Attension H55/h57 users!

[badmau5]

Hello everybody. Im having this weird issue: im using MSI H55M-ED55 Mobo, i3 540 CPU, Wintec 4Gb(2x2Gb) ddr3 1333, GTS 250 and win 7 x64. In system properties it shows that only 3.87Gb of my memory is usable. Here is the question: im using dedicated Videocard and 64 bit operating system why all 4gb of memory is not usable, i assume onboard graphics reserves part of 4Gb ram, but VGA in bios set to PCI-E, not to onboard. Is it common for all h55/57 boards, or smth is wrong? Ive already tried everything there is no memory remap option in bios that i was suggested to enable, i also updated bios to latest version. Anyone whos using H55/H57 boards and dedicated video - are u having same memory readings??

ive tried to contact msi tech support but got this answer: Dear Customer, As long as the bios is detecting the correct amount of memory you will need to check Windows 7 for a needed patch. Also if the System Information if detecting 3.8 that is about right after the OS gets done with what it needs. So please do check with on the Microsoft Knowledge Base. Thank you,
Not too helpful at all.

 

[Henry]

It's not too hard to understand. The OS takes what it needs and the rest is available for general use, in your case it's 3.87. The amount will vary quite a bit in different systems. For instance in mine available for use is 2.99GB.

 

[badmau5]

Its not as easy as it seems. From what i've read 3.87 gb is what available for windows, not what remains after "OS takes what it needs". u can clearly see it on this image:

137mb is Hardware reserved.

 

[NovJoe]

That 137mb is clearly stated it's being used by some hardware that you have installed in the system. For example, PCI add on cards. Do you have any add on cards or likewise hardware?

 

[badmau5]

That 137mb is clearly stated it's being used by some hardware that you have installed in the system. For example, PCI add on cards. Do you have any add on cards or likewise hardware?

That would make sense but i didnt install any add on cards, only videocard, ive actually tried to disable HD audio or Ethernet controller in BIOS, just to see if that would make any difference but no luck...
Here is my motherboard, maybe there is something else onboard that reserves these 137Mb?
http://www.msi.com/index.php?func=proddesc&prod_no=1975&maincat_no=1&cat2_no=170&cat3_no=681

 

[hqxriven]

Normal??

Get your conclusion

http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/41075-possible-use-full-4-gb-ga-h55m-s2hp.html

 

[NovJoe]

As you can see in the link provided, there is also no solution to it and results are similar to what badmau5 has encountered.

If a BIOS fix can solve the problem, then you can try contacting MSI tech support for advices.
>>How to contact MSI.<<

 

[claykin]

Not that this necessarily helps you, but on my P55-GD85 I have 9MB hardware reserved with 8GB installed.  Also running Win 7 x64.

I'm OK sparing the 9MB for whatever needs it. 

 

[Aaron]

This is not normal.  Reinstall your memory sticks until it doesn't show the (x.xx GB usable).  Check for a memory mapping option in the BIOS and, if present, enable it.

 

[badmau5]

I've tried to reinstall memory modules and even cpu, but no result. Contacting MSI technical support also gave no results, they simply ignore existence of the problem, here is the conversation:

MSI Tech. 08/30/2010 Dear Customer, Sorry there is no bios updates for the board you have the latest and this is not a glitch with the board or bios. Thank you,

End User 08/30/2010 Bios reports 4096Mb of RAM. But in windows total amount of usable ram is 3958Mb which i believe means that BIOS RESERVES 137Mb of memory and it is NOT AVAILABLE for windows. If its normal please tell me what 137Mb of ram being used for? It is clearly BIOS glitch, and i am not asking you to provide me with correct bios right now but to admit that bios is not functioning correctly. I want to know that MSI technicians are working on this issue and it will be fixes in one of bios updates.

MSI Tech. 08/30/2010 Dear Customer, What is the bios reporting? If reports all 4gb then issue is not bios or board related is OS. Thank you,

End User 08/30/2010 Im sorry, but i dont think its normal, cause 3.87Gb is amount of memory available for windows, and in resource monitor 137mb of memory are clearly marked as hardware reserved. I know there was identical issue with gigabyte mainboards and it was fixed with bios update. I got two PCs with identical operating systems and 4gb of ram on each, but only one with msi mainboardboard reserves 137mb of memory, so its NOT available for windows. Here is the screenshot of resource monitor: http://i746.photobucket.com/albums/xx102/kepkhiev/My%20PC/Untitled-1.png

MSI Tech. 08/30/2010 Dear Customer, For Windows that is correct the operating system itself does take memory as well so you have to account for that. As for the board and bios as long as the bios is detecting the correct amount in bios that is fine. Thank you,

End User 08/28/2010 Hello. Im using MSI H55M-ED55 Mainboard, i3 540 CPU, Wintec 4Gb(2x2Gb) ddr3 1333, GTS 250 and win 7 x64. In system properties it shows that only 3.87Gb of my memory is usable. Here is the question: im using dedicated Videocard and 64 bit operating system why all 4gb of memory is not usable, i assume onboard graphics reserves part of 4Gb ram, but VGA in bios set to PCI-E, not to onboard. I'd like to know whats on the motherboard reserves 137Mb of my ram and how to disable it. If its a BIOS glitch when it will be fixed, cause im running latest bios version (1.5)? According to intel representative this behavior is not normal for h55/57 chipsets.

Not that this necessarily helps you, but on my P55-GD85 I have 9MB hardware reserved with 8GB installed.  Also running Win 7 x64.

