[RAM] Computer Question

It shouldn't lock up because of the new RAM. Windows should see 4 gigs just fine. You may try just using the new ram without the old ones just to see if the RAM is good.

 

are you running Windows 32bit? if so, give it up Uprising. You will face unpredictable results.

if you're running 64, try the 2 new sticks by themselves. does it work?
next run checkIt on the 4 sticks.
are you currently overclocking your Asus. Set it back to normal...does it work?

 

oh, and RIGHT NOW! you can call KPFT 90.1 FM at 713-526-KPFT and ask the Technology Bytes guys. Their show is on now.

and rockHEAD answers the phones.

 

Window XP pro can't use 4gigs, and can fail with it. I thought we established that.

 

WHOA. Useful info, heypartner. Thank you... you mean my DELL XPS won't use more than it has advertised??

So, Uprising, is this a vendor-sold PC or something you built on your own? What type of motherboard do you have?

 

Ummm.....

So you've either got some bad slots, or your two brands of RAM don't play nice together. What about if you put the original sticks in slots 3 and 4? What about if you take one old and one new stick and put them in slots 1 and 2?

 

Damn, you, tall white guy at Live. Damn you. So I missed that line, so sue me.

Do you also have the yellow and black slots...? What is the difference? Maybe it goes alternating like Harrisment says.

Anyway, so it's a BUILT PC, no? How do you guys make your PCs? I have never thought about it... I know I'll eff something up. :'(

 

so the new RAM works fine in the yellow slots? try installing your original memory in the black slots and boot up. if you receive the same problem, then you could have a bad RAM slot. if that is the case, try only installing one stick in one black slot at a time in order to pinpoint which one it is.

 

The reason why the slots are color coded is because the board support dual channel RAM configuration. So if you have 2 sticks you place them in the same color slots for dual channel setup (does not matter what color you pick).

Also, there should not be any problems in Windows XP or Vista 32 bit if you use 4 GB of RAM. The only thing that you may notice is that not all of the RAM will be allocated in Windows but the BIOS should show 4 GB (Windows will usually show 3.2 GB) ... it should not cause lock ups though ...

 

How to fix this is a crapshoot - if it's even possible. Many mobos combined with XP or Vista 32-bit have this problem. Some people report no problems with 4 gigs, others can't even get into the OS. If you want to experiment, try easing up on your memory timings and voltage in the BIOS to "auto" or "default" or something or bumping voltage little by little on the memory (in the BIOS). If you're an overclocker, easing the memory timings will probably piss you off. You can also see if upgrading to the latest BIOS of your mobo helps, if you haven't already tried it.

If you don't feel comfortable doing that, then run with 2 gigs.

 

figured i'd ask this question in here.


would more ram help the skipping that occurs in itunes when i'm loading webpages and such? like when i go to open a firefox or open a webpage it will make the music skip around and chop up. do i need more ram for this problem? i have 1 GB now, think i might go another gig...would like to eliminate it if possible.

 

Windows will see 4 gigs just fine. The problem is that applications (in 32 bit versions) can only access 2 gigs without using the "switch" which allows applications to access around 3.2 gigs of ram.

You may have an issue with your motherboard, power supply being underpowered (my guess depending on what other devices you have installed in the machine and what power supply you have), or the new ram may not be able to support the timing set currently in the bios for the old ram. You might have the same exact brand and type of ram but the timings supported may be different.

anyway, hope you get it figured out. 2 gigs in XP is enough for me so I haven't jumped through any hoops until I go XP64.

good luck,
Brock

 

I was thinking that it's the motherboard, too. Check and see if Asus has a newer bios you can download then flash the mobo with.

 

The 3GB-not-4GB RAM problem

Problem statement:
I just bought a system with 4GB of physical RAM in it. The BIOS posts 4GB, but Windows tells me that I have anywhere from 2.75 - 3.5GB of RAM. Where is the rest of my RAM?

Summary:
If you are running 32-bit Windows, you must live with it. You will not ever see all 4GB of RAM you've paid for.

