m5550 4GB RAM not supported as with 945PM, x64=3,2GB instead of 3,8GB

Hi my current problem ist that my m5550 just sees 3,2GB even with the latest BIOS 2.07 which should have "upgraded" the error with 4GB installed on 2.06 and no boot at all.

My current questin is, is it possible to use the last RAM as a RAMDISK or at least a small workaround?
As i encountered only 3,2 GB is adresseble/usable
and from what i've read 3,8 should be used as the chipset is weak ;-)

where are the last 600MB RAM? just curious as on this Thread last Post:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=131690&page=2
it is claimed that 3.8GB would be the limit for my chipset

and is it possible to setup a ramdisk in the unused space?

and i found the intel PM945PM Datasheet:
http://www.intel.com/assets/pdf/datasheet/309219.pdf

as far it is confirmed it is indeed a Bios limitation as Dell XPS with the same chipset supports 4GB RAM but with their "DELL" custom Bios and Alienware used a Phoenix Bios instead which is modular but more protected from any deep changes ;-(

 

How much video RAM do you have?

Also, regardless, I doubt you will be able to recover your system RAM without some silly hardware modifications, and even if you do, you would get a negligible increase in performance. Just my 2 cents.

 

1GB DDR2 onboard/dedicated to my mxm module and no shared memmory nor any hypercache (disabled thath with vBios editing while mxm upgrade)

 

Read this: http://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=123711.0

So basically it's a hard limit, the effects of which can be minimized if you swap to a video card/mxm module with less VRAM.

 

I do like his question though of if he can use the last not in use 0.8GB as a ramdisk. I'm soon going to be installing 4GB in my M17, and I have a 32-bit OS so obviously I'm not going to be able to use all 4GB, I'm wondering if I can use the remaining 0.5GB or so that the OS can't use as a ramdisk for ReadyBoost and a Firefox cache.

I'm asking because I'm wondering if the OS would have to recognize the full 4GB in order to set any as a ramdisk. If not then it'd be a great way to utilise the 4GB of RAM, especially seeming as ReadyBoost on the RAM itself would basically be a RAM extension.

 

Your two situations are different.

Meins321: Hardware limitation present, software limitation not present, but hardware limitation overrides software limitation.

EvilCorsair: No such hardware limitation present, software limitation present, but both need to be cleared in one way or another..

 

I don't really care about gaining the extra 0.5GB or so of ram for my OS, I'm just wondering if I can utilise the 0.5GB that the OS doesn't use for a ramdrive and if the OS will still use the original 3.5GB it recognized. If you see what I mean.

Basically I'm asking if I can use the 0.5GB or so that a 32-bit OS doesn't use out of 4GB for a ramdrive and still keep the RAM that the OS uses intact.

 

Think about what you're asking though Evil.
"I would like my OS to utilize the extra .5GB of RAM that my OS doesn't recognize..."

 

That's what I'm wondering, if a) when the RAMdisk is created it'll use up the .5GB of RAM that's not in use, or b) when it reboots the system will not recognize the RAMdisk as ram per se, and will instead use the rest of the 3.5GB (assuming the RAMdisk was 0.5GB). In theory once a RAMdisk has been created the OS should recognize and use the rest of the RAM, but I'm not too certain of it.

 

It doesn't work like that, your computer will be left with 3.0GB of ram remaining for use, there's no way around it AFAIK.

 

Mhhm, that does suck. It would have been really nice if it could utilise the extra RAM once the ramdisk is set up but I guess the OS can only still utilise that 3.5GB of RAM including the ramdisk.

I guess I'll just create a ramdisk that's 75MB or so. No point of it being bigger as what I was going to put onto it was pretty much just a Firefox cache, and ReadyBoost, and if it won't utilise the free ram left over then there's no point in setting it to make use of ReadyBoost.

 

www.superspeed.com offers software to "force" ramdisks inside Memory which is not used but allocaed by your Bios.