Physical Memory

REDREPUBLIK · Jun 21, 2009

Recently had reason to return my PC to the store because it would not post.

After weeks the store said it was a RAM failure. I had 4 GB of Ram installed

Eventually I got my PC returned and they had put 5 MB of RAM in ....

The problem is my PC can only see 2 GB of physical memory.

I have now got three 1 GB and one 2 GB of ram installed. My PC is preforming worse than ever.

I am stating to think my PC can only see or should i say use the 2 GB bar for some reason

Please see pictures below

I have even tried to change the system config but it will only allow me to select 2048 mb

Any advice would be really appreciated, I plan to bring back to the store and I really dont want to look stupid if I am missing something as I have had a lot of trouble already with the store

Many thanks in advance

John

archie123 · Jun 21, 2009

yes i have advice , take it back and tell them you want 2 x 2gig matched pair of ram fitting

what kind of muppet repair shop would fit 5 gig of ram especially in a configuration like that??!! , seriously mate they probably fitted any old bits they had lying around , JESUS!!

I cannot fathom why anyone who had an ounce of knowlage about pc's would do that , print this out , take it the store and staple it the head of the moron who "repaired" your pc

Dwarf · Jun 21, 2009

Hi John and welcome to Vista Forums :party:

In the BOOT Advanced Options, uncheck Maximum memory: and click OK. You will need to reboot for any changes to take effect. This should allow your system to utilise the full amount of memory installed.

As regards your other issue of performance, it is possible that this too is related to your RAM. Before, you had 4 x 1GB modules. These would have operated in dual-channel mode, 2 x 1GB per channel. Unfortunately, by changing the RAM and by having 3 x 1GB + 1 x 2GB modules installed, dual-channel mode will no longer be operative because the channels aren't balanced. The only way to restore this would be to balance the channels again (note that removing a 1GB module will NOT balance the channels as only 3 slots will then be occupied).

One has to ask why it took so long for the store to diagnose the problem, and then to supposedly fix it by replacing the RAM (if indeed that was the problem), but in such a manner as to create more problems performance wise.

When you boot your system, what does your POST screen report for your memory amount and configuration (single/dual channel)? Prior to you taking it back to the store, did you have dual-channel mode?

REDREPUBLIK · Jun 21, 2009

archie123 said:
yes i have advice , take it back and tell them you want 2 x 2gig matched pair of ram fitting

what kind of muppet repair shop would fit 5 gig of ram especially in a configuration like that??!! , seriously mate they probably fitted any old bits they had lying around , JESUS!!

I cannot fathom why anyone who had an ounce of knowlage about pc's would do that , print this out , take it the store and staple it the head of the moron who "repaired" your pc

Thanks I will do, I am far from an expert but I was pretty sure that was the case, I just couldn't word it together when I was explaining what I thought the issue would be

REDREPUBLIK · Jun 21, 2009

Dwarf said:
Hi John and welcome to Vista Forums

Thank you, this forum has by far been the friendliest forum, I have be called a moron for accepting my PC back like that and another forum said I was as stupid as the repair shop for not seeing the problem myself. :D

Dwarf said:
In the BOOT Advanced Options, uncheck Maximum memory: and click OK. You will need to reboot for any changes to take effect. This should allow your system to utilise the full amount of memory installed.

Have done that ...... None of the screen shots have changed as posted above. Instead of saying 2048mb now were I unticked it it just reads 0 now

My PC seems to be taking longer to boot now though .... maybe I am just imagining that though

Dwarf said:
As regards your other issue of performance, it is possible that this too is related to your RAM. Before, you had 4 x 1GB modules. These would have operated in dual-channel mode, 2 x 1GB per channel. Unfortunately, by changing the RAM and by having 3 x 1GB + 1 x 2GB modules installed, dual-channel mode will no longer be operative because the channels aren't balanced. The only way to restore this would be to balance the channels again (note that removing a 1GB module will NOT balance the channels as only 3 slots will then be occupied).

Yes believe it or not, I did think that about the dual channel mode but couldn't think how to explain that I thought that was the problem

Dwarf said:
One has to ask why it took so long for the store to diagnose the problem, and then to supposedly fix it by replacing the RAM (if indeed that was the problem), but in such a manner as to create more problems performance wise.

They said they thought it was the PSU, then the mobo and finally the GFX card that was stopping it posting.

The last resort was the RAM, I did question why it took so long for them to diagnose and they claimed its very rare for all RAM to go at once

Dwarf said:
When you boot your system, what does your POST screen report for your memory amount and configuration (single/dual channel)? Prior to you taking it back to the store, did you have dual-channel mode?

My PC posts too fast to read anything from that screen, I do see it flashing but its impossible to read.

I do know for a fact that my PC defiantly had dual-channel before I brought it back to the shop. Its in the specification of the PC and it was something I was wary of making sure when I bought the PC three months ago based on advice from a work colleague

I am still bewildered though why the likes of task manager reports only 2GB of physical ram.

If I were to bring it back to the shop and ask for wither a 1GB or 2GB to balance the channel, do you think that will resolve the problem.

