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#31
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Windows 10 Home PC 32 GB RAM but only 16 GB available to Windows (Dell Precision T7400, upgraded from Win 7 Home)
NY wrote:
I'll boot the PC into its BIOS tomorrow and make a note of any version number. I'm almost certain that it is branded "Dell". The User's Guide says (page 79): "Virtualization (Off default) Specifies whether a virtual machine monitor (VMM) can utilize the additional hardware capabilities provided by Intel Virtualization technology." The manual is dated August 2007. Looks like you PC has a Xeon processor. I didn't look at all of them to check if all models and versions of the Xeon processor support the VT-x virtualization mode. I looked only at the latest model and it does. https://www.intel.com/content/www/us...rocessors.html Supposedly that leads you to information on whether or not your processor supports virtualization. Just enabling an option in BIOS won't make a feature appear in the processor that it doesn't have. Could be old versions of Xeons did not support VT-x and why the option was disabled in the BIOS, by default. https://www.intel.com/content/www/us...r-numbers.html That shows how to interpret the processor's number to a family model line; however, the only entry on that Microsoft page is for the mobile versions of the Xeon, and you have a desktop. You could use Piriform's Speccy to get info on the CPU. It doesn't list the model number but gives the processor title and its code name which might focus in on finding the specs for your particular CPU. For my CPU, it reports "Virtualization: Supported, Disabled". I have a salvaged Acer PC with almost no user configuration in its BIOS, so that box was designed to not support VT-x no matter what CPU was put in the mobo's CPU socket. I look again later but remember checking before in the BIOS if there was a virtualization setting that I could enable but didn't find one. I also have the CPU-z tool. It says my CPU (Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 Yorkfield) does support VT-x instructions. However, since there is no BIOS support for it, I can't use it. This is an example of where I noted that the BIOS may not yet support all the functionality of the hardware. A later BIOS update may add that support. For me, there haven't been any BIOS updates since 2009 for my PC and I'm on the latest BIOS version that Acer ever released for this PC. Since your BIOS does have a VT-x setting, next is to determine if your processor supports it. Instead of delving into Microsoft online documents trying to dig up data that says whether or not VT-x is supported by your CPU, just use Speccy or CPU-z or both. Support must be present in *both* the BIOS and the CPU. Also, both Speccy and CPU-z will show motherboard/mainboard information, like the BIOS brand and version (in case the POST screen disappears so fast that you cannot read the line showing BIOS brand and version). I use Avast free. Under its Troubleshooting settings is "Use hardware- assisted virtualization" (and a sub-option "Use nested virtualization where possible"). Presumably this is to help with isolating Avast's NG component (deepscreen, sandbox, and safezone); however, the feature is minimal in the freeware version and it's in the payware version where you really get a sandbox for unknown processes to get tested, so I don't know why the option appears in the freeware version. https://malwaretips.com/threads/avas...40/post-281750 While my CPU supports virtualization instructions, my BIOS does not, so this option is neutered in Avast. There have been bugs with this feature in Avast where users (where both BIOS and CPU support virtualization) reported that HAV (hardware-assisted virtualization) was disabled when Avast had this option enabled, so disabling this option allowed virtual machines to work again because Avast was no longer interferring with HAV. I probably never ran into Avast's HAV interference: its HAV option is enabled, my CPU supports HAV, but my BIOS doesn't so I don't get to use HAV on my home PC. |
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#32
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Windows 10 Home PC 32 GB RAM but only 16 GB available to Windows (Dell Precision T7400, upgraded from Win 7 Home)
VanguardLH wrote:
