4gb ram issue

hey guys i had a lil question im sure u heard of it but my searches didnt help . i just received the PATRIOT 4 gigs of ram 667mhz pc2-5300 i ordered of newegg and installed them . im running a sager 5760 , vista 64bit , core2duo t7600 and the chipset is intel 945pm . from what i understand all these elements should support 4 gigs ram . bios shows 4 gigs but windows shows 3 gigs . so i decided to run cpu-z . on the first slot it reported 2 gigs pc2-5300 running 333mhz ( is that right ? it should be 667mhz im sure my chipset supports that ) but on the second slot it reported 2 gigs pc2-4300 running 266mhz . i donow what is up with that . any ideas ? thanks ...

 

not 100% sure but it's something to do with the mobo/vista that can only read up to 2.8gigs of RAM. it's not a bios issue it's just something with the mobo/vista combination that can't address more than 2.8 gigs I believe

This question was covered somewhere in the forums but I can't remember exactly where..

But Santa Rosa notebooks are the first notebooks to have support for more than 3 gigs of RAM.

 

Make sure you have the latest BIOS installed, it might fix the problem.

The clock is 333MHz, since the memory is DDR (Double Data Rate) it makes 2x333MHz=667MHz effective rate.

This is a bit of a problem,
I think they sent you a wrong module. Take it off, I think there is some model number or info written on it.

 

It is very unusual for the two RAM modules to run at different speeds.
CPU-Z's memory tab tells you the actual speed the RAM is running at. The SPD tab tells you the timing data for each module. Does the second module have a set of 333MHz timing data?

John

 

santa rosa is not the first notebooks to support 4gb of memory. and if you are running 32bit windows - your computer will only show 3Gb of ram and 64bit will show all 4GB so i suggest getting the 64bit version if you want all 4gb of ram used.

also, pc5300-is 667mhz - not 333mhz and pc4300 is 533mhz, not 266mhz so those combinations are wrong.

and if they really are different (i would check the serial/model numbers on the chips) - then i would send them back immediately!

 

Looks like he is running 64 bit Vista already.

John

 

hey guys and thanks for the reply . i did some more thourough checking and it appears that vista AND the bios report 3gigs . only cpu-z reports 4gigs . also i shuffled around with one 2gig module and one 1gig module and it turns out u guys are right . i think they might have sent me 2 different ones . the second one looks like its pc2-4300 even though the packaging and the label on the module itself state otherwise . friggin newegg ... anyway can someone tell me where i can find updates for the bios ? its a phoenix bios . do i have to get it from sager only ?

 

your chipset is intel 945pm. there is no way u will see 4GB of ram even if u use a 64 bit OS. u need the 965 chipsets.

 

http://www.intel.com/products/chipsets/945pm/index.htm

945pm supports 4gb of ram, he probably needs a bios update, unless his mobo company specificly said they have not enabled 4gb of support on this model.

 

then show me a post where someone is able to see the entire 4GB of installed ram whose laptop uses the i945 chipset. you can install 4GB of ram, but it doesn't mean u will be able to see all of it.

on the link that u provided it says 4GB memory addressability, to see 4GB of ram u need an address space of more than 4GB.

 

There are some folks on the forum that have installed 4GB, the chipset is certainly capable of doing this.The only problem is BIOS.
Some more info here : http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000811.html

 

i know they have installed 4GB. but as far as i'm aware, none of them is able to see the entire 4GB of ram even after they installed a 64 bit OS.
i don't think it matters whether its a bios limitation or a hardware limitation atm, afaik no one that has a laptop with the i945 chipset is able to see 4GB of ram. there are some who has recently bought the hp dv2500t on this forum and was able to see the entire 4GB of ram; but the dv2500t uses the i965 chipset.

like i said, where did u see a post that says u can see the entire 4GB of ram with a laptop that uses the i945 chipset?

 

PAE @ Microsoft. I am sure you can use 4GB, but you must use a x64 OS and have the latest BIOS.
Even if it is for Vista x86, this can help too.

 

u're not trying to suggest using the /PAE switch are you? its useless in normal versions of windows. you need something like windows 2003 enterprise edition for it to work. with vista x86 using the /PAE switch again makes no difference.

 

From personal experience.

My Asus A8Js with the 945 chipset will not see 4 gigs in BIOS. My son's Compaq with the 945 chipset will see 4 gigs in bios. Mine has descrete graphics (GO7700) his has integrated graphics (950 I think?). I was amazed that his $500 dollar special from Best Buy would do a better job at the hardware level than my machine at three time the cost.

So sometimes 945 will see all 4 gigs but it seems to be a roll of the dice. I'm hoping a bios update will fix this for my machine.

 

I've looked at the 945PM's whitepaper. It will NOT support all 4GB as user-addressable memory. The problem lays with the fact that it has a 32bit memory controller, and video memory and such will take the upper addresses of RAM. So, if you have an Intel integrated graphics card, you will probably see all your memory, but if you have, say, a 256MB graphics card, those 256MB of video RAM addresses (plus a few more megs for DMA access, etc.) will be taken off the top of your memory, which leaves you with about 3.8GB addressable.

Applicable section of the paper: