4GB RAM, only 3 show up in WinXP SP2

[Mark Levy]

Hi all,

I've just installed a new system with Windows XP SP2. I'm planning on using
this system as a VMWare host, so I need to get as much RAM into the system
as possible.

I purposely bought a system board that can take 4GB of RAM (and I checked to
make sure that WinXP will support 4GB as well).

The board is an Asus A8V Deluxe, with 4GB RAM, and an AMD Athalon 64 3500+
processor. While POST finds all 4GB of RAM, when I open the "General Tab"
from System Properties, it shows the processor, 3.00GB of RAM, "Physical
Address Extension." From within the "Performance" tab of Task Manager, it
shows a total physical memory of 3144932KB.

The system board documentation mentions that if you don't remap reserved
memory (for on-board devices) above 4GB, you will have reduced RAM
available, but I did that in the BIOS.

I can't find anything through google or in the MS knowledgebase. Any advice
would be very much appreciated.

Thanks,

Mark

[Ron Martell]

"Mark Levy" > wrote:

>Hi all,
>
>I've just installed a new system with Windows XP SP2. I'm planning on using
>this system as a VMWare host, so I need to get as much RAM into the system
>as possible.
>
>I purposely bought a system board that can take 4GB of RAM (and I checked to
>make sure that WinXP will support 4GB as well).
>
>The board is an Asus A8V Deluxe, with 4GB RAM, and an AMD Athalon 64 3500+
>processor. While POST finds all 4GB of RAM, when I open the "General Tab"
>from System Properties, it shows the processor, 3.00GB of RAM, "Physical
>Address Extension." From within the "Performance" tab of Task Manager, it
>shows a total physical memory of 3144932KB.
>
>The system board documentation mentions that if you don't remap reserved
>memory (for on-board devices) above 4GB, you will have reduced RAM
>available, but I did that in the BIOS.
>
>I can't find anything through google or in the MS knowledgebase. Any advice
>would be very much appreciated.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Mark
>

Use Start - Run - MSCONFIG, go to the BOOT.INI tab and click on the
Advanced Options button. Make certain that the checkbox for the
/MAXMEM= line is clear and that there is no value in the data box for
that line. Click on Apply and OK as needed to exit.

If you made any changes reboot the computer to put these changes into
effect.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm

[Jerry]

See KB article 316739 on adding the switch /3GB to the boot.ini file.

"Mark Levy" > wrote in message
...
> Hi all,
>
> I've just installed a new system with Windows XP SP2. I'm planning on
> using
> this system as a VMWare host, so I need to get as much RAM into the system
> as possible.
>
> I purposely bought a system board that can take 4GB of RAM (and I checked
> to
> make sure that WinXP will support 4GB as well).
>
> The board is an Asus A8V Deluxe, with 4GB RAM, and an AMD Athalon 64 3500+
> processor. While POST finds all 4GB of RAM, when I open the "General Tab"
> from System Properties, it shows the processor, 3.00GB of RAM, "Physical
> Address Extension." From within the "Performance" tab of Task Manager,
> it
> shows a total physical memory of 3144932KB.
>
> The system board documentation mentions that if you don't remap reserved
> memory (for on-board devices) above 4GB, you will have reduced RAM
> available, but I did that in the BIOS.
>
> I can't find anything through google or in the MS knowledgebase. Any
> advice
> would be very much appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mark
>
>

[Jetro]

This motherboard supports no more than 4GB of RAM and you don't need neither
memory remap nor additional boot.ini switches kinda /3GB and /PAE which are
not relevant in your situation.

Original manual has nothing to say, but similar manual of A8V-E explains
that "Due to chipset resource allocation, the system may detect less than 4
GB of system memory when you installed four 1 GB DDR memory modules."
VIA chipsets aren't alone. The same effect inheres in Intel motherboards and
others. Try VIA 4-in-1 drivers.

[Mark Levy]

Damn... I really need that memory for some work I'll be doing using virtual
machines.

I've got a system with 3GB of RAM, and it's constantly running out of
memory. I bought this motherboard specifically to be able to use 4GB of
RAM.

I did install the latest VIA 4in1 drivers that I saw on the ASUS web site.
"May detect less than 4 GB..." Nice! Why don't they just say, "This
motherboard will only support 3GB of RAM when you waste your money on 4GB!

I guess I need to get on the vendor that sold it to me, as well as trying to
get someone at ASUS for some help.

Thanks,

Mark




"Jetro" > wrote in message
...
> This motherboard supports no more than 4GB of RAM and you don't need
neither
> memory remap nor additional boot.ini switches kinda /3GB and /PAE which
are
> not relevant in your situation.
>
> Original manual has nothing to say, but similar manual of A8V-E explains
> that "Due to chipset resource allocation, the system may detect less than
4
> GB of system memory when you installed four 1 GB DDR memory modules."
> VIA chipsets aren't alone. The same effect inheres in Intel motherboards
and
> others. Try VIA 4-in-1 drivers.
>
>

[Mark Levy]

Thanks for the reply, but it was already set that way.

Thanks,

Mark


"Ron Martell" > wrote in message
...
> Use Start - Run - MSCONFIG, go to the BOOT.INI tab and click on the
> Advanced Options button. Make certain that the checkbox for the
> /MAXMEM= line is clear and that there is no value in the data box for
> that line. Click on Apply and OK as needed to exit.
>
> If you made any changes reboot the computer to put these changes into
> effect.
>
> Good luck
>
>
> Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
> --
> Microsoft MVP
> On-Line Help Computer Service
> http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
>
> In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
> http://aumha.org/alex.htm

[Mark Levy]

Do you know if this is a HW problem with all versions of Windows, or is this
just a problem with WinXP?