NY wrote: I'll boot the PC into its BIOS tomorrow and make a note of any version number. I'm almost certain that it is branded "Dell". The User's Guide says (page 79): "Virtualization (Off default) Specifies whether a virtual machine monitor (VMM) can utilize the additional hardware capabilities provided by Intel Virtualization technology." The manual is dated August 2007. Looks like you PC has a Xeon processor. I didn't look at all of them to check if all models and versions of the Xeon processor support the VT-x virtualization mode. I looked only at the latest model and it does. https://www.intel.com/content/www/us...rocessors.html Supposedly that leads you to information on whether or not your processor supports virtualization. Just enabling an option in BIOS won't make a feature appear in the processor that it doesn't have. Could be old versions of Xeons did not support VT-x and why the option was disabled in the BIOS, by default. https://www.intel.com/content/www/us...r-numbers.html That shows how to interpret the processor's number to a family model line; however, the only entry on that Microsoft page is for the mobile versions of the Xeon, and you have a desktop. You could use Piriform's Speccy to get info on the CPU. It doesn't list the model number but gives the processor title and its code name which might focus in on finding the specs for your particular CPU. For my CPU, it reports "Virtualization: Supported, Disabled". I have a salvaged Acer PC with almost no user configuration in its BIOS, so that box was designed to not support VT-x no matter what CPU was put in the mobo's CPU socket. I look again later but remember checking before in the BIOS if there was a virtualization setting that I could enable but didn't find one. I also have the CPU-z tool. It says my CPU (Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 Yorkfield) does support VT-x instructions. However, since there is no BIOS support for it, I can't use it. This is an example of where I noted that the BIOS may not yet support all the functionality of the hardware. A later BIOS update may add that support. For me, there haven't been any BIOS updates since 2009 for my PC and I'm on the latest BIOS version that Acer ever released for this PC. Since your BIOS does have a VT-x setting, next is to determine if your processor supports it. Instead of delving into Microsoft online documents trying to dig up data that says whether or not VT-x is supported by your CPU, just use Speccy or CPU-z or both. Support must be present in *both* the BIOS and the CPU. Also, both Speccy and CPU-z will show motherboard/mainboard information, like the BIOS brand and version (in case the POST screen disappears so fast that you cannot read the line showing BIOS brand and version). I use Avast free. Under its Troubleshooting settings is "Use hardware- assisted virtualization" (and a sub-option "Use nested virtualization where possible"). Presumably this is to help with isolating Avast's NG component (deepscreen, sandbox, and safezone); however, the feature is minimal in the freeware version and it's in the payware version where you really get a sandbox for unknown processes to get tested, so I don't know why the option appears in the freeware version. https://malwaretips.com/threads/avas...40/post-281750 While my CPU supports virtualization instructions, my BIOS does not, so this option is neutered in Avast. There have been bugs with this feature in Avast where users (where both BIOS and CPU support virtualization) reported that HAV (hardware-assisted virtualization) was disabled when Avast had this option enabled, so disabling this option allowed virtual machines to work again because Avast was no longer interferring with HAV. I probably never ran into Avast's HAV interference: its HAV option is enabled, my CPU supports HAV, but my BIOS doesn't so I don't get to use HAV on my home PC. Oh, it's not just virtuals machines (VMWare Player, VirtualBox) where compounding the virtualization layers by enabling the one in Avast causes problems. See: https://support.bluestacks.com/hc/en...acks-run-slow- Anything that uses HAV can get screwed by Avast's NG. If you're using VMs to test unknown or untrusted software, you don't need Avast's HAV support. Nesting is supposed to help but users still report problems with Avast's NG component. Although Avast's HAV option is enabled (by default) in my setup of it, and despite that HAV is not available on my PC because the BIOS doesn't support it, I'll probably disable Avast's HAV in case I migrate my setup to a new box where the BIOS does support HAV. There should only be one hypervisor running on the OS. Avast should stop using their own and implement the one included in Windows 10, similar to how backup programs use VSS supplied by Microsoft and included in Windows rather than roll their own solution. Of course, to be ubiquitous across all editions of Windows 10, Microsoft would need to add Hyper-V to the Home edition. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/vir...-v-on-windows/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypervisor |
#33
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Windows 10 Home PC 32 GB RAM but only 16 GB available to Windows (Dell Precision T7400, upgraded from Win 7 Home)
"VanguardLH" wrote in message
... NY wrote: I'll boot the PC into its BIOS tomorrow and make a note of any version number. I'm almost certain that it is branded "Dell". The User's Guide says (page 79): "Virtualization (Off default) Specifies whether a virtual machine monitor (VMM) can utilize the additional hardware capabilities provided by Intel Virtualization technology." The manual is dated August 2007. You could use Piriform's Speccy to get info on the CPU. It doesn't list the model number but gives the processor title and its code name which might focus in on finding the specs for your particular CPU. The summary page for Speccy says: Operating System Windows 10 Home 64-bit CPU Intel Xeon E5420 @ 2.50GHz 48 °C Harpertown 45nm Technology RAM 36.0GB FB-DDR2 @ 332MHz (5-5-5-15) Motherboard Dell Inc. 0RW199 (CPU) Graphics DELL 2707WFP (1920x1200@59Hz) 512MB NVIDIA Quadro FX 1700 (NVIDIA) 50 °C Storage 298GB ATA SAMSUNG HD321KJ SCSI Disk Device (SATA ) 25 °C 298GB ATA SAMSUNG HD321KJ SCSI Disk Device (SATA ) 23 °C 698GB ATA Hitachi HDS72107 SCSI Disk Device (SATA ) 30 °C Optical Drives HL-DT-ST DVD+-RW GSA-H73N TSSTcorp DVD-ROM TS-H353B Audio High Definition Audio Device The CPU/motherboard/RAM sections say CPU Intel Xeon E5420 Cores 4 Threads 4 Name Intel Xeon E5420 Code Name Harpertown Package Socket 771 LGA Technology 45nm Specification Intel Xeon CPU E5420 @ 2.50GHz Family 6 Extended Family 6 Model 7 Extended Model 17 Stepping 6 Revision C0 Instructions MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, Intel 64, NX, VMX Virtualization Supported, Enabled Hyperthreading Not supported Rated Bus Speed 1330.0 MHz Stock Core Speed 2500 MHz Stock Bus Speed 333 MHz Average Temperature 48 °C RAM Memory slots Total memory slots 16 Used memory slots 8 Free memory slots 8 Memory Type FB-DDR2 Size 36864 MBytes DRAM Frequency 332.5 MHz CAS# Latency (CL) 5 clocks RAS# to CAS# Delay (tRCD) 5 clocks RAS# Precharge (tRP) 5 clocks Cycle Time (tRAS) 15 clocks Bank Cycle Time (tRC) 20 clocks Physical Memory Memory Usage 6 % Total Physical 36 GB Available Physical 34 GB Total Virtual 71 GB Available Virtual 69 GB SPD Number Of SPD Modules 8 Slot #1 Type FB-DDR2 Size 8192 MBytes Manufacturer Samsung Max Bandwidth PC2-5300 (333 MHz) Serial Number 1131222199 Week/year 08 / 09 Timing table JEDEC #1 Frequency 333.3 MHz CAS# Latency 5.0 RAS# To CAS# 5 RAS# Precharge 5 tRAS 15 tRC 20 Slot #2 Type FB-DDR2 Size 1024 MBytes Manufacturer Samsung Max Bandwidth PC2-5300 (333 MHz) Serial Number 672734829 Week/year 07 / 08 Timing table JEDEC #1 Frequency 333.3 MHz CAS# Latency 5.0 RAS# To CAS# 5 RAS# Precharge 5 tRAS 15 tRC 20 Slot #3 Type FB-DDR2 Size 8192 MBytes Manufacturer Samsung Max Bandwidth PC2-5300 (333 MHz) Serial Number 1131230371 Week/year 08 / 09 Timing table JEDEC #1 Frequency 333.3 MHz CAS# Latency 5.0 RAS# To CAS# 5 RAS# Precharge 5 tRAS 15 tRC 20 Slot #4 Type FB-DDR2 Size 1024 MBytes Manufacturer Samsung Max Bandwidth PC2-5300 (333 MHz) Serial Number 672734982 Week/year 07 / 08 Timing table JEDEC #1 Frequency 333.3 MHz CAS# Latency 5.0 RAS# To CAS# 5 RAS# Precharge 5 tRAS 15 tRC 20 Slot #5 Type FB-DDR2 Size 8192 MBytes Manufacturer Samsung Max Bandwidth PC2-5300 (333 MHz) Serial Number 1165052533 Week/year 26 / 09 Timing table JEDEC #1 Frequency 333.3 MHz CAS# Latency 5.0 RAS# To CAS# 5 RAS# Precharge 5 tRAS 15 tRC 20 Slot #6 Type FB-DDR2 Size 1024 MBytes Manufacturer Samsung Max Bandwidth PC2-5300 (333 MHz) Serial Number 672734971 Week/year 07 / 08 Timing table JEDEC #1 Frequency 333.3 MHz CAS# Latency 5.0 RAS# To CAS# 5 RAS# Precharge 5 tRAS 15 tRC 20 Slot #7 Type FB-DDR2 Size 8192 MBytes Manufacturer Samsung Max Bandwidth PC2-5300 (333 MHz) Serial Number 1165050791 Week/year 26 / 09 Timing table JEDEC #1 Frequency 333.3 MHz CAS# Latency 5.0 RAS# To CAS# 5 RAS# Precharge 5 tRAS 15 tRC 20 Slot #8 