I'm OK sparing the 9MB for whatever needs it. 

Well, if it was my case i think i would not even notice, but missing 137Mb of ram make me feel robbed.

Btw there was same issue with gigabyte p55a-ud3, and it was fixed with bios update:
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/18230-Memory-Issue-4gb-Ram-%283.87gb-usable%29

 

[Bernhard]

My H55M-ED55 reserves 41mb. My P45 Plat on the other hand only reserves 1mb. Both run Win7 64bit and both have 4mb RAM. So I cannot concur that its the OS.

 

[Aaron]

This happened to me randomly on a P55 build.  After reinstalling the modules about 20 times (showing various numbers each time) it finally dropped the usable suffix.  Definitely hardware related.

 

[Jack the Newbie]

Hardware related that may be, but the question is, what kind of hardware problem causes that exactly 0.13GB "disappear". 

badmau5, go to Advanced BIOS Features and set "Primary Graphic's Adapter" to [Internal].  Then check the value that is set for "VGA Share Memory".  If it is set to 128MB, set it to 32MB and save & exit BIOS Setup.  Then turn the system back on, enter BIOS again, and set the "Primary Graphic's Adapter"-Option back to PCI-E.  See if that changes anything about the amount of hardware reserved memory.

 

[badmau5]

So ive tried like u said to switch to onboard graphics an it was already set to 32Mb. Interestingly enough when i have booted into windows amount of "unusable " memory increased 64Mb not 32Mb (3894Mb instead of 3958Mb with dedicated graphics). Anyways, ive switched it back to dedicated graphics and its still 0.13Gb missing. Msi tech support keeps telling me that there is nothing wrong about it. But i'm almost sure its a bios glitch. I've contacted intel to ask if its normal for h55 chipset to reserve 0.13Gb of ram even when using dedicated graphics and they said it is NOT normal., so MSI cant tell me its ok for this chipset...

 

[Jack the Newbie]

What makes me suspicious in this particular case is that the exact same thing seems to occur on Gigabyte GA-H55M-S2HP and the Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H as well.  That means we are looking at (at least) three different mainboards using three entirely different BIOS Builds.  That means this is either some sort of very rare co-incidence where the exact same "BIOS glitch" somehow occurred, or there is a more rational explanation to the this scenario. 

I wouldn't be surprised if this boils down to an Intel CPU MicroCode issue (the same Intel MicroCode Module used in all these cases).  To take Windows 7 64bit out of the game, can you get a hold of a free Linux 64bit distro to check how things appear to be there?

If this was a problem entirely related to memory remapping, it would be hard to explain that particular amount of reserved memory.  If memory remapping was disabled for some reason (on the BIOS level), the amount of reserved address space would be a lot larger (I suspect around 0.75-1GB on this system configuration). Since this is not the cases, hardware reserved address spaces are obviously properly remapped to higher areas.  Because of that, this could very well be a Windows related issue.

I am not really experienced with Windows 7 64bit (never used it).  However, there should be some sort of list showing what piece of hardware gets which part of the available address space.  In Windows XP such a list is accessable via Device Manager and it looks like this:

Please try to find that kind of list, expand all entries, take a screenshot and post the image here.  Perhaps that way we can find out what device or system instance the "missing" amount of memory is reserved for.

 

[Aaron]

Hardware related that may be, but the question is, what kind of hardware problem causes that exactly 0.13GB "disappear". 

badmau5, go to Advanced BIOS Features and set "Primary Graphic's Adapter" to [Internal].  Then check the value that is set for "VGA Share Memory".  If it is set to 128MB, set it to 32MB and save & exit BIOS Setup.  Then turn the system back on, enter BIOS again, and set the "Primary Graphic's Adapter"-Option back to PCI-E.  See if that changes anything about the amount of hardware reserved memory.

Since the board only had one clip for each stick of memory, I'm assuming it was a slightly loose module.  I gave it a real good push the final time and it worked OK.

It was an Asus P7P55D LE board.  Since Gigabyte, Asus and MSI have shown this issue I'm certain this isn't BIOS related.

 

[badmau5]

I am not really experienced with Windows 7 64bit (never used it).  However, there should be some sort of list showing what piece of hardware gets which part of the available address space.  In Windows XP such a list is accessible via Device Manager and it looks like this:

Please try to find that kind of list, expand all entries, take a screen-shot and post the image here.  Perhaps that way we can find out what device or system instance the "missing" amount of memory is reserved for.

im sorry your screenshot didn't appear, but i believe u r talking about this:

However all these reserved memory areas are in hexadecimal numbers.
Btw right now im running Vista x64, ive installed it to see if same issue appears in this OS and id does: reported total amount of memory is 3958Mb.

 

[badmau5]

Since the board only had one clip for each stick of memory, I'm assuming it was a slightly loose module.  I gave it a real good push the final time and it worked OK.

It was an Asus P7P55D LE board.  Since Gigabyte, Asus and MSI have shown this issue I'm certain this isn't BIOS related.

I will try to reinstall modules one more time, i'd be very happy if this was a source of the problem.

 

[Aaron]

I will try to reinstall modules one more time, i'd be very happy if this was a source of the problem.

Good luck!

 

[Jack the Newbie]

However all these reserved memory areas are in hexadecimal numbers.

And?  Type them into the Windows calculator as hexedecimal numbers (substract the left value from the right).  Then transform the result from HEX back to DEC.  The DEC result will be in Byte.