Missing RAM???

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by rgatlin75, Sep 6, 2009.

  1. rgatlin75

    rgatlin75 Private E-2

    I had a friend (semi pro geek) help me build a new PC last year. I ended up with a Gigabyte S Series board, AMD Dual Core 2.1 Processor, Nvidia 8600 GT GPU, and (2) 1GB sticks DDR II GSKILL RAM.
    The "problem?" started a couple of weeks ago when my system went to the Blue Screen of Death in the middle of playing Crysis Warhead and my system automatically restarted. That happened a couple of times since then and now the game wont even load but gives some kind of licensing error, so I go to EA tonight for support and try their crappy fix... FAILED. so I'm going to send them my system info and see whats hanging up possibly.
    Well while looking at my system info I happen to notice that its only showing 1GB RAM??? Im not too swift on the internals but I CAN add 1+1 and get 2. Or I'm I wrong on this? If not, could it be a dead stick or a setting somewhere?
     
  2. hrlow2

    hrlow2 MajorGeek

    Have you checked the sticks to ensure that both are fully seated and locked into place?
     
  3. rgatlin75

    rgatlin75 Private E-2

    Yeah, when I saw that it was only showing 1GB I pulled them both just to reassure myself that I wasnt mistaken. I honestly never looked when we got the system running to know if its always been that way.
    What gets me is that it also shows Total Virtual Memory 2GB. Its things like this why I got help when I built the thing. I've decided that I will probably build an even bigger and better outfit in the next few months and pass this system on to my son but If I paid for 2GB then I want to make sure thats what its got.
    By the way, since I dont know much about the building part, does anyone have any advice on motherboards and processors when I build the next one? Those are the things that I have the biggest trouble deciding on. It will be for gaming. Things like Crysis, Farcry2, and anything else with a single player campaign since Im on satellite internet. This will be my 3rd build and both previous times I ended up with undersized processors because I listened to people whos time on a pc is spent browsing web pages rather than gaming.
    Oh, I forgot... I still have my old 1GB memory stick from the previous build but its NOT DDR II, can I put that in my current machine or does the memory have to be DDR II since the other 2 are?
     
    Last edited: Sep 6, 2009
  4. hrlow2

    hrlow2 MajorGeek

    What is the model number of your motherboard?
     
  5. rgatlin75

    rgatlin75 Private E-2

    GA-M57SLI-S4 It also has 2 more slots for RAM, could it be a bad slot and I could just move them to the open slots?
     
  6. hrlow2

    hrlow2 MajorGeek

    According to the Gigabyte site for that motherboard, it supports DDR2 RAM in dual-channel.
    Plug your sticks into the same colored slots(if coded) or into slots 1 and 3.
    Also don't think your old stick would be compatable with the other two.
     
  7. rgatlin75

    rgatlin75 Private E-2

    Ok Ill give that a shot, right now theyre in slots 1 &2. The 1 and 2 slots are yellow and the 3 and 4 slots are red. Thanks for the help, my normal techie is on his way to Maryland for a funeral so I hate to bug him with this stuff and I really dont know where to start looking for the info when I run into these things.
     
  8. hrlow2

    hrlow2 MajorGeek

  9. rgatlin75

    rgatlin75 Private E-2

    Much appreciated. Ill run through that and see if I can learn something or if it just gives me a headache, in which case Ill know whether or not I can build the next one or if I better leave it up to someone else.
     
  10. augiedoggie

    augiedoggie The Canadian Loon - LocoAugie (R.I.P. 2012)

    It's best if you put the gaming question in the gaming section and also it's not good for a thread to have different questions as it gets hard to read as people reply to different issues.;)

    Well, first I'd check my BIOS to see if that recoqnizes the 2GB, then test my memory to see if it is good using Memtest86+, burn the ISO to floppy or CD. You can use ImgBurn for this, free and easy to use.

    As to gaming, depends on how much money you have.;) I'd start looking at a dual core like the Intel E6300 ($85) and even more importantly, a good graphics card and here is where the money lies. For e.g. a 9800GT 512MB is good( $105) or better is a 260GTX-216 ($175) and you can go way up from there. The game played well on both cards for a 1440x900 res on a 19" widescreen.

    This is only a primer of what I have and what worked for me, others will have different experiences. So set a budget, and the real gamers can then help you choose. Like one thing is video cards, I only know nVidia but there are good ATI cards out there too. Good luck.
     
  11. rgatlin75

    rgatlin75 Private E-2

    Thanks augiedoggie. Yeah Im leaving the game issue to EA since it seems to be their issue. I just dont seem to think thats a hardware issue since I was playing for months with no problems and the problem seems to be with Crysis Warhead while Crysis itself runs just fine. It just concerns me that my memory isnt showing.
    As an update, I did swap to the 1 and 3 slot configuration and now show 2GB as Total Physical Memory but the Available Physical Memory is still showing 1.45GB. I also tried going to 3 and 4 slots but that just put me right back to the same as the 1 and 2 slots so Ill run a few games like this and see if its made any changes. I was just looking at some of Dacads builds in another thread and deciding which way to go when I build new.
    Thanks again for the help.
     
  12. augiedoggie

    augiedoggie The Canadian Loon - LocoAugie (R.I.P. 2012)

    1.45GBs??? Is there onboard graphics on that motherboard? Maybe something got corrupted in the BIOS and you're using onboard instead of your 8600? Some boards have to have the onboard graphics disabled if one is using an external. Shot in the dark here but that 0.55GB is being reserved for something.:confused

    EDIT: BTW, turn off 'Auto restart' in the control panel. This way, if you get blue screened again you can coppy the two main error Messages, one at the top left is in the form of XXX_XXXX_XX_ etc. and there's one on the bottom, just copy the the first part before the the parentheses. This will help the folk here to diagnose the error.
     
    Last edited: Sep 6, 2009

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