**Win 7 only sees 24 GB of 32 GB RAM installed..... help please...

hexstatic

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Hi all,


I have recently built a new computer, everything had been working perfectly however the ammount of RAM windows displays has dropped from 32 GB to 24 GB, also during POST it displays 24 GB, whereas it had previously been showing the correct 32 GB...

When I run CPU-Z and look at the memory tab it shows 32 GB, so I think Windows could be allocating part of the RAM to something without me knowing....???? I have tried system restores and cleared cmos but neither have helped. This is a new system which I built 2 days ago.

Any help is much appreciated! Thank you


PC Spec:

OS: Win 7 64 bit ultimate
CPU: i7 3930k
Mobo: Asus Sabertooth x79
RAM: 32GB (4x8GB) Corsair Dominator 1600
SSD: OCZ V3 Max Iops 120GB
GPX: Geforce GTX 680


24GBMemoryproblem_2.png


24GBMemoryproblem.png


 

hexstatic

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yes, Corsair pn CMP32GX3MX1600C10

its was working fine until i was in the Asus AI suite adjusting the CPU fan profile when the PC crashed, I had to hard reboot it. Then during post error message came up saying Overclocking failed! I hadnt done any O/C at all, merely adjusting the profile of the fan cooler...

ever since then its only showed 24 gb of RAM during POST and in windows, however when I run CPU-Z it shows memory working fine, 32 GB with 4x8GB slots...

I will try booting with just 1 stick in, maybe this will make it reset some settings....
 

What was the OC number @?
 

hexstatic

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Its been working fine for 2 days showing 32 GB, its only now its decided to show 24.... :(

I will try reset with 1 stick and see if this helps...

:bounce:
 

hexstatic

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Yeah I did what your said :) Took 3 sticks out and booted with 1. Then restarted with 4 sticks and it correctly shows 32 GB again, both in BIOS and Windows. :bounce:


24GBMemoryproblem_3.png


Thanks for all your help :) I guess it was down to a bug with Asus AI suite causing the initial crash and hard reboot int he first place that messed it all up... :heink:
 
More RAM for most consumers makes little to no sense. Gaming, sure 8GB (now) is the magic number.

Examples:
I run 32GB on my X79 however even for my SQL testing it's not enough and I have to split-up the data into pieces, in contrast my processing servers have considerably more.

If you render then 32GB is a decent amount to have, depending on the size job, and often the more you have the faster the render.

Folks using RAM Disk 16GB isn't that large. VM only allows 8 machines with 4GB or 4 machines with 8GB. Etc...

So it all depends.


At least RAM is a lot cheaper than it was! :)
 

hexstatic

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Yeah RAM has come down a lot in price!

This 32 GB kit cost me a third of what the 6 GB kit cost me 3 years ago !!! Its crazy, but im not complaining!

Im interested in setting up some RAM caching, but not sure how I go about setting this up, do you have any suggestions?

Cheers :)
 
Sure, rather than reinventing the wheel, here is an excellent post; see -> http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?6124-How-To-Set-Up-a-RamCache-on-ASUS-X79-Series-Motherboards

Personally, I'd look in to both a RAM Drive and RAM Cache. Using a RAM Cache or RAM Drive I really don't recommend OC'ing the RAM i.e. keep it where it is per the 'Rated' settings I recommend. Also, test the crap out of the RAM first!!! Create a bootable CD/DVD of Memtest86+ and IMO test it at least overnight i.e. 8~12+ hours. If there's errors then that translates into corrupted data.

The RAM Cache looks nifty on benches, but any real excessive use of data or calculations I really recommend a RAM Drive; it's faster, more reliable and upon (normal) shutdown/booting can be saved/read from the 'drive' -- I recommend a high IOPS SSD.
 
What is RAMDisk?

RAMDisk is a program that takes a portion of your system memory and uses it as a disk drive.

Sounds simple? In concept yes, but in practice there are many tricky issues to deal with when operating a RAMDisk in Windows. We continue to work hard to make RAMDisk as easy as possible to use, but there is always room for improvement. We provide updates regularly to improve features and address customer requests. Please be sure to READ THE INSTRUCTIONS (this document) before you try the various RAMDisk settings.

How does it work?

RAMDisk is a kernel-level driver that presents a standard disk drive to the OS, however, it stores and retrieves data from the system RAM on your motherboard instead of an actual, physical disk. Along with the Kernel Driver is a GUI that talks to the driver and allows the user to set various options as well as start and stop the Driver (create or delete a RAMDisk).

The Driver has been written to WDM standards and creates a low-level disk object that Windows Device Manager and Disk Management are able to "see" and manage. You can partition, format, mount a volume, and assign multiple drive letters to RAMDisk (but only if you would know how to do those things with a regular disk, RAMDisk does not do it for you).

Upon successful Start of the RAMDisk, a kernel level driver (RAMDisk.sys) is loaded into the Windows/System32/drivers folder. This driver will be available to Windows each time RAMDisk starts. It is removed when RAMDisk is stopped.

What is the benefit?

In a word: SPEED!

Most users use RAMDisk to speed up applications like:

Databases
Internet Explorer cache for faster web surfing
Audio and Video editing
CAD programs
Software compilers
Speeding up CD duplication
Games
SETI processing
TEMP files
Swap space
Web server cache
Custom applications with high I/O, high bandwidth, or high security requirements