Missing ram?

[coxmaster]

Hopefully somebody has an explanation. Ive got 6GB of RAM. All of it was working, and all of a sudden it doesnt all show up under task manager. I am running 64 bit, so i know that it should all be usable.

Task manager shows 4861MB of total memory. However, CPUz shows all 4 slots filled. The Performance Information screen in vista also shows 6GB of RAM. Why would it not show in Task manager? Also, i can feel a slowdown in game loading times, probably due to the RAM. Any ideas?

Thanks guys

 

[Shmee]

hmm, specs? also, ram congfig? you say you have 4 slots, so I assume you have 2x2GB + 2x1GB. Also, can you check in BIOS to see what it says and what memory settings you have?

 

[aka1nas]

Originally posted by: coxmaster
Task manager shows 4861MB of total memory. However, CPUz shows all 4 slots filled. The Performance Information screen in vista also shows 6GB of RAM. Why would it not show in Task manager? Also, i can feel a slowdown in game loading times, probably due to the RAM. Any ideas?

Thanks guys

4.8GB isn't going to give you a slowdown due to lack of RAM, though if you are not running in dual channel that might do it. CPU-Z should be able to confirm if you are running in dual or single channel mode.

 

[coxmaster]

XFX 680i LT
Q6600 @3.6
8800GT

Running 2x2 OCZ Gold, 2x1 OCZ Platinum. Worked great until a few days ago, and yes.. there is a noticeable difference in loading map times. Not sure how to check dual channel mode. Bios has everything configured to how it used to be..

 

[taltamir]

please post a screenshot of task manager.

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

Have you tested each stick individually?

 

[coxmaster]

Here is the screenshot.. http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/8600/memap9.jpg

No, i havent tested each stick individually. Didnt think it was important since CPUz and windows both show 4 functioning sticks..

 

[Denithor]

Originally posted by: aka1nas

Originally posted by: coxmaster
Task manager shows 4861MB of total memory. However, CPUz shows all 4 slots filled. The Performance Information screen in vista also shows 6GB of RAM. Why would it not show in Task manager? Also, i can feel a slowdown in game loading times, probably due to the RAM. Any ideas?

Thanks guys

4.8GB isn't going to give you a slowdown due to lack of RAM, though if you are not running in dual channel that might do it. CPU-Z should be able to confirm if you are running in dual or single channel mode.

It could if one stick is malfunctioning...

Run memtest86 with all sticks installed (overnight). If there are any errors, test individually until you find the problem child. RMA it back to its parents.

 

[taltamir]

weird, my first bet was that you were reading it incorrectly, that is usually the case in "i dont show all the ram"... but it actually says 4.8GB...

I noticed you said its 4 slots and 6GB... i have not seen 1.5GB sticks before, so its... 2 sticks of 1GB and 2 sticks of 2 right? maybe one of the 1GB stick is not seated properly and is... wait no that doesn't make sense, if that was the case it would not show up on cpu z... i am gonna have to think about it.

 

[coxmaster]

Surprisingly im not stupid.. Yes i can read correctly lol. Seating isn't a problem either, haven't moved or touched anything inside the computer in around a month. I'll run memtest in a bit here

 

[jjzelinski]

I take it you still haven't tested your sticks individually? Also, don't discount the possibility of having a bad slot. This means that not only must you test all sticks (POST should be enough to simply determine how much RAM is being recognized, no need for MEMtest with that kind of failure) but you must also test each stick in each slot to be 100% sure. Just to save yourself some trouble, I think one of your 2GB is messed up based upon simple arithmetic. 1 GB ram = 102MB *6 = 6144MB - 4861MB = 1283MB missing; this is obviously more than your 1 GB sticks although there is the less probable possibility of both of your 1 GB sticks messing up simultaneously.

 

[taltamir]

I THINK I once (long long ago) saw a STICK (individual) that was defective in such a way that it showed less ram than it had... Some was simply not accessible. If the controller is flexible enough, if a ram chip goes then you loose some ram instead of everything not working...
CPUz will not show that because it communicates the controller on the stick to ask for its spec, its mostly database based too, so if it recognizes the model and pulls the data, it will obviously not be able to account for your part being a certain model yet now showing the full amount.

Try each stick individually and see how much ram windows sees with each stick by itself.

 

[taltamir]

If you do a little bit of math... chips of ram are measured in BITS not BYTES... typically a 1GB module will have 16 chips of 512Megabit or 8 chips of 1gigabit. And a 2GB module will have 16 chips of 1gigabit each.
1 gigabit divided by 8 = 128. Add 128 to your ram and you get 5GB total... So a single burned 1gigabit chip would account for that... oddness. another 8 for the other gig... so if 9 out of 16 chips on a single 2GB stick are down it will cause it show give the figure you are seeing.

