the strange case of

[baddad]

Evening all

I'm hoping there's some clever clogs out there who can throw some light on a mysterious problem I'm having:

 

I just installed a gig of new ram in my pc, which previously contained a pawltry 512MB...

Popped it into slot two, booted up and great stuff - immediately spotted by Bios/windows etc and I'm away!

Then I happened to check system via 'system tools' and advanced info and it ent there???

 

Stranger still, it does show up as available physical memory i.e.

 

Total Physical Memory :512Mb

Available Physical Memory: 936Mb (i.e. the full 1.5GB. minus the 64Mb allocated to graphics and the rest being used for running the pc/background apps)...

 

So, Bios recognise full amount.

System info via start>settings>control panel recognises full amount

Nero system info recognises full amount.

 

BUT

system info via all programmes>accessories>tools>system info produces the odd result above, where there's more available PHYSICAL memory than it recognises as installed!

 

---------------------------------

Now, fiddling about, I swapped the 1GB block to slot 1 and removed the 512 completely... same as - bios/standard system info etc confirmed changes, but system info via 'tools' reports 512 max and 400 some-odd as available (so same technically as above but working on 1GB,and somehow not acknowledging the actual capacity of ram installed in slot 1). Putting the 512 back into slot two puts me right back where i started from......?

---------------------------------

 

The PC is noticably faster with certain things, but not as fast as you'd expect considering how poor the RAM was initially.

I'm wondering whether there's some 'ceiling' been put on the ram to stop it overloading when it only had 512 in place, but not sure where to start looking or if that's even feasible? (nothing obvious in bios or system settings).

 

I also tried an online memory test offered by a manufacturer, but the only indicator I get (whether i fit 512 or 1GB in slot one, and regardless of what's in slot two) 512mb slot one/slot 2 empty... I'm wondering though, if that's just picking up a cookie it made earlier before I put the new module in?

Mobo lit states max 2GB, (1g per slot) and doesn't indicate any need for matched pairs or owt like that...

 

Any thoughts... Please?????????????

[Kathryn]

 

You lost me a while back - just after "Evening all" actually.

 

Now I'll clear orf, stop cluttering up your thread and make way for the clever clogses.

 

K x

[Mumble]

Any thoughts... Please?????????????

Hmm, yes, lots of thoughts. It's getting lighter in the evening's isn't it? I wonder why the squirrels have taken to sitting on the fence outside my room. Will walking to the shops burn off enough calories to justify a large bar of chocolate? How much nonsense can I write before a mean mod kicks me off...

 

I just installed a gig of new ram in my pc

Ah, well there's your problem... I would have started trying to stuff in a small band of rams or maybe an orchestra of rams if I was feeling adventurous, but a whole Gig!! That's callin' for trouble. Maybe one of the Rams in the gig had mad ram disease (well we all know the sorts of lifestyles these gigging rams lead ) or wasn't up to date with his dippin'? Come to think of it, are rams like bulls? Do they like to be the only male around - maybe you could try putting one ram and several ewes (of the sheep, rather than tree, variety) in? Maybe the old ram needs shearing? Praps he's given your puter furballs?

 

In all seriousness () could be a ceiling effect maybe possibly - I know with me old (dead ) laptop there was a maximum 'amount' that they could put in - I just nodded and smiled inanely at the techi guy and pretended I had a clue what he was saying. Much like I'm doing now...

[Bard]

Haven't got a clue...but

 

 

FANTASTIC POST MUMBLE!

 

G has a sticker on her laptop, courtesy of a Terry Pratchett convention. It says 'Anthill Inside'

[David Matthew Baker]

What OS are you running BD? I believe some OSs had a maximum amount of ram they could support. That said I doubt the OS or PC is old enough for that to be a problem at the amount you are talking about. I think some manufacturers do set values via apps but again I don't think RAM size would be one. It be interesting to know what SoftSandra finds ram wise in your system. (That's one of the most commonly used benchmarks in terms of business use.) There is a free version of it here: http://www.soft-go.com/view/SiSoftware-San...07-SP1_342.html though I've only ever used the full version myself. Another good benchmarking piece of software (but gameswise this time) is 3DMark but I don't think they do a free version. That said it will run as a demo and just doesn't allow you to upload your results if you don't pay for it from memory. That way we can be certain if it is just the OS not displaying the correct amount. If that is all that is the case I'm not really sure it would be anything to worry about as long as in reality it can access it all.

 

On a side note good post Mumble.

[pearl]

The ONLY reason I EVER read techie threads is to read the non techie replies!

[Tally]

Have you checked behind the sofa?

