Vista problem

[bharatwaja]

I have 6 GB of RAM installed. System properties says 6.0GB installed, but
actually only 5374 MB ram is available to Windows....

Checked using Start-> type winver in search and press enter.... in the
bottom it shows 5,503,160KB available to windows.

I am using vista ultimate x64, Memory hole remap is enabled in the BIOS.
BIOS shows 6144 MB during post. Memtest 86 also recognizes 6144 MB and tests
all of it.

My board is Maximus formula, CPU - Core 2 Extreme QX9650, 6 GB RAM
installed, 8800GT 512 MB PCI E card.

More info....

under HKLM in registry->hardware->resource map->system resources->physical
memory, I checked the address range of the instaled memory, it is as follows

PHYSICAL ADDRESS
START 0x100000 Length: CFE80000
Start: 0x0000000100000000 Length: 80000000

These are HEX values, open calculator, in scientific mode, select HEX enter
CFE80000 and add 80000000 and then press DEC.... now divide by 1024 twice...
u will get the amount of RAM that is mapped in MB. it shows 5374.5 MB.

DEP is enabled, Memory Remap feature is enabled in BIOS.
I tried manually editing the Registry values for devices, jus adding
FFFFFFFF to the value in Binary, which will make the values 00000001xxxxxxxx
so that Devices are mapped from 8.0 GB and downwards, but when I restarted,
all the settings turned back to original values in registry too. I am not
able to remap the resources using device manager, on the resources TAP even
after enabling PCIPnP OS.

Why this problem in Vista? I am using SP1.
I jus dont want my OS to show 6 GB RAM but use jus 5374 MB as it is
happening now.

What is the problem here? with x64 too? and all my hardware is x64 Compatible.

Got any solutions or even Ideas to try?

 

[postmortemIA]

do you need that 0.5GB really bad?

 

[bharatwaja]

No. that 0.5 GB doesnt matter to me.
What matters is why?
I am more interested in finding out why this happens and how to remedy it, not that the 0.5 GB would affect me, except of course psychologically... I cant seem to sleep without finding a solution to this. call me crazy, but finding such things and solving them is kinda like a hobby!

So, any Ideas??

How come much people dont reply to such intriguing posts?
Its not that one has to be right, jus a brainstorming session (kinda like that) has often given rise to many wonderful advances in science....

Come on ppl.... reply more, whatever that comes to ur mind.... doesnt hurt to be wrong.... no one cares....

 

[Rubycon]

You have two 2GB DIMMS and two 1GB DIMMS right?

What happens if you replace the 1GB DIMMS with 2GB DIMMS? (Total of 8192MB)

With your settings you should definitely see all the memory. I don't recall a memory hole feature on this BIOS. Memory remap feature is the only one that needs to be enabled. If I turn it off on my P5EWS Pro, I lose 0.75GB. (both seen on POST info and Windows)

 

[bharatwaja]

I would still lose memory if i replaced the 1 GB with 2 GB mainly cause the board can address only upto 8 GB of ram, so do most desktop boards, even the P5EWS pro....
so if u have 8 GB of RAM, then subtract some address space for the devices like gfx cards, etc etc from 8 and that is jus how much mem u will have.

But since I have only 6 GB, and also by my previous post, regarding the registry entries and resources tab in device manager in vista, it is clear that the addresses for device has not been mapped above the 4 GB boundary. its a software issue, probably with vista, as Memtest tests all 6 GB of ram.

And also, openSUSE 10.3 was able to use all the RAM, 6144 MB of it, before I installed vista and I scrapped openSUSE. Vista can see only 5374 and the addresses are not mapped properly which is eating up on my actual ram.

 

[Rubycon]

I'm using a P5EWS Pro with 8GB and Vista x64 sees all 8GB.
Ditto for XP x64.

 

[bharatwaja]

I just found out why I got such a problem.... well, here is the solution for ppl like me out there (if at all)

As soon as i assembled the system, I installed XP first, which didnt work well with Memory remap turned on, so i turned it off... then when installing vista x64 i forgot to turn it on. but later on after installing vista x64 i turned it on, so i got this error... after a clean install of vista x64 with remap feature turned on, i checked in "winver" and I could see that the OS is indeed seeing and using all 6 GB of RAM.

Hope this helps some ppl out, who were baffled jus like me (or is it jus me who is so "common sense-less"??)