Windows 7 Ultimate 64 will not recognize all my ram, please help

[chiefkikaho]

system:
mushkin pc3200 ddr400 4gb silverline
ASRock 939DUAL SATA2 Socket 939
BFG 9800 GTX+
AMD athlon 64 x2 3800+
Windows 7 ultimate 64


Ok, so my brother got new ram for his rig and we popped them in.... Bios sees all ram, CPU-Z sees all ram.... windows does not. Normally you might see it say something like 4gb memory (only 3gb useable). It does not state this. It shows "2.89 gb of ram"

I checked to see if the ram limiter was clicked in windows, it was not. I went into bios to see if i could remap ram, but couldnt find that function and wouldn't see the need to if the BIOS saw all 4gb of ram.

on a side note, the bios only showed the ram as ddr 333.... not 400.

Is the ram maybe sharing memory with the GPU? and is there a way to turn that off? and would it be beneficial to turn it off?

Please advise...

 

[x Heavy]

Empty out three of your DIMMs (I am assuming (Never assume I know...) that you have 4 modules.

Test one module at a time until you find the one that isn't working. That would be my best guess.

 

[chiefkikaho]

you say window say 2.89 gb of ram? my cpu usage show total memory ram of my computer exactly,i think there be something wrong with your win,maybe you should ghost your win or there some problem about hardware

well at first it was a lower number..... i went into bios and changed the AGP aperture from 4x to 1x and 64mb to 32.... then the amount of ram recognized in windows moved up to that number

 

[chiefkikaho]

i checked each stick 1 by 1 and they all booted to windows so i'm going to assume that the ram is fine.

at the post (not bios menus) screen though, is only sees 2996mb memory, same number as in windows. I don't understand that. The mobo does not have integrated graphics, and in bios it sees all sticks of ram totaling to 4096. I don't see any option to mess with the ram besides timings.

really confused, please help

 

[x Heavy]

Just the post?

Ok.

Listen to me carefully I will type slowly and keep my question simple for you. (Nothing personal... just a point I wish to emphasize...)



Have you enabled POST to do a big Memory check? Or do you allow the computer Bios to "Abbreviate" the post and move things quickly along?

 

[chiefkikaho]

Just the post?

Ok.

Listen to me carefully I will type slowly and keep my question simple for you. (Nothing personal... just a point I wish to emphasize...)



Have you enabled POST to do a big Memory check? Or do you allow the computer Bios to "Abbreviate" the post and move things quickly along?

I have not enabled post to do a big memory check (guess thats what instructions I'm asking for). I don't take anything personal when I'm asking for help. Imma newb when it comes to things as this so as long as I find a solution, it really doesnt matter how people wish to address my questions. Since I have not enabled POST to do a big memory check, I guess I am allowing bios to abbreviate the post.

How do I enable post to do a big mem check?

 

[x Heavy]

Well, I managed to put myself on the spot.

POST means to turn on the power supply. There will be a set amount of time until the Power Supply says power good. The System then goes ahead and wakes up the CPU which will be mindless with nothing in it.

Usually at that point there is a place written into a memory somewhere at Hexdecimal F if I recall, for the system to go there to hunt for memory count up (This is where you will see the memory count in POST) it should add up to the correct value of what you put in in bytes.

From there it goes on to hunt for the video card, the drives and so on so forth. If there is a error it will be apparent to you in any number of ways.

There are a number of small programs that can be imaged onto a thumb drive and then booted to do a memcheck for you, it takes time and usually should not have errors.

The other side of the memory story lies in the Motherboard. The factory generally issues a memory compatibility sheet. The only two things I follow is voltage and number of dimms/slots. The third thing I don't ever do is buy cheap ram with tin contacts. Putting those into a motherboard's gold plated contacts creates a rust problem that halts everything eventually.

Somewhere in your Bios (Award, Phoenix or Megatrends... etc) there should be load defaults and save or a setting that will allow your Post to count the memory. Forget about the timings, Dram speeds etc etc etc... that stuff is generally for overclocks.

 

[chiefkikaho]

Well, I managed to put myself on the spot.

POST means to turn on the power supply. There will be a set amount of time until the Power Supply says power good. The System then goes ahead and wakes up the CPU which will be mindless with nothing in it.

Usually at that point there is a place written into a memory somewhere at Hexdecimal F if I recall, for the system to go there to hunt for memory count up (This is where you will see the memory count in POST) it should add up to the correct value of what you put in in bytes.

From there it goes on to hunt for the video card, the drives and so on so forth. If there is a error it will be apparent to you in any number of ways.

There are a number of small programs that can be imaged onto a thumb drive and then booted to do a memcheck for you, it takes time and usually should not have errors.

The other side of the memory story lies in the Motherboard. The factory generally issues a memory compatibility sheet. The only two things I follow is voltage and number of dimms/slots. The third thing I don't ever do is buy cheap ram with tin contacts. Putting those into a motherboard's gold plated contacts creates a rust problem that halts everything eventually.

Somewhere in your Bios (Award, Phoenix or Megatrends... etc) there should be load defaults and save or a setting that will allow your Post to count the memory. Forget about the timings, Dram speeds etc etc etc... that stuff is generally for overclocks.

I have been going through all the screens in the BIOS and there is no option to let post count the memory. This computer has AMI 2.3 version bios for this board. This bios seems to be on the light side for configuring...

here is what I mean....

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASRock/939Dual-SATA2/5.html

pg 5 & 6 show the options in the bios. Do you see the options to make a thorough read of the memory?