Fatality an9 32x and 4gig adata800mz

[Bulls]

Hi ev1,

I'm trying to finalize a pc build i've been working on. I have 4 one gig sticks of adata's pc 6400 ram and an abit fatality an9 32x motherboard with 4 ram slots(supports 8 total gigw/ 2gig strips). I just picked up the 4th chunk of ram installed it and the pc's not recognizing 4 gig of ram. I've checked that they all are in tight, tried removing some and switching them. I have gotten 3 gig recognized and 3.5 recognized. Confusing me over here. Any of you techies have some insight? Thank you,...

[CoffeeShark]

you paired up the ram sticks?

the only thing I can think of is that the sticks are not identical - maybe you ordered the same specs but there is a difference.

Unpaired sticks usually will show up in dual-channel mode, but it is possible that they are not because they are not paired.

[Bulls]

They are the same brand, speed and size sticks. I checked the stickers on them too,..all labled the same.

[CoffeeShark]

did you run them 2 at a time? when you do, do you get 2gb each time?

if so, you have good sticks but maybe a bad channel on the mobo.

are you checking the ram amount in the bios or in the OS? Check the bios and see what's available in the RAM area to play around with the settings. You may just want to set 'optimal defaults' and make sure nothing weird got set.

[CoffeeShark]

there seems to be some issues with 32-bit XP and addressing all 4gb of RAM, so it may not be a hardware issue at all.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hp

Increasing workstation performance and RAM affordability have enabled more and more users to push the limits of 32-bit computing. This paper discusses those limits with respect to RAM allocation when using Microsoft Windows XP Professional on x86-based computers. Specifically, the 32-bit version of XP Professional limits available RAM to noticeably less than 4 GB while Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition eliminates this barrier.
Microsoft Windows XP Professional, designed as a 32-bit OS, supports an address range of up to 4 GB for virtual memory addresses and up to 4 GB for physical memory addresses. Because the physical memory addresses are sub-divided to manage both the computer’s PCI memory address range (also known as MMIO) and RAM, the amount of available RAM is always less than 4 GB.
The PCI memory addresses starting down from 4 GB are used for things like the BIOS, IO cards, networking, PCI hubs, bus bridges, PCI-Express, and video/graphics cards. The BIOS takes up about 512 KB starting from the very top address. Then each of the other items mentioned are allocated address ranges below the BIOS range. The largest block of addresses is allocated for today’s high performance graphics cards which need addresses for at least the amount of memory on the graphics card. The net result is that a high performance x86-based computer may allocate 512 MB to more than 1 GB for the PCI memory address range before any RAM (physical user memory) addresses are allocated.
RAM starts from address 0. The BIOS allocates RAM from 0 up to the bottom of the PCI memory addresses mentioned above, typically limiting available RAM to between 3 GB and 3.4 GB.

From a user’s perspective the graphics card selected and amount of installed RAM have the most impact on available RAM. A high end graphics card with 256 MB of memory may limit addressable RAM to about 3 GB while cards with less memory may enable higher limits. Industry memory architectures impact the opportunity to install just the amount of RAM that can be made available. Today’s high performance chipsets use dual memory channels which require matched pairs of DIMMs for the best performance. On a 4 DIMM slot computer, the 3 to 4 GB capacity choices fall to 3 GB or 4 GB (two 1 GB DIMMs + two 512 MB DIMMs or four 1 GB DIMMs).

Windows XP Professional x64 Edition uses 64-bit addressing enabling virtually the entire amount of installed RAM to be made available on computers that have large address infrastructures (where the entire system has more than 4 GB addressing capabilities via the processor, chipset, physical memory capacity, etc).

In contrast, some 64-bit capable systems use 32-bit chipsets, limiting physical memory addressing to the 4 GB limit even though Windows XP Professional x64 Edition is installed.

[Bulls]

Very interesting article. So,...I have the amdx2 5600+(in yesterday), Fatality an9 32x, 4 gig adata(1gig each), bfg 8800 gts 640mg, 320 sata, xp pro. So it looks like, as you mentioned, my os may be having issues with my video card and allocated memory across the system. I'm still confused,...as to what to do. Different os? Take back the 4th ram stick,..No magic switch to flip for what I have. I'm also trying to install nividias ntune to run through it oc'in procedures. I have not found a dl of it that will complete it's installation with my motherboard. It says it needs nforce3 or 4 mobo to complete installation. Trying to find one for my system.

[CoffeeShark]

i would suggest just sticking with a 3gb setup, or keep the setup with the 3.5gb that you've seen.

as for ntune, if you're using 5.05, that's the latest and greatest, if it doesn't support your mobo, you might be out of luck.

have you tried rivatuner?

[Bulls]

No I haven't. I am new to oc. I'm looking now though. Thank you for you help.