Type FB-DDR2 Size 1024 MBytes Manufacturer Samsung Max Bandwidth PC2-5300 (333 MHz) Serial Number 672734983 Week/year 07 / 08 Timing table JEDEC #1 Frequency 333.3 MHz CAS# Latency 5.0 RAS# To CAS# 5 RAS# Precharge 5 tRAS 15 tRC 20 Motherboard Manufacturer Dell Inc. Model 0RW199 (CPU) Chipset Vendor Intel Chipset Model 5400B Chipset Revision C0 Southbridge Vendor Intel Southbridge Model 6321ESB Southbridge Revision 09 BIOS Brand Dell Inc. Version A01 Date 31/01/2008 PCI Data Slot PCI-E Slot Type PCI-E Slot Usage Available Data lanes x4 Slot Designation SLOT1 Characteristics 3.3V, PME Slot Number 0 Slot PCI-E Slot Type PCI-E Slot Usage In Use Data lanes x16 Slot Designation SLOT2 Characteristics 3.3V, PME Slot Number 1 Slot PCI Slot Type PCI Slot Usage Available Bus Width 32 bit Slot Designation SLOT3 Characteristics 5V, 3.3V, PME Slot Number 2 Slot PCI-E Slot Type PCI-E Slot Usage Available Data lanes x16 Slot Designation SLOT4 Characteristics 3.3V, PME Slot Number 3 Slot PCI-X Slot Type PCI-X Slot Usage Available Bus Width 64 bit Slot Designation SLOT5 Characteristics 3.3V, PME Slot Number 4 Slot PCI-X Slot Type PCI-X Slot Usage Available Bus Width 64 bit Slot Designation SLOT6 Characteristics 3.3V, PME Slot Number 5 Slot PCI-X Slot Type PCI-X Slot Usage Available Bus Width 64 bit Slot Designation SLOT7 Characteristics 3.3V, PME Slot Number 6 So virtualisation is supported and enabled. CPU-Z says: Socket 1 ID = 0 Number of cores 4 (max 4) Number of threads 4 (max 4) Name Intel Xeon E5420 Codename Harpertown Specification Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5420 @ 2.50GHz Package (platform ID) Socket 771 LGA (0x6) CPUID 6.7.6 Extended CPUID 6.17 Core Stepping C0 Technology 45 nm Core Speed 2493.5 MHz Multiplier x Bus Speed 7.5 x 332.5 MHz Base frequency (cores) 332.5 MHz Base frequency (ext.) 332.5 MHz Rated Bus speed 1329.9 MHz Stock frequency 2500 MHz Instructions sets MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, EM64T, VT-x Microcode Revision 0x60F L1 Data cache 4 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size L1 Instruction cache 4 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size L2 cache 2 x 6144 KBytes, 24-way set associative, 64-byte line size Max CPUID level 0000000Ah Max CPUID ext. level 80000008h Cache descriptor Level 1, D, 32 KB, 1 thread(s) Cache descriptor Level 1, I, 32 KB, 1 thread(s) Cache descriptor Level 2, U, 6 MB, 2 thread(s) FID/VID Control yes FID range 6.0x - 7.5x Max VID 1.200 V IBRS not supported IBPB not supported STIBP not supported RDCL_NO no IBRS_ALL not supported Temperature 0 51 degC (123 degF) (Core #0) Temperature 1 47 degC (116 degF) (Core #1) Temperature 2 45 degC (113 degF) (Core #2) Temperature 3 53 degC (127 degF) (Core #3) Clock Speed 0 2493.51 MHz (Core #0) Clock Speed 1 2493.51 MHz (Core #1) Clock Speed 2 2493.51 MHz (Core #2) Clock Speed 3 2493.51 MHz (Core #3) Core 0 max ratio (effective) 7.5 Core 1 max ratio (effective) 7.5 Core 2 max ratio (effective) 7.5 Core 3 max ratio (effective) 7.5 and BIOS ------------------------------------------------------------------------- UEFI No Chipset ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Northbridge Intel 5400B rev. C0 Southbridge Intel 6321ESB rev. 09 Graphic Interface PCI-Express PCI-E Link Width x16 PCI-E Max Link Width x16 Memory Type FB-DDR2 Memory Size 36 GBytes Memory Frequency 332.5 MHz (1:1) CAS# latency (CL) 5.0 RAS# to CAS# delay (tRCD) 5 RAS# Precharge (tRP) 5 Cycle Time (tRAS) 15 Bank Cycle Time (tRC) 20 DMI BIOS vendor Dell Inc. version A01 date 01/31/2008 ROM size 1024 KB DMI System Information manufacturer Dell Inc. product Precision WorkStation T7400 version unknown serial xxxx UUID xxxxxx SKU unknown family unknown DMI Baseboard vendor Dell Inc. model 0RW199 revision unknown serial xxxxxx So Dell BIOS version A01 31 Jan 2008. |
#34
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Windows 10 Home PC 32 GB RAM but only 16 GB available to Windows (Dell Precision T7400, upgraded from Win 7 Home)
NY wrote:
