8gb of ram installed, 3.9 gb usable

[GaryzFU]

My computer has been showing 3.9 gb of ram usable out of 8 gb since I swapped my motherboard to a biostar ta970. I use 4x2gb samsung 1333 mhz ram that came with a stock build. My CPU is a Phenom II x4 945. Before anyone asks, my operating system is windows 7 64 bit for sure and I do not have bent pins on my CPU. My bios shows each ram stick inserted into each ram slot correctly because it can read them and give me all of their information from each individual slot. Bios does show 4gb of ram is installed. My resource monitor shows 8gb installed and 4.1 gb reserved for hardware. I have no idea what to do and have researched until I have no more places to look. Biostar customer service is never helpful, and I am currently trying to get their help. PLease help me figure out why my ram is halved

 

[Darkbreeze]

Have you tried resetting the BIOS to default or optimal settings and rebooting? It's almost certainly a Bios firmware setting.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I'd also check to see if there are any BIOS updates available. Many times newer firmware addresses the issue of better memory support.

 

[GaryzFU]

I'd also check to see if there are any BIOS updates available. Many times newer firmware addresses the issue of better memory support.

Sorry about the late reply. Kinda busy. I've checked for updates and the only one I found was the Agesa code. I've even contacted biostar, now and previously, and they always have the conclusion that I should check my cpu pins. Useless....

 

[GaryzFU]

Have you tried resetting the BIOS to default or optimal settings and rebooting? It's almost certainly a Bios firmware setting.

I've tried rebooting to optimal settings, which aren't actually optimal. The motherboard has a cpu smart fan mode that I have to retick every time I go back to default because otherwise my cpu fan runs on full blast.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Yeah, that's pretty standard behavior. Even my Sabertooth does that. It does allow some of the configuration to be accounted for though. Anyway, what IS your current BIOS version? I'd also make sure they are installed in the correct slots. A module installed in the wrong slot might be recognized but not utilized. It could also be a bad memory controller.

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1998833/ram-bios-4080-windows-bit-months.html

 

[Tradesman1]

Will want latest BIOS, if that doesn't help, raise the DRAM voltage + 0.075 and the CPU/NB voltage (your MC (memory controller) voltage) to 1.25

 

[Darkbreeze]

Yeah, it could be an issue of the board not liking the voltage requirements of 4 modules at it's current settings so Tradesman1 might be correct with that advise as well. It's certainly worth investigating. Some boards are really finicky when it comes to populating all four slots.

 

[Tradesman1]

Yes, especially AMD rigs, their CPUs are more attuned to 2 slots, and the MC needs some extra help when populating all four slots. I give kudos to AMD for recognizing this and to an extent letting the public know:

http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/ddr3memoryfrequencyguide.aspx

 

[GaryzFU]

I have my BIOS updated to the latest march 2014 version. The only part that isn't updated is my agesa code (however it is spelled). I'm not sure how to raise my voltage....

 

[GaryzFU]

I'm thinking about buying new ram.... Should I dual channel it then?

 

[GaryzFU]

Actually, i just changed my ram speed to 1066 (I believe it was lowered) when I switched it from auto to manual it instantly came up as 800 for the speed. Was that the previous speed auto had set it on or was it just showing the lowest number? either way, I changed the speed and now have 6gb usable and 2gb reserved. I didn't mess with the voltage.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Yeah, I dunno. There should be 8GB available and usable memory. I'd do as Tradesman1 suggested. There is no reason it should not run at the correct speed and in the full amount. Your board supports up to DDR3 2000(OC) and 64GB max memory so 8GB of 1333mhz RAM should NOT be a problem other than Biostar boards suck, sorry, and it probably doesn't have good automatic regulation and needs to be manually input to the necessary specifications including speed and voltage.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Also, updating the Agesa code might cure the issue too,

AMD Generic Encapsulated Software Architecture (AGESA), is a bootstrap protocol by which system devices on AMD64-architecture mainboards are initialized. The AGESA software in the BIOS of such mainboards is responsible for the initialization of the processor cores, memory and the HyperTransport controller.

However, I can't seem to find anything pertaining to how you update that code separately from the BIOS. I can't find a specific Biostar utility for it nor any explanation of how it is recommended to be done. There is a very recent update for it however so perhaps contacting Biostar and asking them for procedures would be a good place to move forward after trying the manual settings.

 

[GaryzFU]

Okay, I'll try all of that and keep you guys posted. Thanks for all of your help so far!

 

[Darkbreeze]

No problem. Let me know how it goes and if you have more questions don't hesitate to ask. Good luck.