Question Older MSI Motherboard seeing 4GB RAM Sticks as 2GB sticks

[DAG93]

Hey everyone, got a weird one that is confusing me as I have never seen it before. I am helping slap together a cheap PC for a friend from parts we had knocking around and am running into a weird problem. The motherboard is an MSI H77MA-G43. I know she is old. So anyway I have 4 4GB sticks of DDR3. All sticks run at the rated speeds of 1866 as XMP has set. So I boot into windows 10 and only see


8 GBs of RAM and think maybe two sticks didn't seat correctly? WRONG! It seems that in no matter what configuration the ram sticks are only being recognized at half capacity per stick. Example with one stick inserted into any RAM slot the


motherboard is only seeing 2GBs of RAM. So where I should see 16GBs of RAM with 4 4GB sticks I only see 8GBs. Is there a setting in the motherboard for different RAM configurations? This RAM was previously installed in what looked to be a high end saber tooth motherboard that had unfortunately bite the dust but the RAM was fully functional as of 1 week ago. The only thing I can think of is the RAM was built in a way that the motherboard can only see half of its chips?

 

[rgd1101]

exact model of the ram?

 

[thestryker]

There's no motherboard setting which will restrict DRAM capacity like that. That board supports up to 8GB DIMMs so there's no problem there either. Since you're able to get into Windows fine it'd be worth checking CPU-Z to see the memory information that's being read off the modules.

 

[stonecarver]

A few things come to mind.

Are you sure memory is truly 4 Gb stick or the rather sometimes hard to figure out due to manufacture wording on a kit of ram.

Could these be 2 Gb stick but each stick does say 4 Gb meaning manufacture really means it take both stick to make the 4 Gb's.

That's one reason it could be reading total of 8 Gb system memory.

If the sticks are true 4 Gb I would try one stick at a time to make sure all do work alone. This would rule out bad memory

If all end up being fine than I would try 2 memory sticks in channel " A " see if it works, if good move memory to channel " B "

If one of the channels between A or B has an issue to boot computer than you might have a bent CPU pin or to much pressure on CPU cooler.

 

[geofelt]

Test your ram with memtest86:

It boots from a usb stick and does not use windows.
You can download it here:

Memtest86+ | The Open-Source Memory Testing Tool

Memtest86+ is an advanced, free, open-source, stand-alone memory tester for 32- and 64-bit computers (UEFI & BIOS supported)

memtest.org

If you can run a full pass with NO errors, your ram should be ok.

Note what memtest says about what you have.

One possibility is that you have a bent pin in the cpu socket.
One of the common areas that a bent pin impacts is ram issues, non functional slots, no dual channel and so on.

I note that bios level 1.6 improved memory compatibility.
If your bios level is lower, try updating it.

 

[DAG93]

Hey everyone sorry for the late response I ended up in the ER over the weekend. All good now but still pretty tired. The RAM is as follows

VisionTek VTK 4G PC3-14900 CL10 1866

I have the CPUz data but I’m not sure what I should share in regards to this issue

 

[thestryker]

Hey everyone sorry for the late response I ended up in the ER over the weekend. All good now but still pretty tired. The RAM is as follows

VisionTek VTK 4G PC3-14900 CL10 1866

I have the CPUz data but I’m not sure what I should share in regards to this issue

Glad to hear things are good now.

In CPU-Z the SPD tab carries the information you need which is module size and part number. The memory tab will show the total amount of DRAM installed under size.

 

[DAG93]

Hey everyone bit of an update. So I’m confused as can be. When I google the model on the RAM I see that this kit was for two 2GB sticks of RAM. But I swear when this was in the motherboard that died they read as 4GB sticks. I almost feel like I’m gaslighting myself. I had a friend who had an extra 16 GBs knocking around and we installed that and the motherboard is reading it correctly.

 

[rgd1101]

that why I ask for the exact model.

 

[DAG93]

that why I ask for the exact model.

I did provide it as soon as I could I just didn’t have the energy to respond to everyone directly. So my apologies.