CPU Intel Xeon E5420 Virtualization Supported, Enabled So virtualisation is supported and enabled. Yep, enabled in both the BIOS (after you changed it from disabled) and supported by the CPU. I still don't know why that would affect the "hardware reserved" value on system RAM available. CPU-Z says: Socket 1 ID = 0 Instructions sets MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, EM64T, VT-x VT-x is the instruction set for virtualization support. BIOS DMI BIOS vendor Dell Inc. version A01 date 01/31/2008 So Dell BIOS version A01 31 Jan 2008. Hmm, the page to which I linked said the latest BIOS version was A11. Again, that download page at Dell that I found is: https://www.dell.com/support/home/us...t7400/diagnose The A11 BIOS update was the 3rd down in the blue hyperlinked list. I didn't bother selecting an OS because: (1) The OS is irrelevant when looking a the BIOS; and, (2) Windows 10 isn't listed as supported for the OS-specific downloads. The hyperlink to the A11 download points to: https://www.dell.com/support/home/us...recision-t7400 Release Date: 28 Jun 2012 That's a BIOS version over 4 years later than what you have now. Since you got the memory all available, I wouldn't bother doing a BIOS update now. Just consider it something you might want to do later but only if the desktop PC is attached to a UPS. If it were me, I'd do some research to see if Dell's BIOS updater will offer to save the current BIOS code into a .bin file both as a backup and in case the new BIOS has problems, so I'd have an escape route to get back to what was there before. To me, that enabling the virtualization option in the BIOS then released the hardware (BIOS) reserved memory indicates something screwed up in the old BIOS code. Dell doesn't list every BIOS version from your A01 to their latest A11 to see what changes were made in each to, for example, see when they might've discovered a memory allocation error with their virtualization code in BIOS - *if* that was the only setting you changed in the BIOS. Of course, making changes in the BIOS settings means copying the tables into the CMOS memory from where the settings are actually used which is why I suggested replacing the CMOS battery. If the CMOS is corrupted, there could be other BIOS settings in the CMOS copy that don't match the settings in the EEPROM for the BIOS. |
#35
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Windows 10 Home PC 32 GB RAM but only 16 GB available to Windows(Dell Precision T7400, upgraded from Win 7 Home)
NY wrote:
"VanguardLH" wrote in message ... NY wrote: I'll boot the PC into its BIOS tomorrow and make a note of any version number. I'm almost certain that it is branded "Dell". The User's Guide says (page 79): "Virtualization (Off default) Specifies whether a virtual machine monitor (VMM) can utilize the additional hardware capabilities provided by Intel Virtualization technology." The manual is dated August 2007. You could use Piriform's Speccy to get info on the CPU. It doesn't list the model number but gives the processor title and its code name which might focus in on finding the specs for your particular CPU. The summary page for Speccy says: DMI BIOS vendor Dell Inc. version A01 date 01/31/2008 ROM size 1024 KB So Dell BIOS version A01 31 Jan 2008. https://www.dell.com/support/home/us...driverid=1dt11 Dell Precision T7400 System BIOS, A02 Release date 04 Jun 2008 Added support for 8 GB memory DIMM. I went through the list by Googling, and that's the only incriminating evidence I could find. Maybe the BIOS probing sequence artificially stopped at the 4GB mark. You could test this "modus operandi" by briefly removing the virtualization check, and see whether the 36GB installed now, is cut in half to 18, or instead reports 20GB (16+4). If it reported 20GB, that would suggest only half of each 8GB DIMM is detected properly with the virtualization setting changed. Seeing 18GB would suggest some weird mirroring theory, seeing 20GB would be suggestive of a more palatable explanation. That A01 doesn't sense 8GB DIMMs correctly. 4+4+4+4+1+1+1+1 = 20GB. The BIOS checks the declaration ROM (SPD) first. It says 8GB. But the BIOS then uses the probe technique to measure the "actual" DIMM size - this is a legacy method used before computers had SPDs. And the legacy method is *excellent* insurance, as very few boxes tip over at BIOS level because of detection issues. The result at OS might not be optimal, but by the BIOS using the probing method, it "does the very best that it can". It never delivers more RAM than is actually there. You couldn't write better code than that. Paul |
#36
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Windows 10 Home PC 32 GB RAM but only 16 GB available to Windows (Dell Precision T7400, upgraded from Win 7 Home)
"VanguardLH" wrote in message
