Just installed new 8GB ram, still says 2.75GB usable, please help!

[X_X]

@Dijon Would you please post CPU-z text report.

[Tera Byte]

15 hours ago, Dijon said:

So before it used to say 4GB installed (2.75 Usable) now I got new RAM (4x2GB DDR2 800MHz RAM) from CEX, installed, (all are same speed and type and brand) turned on PC and well says 8GB installed, (2.75GB usable). I then opened up task manager, yup 2.75GB is max as it could go. I tried the msconfig solution, did not work, I tried taking out the RAM, mixing with old ones, reseating the, nope nothing. I tried taking CPU out and putting it back again, still same. Went into BIOS, says I should have 7168mb RAM memory avaliable. Unfortunatly my BIOS does not have the option to remap memory location or any of that. I basically tried everything but here is a funny thing I found out. You know when you open up resource monitor? Well I opened it up, went to memory tab and get this, it said "349MB free", but the weird thing was it said "4354MB reserved for hardware" and it keeps saying this no matter what. Should'nt it say for "reserved hardware2 max 100MB? Now I dont know if this is the cause of the problem but it could be. If any one could answer me with a solution, I would be very grateful.
Down here are the specs:
MEDION MT7 490G Desktop
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66GHz
8GB DDR2 PC2-6400 800MHz RAM, all sticks are the same (2.75GB usable)
300WATT FSP PSU
750 HDD Storage (500GB one drive, 250GB the other, No SSD)
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
ASUS Nvidia GeForce GT 240 GPU
MS-7358 Motherboard
 

 

UPDATE* : If you hover over the area where it says "Hardware Reserved" with the cursor it says that it is for the bios and drivers

[Stefan Payne]

3 hours ago, Tera Byte said:

UPDATE* : If you hover over the area where it says "Hardware Reserved" with the cursor it says that it is for the bios and drivers

No, in this case its something other.

Its where 32bit Systems put the adresses of components and depending on the Components, its 3,5GiB at best or lower than that as it is reserved adresses for the components.

 

Those adresses needs to be mapped somewhere else, that is what the Memory Mapping feature is for.

If the Board doesn't have that option or it is disabled, you see the result in this thread...

 

And some Boards of the Time didn't support Memory Remapping at all or it was disabled or other weird stuff.

32bit was still just too common at the time...

[Jay Deah]

Forget about the possibility of fixing this in software, I promise it isn’t a windows thing and all those bits you’re seeing are just red herrings. People mean well with trying to help but weren’t around in the days before PCs got easy/simple. This is a very common very well know and understood limitation for things of this era.

 

the insurrections for the BIOS update are a bit crap (again back in the day only the techy people used to do this stuff as it wasn’t easy/simple) but basically you want to create a boot disk with the update on it and boot off of it. Rufus is a great tool for this and doing it via USB should work just the same as CD.

 

also even if this works it’s possible you’ll go from 3gb max to 4gb max so be prepared to return the ram to CEX before the grace period ends.

 

i had a dell system like this that I could never get 8gb in

[Dijon]

8 hours ago, Stefan Payne said:

Yes, you either need a CD/DVD burned or it put on a USB Thumb Drive. You can do that for example with RUFUS.

Ahhh ok I will try that

[Dijon]

7 hours ago, HoneyBadger84 said:

Have you checked the allocation to see if it's your GPU stealing that RAM? Could be just that simple. I don't remember where exactly in windows 7 settings that is. 

 

It might even be a bios setting for video card memory allocation. It's been so long since I had a core2 processor setup... 

Ah no that is not the problem I did check, the GT 240 has dedicated GPU, the RAM didnt got there

[Dijon]

6 hours ago, Tera Byte said:

UPDATE* : If you hover over the area where it says "Hardware Reserved" with the cursor it says that it is for the bios and drivers

True I just checked, but 4GB is a bit too much for it dont you think?

[HoneyBadger84]

Just now, Dijon said:

True I just checked, but 4GB is a bit too much for it dont you think?

I've seen a GPU steal up to 7GB of RAM from a person's system RAM before because of how wonky a motherboard or Windows will allocate things, so don't be surprised if that's what it ends up being

[Dijon]

7 hours ago, Tera Byte said:

After plugging each of the values from Resource Monitor and it appears that Windows has "Hardware Reserved" it. I'm not sure what that means. A quick search popped this up it seems to be a setting that should not be on. You might want to try this. Let me know how it works out.

I did try that but I will give it another go.

[Dijon]

Just now, HoneyBadger84 said:

I've seen a GPU steal up to 7GB of RAM from a person's system RAM before because of how wonky a motherboard or Windows will allocate things, so don't be surprised if that's what it ends up being

I wont xD, Im just gonna try the msconfig thing again if that does not do it, I'll get a BIOS update to it, IF that does not work then I will give up.

