Reported Memory in BIOS

luke61 · 09-04-09, 04:54 PM

I'll be building a more up-to-date system in the not too distant future; that said, for the time being, I'm adding a bit more punch to my four year old setup.

In short... I'm running Win XP Pro (SP3) on an ASUS P4C800E Deluxe board. I was operating with 3GB's of DDR RAM (2X1GB and 2x512) and recently pulled the 512GB sticks and replaced them with two, 1GB modules (total of 4GB's onboard now).

The problem(?)... My BIOS is under-reporting the amount of installed RAM @ 3445 GB's. When I had the previous RAM mod's running (totaling 3GB's), the BIOS reported the total amount that was actually installed on the motherboard.

I understand how the OS will map and allocate memory and that Windows (may) under-report or not reflect total installed memory but why is the BIOS is now showing less than the total amount? Again, the BIOS was reporting all 3GB's when in that configuration.

Clues?

and thanks

johan851 · 09-04-09, 06:31 PM

I'm interested in this as well. My board (P5K Deluxe) also reports ~3GB of RAM on boot with 2x2GB sticks of DDR2.

Bobnova · 09-04-09, 06:33 PM

Look for a second section in the readout, my ECS G31 board listed 32bit ram (~3.3gigs) and then had a second section for >32bit ram (.7gigs).

GrimX9 · 09-04-09, 08:45 PM

Yarr, this is the 32 bit RAM limitation in windows XP. If it's 32 bit OS, it will report less than 4 gigs.

There is even a sticky about this here

Daddyjaxx · 09-04-09, 10:15 PM

The BIOS should see all memory regardless if windows does or not. You don't have integrated video do you?

johan851 · 09-05-09, 12:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GrimX9

Yarr, this is the 32 bit RAM limitation in windows XP. If it's 32 bit OS, it will report less than 4 gigs.

There is even a sticky about this here

The BIOS reports the RAM as being less than 4GB. Not the OS.

Quote:

The BIOS should see all memory regardless if windows does or not. You don't have integrated video do you?

No integrated video. Let me take a closer look at what the board is saying...

johan851 · 09-05-09, 01:16 AM

Ok, it seems mine was due to a setting in the BIOS - "PCI memory remap", or something like that. Toggling it made the board report the correct amount of memory. Not sure what's going on there.

09-04-09, 04:54 PM	Thread Starter #1
luke61 New Member Join Date: Sep 2009	Reported Memory in BIOS I'll be building a more up-to-date system in the not too distant future; that said, for the time being, I'm adding a bit more punch to my four year old setup. In short... I'm running Win XP Pro (SP3) on an ASUS P4C800E Deluxe board. I was operating with 3GB's of DDR RAM (2X1GB and 2x512) and recently pulled the 512GB sticks and replaced them with two, 1GB modules (total of 4GB's onboard now). The problem(?)... My BIOS is under-reporting the amount of installed RAM @ 3445 GB's. When I had the previous RAM mod's running (totaling 3GB's), the BIOS reported the total amount that was actually installed on the motherboard. I understand how the OS will map and allocate memory and that Windows (may) under-report or not reflect total installed memory but why is the BIOS is now showing less than the total amount? Again, the BIOS was reporting all 3GB's when in that configuration. Clues? and thanks Last edited by luke61; 09-04-09 at 05:15 PM.
	QUOTE Thanks

09-04-09, 06:31 PM	#2
johan851 Insatiably Malcontent Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Seattle, WA	I'm interested in this as well. My board (P5K Deluxe) also reports ~3GB of RAM on boot with 2x2GB sticks of DDR2. __________________ ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 \| 2500K @ 4.6GHz \| 2x4GB Samsung DDR3 \| GTX460 768mb 120GB Crucial M4 \| 2x 2TB Samsung F4 \| Seasonic S12 600w AV-710 --> y2 DAC --> Custom M^3 --> Custom LM3875 ChipAmp --> Modula MTs Dual Dell 2007WFP \| Watercooled
	QUOTE Thanks

09-04-09, 06:33 PM	#3
Bobnova Air Superiority Senior Member Benching Team Leader Join Date: May 2009 Location: Humboldt	Look for a second section in the readout, my ECS G31 board listed 32bit ram (~3.3gigs) and then had a second section for >32bit ram (.7gigs). __________________ "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe." -- Einstein (maybe) How to check your PSU with a multimeter. 17bXw5t51rEBXGavJFMJsC8g7HQgThUGc7 Heatware.
	QUOTE Thanks

09-04-09, 08:45 PM	#4
GrimX9 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Michigan, USA	Yarr, this is the 32 bit RAM limitation in windows XP. If it's 32 bit OS, it will report less than 4 gigs. There is even a sticky about this here __________________ Phenom II X2 3.9Ghz\|\|G.SKILL 1066 4GB\|\|M4A78+\|\|9800GT\|\|WD Black 640GB 7200RPM\|\|OCZ StealthXStream 700W\|\|Dark Knight CPU cooler "Welcome. Welcome, to City 17." - Robert Culp, August 16, 1930 - March 24, 2010
	QUOTE Thanks

09-04-09, 10:15 PM	#5
Daddyjaxx Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Duluth, GA.	The BIOS should see all memory regardless if windows does or not. You don't have integrated video do you? __________________ i980 stock speeds for now in Asus Rampage III Extreme on Win 7 Home Premium 3 X eVGA 480 GTX 3 x 2 GB Corsair Dominator DDR3 1600 @ 1600 1000w and 850w Corsair in MM Ascension Horizon Crucial 128GB Real SSD and 2 x 1 TB W/D Black 3x XSPC RX360 with Feser Shround and Panaflo Med EK Supreme HF and EK Rampage III block DD Satin 480 Blocks, 2 x DDC 18w XSPC Dual Res Dual DDC
	QUOTE Thanks

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09-05-09, 01:16 AM	#7
johan851 Insatiably Malcontent Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Seattle, WA	Ok, it seems mine was due to a setting in the BIOS - "PCI memory remap", or something like that. Toggling it made the board report the correct amount of memory. Not sure what's going on there. __________________ ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 \| 2500K @ 4.6GHz \| 2x4GB Samsung DDR3 \| GTX460 768mb 120GB Crucial M4 \| 2x 2TB Samsung F4 \| Seasonic S12 600w AV-710 --> y2 DAC --> Custom M^3 --> Custom LM3875 ChipAmp --> Modula MTs Dual Dell 2007WFP \| Watercooled
	QUOTE Thanks

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