2GB of my RAM disappeared

[Guest Richj44]

Hello. I am running Vista 64 Home Premium. My relevant system specs:

Asus P5B-E mobo (Intel 965 chipset)

Q6600

4GB OCZ PC 6400 RAM.

 

I have been running this configuration for 6 months or so and *just* last

night, I noticed that Windows is no longer recognizing the full 4GB of RAM.

I first noticed something out of the ordinary when gaming, and the game began

to stutter badly due to disk swapping, which never happened in the past.

When I tabbed out of the game I saw my "All CPU" gadget showed 99%

utilization, which again, never used to happen. After rebooting and checking

a few more things (including turning down graphics settings on the game), I

realized that the CPU meter was only showing 2046M of RAM. I am absolutely

certain that it normally showed 4096, but I don't know when or how long it's

been showing only 2046.

 

I verified that Windows indeed is only seeing 2046 by several other methods,

including DXDiag and a couple of system commands I found while researching

the issue. (Winver in an elevated command prompt, and systeminfo both show

2046).

 

Memory remapping is still enabled in BIOS. If I disable it, Windows sees

something over 3GB 3096 or something, I forget the exact amount). But with

remapping enabled, I have lost 2GB.

 

Finally, I ran Memtest86 (not for long this time, about 30 minutes. But

enough to ensure that it did see all 4GB and it all at least passed a few

tests. I have run Memtest for over 24 hours previously on this RAM and it

passed).

 

I suspect something I installed has hosed Windows so that it no longer sees

the RAM but have no idea what. Like I said, I don't know exactly when this

began and I haven't installed any software recently...hmm. Except for a

Windows update on 7/22, the Search 4.0 update. I'm going to uninstall it and

see if it makes a difference.

 

But if anyone has any other thoughts or ideas I would sure appreciate

hearing them.

 

Thanks!

[Guest Robert McMillan]

Re: 2GB of my RAM disappeared

 

 

"Richj44" <Richj44@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:A199CA04-31C5-46AA-9B05-0DAF197DCC26@microsoft.com...

> Hello. I am running Vista 64 Home Premium. My relevant system specs:

> Asus P5B-E mobo (Intel 965 chipset)

> Q6600

> 4GB OCZ PC 6400 RAM.

>

> I have been running this configuration for 6 months or so and *just* last

> night, I noticed that Windows is no longer recognizing the full 4GB of

> RAM.

> I first noticed something out of the ordinary when gaming, and the game

> began

> to stutter badly due to disk swapping, which never happened in the past.

> When I tabbed out of the game I saw my "All CPU" gadget showed 99%

> utilization, which again, never used to happen. After rebooting and

> checking

> a few more things (including turning down graphics settings on the game),

> I

> realized that the CPU meter was only showing 2046M of RAM. I am

> absolutely

> certain that it normally showed 4096, but I don't know when or how long

> it's

> been showing only 2046.

>

> I verified that Windows indeed is only seeing 2046 by several other

> methods,

> including DXDiag and a couple of system commands I found while researching

> the issue. (Winver in an elevated command prompt, and systeminfo both

> show

> 2046).

>

> Memory remapping is still enabled in BIOS. If I disable it, Windows sees

> something over 3GB 3096 or something, I forget the exact amount). But

> with

> remapping enabled, I have lost 2GB.

>

> Finally, I ran Memtest86 (not for long this time, about 30 minutes. But

> enough to ensure that it did see all 4GB and it all at least passed a few

> tests. I have run Memtest for over 24 hours previously on this RAM and it

> passed).

>

> I suspect something I installed has hosed Windows so that it no longer

> sees

> the RAM but have no idea what. Like I said, I don't know exactly when

> this

> began and I haven't installed any software recently...hmm. Except for a

> Windows update on 7/22, the Search 4.0 update. I'm going to uninstall it

> and

> see if it makes a difference.

>

> But if anyone has any other thoughts or ideas I would sure appreciate

> hearing them.

>

> Thanks!

 

Have you checked that it isnt physically loose in the slot. Try reseating

your ram sticks.