... The A11 BIOS update was the 3rd down in the blue hyperlinked list. I didn't bother selecting an OS because: (1) The OS is irrelevant when looking a the BIOS; and, (2) Windows 10 isn't listed as supported for the OS-specific downloads. The hyperlink to the A11 download points to: https://www.dell.com/support/home/us...recision-t7400 Release Date: 28 Jun 2012 That's a BIOS version over 4 years later than what you have now. Since you got the memory all available, I wouldn't bother doing a BIOS update now. Just consider it something you might want to do later but only if the desktop PC is attached to a UPS. If it were me, I'd do some research to see if Dell's BIOS updater will offer to save the current BIOS code into a .bin file both as a backup and in case the new BIOS has problems, so I'd have an escape route to get back to what was there before. I think now I've got the PC working to full spec, I'll leave well alone and quit while I'm ahead. I always have a fear of "bricking" a device that needs a BIOS/firmware update: it only takes a hiccup in the mains power to interrupt it half-way through, so you can't go forwards or backwards. Battery/mains devices can be powered from a battery, but that's not possible for a desktop PC. With all the cooling fans, and the amount of heat that needs those fans to dissipate it, a battery probably wouldn't last very long. Cautionary tale: when my wife bought the PC she also bought a 700 VA UPS. We never actually tested it at the time, but a year or so later we tried it to see how long its charge would last. The thing was totally clappped-out. The battery would not hold charge to power a 60 W light bulb for more than a couple of seconds. We really should have tested it when it was new, in case it was faulty and neede to be replaced under warranty, and then kept it charged and put it through a few discharge cycles. I believe that lead-acid batteries don't like being either permanently on charge (which this wasn't) or left totally discharged (which this was). I'm not sure how long a 700 VA UPS would keep a PC running. Hopefully long enough for it to undergo a graceful shutdown. |
#37
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Windows 10 Home PC 32 GB RAM but only 16 GB available to Windows (Dell Precision T7400, upgraded from Win 7 Home)
NY wrote:
"VanguardLH" wrote in message ... The A11 BIOS update was the 3rd down in the blue hyperlinked list. I didn't bother selecting an OS because: (1) The OS is irrelevant when looking a the BIOS; and, (2) Windows 10 isn't listed as supported for the OS-specific downloads. The hyperlink to the A11 download points to: https://www.dell.com/support/home/us...recision-t7400 Release Date: 28 Jun 2012 That's a BIOS version over 4 years later than what you have now. Since you got the memory all available, I wouldn't bother doing a BIOS update now. Just consider it something you might want to do later but only if the desktop PC is attached to a UPS. If it were me, I'd do some research to see if Dell's BIOS updater will offer to save the current BIOS code into a .bin file both as a backup and in case the new BIOS has problems, so I'd have an escape route to get back to what was there before. I think now I've got the PC working to full spec, I'll leave well alone and quit while I'm ahead. I always have a fear of "bricking" a device that needs a BIOS/firmware update: it only takes a hiccup in the mains power to interrupt it half-way through, so you can't go forwards or backwards. Battery/mains devices can be powered from a battery, but that's not possible for a desktop PC. With all the cooling fans, and the amount of heat that needs those fans to dissipate it, a battery probably wouldn't last very long. Cautionary tale: when my wife bought the PC she also bought a 700 VA UPS. We never actually tested it at the time, but a year or so later we tried it to see how long its charge would last. The thing was totally clappped-out. The battery would not hold charge to power a 60 W light bulb for more than a couple of seconds. We really should have tested it when it was new, in case it was faulty and neede to be replaced under warranty, and then kept it charged and put it through a few discharge cycles. I believe that lead-acid batteries don't like being either permanently on charge (which this wasn't) or left totally discharged (which this was). I'm not sure how long a 700 VA UPS would keep a PC running. Hopefully long enough for it to undergo a graceful shutdown. Even if the case is snapped together, I've been able to get apart any UPS so that I could replace the battery. I can then replace the battery with a new