 

[coxmaster]

Alright i'll test it out in a bit here, no school so i have nothing better to do. Going to try each stick of ram in each slot. Might be a pain because of my cooler size but oh well. I gotta know which one isnt working. Results to come in a bit

 

[jjzelinski]

Originally posted by: taltamir
chips of ram are measured in BITS not BYTES...

ahh no, that is not the conventional way of reporting RAM. Bus speed, yes; not capacity. Sure, you can use bits if you really want to but it is not conventional and doesn't do much for the troubleshooting process.

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: jjzelinski

Originally posted by: taltamir
chips of ram are measured in BITS not BYTES...

ahh no, that is not the conventional way of reporting RAM. Bus speed, yes; not capacity. Sure, you can use bits if you really want to but it is not conventional and doesn't do much for the troubleshooting process.

i never said they were REPORTED in bits, in fact I calculated that they are reported IN BYTES.

Take a ram Bank/Module/stick, it will have either 8 or 16 CHIPS on it. (one or two sides). the capacity of those is measured in bits when sold to the manufacturer. since a byte is 8 bits it works out nicely... 8 x 1gigabit chips = 1 gigaBYTE stick. The user only sees the size on a per MODULE amount... but if he has a 2GB module (16 x 1 gigabit chips) with 9 out of the 16 chips not working it will show up as the figure that he is seeing.

most likely one of the following is true:
1. A ram stick is defective
2. the mobo is defective
3. the mobo's bios has some incompatibility that has surfaced.

 

[n7]

Something's definitely gone funny.

So you say it was detecting all 6144 MB in Windows before, but now it's suddenly disappeared?

What does it show in the BIOS?

Have you reset CMOS?

And yes, you need to start testing the DIMMs separately...maybe bad slot or RAM, though the amount shown doesn't make sense for that

 

[coxmaster]

most likely one of the following is true:
1. A ram stick is defective
2. the mobo is defective
3. the mobo's bios has some incompatibility that has surfaced.

1- Possible, im going to test.
2- Wouldnt be surprised.. there are TONS of problems with the 680i LT.
3- Tried 2 versions, not working in either. Used to work though...

Yes. All 6GB was working for a few months now. I even had all 6GB working in Win7. Then for some reason neither one can see all of it. CMOS has been reset many times, nothing works. Even updated BIOS (needed done anyway) and still didnt fix it.

 

[n7]

nFarce chipset.
That about sums it all up IMHO.

But i hope you get it figured out, & let us know what it was...

 

[taltamir]

i always found the nforce to be really solid chipset. then again, my last one was nforce 5...

 

[coxmaster]

I have only had 1 problem with nforce so far.. XFX quickly replaced my old 680i LT with the one i have now. Honestly, im hoping for a bum board.. I'll send it to them and get back something newever/better since they dont have any 680i LTs anymore.

 

[coxmaster]

Just an update.. havent physically tested yet but i played with some things in BIOS. It wasn't the slight overclock, or the tighter than normal timings causing the issue. And the Nvidia memory test (Probably not the best) shows that all the memory passes.

Wouldnt it make sense that if bios and the test can read all my ram its not the ram or the mobo causing the problem?

 

[coxmaster]

Tested finally.. Now im even more confused. I tested each 1GB stick, one at a time, in each slot. Worked fine. Did the same with each 2GB stick.. worked fine. Combined 2x2 and 2x1+2 to get 4GB multiple ways.. Still working fine with all RAM reported.

I tried literally, every combination of each stick in each slot. I even tried not running dual channel and it all worked. Until i put in all 4 sticks. Now it again, only shows 4861. So, the RAM isnt the problem. The actual DIMM Slots arent the problem. Could it be a problem with the northbridge? Could it somehow break to set a "maximum" it can read?

I am as confused as everyone else now..

Edit: I tested each of these combinations in Vista 64 and Win7 x64

 

[hanspeter]

Do you have a memory remap in bios that has been flipped off (does the bios display something about installed vs usable)?

What about msconfig, has there been set a ram-limit?

 

[taltamir]

I tried literally, every combination of each stick in each slot. I even tried not running dual channel and it all worked. Until i put in all 4 sticks. Now it again, only shows 4861. So, the RAM isnt the problem. The actual DIMM Slots arent the problem. Could it be a problem with the northbridge? Could it somehow break to set a "maximum" it can read?

I am as confused as everyone else now..

Sounds like a mobo issue... and it used to work and now doesn't... send an email to the mobo manufacturer, if the individual sticks are working by themselves and not together, and they used to, then it couldn't be a ram limit since it worked before. Your mobo broke.