[Guest Richj44]

Re: 2GB of my RAM disappeared

 

Yes, I checked that the ram is seated properly. Also please note that the

BIOS and Memtest both see all 4 gig. I ran Memtest for 10 hours last night

with no errors.

 

Thanks anyway,

 

RJ

[Guest Colin Barnhorst]

Re: 2GB of my RAM disappeared

 

"Richj44" <Richj44@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:A199CA04-31C5-46AA-9B05-0DAF197DCC26@microsoft.com...

> Hello. I am running Vista 64 Home Premium. My relevant system specs:

> Asus P5B-E mobo (Intel 965 chipset)

> Q6600

> 4GB OCZ PC 6400 RAM.

>

> I have been running this configuration for 6 months or so and *just* last

> night, I noticed that Windows is no longer recognizing the full 4GB of

> RAM.

> I first noticed something out of the ordinary when gaming, and the game

> began

> to stutter badly due to disk swapping, which never happened in the past.

> When I tabbed out of the game I saw my "All CPU" gadget showed 99%

> utilization, which again, never used to happen. After rebooting and

> checking

> a few more things (including turning down graphics settings on the game),

> I

> realized that the CPU meter was only showing 2046M of RAM. I am

> absolutely

> certain that it normally showed 4096, but I don't know when or how long

> it's

> been showing only 2046.

>

> I verified that Windows indeed is only seeing 2046 by several other

> methods,

> including DXDiag and a couple of system commands I found while researching

> the issue. (Winver in an elevated command prompt, and systeminfo both

> show

> 2046).

>

> Memory remapping is still enabled in BIOS. If I disable it, Windows sees

> something over 3GB 3096 or something, I forget the exact amount). But

> with

> remapping enabled, I have lost 2GB.

>

> Finally, I ran Memtest86 (not for long this time, about 30 minutes. But

> enough to ensure that it did see all 4GB and it all at least passed a few

> tests. I have run Memtest for over 24 hours previously on this RAM and it

> passed).

>

> I suspect something I installed has hosed Windows so that it no longer

> sees

> the RAM but have no idea what. Like I said, I don't know exactly when

> this

> began and I haven't installed any software recently...hmm. Except for a

> Windows update on 7/22, the Search 4.0 update. I'm going to uninstall it

> and

> see if it makes a difference.

>

> But if anyone has any other thoughts or ideas I would sure appreciate

> hearing them.

>

> Thanks!

 

 

Lower the dram speed to 667 and see if anything changes.

[Guest Richj44]

Re: 2GB of my RAM disappeared

 

Colin,

 

Thanks for the suggestion. Nothing changes when I lower the speed of the

RAM. I took a spare HD I had lying around, formatted it, and did a clean

install of Vista Home Premium 64 and it sees all 4 GB properly.

 

This is not a hardware issue. Nothing is loose. Nothing is defective.

 

Something hosed my original Vista install and prevents it from seeing half

of the 4GB of installed RAM. Whether it's Vista itself or one of the many

programs I have installed, I have no idea because I don't know exactly when

the problem began, I only know when I first noticed it. And at that time the

only thing I had done recently was to install a Vista update and the game,

"Oblivion". I have installed, uninstalled, and reinstalled Oblivion several

times on this Vista install with no problems, however, so I really doubt

that's the culprit.

 

Perhaps as I gradually reinstall all my games and apps over the next several

weeks I will find the culprit the hard way. Or I suppose there's a remote

possibility that MS Support might actually turn out to be helpful. They

replied today by telling me to 1: update my BIOS

2: enable memory remapping

or 3: make sure I'm running 64 bit Vista.

 

Considering I covered all three of those points in my request for support,

it was a disappointing response to say the least.

"Colin Barnhorst" wrote:

> "Richj44" <Richj44@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

> news:A199CA04-31C5-46AA-9B05-0DAF197DCC26@microsoft.com...

> > Hello. I am running Vista 64 Home Premium. My relevant system specs:

> > Asus P5B-E mobo (Intel 965 chipset)

> > Q6600

> > 4GB OCZ PC 6400 RAM.

