Only half my RAM being detected! Help!

[Dakota]

Sorry, should've said Soundblaster X-Fi Elite Pro

[Sharp]

The only thing I can say about the sound issue is to increase the memory timings and see if it helps.

[calvintang]

Advanced chipset features.

Memory hole for PCI MMIO = enabled.

 

 

Argh! completely forgotten about that.

[laserred]

I have now disabled SLI Broadcast Aperture, and the BIOS tells me I now have 3.9GB of memory (Windows says 3.75GB). It seems like I may have to disable something else aswell, would anyone know what it could be?

 

4GB is a 32-bit limitation (Binary uses base 2, so 2^32 bits=4294967296 bits or 4GB), and from there the system subtracts memory addresses for all peripherals and on-board components (sound card, GPU memory, other PCI cards, network controllers, etc,) and then as the last step in memory addressing, it makes the rest available to the RAM slots. Otherwise, the CPU wouldn't know how/where to communicate with other components. Basically, if you had an X-Fi Platinum (64MB), 2 7900GTXs (512MB each), and some other ones, you would see (4GB max)-(64MB)-(1024MB)= roughly 2.9GB available to RAM slots no matter how much RAM you had installed. So the only way with 32-bit stuff to increase "available" memory is to remove peripherals like your sound card, or downgrade your video card to one with less RAM. Obviously these aren't valid choices. The difference between 3.5 and 4GB of "available" memory is insignificant for 99.9% of everything you can do with a desktop computer. In the future, maybe not, but for now with the hardware and software, it's a moot point. Just enjoy it for what it is- a fun computer that is maxed out to its technological limitations. Have fun!

 

PS- do a search about the crackling, Angry had said something about Creative offering some kind of fix- not sure since I don't have an X-Fi.

[Dakota]

4GB is a 32-bit limitation (Binary uses base 2, so 2^32 bits=4294967296 bits or 4GB), and from there the system subtracts memory addresses for all peripherals and on-board components (sound card, GPU memory, other PCI cards, network controllers, etc,) and then as the last step in memory addressing, it makes the rest available to the RAM slots. Otherwise, the CPU wouldn't know how/where to communicate with other components. Basically, if you had an X-Fi Platinum (64MB), 2 7900GTXs (512MB each), and some other ones, you would see (4GB max)-(64MB)-(1024MB)= roughly 2.9GB available to RAM slots no matter how much RAM you had installed. So the only way with 32-bit stuff to increase "available" memory is to remove peripherals like your sound card, or downgrade your video card to one with less RAM. Obviously these aren't valid choices. The difference between 3.5 and 4GB of "available" memory is insignificant for 99.9% of everything you can do with a desktop computer. In the future, maybe not, but for now with the hardware and software, it's a moot point. Just enjoy it for what it is- a fun computer that is maxed out to its technological limitations. Have fun!

 

PS- do a search about the crackling, Angry had said something about Creative offering some kind of fix- not sure since I don't have an X-Fi.

 

Thank you for that very helpful and informative post, but does this apply to 64-bit as well?

[Sharp]

Basically, if you had an X-Fi Platinum (64MB), 2 7900GTXs (512MB each), and some other ones, you would see (4GB max)-(64MB)-(1024MB)= roughly 2.9GB available to RAM slots no matter how much RAM you had installed. So the only way with 32-bit stuff to increase "available" memory is to remove peripherals like your sound card, or downgrade your video card to one with less RAM.

 

So in this example are you saying that windows will only show 2.9GB?

 

And if you are, what would happen if the PC only had 256MB of physical memory?

 

EDIT: I seem to have got the wrong idea about what you meant.

(4GB max) you were talking about the 4GB addressing space - 64MB addressing space - 1024 addressing space = 2.9GB addressing space left to assign to the memory slots.

[laserred]

It would show 256MB of installed RAM. The 4GB addressing limitation like I said assigns all other components FIRST (sound card, GPU, PCI slots, network controllers, anything that the CPU communicates with) an address range from this 4GB total. You can see what addresses are assigned using the Device Manager and clicking on Resources. This shows how many memory addresses are assigned to a component (i.e., if you have an 8800GTX, it will assign 768MB worth of memory addresses to the card) and the system will subtract this from the available 4GB of memory addresses. Then, after all components are assigned addresses, the remaining amount is made available to address memory. So, like I said, if you had an X-Fi Platinum, 2 8800GTXs, a PCI SATA card, and some other crap, you would likely end up with only about 2GB of memory being addressable, even if you had 4GB installed. Once you step up to a 64-bit OS, this limitation becomes 16TB IIRC. This is where Windows is concerned. If you have a 64-bit OS installed and still have problems, it is likely a driver or BIOS error, not 100% sure there. But as 32-bit goes, the above, aside from minor lingo issues, is how it gets handled- At least this is what my Computer Systems Architecture class taught.

[Dakota]

Thank you everybody, but I guess my only solution now is to wait until Creative address the issue of the crackling. However I've been told that if I change the Command Rate of my memory to 2T, it might solve the problem. The thing is though I've looked everywhere through the BIOS and I cannot find anything to do with Command Rates, and I'm not very experience in this type of thing; could anybody tell me where it is?

 

Thanks for any more help!

[mipaan]

if I put memory hole enable, and go vistax84 ultimate, my NIC won't work anymore??

[Sharp]

Hello,

 

What happens if you leave it enabled and reinstall vista x64?