new build 8gb am shows wrong amount??

Hi all,

I have never come across this before BUT,
upgrading a pc for friends son and I get this when I have installed extra RAM..
(see attached images)


I have built 7-8 pc's before with similar setups and never gotten this before..
Windows 7 is geniune 64bit software and activated.

Any help much appreciated..
confused:confused

 

Check your BIOS, does it show the full amount there?

Also, double-check this:

1. In the search field in the start menu, type in "msconfig" (without any " " ) and hit Enter.

2. Click on the Boot tab and there click on the button "Advanced Options"

3. The box by Maximum Memory should be unchecked. If it's checked that's your problem, change that, hit all Apply/Okay buttons you can, and reboot.

 

tried that,, box UNCHECKED and field blank.
Yes shows in BIOS.

Thanks for your very prompt reply..
Any ather Ideas??

Thanks.

 

Do you have a memory remapping or PAE feature in BIOS? If you do, switch it away from whatever it is set to now, to the other option.

If that doesn't work, you'll have to start testing modules and slots to find out if some of them are broken or not

 

There is no memory remapping or PAE feature in the BIOS...
does this mean Im snookered??

Thanks.

 

Nah, you're not snookered yet. This is where you start testing the memory sticks one by one by one... and the slots the same way. Make sure they all show up and work properly.

Did you have all the RAM installed when you installed Windows? And obviously run all system updates, just to make sure.

 

the 2 sticks of Corsair 2GB PC2-5300 (333mhz) wher already in the system
I added the 2 sticks of Corsair 2GB PC2 6400 (400mhz) bought and given to me buy my friend.
Windows was installed already and showed (3.25gb) usable when just 4gb ram was installed but I know that windows uses the 0.75gb for its own.

 

64-bit versions are not supposed to do that... it's supposed to show the full 4GB. Was this an upgrade or a clean installation?

EDIT to clarify:
If it showed 3.25GB of 4GB before you added the extra RAM, it's possible the problem was there before and may have been there since install. If that's the case, a reinstall might be your only option .Let's hope not.

 

Fire up Perfmon > Memory tab and post up a screenshot, please?

 

sorry cannot do at the moment, system is back at friends address will post tomorow.
Thankyou for your reply.

 

It was a clean install, he baought the PC from Dixons (pc world) with the OS already installed and the 4GB (2x2bg) sticks installed.
:confused

 

Ah, calling Perfmon brings up the MMC, I'd like to see the real Perfmon - Task Manager > Performance > Resource monitor... button - and then the Memory tab. It's the Physical memory bar graph I'm interested in, as in how much RAM is reserved for BIOS, hardware and drivers.

No worries, tomorrow will be fine ^^

 

I would go to Control Panel-System and verify whether it's 32 or 64 bit Windows. They may have told him 64 bit was installed but possibly it was the 32-bit version that actually got put on.

Sam

 

Screenshots attached to his first post clearly shows 64-bit.

 

here you go... any help???

 

Oooh, looks like we need to do some digging into your hardware, 8GB is there alright, but something has reserved most of it

Motherboard and graphics card details, please, right down to BIOS version.

 

Hi, after some digging I found THIS >>>
(http://support.thetechguys.com/layout.aspx?ID={a47806b2-0a7b-4cb7-b99b-a727265eea8f}&CatID={a6ca7f11-0096-4840-803e-269c7f3b7fe1})

This is what he bought from PCWORLD..
I have checked and this is the mobo spec he has..
Can I unlock the Bios as it is mainly greyed out...???

Or would I need to flash the bios so perhaps I could acces the memory mappig featuer??

Am I getting warm??

I tried a complete clean install of Windows 7 64bit home premium and still no luck with the memory showing the full 8gb useable...

 

So the 'board is a Foxconn G33M05, with an Advent BIOS, sold by DSG = PCWorld?

 

it appears so...
He has had it over 3 years and PC world wanted 185 GBP to fit the memory
plus price of memory... !!!

So he bought memory and asked me to do it..
Im now considering flashing the bios IF I can??

 

The reports on the 'net about flashing this 'board are mixed, some say it doesn't work, others say it does, yet more claim the Packard Bell version works ... confusing.

PCWorld must be aware of the problem - they created it, their price probably includes a silent install of a different motherboard!

Better warn the owners that the 'fix' might brick the board and wait for the go-ahead before trying the flash.

 

I get the same feeling... but after a quick chat with my mate he say's try the flash AND if it doesntwork we get a new board!

What was it about "yet more claim the Packard Bell version works ... confusing " ??? (explain please)

 

Nice idea, I will give it a go and post the result soon.

Thanks.

 

Very good news on being allowed to go for a new 'board !

One person with this PC/'board combo related that he'd read another post about someone who'd flashed the Advent board with the equivalent PB BIOS successfully; he succeeded too - or claimed to have. It was an uncommon PB model, something like iMesh - not a model listed on the PB 'support' site when I checked for it. From what I read of it, it sounded quite feasible, especially knowing the crap that the DSG will punt out if they think can get away with it.

I'm inclined to think that they doctored the Advent BIOS but forgot to remove the 2 RAM slots ...

 

Sorry, I forgot to add the link, it's here at MG's in post #4 - the link to the PB BIOS doesn't work for me though the PB site has made a few changes since the post was made.