[Dijon]

2 hours ago, Jay Deah said:

Forget about the possibility of fixing this in software, I promise it isn’t a windows thing and all those bits you’re seeing are just red herrings. People mean well with trying to help but weren’t around in the days before PCs got easy/simple. This is a very common very well know and understood limitation for things of this era.

 

the insurrections for the BIOS update are a bit crap (again back in the day only the techy people used to do this stuff as it wasn’t easy/simple) but basically you want to create a boot disk with the update on it and boot off of it. Rufus is a great tool for this and doing it via USB should work just the same as CD.

 

also even if this works it’s possible you’ll go from 3gb max to 4gb max so be prepared to return the ram to CEX before the grace period ends.

 

i had a dell system like this that I could never get 8gb in

Ohh ok well I will try this out but is there any guide to using Rufus in this process? I have never used it before and I dont want to mess anything up.

[Dijon]

7 hours ago, Tera Byte said:

After plugging each of the values from Resource Monitor and it appears that Windows has "Hardware Reserved" it. I'm not sure what that means. A quick search popped this up it seems to be a setting that should not be on. You might want to try this. Let me know how it works out.

Ok tried it and it does not work unfortuantly. I think the only thing to do now is to update BIOS, I just need a guide so I dont mess anything up and I am good go.

[Dijon]

7 hours ago, X_X said:

@Dijon Would you please post CPU-z text report.

Yes I need to go for now but when I'll be back I will definetly show you.

[Jay Deah]

ok this is my quick attempts at a rough guide....

go here and download the file:

http://www.medion.com/gb/service/_lightbox/treiber_details.php?did=5288

 

run the EXE and it will prompt you to extract some files. extract them anywhere you want...

now navigate to where you extracted the files you'll see these 3 files

 

autoexec is a batch file/script that should auto-run on boot and flash the bios.

the AWDFL882.exe file is the BIOS flash tool

the W7358MLN.11D file is the BIOS itself

 

now we need to make a bootable DOS drive to boot into and run this file, we'll use RUFUS:

https://rufus.ie/

 

find yourself a USB drive you dont mind being wiped and plug it in (any size will do)

in rufus select the drive in the top list. in Boot Selection pick FreeDos

Partition scheme can be MBR, Target System BIOS (GPT/UEFI you dont need as yuo dont have a UEFI bios)

 

then click START and it should wipe the USB drive and make it a bootable DOS drive.

[Here is a guide i found for an older version https://www.howtogeek.com/136987/how-to-create-a-bootable-dos-usb-drive/ ]

 

Fire up windows explorer and copy the 3 files you extracted earlier into the root of this new drive. if it prompts you to overwrite autoexec.bat say yes

 

now reboot the PC and enter the boot menu (normally press F12 on startup, bout could be any key) and select to boot from USB.

 

if its working then you should see the screen say start flashing BIOS MS7358 Medion? Press any key.

 

press a key and hopfully your bios should flash!

 

if that doesnt work automatically paste a picture of the screen you get

 

 

 

[Dijon]

1 hour ago, Jay Deah said:

ok this is my quick attempts at a rough guide....

go here and download the file:

http://www.medion.com/gb/service/_lightbox/treiber_details.php?did=5288

 

run the EXE and it will prompt you to extract some files. extract them anywhere you want...

now navigate to where you extracted the files you'll see these 3 files

 

autoexec is a batch file/script that should auto-run on boot and flash the bios.

the AWDFL882.exe file is the BIOS flash tool

the W7358MLN.11D file is the BIOS itself

 

now we need to make a bootable DOS drive to boot into and run this file, we'll use RUFUS:

https://rufus.ie/

 

find yourself a USB drive you dont mind being wiped and plug it in (any size will do)

in rufus select the drive in the top list. in Boot Selection pick FreeDos

Partition scheme can be MBR, Target System BIOS (GPT/UEFI you dont need as yuo dont have a UEFI bios)

 

then click START and it should wipe the USB drive and make it a bootable DOS drive.

[Here is a guide i found for an older version https://www.howtogeek.com/136987/how-to-create-a-bootable-dos-usb-drive/ ]

 

Fire up windows explorer and copy the 3 files you extracted earlier into the root of this new drive. if it prompts you to overwrite autoexec.bat say yes

 

now reboot the PC and enter the boot menu (normally press F12 on startup, bout could be any key) and select to boot from USB.

 

if its working then you should see the screen say start flashing BIOS MS7358 Medion? Press any key.

 

press a key and hopfully your bios should flash!

 

if that doesnt work automatically paste a picture of the screen you get

 

 

 

Ok this guide is perfect I will try this now, cross fingers lets hope it work, thanks so much for the time you spent helping me, I really do appreciate it.