I guess I could load Win2K server or Win2k3 server if it will allow me to
access the additional RAM, although there will be more memory being used for
services that I won't be using...

I suppose another option might be to try using Linux for the host OS, but I
would really rather not, plus I'd have to buy a new version of VMware, and
would not be able to use VirtualPC at all.

Thanks,

Mark


"Jetro" > wrote in message
...
> This motherboard supports no more than 4GB of RAM and you don't need
neither
> memory remap nor additional boot.ini switches kinda /3GB and /PAE which
are
> not relevant in your situation.
>
> Original manual has nothing to say, but similar manual of A8V-E explains
> that "Due to chipset resource allocation, the system may detect less than
4
> GB of system memory when you installed four 1 GB DDR memory modules."
> VIA chipsets aren't alone. The same effect inheres in Intel motherboards
and
> others. Try VIA 4-in-1 drivers.
>
>

[Jetro]

I re-read the manual and found out that "When all four sockets are populated
with 1GB DIMMs (total 4GB), the system may detect only 3+GB due to the
Southbridge resource allocation". Weird, huh? Why only 4GB has an effect?
Because the reason is far from South Bridge:

1. Having all 4 slots populated CPU will automatically get RAM down to
DDR333.
2. Processor can recognize four unbuffered DIMMs but 6 sides of memory (3
per memory controller channel) of double-sided memory modules only. No
problem with single-sided modules.

Blame on AMD.

[Bob I]

Since the limitation is plainly stated, the problem is with the operator.

Jetro wrote:

> I re-read the manual and found out that "When all four sockets are populated
> with 1GB DIMMs (total 4GB), the system may detect only 3+GB due to the
> Southbridge resource allocation". Weird, huh? Why only 4GB has an effect?
> Because the reason is far from South Bridge:
>
> 1. Having all 4 slots populated CPU will automatically get RAM down to
> DDR333.
> 2. Processor can recognize four unbuffered DIMMs but 6 sides of memory (3
> per memory controller channel) of double-sided memory modules only. No
> problem with single-sided modules.
>
> Blame on AMD.
>

[Jetro]

LOL

[Mark Levy]

Jetro wrote:
> I re-read the manual and found out that "When all four sockets are populated
> with 1GB DIMMs (total 4GB), the system may detect only 3+GB due to the
> Southbridge resource allocation". Weird, huh? Why only 4GB has an effect?
> Because the reason is far from South Bridge:
>
> 1. Having all 4 slots populated CPU will automatically get RAM down to
> DDR333.
> 2. Processor can recognize four unbuffered DIMMs but 6 sides of memory (3
> per memory controller channel) of double-sided memory modules only. No
> problem with single-sided modules.
>
> Blame on AMD.
>

This is the first chance that I've had to play around with the system
for a few days. Here are my observations.

When I had the remapping of the RAM enabled, while the memory was
counted during the POST, when I paused the system at the hardware
summary screen, just before boot, I noticed that it only recognized 3GB
of extended RAM. Again, while in Windows, System Information showed
only 3GB of RAM.

On a whim, I decided that I wanted to try disabling the remapping, and
the POST hw summary, now it did show 4GB of extended RAM. And in WinXP
System Information it now reports 3.68GB. It seems that when enabled,
the remapping maps the entire 4th GB of RAM over the 4GB boundery. In
addition to everything else, it looks like the system board that I was
sold is actually a v1 board, rather than v2, and I wonder if that's why
the 4th GB of RAM disappears.

I'm getting a bit peeved with the vendor who assured me that this would
be a system that would work with 4GB of RAM for my purposes.

Thanks,

Mark

[Clayton]

I had the same problem with an ASUS mb, I can't remember what model it was
but I put in 4X 512MB DDR400 and the board said it supports DDR400 but only
supported DDR333, after reading the manual it mentioned something about
single and doubled sided memory modules, maybe your modules are incorrect? I
find the Samsung memory is perfect for the ASUS motherboards



"Mark Levy" > wrote in message
...
> Jetro wrote:
>> I re-read the manual and found out that "When all four sockets are
>> populated with 1GB DIMMs (total 4GB), the system may detect only 3+GB due
>> to the Southbridge resource allocation". Weird, huh? Why only 4GB has an
>> effect? Because the reason is far from South Bridge:
>>
>> 1. Having all 4 slots populated CPU will automatically get RAM down to
>> DDR333.
>> 2. Processor can recognize four unbuffered DIMMs but 6 sides of memory (3
>> per memory controller channel) of double-sided memory modules only. No
>> problem with single-sided modules.
>>
>> Blame on AMD.
>>
>
> This is the first chance that I've had to play around with the system for
> a few days. Here are my observations.
>
> When I had the remapping of the RAM enabled, while the memory was counted
> during the POST, when I paused the system at the hardware summary screen,
> just before boot, I noticed that it only recognized 3GB of extended RAM.
> Again, while in Windows, System Information showed only 3GB of RAM.
>
> On a whim, I decided that I wanted to try disabling the remapping, and the
> POST hw summary, now it did show 4GB of extended RAM. And in WinXP System
> Information it now reports 3.68GB. It seems that when enabled, the
> remapping maps the entire 4th GB of RAM over the 4GB boundery. In
> addition to everything else, it looks like the system board that I was
> sold is actually a v1 board, rather than v2, and I wonder if that's why
> the 4th GB of RAM disappears.
>
> I'm getting a bit peeved with the vendor who assured me that this would be
> a system that would work with 4GB of RAM for my purposes.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mark