Strange issue: 4GB RAM and 939Dual-SATA 2, help please!

[oneguy]

Hi,

I just purchased an additional 2GB of RAM, bringing my total to 4GB.

When turning on the PC, during the black BIOS boot up information, I notice it's reporting just under 3GB of RAM - instead of the 4GB.

When looking in Windows 7 64 bit, it shows just 2.86GB of installed memory.

The only place where I can see 4GB is in the blue BIOS set-up page where it correctly reports 4 x 1GB slots.

How can I get Windows 7 and the boot-up page to see the 4GB? Any idea why the POST screen at boot-up shows just under 3GB when the BIOS setup page actually sees it all?

Any ideas?

[JWK]

Hi there,

Per your motherboard's specification page (ASRock > Products > 939Dual-SATA2), your board only supports a maximum of 4 gigs of RAM. From this total amount, a certain amount will be set aside for system devices, the AGP aperture size, and more. Personally, I own a 4CoreDual-SATA2 R2.0 that only shows 3.2 gigs available out of 4, even though the chipset supposedly also supports a full 4 gigs, so you're not alone out there. :) If you aren't using an AGP video card, try reducing the AGP Aperture setting as much as possible, and see if that frees up a bit more RAM.

Good luck!

[oneguy]

Thanks for the reply :)

After posting here, I found something about enabling the "memory hole" function in advanced BIOS settings. Doing this made 4GB show up on the POST screen at boot-up and also 4GB show when checking the system properties in Windows 7.

Is there disadvantage/risk of enabling this memory hole setting? It seems to have fixed the problem but also seemed *too easy*!