[X_X]

So you've gone straight for the Flash without seeing if your BIOS was already assigning the 8GB of RAM which that board is supposed to support

 

Hope it works for you without problems. No need for that CPU-z report now I guess.

[Dijon]

55 minutes ago, X_X said:

So you've gone straight for the Flash without seeing if your BIOS was already assigning the 8GB of RAM which that board is supposed to support

 

Hope it works for you without problems. No need for that CPU-z report now I guess.

I still have not done it (will soon though), but why is that bad?

[Rodge]

Very interested in the results. I full expect this to be a bios issue.

[Dijon]

5 hours ago, Dijon said:

Ok this guide is perfect I will try this now, cross fingers lets hope it work, thanks so much for the time you spent helping me, I really do appreciate it.

 

3 hours ago, X_X said:

So you've gone straight for the Flash without seeing if your BIOS was already assigning the 8GB of RAM which that board is supposed to support

 

Hope it works for you without problems. No need for that CPU-z report now I guess.

Hi guys I did everything you asked and here are th results, I put everything in the USB, using Rufus and your guide and when I turned off and turned on the PC (with the USB in it) well it went straight to the OS. So I went to the BIOS went to the BIOS sequence and instaed of CD ROM first, I put removable (no USB option so I thought this was the USB), again I turned it on with these settings applied and it just went straight to Windows again. This is really weird and I dont understand whats going on. But this option above the BIOS sequence called, "Quick Post" was enabled, does this have anything to do with it?

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Dijon said:

 

Hi guys I did everything you asked and here are th results, I put everything in the USB, using Rufus and your guide and when I turned off and turned on the PC (with the USB in it) well it went straight to the OS. So I went to the BIOS went to the BIOS sequence and instaed of CD ROM first, I put removable (no USB option so I thought this was the USB), again I turned it on with these settings applied and it just went straight to Windows again. This is really weird and I dont understand whats going on. But this option above the BIOS sequence called, "Quick Post" was enabled, does this have anything to do with it?

Isn't there an update method from Windows itself?

 

BTW I'm in the same situation with my server, the mobo does not have a bios with memory remap, hope it's not your case

[X_X]

5 hours ago, Dijon said:

I still have not done it (will soon though), but why is that bad?

No, not saying it's bad, just would have been nice to see what the BIOS actually did with the memory by looking at some registers in the CPU-z report and depending on that result, checking the E820 table. That's just my way of doing things. If using an old BIOS then an update may very well fix the problem, just personally would have been nice to prove it beforehand.

 

I would also recommend making a BIOS backup before you flash if you haven't already done so just in case something goes bad but again that's just my personal preference.

 

FWIW the remap option is really for people who do not want memory reclaimed above the 4GB address range, so not having not having a BIOS setup option for it doesn't necessarily mean memory will not be reclaimed by the BIOS.

[Tera Byte]

18 hours ago, Stefan Payne said:

No, in this case its something other.

Its where 32bit Systems put the adresses of components and depending on the Components, its 3,5GiB at best or lower than that as it is reserved adresses for the components.

 

Those adresses needs to be mapped somewhere else, that is what the Memory Mapping feature is for.

If the Board doesn't have that option or it is disabled, you see the result in this thread...

 

And some Boards of the Time didn't support Memory Remapping at all or it was disabled or other weird stuff.

32bit was still just too common at the time...

It shows in the original post that in Resource Monitor it has over 4GB as hardware reserved.

[Stefan Payne]

1 hour ago, Tera Byte said:

It shows in the original post that in Resource Monitor it has over 4GB as hardware reserved.

Yes, that's what happens if Memory Remapping is not enabled and you have a ton of modern Hardware with large memory holes...

 

The memor hole starts at around 4GiB and and originally reserves 512MiB but depending on Hardware it can be bigger, especially with modern components that expect memory remapping to be enabled - wich is what every modern system does. IIRC starting with the first i7 (Bloomfield/Nehalem).

 

And Intel at the time was really awful in terms of market segmentation...

Just look up the i940GML - wich only allowed 2GiB RAM and single core CPUs for no reason...

[X_X]

1 hour ago, Stefan Payne said:

Yes, that's what happens if Memory Remapping is not enabled and you have a ton of modern Hardware with large memory holes...

I think what @Tera Byte is saying is that remap only reclaims address space from the first 4GiB (0-4GiB) so the reclaim would be a lot less than 4GiB. IOW having more than say 2GiB hardware reserved isn't because of remapping, or at least not all off it. The OP should still be getting all the memory above 4GiB so in total 6.75GiB without remapping and something like 7.9GiB perhaps with remapping.

[Jay Deah]

Ok so if the USB did t work try repeating that process using a CD-R, it’s possible

 

1) your system can’t boot from USB

 

2) Rufus didn’t make the USB properly bootable