If you are running 64-bit Windows, you may have to live with it. Depending on your motherboard's chipset, your system may support memory remapping. If so, you will be able to use all 4GB of RAM.

Detailed:
Due to an architectural decision made long ago, if you have 4GB of physical RAM installed, Windows is only able to report a portion of the physical 4GB of RAM (ranges from ~2.75GB to 3.5GB depending on the devices installed, motherboard's chipset & BIOS).

This behavior is due to "memory mapped IO reservations". Those reservations overlay the physical address space and mask out those physical addresses so that they cannot be used for working memory. This is independent of the OS running on the machine.

Significant chunks of address space below 4GB (the highest address accessible via 32-bit) get reserved for use by system hardware:

• BIOS – including ACPI and legacy video support

• PCI bus including bridges etc.

• PCI Express support will reserve at least 256MB, up to 768MB depending on graphics card installed memory

What this means is a typical system may see between ~256MB and 1GB of address space below 4GB reserved for hardware use that the OS cannot access. Intel chipset specs are pretty good at explaining what address ranges gets reserved by default and in some cases call out that 1.5GB is always reserved and thus inaccessible to Windows.

When looking at memory in systems (be it desktop or notebook) there are three questions to ask that will tell you the maximum amount of memory your O/S will be able to use:

1. What O/S Edition have you installed?

a. 32-bit Windows is limited to a maximum of 4GB and cannot see any pages above 4GB.

b. 64-bit Windows can use between 8GB and 128GB depending on SKU.

2. What address range can your processor actually access?

a. Typically that’ll be 40-bit addressing today for x64 (Intel EM64T/AMD64), but older processors may be limited to 36-bit or even 32-bit

3. Can your system’s chipset map memory above 4GB?

a. Mobile chipsets on sale today cannot (but that may change with time)

b. Newer workstations (which use chipsets developed for single or multi-proc servers) usually can.

Windows can remap memory from below 4GB to above 4GB and use it there, however, that relies on the three points above:

1. Can Windows access memory above 4GB?

a. 32-bit – NO

b. 64-bit – Maybe (due to chipset limitations)

2. Can your processor access memory above 4GB?

a. If it’s recent then it might, and if it’s either AMD64 or EM64T it’s almost certain

3. Does your chipset allow pages to be remapped above 4GB?

a. Probably not – and that’s what’s catching people who install 64-bit Vista to work around point 1 – they find they still cannot see above 4GB

In some cases, OEMs may be able to tweak their BIOS to reserve less memory for platform use, but we’re not talking a huge difference (ie, 100’s of MBs).

In the end a 32-bit OS and/or application can only, ever, handle 4GB of memory at a time, the AWE stuff just swaps chunks of memory in and out of that 4GB space, thus fooling the application and OS into using more space than it can “see”.

Physical Address Extension (PAE), extends the physical address space to 36-bits if your HW supports this. For most operations, the processor execution units will only see 32-bit addresses, the MMU will take care of the translation to 36bit addresses. No swapping here, only page translations (which are used regardless of PAE being on or not), this is a fundamental feature of any virtual memory operating system.

The OS and apps only see 32-bit addresses because the registers are limited to 32-bits (hence the “32-bit” architecture nomenclature). These are linear addresses which are extended to 36-bits in the translation to physical addresses, but they never show up in registers since there’s no room. It’s all internal until the address lines coming out of the chip are toggled. Thus my comment above about “if your H/W supports this (PAE)". I’m not going into how that works…

So, the OS can happily handle up to 64 GB of memory for 32-bit PAE-able systems.

Hope this helps explain the whole, ‘Why can’t I see 4 Gig of RAM in my system?” thing…

BTW – This does not change for Vista either…

references:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605/en-us

 

Even so there is a difference between how the os allows applications to access ram.

a single application under XP can only address 2 gigs of ram (unless you use the 3 gig switch which simply isn't stable enough for what I do). In Vista, a single application can access more than 2 gigs. Same with XP64. This is the only enticing thing about Vista for me but there are still too many other issues for me to switch right now.