Eidion

Hi there, I just bought a new computer with Vista x64 and are having 1 main problem and also 2 minor problems (which I will mention later). I am moderately good with computers and have spent a large number of hours researching to resolve these problems with no luck so far....in fact I struggle to find people with the same problems as me.

My system spec is this:
Asus P5E (x38 chipset, latest bios)
Intel Core 2 Quad 6600 (OC @ 3600, water cooled)
4GB (4x1) 800mhz DDR2 G.Skill F2-6400CL4-1GBHK
2x 512mb HD 3850 in crossfire (kind of)
2x 250GB Hard drives in RAID 0
Windows Vista Business 64-bit SP1

The main problem is the RAM , this came with 2gb (2x1) DD2 800 RAM to begin with; this was usable by all means but I decided to upgrade as I use RAM heavily applications and games often. So I bought the same identical RAM again now giving 4gb (4x1) RAM.

I have read many people complaining about seeing 3GB of RAM on 32-bit but that is not my problem....I’ve even read about people having problems with the 4th memory bank (nvidia chipsets I believe) but that is also not my problem.

My problem is that although my Windows sees 4GB’s of RAM and MOST of the hardware detecting programs see 4GB also Windows only seems to use 2GB’s. When I added the new 2 sticks of RAM everything seemed fine, my computer booted up normally and windows recognized the RAM straight away (which is should on x64) but over the next few days I noticed the computer only really seemed to use 2GB’s and I saw no performance increase by having 4GB’s, in fact sometimes when using RAM heavy applications I would suffer with very bad “computer lag” which should not happen with my quite highly specced PC.

This is some of my RAM system information:
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 2.00 GB
Available Physical Memory 789 MB
Total Virtual Memory 4.24 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.95 GB
Page File Space 2.29 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys

My task manager performance tab says i have 2046MB (should be 4092) usually between 700-1000 cached and less than 50mb free. Basically my system while idle takes around 50% of the RAM, and while using RAM heavy applications or Games can take up to 90% which cause a lot of lag.

At first thought that 2gb are used for windows services and 2gb for app's etc, but i cannot find any evidence for this i just see my RAM half full before i open anything and getting fuller as i open more apps.

I have checked that the memory remapping is enabled in BIOS which it is, I have tried manually installed the KB929777 hotfix but it says “The Update Does Not Apply To Your System” even though It is not already installed. I have probably tried most things, but please if anyone knows of any way to fix this I would much appreciate it, even if I have already tried your method go ahead and say it anyway.

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Now also i will quickly mention two other problems I am having just in case anyone reading knows a quick fix. Firstly I have two HD 3850’s in Crossfire and this seems to be working, I get 17000-18000 scores in 3Dmark06 and games run well (Crysis still cannot be run at full settings.)

But every piece of software i use to check the hardware (Everest, PCWizard, GPU-Z, 3Dmark, Steam etc) says that crossfire is not on...most of them see 2 graphics cards but not Crossfire the only software that does think it is enabled is Ati’s Catalyst Control Center (latest version).

Like i say i think that Crossfire is physically working, it’s just that software does not recognize it....this could cause problems and also my ATI Overdrive never seems to change the clock or memory speed even when I tell it to.

I was wondering if anyone knows what would fix this problem?....my main thought it that I only have 1 Crossfire interconnection Bridge where I have seen many pictures of people using 2.

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And finally I have a software problem with FRAPS, it worked for a couple of days, then it would just crash and make a blank 4GB file whenever i used it....it also went through a phase where it wouldn’t open but that works now. From time to time it will even fully work and record a clip or two, but eventually it will just crash and give me a 4gb blank video file.

Eidion

Just occurred to me I didn't mention the power supply. Could this be causing the problem?

It's a GIGABYTE ODIN Pro Power Supply GE-M550A-D1
550W 4 rail 12V+
80+ Efficiency
Sli ready

I don't know much about power with PC's I know this is not that much of a wattage for a high spec PC, but it is a pretty high quality power supply.

Is 2xHD 3850/2xHD/QuadCore and now 4 RAM sticks too much for a 550W PSU? I know the 3850 is a pretty low power graphics card.

But would the PSU cause 2 sticks of RAM to not be used...or would it cause the computer to stop working?

speedster123

calculator

choose "go lite"
add 30% to the final load

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Eidion

Hmm that is an useful website, I'm not sure how accurate i can get my estimate though as it is a pretty complex form and my PC has custom water cooling which I did not make.

But depending what I pick with my overclocking/capacitor aging(whatever that is) and water cooling it goes from 520W to like 650W.

So the PSU "could" be the problem, but I would like to know this for sure before hand. I am still not sure my problems are caused by the PSU.

dai

with the new board you should not need to allow for capacitor ageing and in the case of this psu add 25% to the end total
i run a similar system single video gs card with a 650w silverstone
HD 3850 CF_______#####¦)#############}|' 45W-159W
i would not class this as low power
it will only use the amount of ram it needs

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speedster123

sometimes the timings will drop when all 4 banks are populated..
manually set the timings in your bios.

your supply is stretched right now, any upgrades will impact on performance. or heat build up from game paying , ect.

i would get the 750 tough power [$90] if your budget allows, for future upgrades.
for the heck of it, go into your device manager-
click view, then show hidden devices
any yellow alerts?

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Eidion

I tried removing my Over-clocking as it appears to take quite a lot of power, but this made no difference....which helps me to lean towards the idea of it NOT being PSU related.

I perhaps made my first post too busy, but the root of the problem is that I am yet to see evidence that the computer is even using half of the 4GB RAM and there is certainly no noticeable performance increase.

I have made a picture with all of the reports that my computer and it's software thinks I have as RAM.

Half of them think I say 4GB, the other half say 2GB although they are the most important ones as they display how much I am using.

I just think my computer has stayed the same since I added 2GB perhaps slower through the fact that Windows assigns more RAM away the more you "have" although i don't think i make any use of this extra RAM, also I might have slightly slower RAM timings.

Eidion

Well after a lot of searching and trying things out I finally found the answer which was actually very simple.

Going to Start > type MSCONFIG and press enter > go to BOOT > Then Advanced Options > Make sure that Maximum Memory isn't
checked. If it is, uncheck it and reboot.

dai

thanks for posting the solution

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