Once again, thanks for the help, its appreciated a lot

John

archie123 · Jun 21, 2009

make it simple for him mate , tell him you want 2 x 2gig sticks , many mobos out there today mine included are fine with mixed ram and dual channel (up to a point) but why have the hassle

If your car was running bad and you took it in for a service and when yo got it back it was running even worse you would take it back

this is the same thing , you paid for a repair and got a bodge

i dont know what machine you have but if its DDR2 then its cheap enough now , they should just sort you out as they wont want the hassle , if they refuse bug the hell outta them till they sort it out

it gets my back up so much because im hearing this sort of thing all too often , they do an online course , set up a shop and rip people off right left and center

Dwarf · Jun 21, 2009

Hi John,

REDREPUBLIK said:
Thank you, this forum has by far been the friendliest forum, I have be called a moron for accepting my PC back like that and another forum said I was as stupid as the repair shop for not seeing the problem myself. :D

We do take pride in our forum, and we try to be friendly and courteous at all times. I would certainly never call people stupid when it comes to problems with their computers as I recognise that some people are not as knowledgeable in that department as others.

REDREPUBLIK said:
Have done that ...... None of the screen shots have changed as posted above. Instead of saying 2048mb now were I unticked it it just reads 0 now

That is correct, it just means that the memory is limited to the actual installed amount.

REDREPUBLIK said:
They said they thought it was the PSU, then the mobo and finally the GFX card that was stopping it posting.

The last resort was the RAM, I did question why it took so long for them to diagnose and they claimed its very rare for all RAM to go at once

I'm not saying that it wasn't the RAM, but they (the store) appear to be a bit of a hit-and-miss brigade. There are bootable programs available which can test your RAM functionality, and these can function even when no OS is installed on a system. If they installed 3 x 1GB + 1 x 2GB modules, then it is also possible that they have installed mismatching modules timing-wise.

REDREPUBLIK said:
My PC posts too fast to read anything from that screen, I do see it flashing but its impossible to read.

When you boot your system, if you want to freeze the screen at any time to read what it says, press the Pause key. Press any other key to resume. You can repeat this as often as you want during the POST in order to see more information. One thing that I would do is to go into your BIOS setup and disable Quick Power on Self Test (this phrase is taken from my system, but yours should be similar). If you do this, you should see your system evaluating and counting the amount of RAM when it boots.

Finally, if you can please let us know the make and full model number of your computer, we might be able to help you further.

REDREPUBLIK · Jun 21, 2009

Dwarf,

Did as you advised and the screen says

Installed Memory 5120MB / PC2-6400 Dual Channel

Memory Bank 1 1024MB / DDR2 SDRAM
Memory Bank 2 1024MB / DDR2 SDRAM
Memory Bank 3 1024MB / DDR2 SDRAM
Memory Bank 4 2048MB / DDR2 SDRAM

My PC is a HP Pavilion Elite m9277.uk-a Desktop PC

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/product?product=3740154&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en〈=en&cc=us&submit=Go%20%C2%BB
Thanks again

John

REDREPUBLIK · Jun 21, 2009

archie123 said:
make it simple for him mate , tell him you want 2 x 2gig sticks , many mobos out there today mine included are fine with mixed ram and dual channel (up to a point) but why have the hassle

If your car was running bad and you took it in for a service and when yo got it back it was running even worse you would take it back

this is the same thing , you paid for a repair and got a bodge

i dont know what machine you have but if its DDR2 then its cheap enough now , they should just sort you out as they wont want the hassle , if they refuse bug the hell outta them till they sort it out

it gets my back up so much because im hearing this sort of thing all too often , they do an online course , set up a shop and rip people off right left and center

I plan to take it back tomorrow unless Dwarf points something out I might be doing wrong.

Believe me mate, if it is the case that they have tried to pull a fast one, I will cause murder in the shop tomorrow, I have no shame in being loud.

Will report back on how i get on and thanks for the help again

archie123 · Jun 22, 2009

thats good , if Dwarf's tips help you find your missing ram then brilliant

but its still running badly and you would be better off with a matched pair running in dual channel , that configuration of ram they have put in there is silly to say the least

Dwarf · Jun 22, 2009

Hi John,

I agree with Darren (archie123) here. You took your computer to a shop to be repaired, they took an excessive amount of time in doing so, and the end result was not satisfactory for you.

REDREPUBLIK · Jun 22, 2009

Hi Lads ...

Took my PC back, they argued it was a genuine mistake, I really doubt it was.

I told them either replace the RAM or I want my money back.

In the end they had no 1 GB of RAM in store so they replaced the 1GB with a 2 GB

So I was happy enough, everything seems great with the PC and now I have 6 GB RAM instead of originally 4 GB when the PC went back to the store

Thanks for all the help and advice

Kind regards

John

archie123 · Jun 22, 2009

nice one

and depending on yuor mobo you should still be running dual channel (only if its a VERY old mobo you wont be), you can check with this....

CPU-Z CPUID

run it , select the memory tab and see what it says under #channels , you can also make sure everything else is as it should be

If its not running dual channel its most likely cos the bozo's installed the pairs in the wrong slots

genuine mistake eh ha ha , so they didnt check , they just installed the memory and never even booted it up to make sure it was ok.............im sure

REDREPUBLIK · Jun 22, 2009

Hi Archie

Yes its running dual channel

Seems everything is good ....

Thanks again

appreciated

Dwarf · Jun 22, 2009

Hi John,

I'm pleased that you've sorted your problem out.

Physical Memory

New Member

My Computer

I Tunes hates Me

My Computer

The Contemplator

My Computer

New Member

My Computer

New Member

My Computer

I Tunes hates Me

My Computer

The Contemplator

My Computer

New Member

My Computer

New Member

My Computer

I Tunes hates Me

My Computer

The Contemplator

My Computer

New Member

My Computer

I Tunes hates Me

My Computer

New Member

My Computer

The Contemplator

My Computer