[hev]

turn it off then on again by the plug if that dont work kick it really hard,if that dont work just claim on the insurance and get a new one and in future be careful where you stick that large ram of yours you will be on jeremy kyle doing a paternity test if you carry on like that

[Kathryn]

Ask Little BoPeep

 

Maybe the missing ram turned up among the lost sheep?

 

K x

[Bagpuss]

This thread is a fine example of why I think this forum is fab

 

How can the techie corner make me nearly wee myself?

[mossgrove]

Are you still on Windows '98?

 

If so, I suspect that the BIOS is seeing the RAM fine but the OS can't recognise/use it in any meaningful way, hence the funny effects.

 

Simon

[baddad]

Hi Simon/DMB -

 

Simon : No, XP. It's not a system thing, I don't think, more a 'system set up' thing...

I suspect the guy who built the machine knew it was light on ram so changes some setting either in the system settings or bios to stop it peaking (?)... I just don't know where to look for the setting - if my guess is right, that is!

 

DMB - Good Idea: Iused to have the old version of sisoft on my 98 machine, but hadn't thought to download...

I'll try it and add findings later!

 

As for all the gurly comments - you are utterly wet and weedy and i diskard you...

 

[baddad]

Ah, Curioser and curioser...

 

Downloaded sssandra 2007 (2008 wouldn't work on my pc for some reason but does on Ben's which is older and hasn't had all the service updates???) and that's giving conflicting reports too!

 

In computer overview it lists

MAINBOARD TOTAL MEMORY: 1.4GB DDR-SD RAM But then lists

CHIPSET TOTAL MEMORY below it as 768MB DDR-SD RAM and SHARED MEMORY as 64MB DDR-SD RAM...

 

THEN looking more fully at mainboard details it says:

 

SYSTEM MEMORY CONTROLLER: maximum installable 1024Mb (incorrect, max is 2GB)

Installed bank 0/1 - A0 none/none/none/none DIMM 512

Installed bank 2/3 - A1 empty...

 

and in logical chipset memory:

Bank 0 :256MB DDR-SD RAM

Bank 1 :256MB DDR-SD RAM

Bank 2 :128MB DDR-SD RAM

Bank 3 :128MB DDR-SD RAM

 

and in

Memory module 1 :1GB DDR-SD RAM

Memory module 2 :512MB DDR-SD RAM

 

............ Sooooooooo. It sees the installed RAM, doesn't list any problems with it, but like windows only seems to get confused about the totals???

 

Also, why does 'Hyperthreading' effectively give me 2 CPU's in my system report, which later says I've only got one fitted (even though 2 = 1 and you can't physically mount 2 on the board anyway!) and that there's room for another!

 

Anyone know any good, reliable sites that make sense of this kind of stuff??

 

Why am I bothering? I dunno . Please send reinforcements. And some cake. And a book would be nice. But not Bigelows....

 

[David Matthew Baker]

What is your motherboard BD? I'm suprised that sssandra reports back a wrong amount as the max ram. Am wondering if it has some strange quirks. Will have a mull over this & get back to you.

[Mumble]

As for all the gurly comments - you are utterly wet and weedy and i diskard you...

:shame: Well don't be askin' for my help in future... And as for the cake, it's settled and at home in my stomach.

 

What is your motherboard BD?

It's the thing what controls 'is muvership which should be comin' soon to pick 'im up and return 'im 'ome...

[baddad]

What is your motherboard BD? I'm suprised that sssandra reports back a wrong amount as the max ram. Am wondering if it has some strange quirks. Will have a mull over this & get back to you.

 

It's a Biostar p4m800m7a - a bit of an 'overclockers' board, but it's not overclocked...

I bought it as an ex-demo model, and I think the guy might have overclocked it to make the demo model look a bit more special than it was, and then he reset the bios etc before selling it on...

I suspect the ram thing may be connected to that - he had it set for 'bank interleave' or something like that, reset it, but only did half the job(?)

 

Dunno - but it's damn annoying to see my processor being used when I KNOW I've still got Ram in hand

 

[David Matthew Baker]

It's a Biostar p4m800m7a

 

Do you know which version? Looking at the Biostar website there seems to have been a number of versions. If there is a later BIOS available on their website it might be worth updating to it. Updating the BIOS would make sure all options are reset to default values, you'd then have to find the correct values for you're CPU etc... I think that is the easiest way to rule out hardware as a source of the problem.

 

http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en-us/mb/bios.php?S_ID=92 (For Version 1)

http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en-us/mb/bios.php?S_ID=93 (For Version 7)

 

Just make sure the power doesn't fail or the PC gets turned off if you update the BIOS. Can often fix a wide range of stabilty issues though. (For any others reading this I wouldn't suggest this unless you have a decent amount of computer know how. From what I've seen I believe BD does. For people who don't this is an easy way to totally wreck your computer.)