one. Although cheaper to replace the battery, the gel batteries in the so-called sealed units end up costing nearly half the cost of a replacement UPS. On the large units, like the 2 kVA one I used to have, the batteries were in a drawer that could be slid out of the case for replacement. Most UPSes come with software that communicates from the PC to the UPS. They will show you the estimate up-time while on battery. It may not be super accurate but it's better than using the online calculators on up-time for a UPS. Some software and UPS have a test mode: they momentarily disconnect from the A/C power source and do a battery load test. You could get a kill-o-watt meter to plug into wherever the computer plugs into for A/C power to measure the actual drain at the plug. I got one from a local hardware store for ~$20 to check the power draw by a new refrigerator but I can use it on any A/C powered device. The CMOS battery is an easy replace in a desktop PC. Because several devices I own use the same CR-2032 coin cell alkaline battery, I bought a pack of 20 at eBay for under $8 (but make sure the packaging shown in the auction matches authentic manufacturer packaging and that's what you get since there are faux batteries being sold there and elsewhere). |
#38
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Windows 10 Home PC 32 GB RAM but only 16 GB available to Windows(Dell Precision T7400, upgraded from Win 7 Home)
NY wrote:
I always have a fear of "bricking" a device that needs a BIOS/firmware update: it only takes a hiccup in the mains power to interrupt it half-way through, so you can't go forwards or backwards. Most BIOSes have a failsafe where you can boot from a USB or FLOPPY(!) to restore a failed flash, even without a screen or keyboard I'm not sure if writing to the flash chips is "atomic" so that a given block is ether written, or it is not written, and is never partly written? Other machines (but not that DELL as far as I could see) have a dual BIOS, so they upgrade the "half" that's not currently in use, so you don't overwrite it, you switch-over to it afteer writing. All that said, I do generally have machines on a UPS while flashing firmware. |
#39
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Windows 10 Home PC 32 GB RAM but only 16 GB available to Windows(Dell Precision T7400, upgraded from Win 7 Home)
Andy Burns wrote:
NY wrote: I always have a fear of "bricking" a device that needs a BIOS/firmware update: it only takes a hiccup in the mains power to interrupt it half-way through, so you can't go forwards or backwards. Most BIOSes have a failsafe where you can boot from a USB or FLOPPY(!) to restore a failed flash, even without a screen or keyboard I'm not sure if writing to the flash chips is "atomic" so that a given block is ether written, or it is not written, and is never partly written? Other machines (but not that DELL as far as I could see) have a dual BIOS, so they upgrade the "half" that's not currently in use, so you don't overwrite it, you switch-over to it afteer writing. All that said, I do generally have machines on a UPS while flashing firmware. The original design intent, was the "boot block" in the BIOS was never supposed to be erased. If an attempt to erase and program the "main BIOS block" failed, using the boot block was supposed to allow recovery. A downside of "boot block", is it has no graphics driver (couldn't use VESA mode on the graphics card), so you have to operate the controls without any text on the LCD monitor screen. This takes practice and imagination. There are a number of modern devices with this boot block feature. If the usage discipline is followed, it works very well. This is why these other devices, when people reprogram them, they hardly ever get bricked. However, a ton of motherboard BIOS updater designs, *insist* on deleting the boot block first thing. Then, if the upgrade fails for any reason... the boot block is empty, the computer is a brick. Sure, there might be a very good reason to change something in the boot block, but with a little testing, you could also throw together a boot block that would last for the life of the motherboard. On Gigabyte motherboards, they have a "dual BIOS". This allows programming one ROM, while using the other ROM for boot up. However, one thing to keep in mind - as far as I know, the two ROMs give you a total of one boot block and two main BIOS blocks, so there is still a shocking lack of redundancy. If that boot block were to