> >

> > I have been running this configuration for 6 months or so and *just* last

> > night, I noticed that Windows is no longer recognizing the full 4GB of

> > RAM.

> > I first noticed something out of the ordinary when gaming, and the game

> > began

> > to stutter badly due to disk swapping, which never happened in the past.

> > When I tabbed out of the game I saw my "All CPU" gadget showed 99%

> > utilization, which again, never used to happen. After rebooting and

> > checking

> > a few more things (including turning down graphics settings on the game),

> > I

> > realized that the CPU meter was only showing 2046M of RAM. I am

> > absolutely

> > certain that it normally showed 4096, but I don't know when or how long

> > it's

> > been showing only 2046.

> >

> > I verified that Windows indeed is only seeing 2046 by several other

> > methods,

> > including DXDiag and a couple of system commands I found while researching

> > the issue. (Winver in an elevated command prompt, and systeminfo both

> > show

> > 2046).

> >

> > Memory remapping is still enabled in BIOS. If I disable it, Windows sees

> > something over 3GB 3096 or something, I forget the exact amount). But

> > with

> > remapping enabled, I have lost 2GB.

> >

> > Finally, I ran Memtest86 (not for long this time, about 30 minutes. But

> > enough to ensure that it did see all 4GB and it all at least passed a few

> > tests. I have run Memtest for over 24 hours previously on this RAM and it

> > passed).

> >

> > I suspect something I installed has hosed Windows so that it no longer

> > sees

> > the RAM but have no idea what. Like I said, I don't know exactly when

> > this

> > began and I haven't installed any software recently...hmm. Except for a

> > Windows update on 7/22, the Search 4.0 update. I'm going to uninstall it

> > and

> > see if it makes a difference.

> >

> > But if anyone has any other thoughts or ideas I would sure appreciate

> > hearing them.

> >

> > Thanks!

>

>

> Lower the dram speed to 667 and see if anything changes.

>

[Guest Juergen Kluth]

Re: 2GB of my RAM disappeared

 

may be this helps ?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929580/de

jk

[Guest Richj44]

Re: 2GB of my RAM disappeared

 

Problem solved. It turns out the culprit is indeed Oblivion, or one of the

patches or mods I installed along with it. The bad part is, apparently it's

a one-way street. Uninstalling Oblivion, or using system restore to return

to a point prior to initially installing it, doesn't help. Once it loses the

2GB of RAM there's no "fixing" it.

 

Luckily I have been imaging my drive every step of the way, so I could

quickly return it to a pre-Oblivion state (thanks, True Image 11!).

 

Thanks to all who tried to help. I'd still love to hear an explanation of

what happens and how it happens, but at least I know now how to avoid having

it happen again. Oblivion's a cool game, but not *that* cool.

 

RJ

[Guest Charlie Russel - MVP]

Re: 2GB of my RAM disappeared

 

Hmmm. I wonder if Oblivion modified your boot configuration files. If so,

that's seriously naughty. But it would be something that would behave like

this. (There's a switch that you can add to your boot configuration that

limits the amount of memory used - very helpful when trying to troubleshoot

a problem, but NOT something a game install should be mucking with!!!)

 

--

Charlie.

"Richj44" <Richj44@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:838232FB-138B-4557-B597-BCB13AEFFA63@microsoft.com...

> Problem solved. It turns out the culprit is indeed Oblivion, or one of

> the

> patches or mods I installed along with it. The bad part is, apparently

> it's

> a one-way street. Uninstalling Oblivion, or using system restore to

> return

> to a point prior to initially installing it, doesn't help. Once it loses

> the

> 2GB of RAM there's no "fixing" it.

>

> Luckily I have been imaging my drive every step of the way, so I could

> quickly return it to a pre-Oblivion state (thanks, True Image 11!).

>

> Thanks to all who tried to help. I'd still love to hear an explanation of

> what happens and how it happens, but at least I know now how to avoid

> having

> it happen again. Oblivion's a cool game, but not *that* cool.

>

> RJ

[Guest Richj44]

Re: 2GB of my RAM disappeared

 

Charlie,

 

Thanks for the thoughts. Is there some way I can check the boot

configuration file(s) to determine if this switch is indeed limiting the

amount of RAM Vista sees?

