3.2GB ram on x64 Vista - Tech Support Forums

CoonDawg · September 25th, 2008, 03:38 PM

This seems like an odd place to talk about ram, but there's more to this story, and I'm sure the issues are entirely BIOS related.

First, some important information:

ASRock P43 Motherboard

2x2GB DDR2 "1000"

My computer is only recognizing 3.2GB. Yes, before you go "omg deh nub dosnt no wat 64bit meens" I do indeed have 64Bit Vista Ultimate installed. When I checked the BIOS, it recognizes a full 4 gigs, but on the POST information screen it says there's only 3.2GB (That is odd to me), not to mention in windows, too.

In one of the reviews of that motherboard, he says "Initially my 4gb of ram was only being read as 3.2gb. Settings required for the full 4gb to be read were not enabled by default.", but he doesn't care to explain what exactly that setting is.

Well I can't find that setting. There's a lot of settings in those bios and none of them get a description. The manual it comes with is about 200 pages, but it's in 40 different languages to it hardly provides any useful information.

Another odd thing. This memory is supposedly DDR2 1000 (Or simply overclocked 800), but the BIOS recognizes it as DDR2 667, and if I force it to run at 800 or 1066 (The only other two options, I can't actually find a manual overclock in my BIOS) my computer won't boot, and I have to use an older stick or ram to boot my computer.

Halp?

jokostel · September 25th, 2008, 05:46 PM

upgrade the bios

nemowolf · September 25th, 2008, 07:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jokostel

upgrade the bios

I would bet the same thing. The motherboard im looking at supports 1033 but only with a bios update and without it RAM is a serious problem.

CoonDawg · September 25th, 2008, 09:56 PM

It says it supports it directly inside the bios. No one else has had a "Update bios" problem. As the review said, there is a setting, but I don't have any idea what it would be called. There's a lot of settings for memory, and none labeled "For more than 3.2GB of memory".

As for the memory speed not working, I think it is a voltage issue, which should easy (I think). My other memory boots under 1066, and it's DDR2 800. And yet my DDR2 1000 won't boot under 800...

KarmaKiller · September 25th, 2008, 10:25 PM

Of chance question, is the RAM EPP stuff?
It seems only certain boards will read the EPP, which is basically your "DDR2-1000" speed. But IDK if the P4x series fixed that or not.
And can you take a pic of the options you have in your BIOS for RAM? That would be helpful.

CoonDawg · September 26th, 2008, 02:16 PM

I upped the voltages manually to what they're supposed to run at, and I'm able to get my computer to POST at 800 (but not 1066). However, it won't let me load windows.

I think I just got a box of crappy ram. Whatever, I don't really care. All I want is my full 4 gigs of ram.

And I'm hating these BIOS, even more so than my last motherboard. I can't even find divider settings, or a memory clockrate. The closest thing I have to that is DDR2 667, DDR2 800 and DDR2 1066. Plenty of settings for memory TIMINGS, though...

Found the answer to my 3.2gb problem via Google, some time, and creative thinking: It is called "Memory Remapping". I had stared at that feature for a minute or two, thinking I should try it (mapping, afterall, is the reason there is a memory limit in 32bit OS'), but I was afraid to touch any setting that had the words "re" or "map" in them.

I don't think that fixed my 667 problem though, I forgot to look.

KarmaKiller · September 26th, 2008, 02:30 PM

I just read a review on egg, and there is a guy on there stating that the board didn't come with the latest BIOS. I would check into that.
And I've only owned 1 Asrock Mobo, and I can't really remember the BIOS layout for it.

But I know on my older board there was a divider setting. I believe it was under the CPU tab though, but again, I don't really remember. I know it had one because I was able to OC my CPU some with it.