fail, switching to the other ROM wouldn't help you. We had a product at work with dual BIOS (not really a BIOS but all the device code is in it), which is completely redundant, and the ROMs are equal in design. And a dedicated arbiter selects the ROM to use. I never did any analysis of that thing, to see what holes it had, but the staff seemed to like it. At least that design didn't "subset" one of the ROMs. There was also a product called "BIOS Savior", which was perhaps made in Taiwan. It consisted of an adapter with a ROM in it. You then had the equivalent of the Gigabyte setup (only the ROMs were perfectly equal and a switch selected the one you wanted to use). I thought this was a great invention, and overclockers used to buy them for hacking projects. The problem there was, the Savior was fine in the socketed PLCC era, but when serial 8 pin EEPROMS came out, there was no BIOS Savior design for those. It's possible the OPs system is old enough to still have a PLCC in it. Different models had different size EEPROMS on the adapter. http://www.euclideanspace.com/tech/p...vior/index.htm My newest system has *the* best feature :-) It can't be bricked. It has a dedicated USB to serial EEPROM chip onboard. You can flash the motherboard even when no CPU or RAM are installed in the motherboard. You plug in a USB stick with the BIOS image on it, push a button, and it upgrades. One of the USB sockets has a dotted white line around it, which indicates the socket with the "magic" properties. This is a feature on some Asus boards. I've not had the opportunity to search for the chip and get a part number, and figure out the design (the CPU heatsink is huge and access is limited now). I was too busy proving the motherboard was fully function when I bought it, and didn't have time to play around with it then. Paul |
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Windows 10 Home PC 32 GB RAM but only 16 GB available to Windows(Dell Precision T7400, upgraded from Win 7 Home)
NY wrote:
Cautionary tale: when my wife bought the PC she also bought a 700 VA UPS. We never actually tested it at the time, but a year or so later we tried it to see how long its charge would last. The thing was totally clappped-out. The battery would not hold charge to power a 60 W light bulb for more than a couple of seconds. We really should have tested it when it was new, in case it was faulty and neede to be replaced under warranty, and then kept it charged and put it through a few discharge cycles. I believe that lead-acid batteries don't like being either permanently on charge (which this wasn't) or left totally discharged (which this was). I'm not sure how long a 700 VA UPS would keep a PC running. Hopefully long enough for it to undergo a graceful shutdown. The UPS company will have a curve which shows loading in watts versus "minutes remaining". The battery in mine is 12V 12Ah. That's 144Wh. If I had your UPS, and applied a 700W load to it, then 144Wh/700W = 0.2h = 12 minutes. The manufacturer curve would probably say 6 minutes, just to give some idea how much fudging is involved. When you draw 700W from a 12V battery, that's a current flow of 58A, which is a little high for a pint size SLA battery. The internal resistance of the battery will probably drop the terminal voltage below 12V. And that's how UPSes check the battery. Mine does an "impedance test" once a day, to check the resistance. The test lasts for a second or two. It draws a high enough current so the battery terminal voltage can be checked under load. If the battery fails the test, my unit lets out one sad little "beep" and there are no visual indicators that latches to show the status later. Mine was beeping once a day for a number of weeks. At first, I thought the beep might be coming from my carbon monoxide detector. But it turned out to be the UPS. I bought a replacement battery online and replaced it. It's been well behaved since. If you need to measure the load being applied to the UPS, you can do that with a Kill-A-Watt meter (P4400). They're cheap enough now to be in the same ballpark as a Harbor Freight multimeter. The Kill-A-Watt measures the Power in units of W and VA, which allows comparing the numbers to the W and VA ratings of the UPS. My newest computer idles at around 100W or so. The older one draws only 65W or so. Once you have some measured values, it makes it easier to estimate what a good value for holdup time is. Paul |
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