 

I still have a long way to go before I have my new drive loaded with

everything, but the old drive is sitting intact in an external closure. If

there was a way to determine if this is indeed the problem, and to correct

it, it would sure save a lot of hassle.

 

Thanks,

 

RJ

 

"Charlie Russel - MVP" wrote:

> Hmmm. I wonder if Oblivion modified your boot configuration files. If so,

> that's seriously naughty. But it would be something that would behave like

> this. (There's a switch that you can add to your boot configuration that

> limits the amount of memory used - very helpful when trying to troubleshoot

> a problem, but NOT something a game install should be mucking with!!!)

>

> --

> Charlie.

> "Richj44" <Richj44@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

> news:838232FB-138B-4557-B597-BCB13AEFFA63@microsoft.com...

> > Problem solved. It turns out the culprit is indeed Oblivion, or one of

> > the

> > patches or mods I installed along with it. The bad part is, apparently

> > it's

> > a one-way street. Uninstalling Oblivion, or using system restore to

> > return

> > to a point prior to initially installing it, doesn't help. Once it loses

> > the

> > 2GB of RAM there's no "fixing" it.

> >

> > Luckily I have been imaging my drive every step of the way, so I could

> > quickly return it to a pre-Oblivion state (thanks, True Image 11!).

> >

> > Thanks to all who tried to help. I'd still love to hear an explanation of

> > what happens and how it happens, but at least I know now how to avoid

> > having

> > it happen again. Oblivion's a cool game, but not *that* cool.

> >

> > RJ

>

>

[Guest Charlie Russel - MVP]

Re: 2GB of my RAM disappeared

 

Certainly - a tool like Vista Boot Pro or EasyBCD should do the job. They'll

show you what your boot configuration is without the ugliness of trying to

interpret and use the ghastly MS command line for it. (Bcdedit.exe is easily

the most user hostile MS tool since Edlin.)

 

--

Charlie.

http://msmvps.com/blogs/xperts64

http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/charlie.russel

 

 

"Richj44" <Richj44@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:82BC2A54-78BE-41A6-A844-B2DD5FACD434@microsoft.com...

> Charlie,

>

> Thanks for the thoughts. Is there some way I can check the boot

> configuration file(s) to determine if this switch is indeed limiting the

> amount of RAM Vista sees?

>

> I still have a long way to go before I have my new drive loaded with

> everything, but the old drive is sitting intact in an external closure.

> If

> there was a way to determine if this is indeed the problem, and to correct

> it, it would sure save a lot of hassle.

>

> Thanks,

>

> RJ

>

> "Charlie Russel - MVP" wrote:

>

>> Hmmm. I wonder if Oblivion modified your boot configuration files. If so,

>> that's seriously naughty. But it would be something that would behave

>> like

>> this. (There's a switch that you can add to your boot configuration that

>> limits the amount of memory used - very helpful when trying to

>> troubleshoot

>> a problem, but NOT something a game install should be mucking with!!!)

>>

>> --

>> Charlie.

>> "Richj44" <Richj44@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

>> news:838232FB-138B-4557-B597-BCB13AEFFA63@microsoft.com...

>> > Problem solved. It turns out the culprit is indeed Oblivion, or one of

>> > the

>> > patches or mods I installed along with it. The bad part is, apparently

>> > it's

>> > a one-way street. Uninstalling Oblivion, or using system restore to

>> > return

>> > to a point prior to initially installing it, doesn't help. Once it

>> > loses

>> > the

>> > 2GB of RAM there's no "fixing" it.

>> >

>> > Luckily I have been imaging my drive every step of the way, so I could

>> > quickly return it to a pre-Oblivion state (thanks, True Image 11!).

>> >

>> > Thanks to all who tried to help. I'd still love to hear an explanation

>> > of

>> > what happens and how it happens, but at least I know now how to avoid

>> > having

>> > it happen again. Oblivion's a cool game, but not *that* cool.

>> >

>> > RJ

>>

>>