again is WinXP Pro x64 with sp2.

Please help me out.

More about : 6gigs ram shows

pinaplex

May 5, 2009 3:42:15 AM

did you turn on memory remapping in the BIOS?

ytzerg

May 5, 2009 3:46:24 AM

Nope, not sure what that even is.
Should I turn it on?

yobigd20

May 5, 2009 4:02:08 AM

I would take your GSKILL out. You're mixing different RAM modules together which is never recommended. Granted yes they are both DDR2 800, however they are different sizes and timings are different. If I recall correctly, when you do this the 'faster' ram will slow itself up to match the 'slower' ram. So essentially your Crucials will run at 5-5-5-15 timings and slowing up your machine. It would be faster if you took the GSKILL out and let your Crucials run at 4-4-4-12. Its been a while that I've looked into this, but I'm pretty sure thats how it used to work. I wouldn't be surprised if the reason that your seeing 4gb is because your 2x2gb are even 'downsizing' to match the 2x1gb , ie not only are they lowering their speeds to match but also lowering their sizes as well so essentially you end up running 4x1gb sticks at 5-5-5-15 timings. thats my guess anyways, I havent kept up to date on mixing and matching RAM sticks as its always a bad idea when you do that anyways.

ytzerg

May 5, 2009 4:05:27 AM

yobigd20 said:

I would take your GSKILL out. You're mixing different RAM modules together which is never recommended. Granted yes they are both DDR2 800, however they are different sizes and timings are different. If I recall correctly, when you do this the 'faster' ram will slow itself up to match the 'slower' ram. So essentially your Crucials will run at 5-5-5-15 timings and slowing up your machine. It would be faster if you took the GSKILL out and let your Crucials run at 4-4-4-12. Its been a while that I've looked into this, but I'm pretty sure thats how it used to work. I wouldn't be surprised if the reason that your seeing 4gb is because your 2x2gb are even 'downsizing' to match the 2x1gb , ie not only are they lowering their speeds to match but also lowering their sizes as well so essentially you end up running 4x1gb sticks at 5-5-5-15 timings. thats my guess anyways, I havent kept up to date on mixing and matching RAM sticks as its always a bad idea when you do that anyways.

I was thinking the same thing. Can anyone confirm if mixing timings is a no go?

If I don't get it running to full 6, I'll just buy 4gigs more and sell the old ones.

belial2k

May 5, 2009 4:47:09 AM

yup, I think you've got it. The only other solution is bad ram or bad dimms in the 1gb slots, but mixing ram will create all sorts of issues, especially with processors that have memory controllers.