Very Interesting Problem

[A Casual Fitz]

---UPDATE---

Meh, okay so I bought another 512MB stick of RAM, and at first the computer wouldn't boot, but after taking out/putting it back in I had all 4 slots taken up by 512MB sticks and running. That's 2GB (512x4) of RAM installed. So I check my computer properties and it says I only have 1.5GB!!! ARRGH.

I ran Belarc Advisor once again and it had this to say:

1536 Megabytes Installed Memory

Slot '0' has 512 MB
Slot '1' has 512 MB
Slot '2' has 512 MB
Slot '3' has 512 MB

Installed memory?? I checked MSI's site and my board should accept up to 4GB dual channel. The new RAM stick I bought is identical to the 3rd stick I ended up taking out for a while.

CPU-Z says I have 2048MB of RAM AND I ran memtest again and it turned up no errors HOWEVER it only recognized 1536MB. GRR!

 

[aYeti]

Hmm this is easy really
but without the brand and model of the Motherboard
it?s just a guess

ok here is the deal
you have onboard video (Right?)
the third ram slot if for video memory only NOT system memory
you have 2 slots for system memory

Now this should be what the problem is but if you provided the
make and model of your mother board we could find out for sure

 

[A Casual Fitz]

I don't have onboard video. It's an MSI K8t Neo-2 s939 motherboard.

 

[mrblotto]

run memtest86 (google it) and it may tell you which (if any) sticks are acting wonky..........

 

[A Casual Fitz]

I ran it and it said no errors. It also only recognized 512MB. HMPH!

-EDIT- I just ran Belarc Advisor and it listed this under "Memory Modules"


512 Megabytes Installed Memory

Slot '0' is Empty
Slot '1' has 512 MB
Slot '2' has 512 MB
Slot '3' has 512 MB

What does this mean?

Thanks to everyone that's responded so far.

 

[Cutthroat]

Can you try one stick in slot 0 and see what happens, then go from there. Some mobos are picky about which slots are used.

 

[aYeti]

nm read post below

 

[aYeti]

OH i see u DO have 4 slots

and slot one is empty
take the stick out of slot 3 and put it in slot 0
this will give u 1 gig
the third stick should do nothing more then confuse your computer
im surprised it runs at all with that third stick

BECAUSE THEY MUST BE INSTALLED IN PAIRS OF 2

 

[A Casual Fitz]

-Edit- I got it all fixed, thanks for the help everyone.

 

[aYeti]

well gosh

thats good

tell us what u did please

 

[KAZANI]

Originally posted by: A Casual Fitz
-Edit- I got it all fixed, thanks for the help everyone.

Nevermind the thanks, just write about the solution!

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: aYeti
OH i see u DO have 4 slots

and slot one is empty
take the stick out of slot 3 and put it in slot 0
this will give u 1 gig
the third stick should do nothing more then confuse your computer
im surprised it runs at all with that third stick

BECAUSE THEY MUST BE INSTALLED IN PAIRS OF 2

What is this Rambus? If you want to run dual channel, yes, the RAM has to be in pairs. But that is it. My old desktop (Asus P4P800VM) had 1 512MB stick, and 2 256MB sticks in it... guess what, Windows said I had 1GB of RAM.

What if I want to install in pairs of 7? Is that ok?

 

[KAZANI]

I have the same limitation with my Gigabyte GA-K8N Pro-SLI. The user manual states that the board will not work with a 3 memory modules configuration.

 

[A Casual Fitz]

--Edit-- See OP.

 

[A Casual Fitz]

Bump, update.