jdhoward

Good evening all, 

I've been unable to locate a solution on the net or even discussion on this problem. 

System Spec:
Windows 7 64bit Home Edition
EVGA X58 SLI E758 Motherboard
Core I7 930 oc'd to 4.0ghz
Evga gtx 670 SLI
Corsair AX1200 PSU
12gb Corsair Dominator RAM oc'd to 1636mhz
Standard air cooling for CPU and GPUs that one would expect for overclocked rig.

Programs used to monitor system resources:
AIDA64 Extreme Edition
Hardware Monitor V0.5.1 Beta

Recent Changes to System:
Updated my 132-BL-E758 (EVGA X58 SLI E758) motherboard to Bios release number IX58SZ83. 
Motherboard was previously using a bios released on or about 09/22/2009. 

Problem:
After installing the 83 Bios update my system no longer recognizes 12gb of installed corsair memory as available for use. The following is shown in resource window. Hardware Reserved: 8201 MB - In Use: 1769 MB - Modified: 87 MB - Standby: 1368 MB - Free: 887 MB. Total memory installed: 12,228 MB. Available: 2260 MB. Cached: 1455 MB. Total: 4087. 

• As you can see by the last number of 4087 MB that the system now only recognizes that amount as available. When running games or programs the system then bases % of memory used on the total of 4087 MB rather than the full 12gb of ram installed. 

 
Solutions Attempted:
1. Reboot computer, return to BIOS and load default settings - log back into Windows. Result - no change in problem.
2. Change VTT settings from +125 to default, then back to +125 and then further to +150. Result - no change in problem.
3. Attempt to locate 'Memory Recognition function' in Bios that was mentioned on an internet search, no such function found in Bios.
4. Looked into msconfig and the 'use maximum memory' function under advanced window. Decided against changing this function (box is unchecked by default) instructions on net suggested checking this box but others reported serious errors attempting to boot back into Windows after enabling this function.

AIDA64 Extreme Edition - current memory readings (Chrome web browser w/2 tabs open and several programs in background running such as AIDA, HardwareMonitor, etc.)
Field ValuePhysical Memory Total 4087 MBUsed 1801 MBFree 2285 MBUtilization 44 % Swap Space Total 8172 MBUsed 2332 MBFree 5839 MBUtilization 29 % Virtual Memory Total 12259 MBUsed 4134 MBFree 8125 MBUtilization 34 % Paging File Paging File C:\pagefile.sysCurrent Size 4087 MBCurrent / Peak Usage 123 MB / 140 MBUtilization 3 % Physical Address Extension (PAE) Supported by Operating System YesSupported by CPU YesActive Yes

AIDA64 Extreme Edition - reading located under Computer-Summary-Motherboard-System Memory:
System Memory 4087 MB  (DDR3-1333 DDR3 SDRAM)

Something must be wrong with the Bios update. Memory was displayed correctly just prior to update. Previous bios installed caused problems, of which I cannot identify, with recent upgrade from gtx 480 sli to gtx 670 sli and HPET was not present causing issues with benchmarks such as 3dmark.  Updating the Bios to 83 solved the problems with the gpu's and added HPET to the system thereby enabling benchmarking to resume without issue.

Have I given enough information? Can you help? Please let me know what suggestions you might have. 

jdhoward

HeavyHemi Have you tried doing a full BIOS reset? In other words, shut down the system. Turn off or unplug the PSU. Remove the BIOS battery. Press and hold the BIOS reset button for 30 seconds. Let the system sit for 15 minutes. Reinstall the battery and reboot. Have you set the memory timing manually in the BIOS? Are all your other settings at default? BIOS 83 has some subtle differences that change overclocking a bit. Also you CANNOT use your previously saved overclocking profiles. 

I think you're on to something there. To answer your first question, no I had not tried a full BIOS reset using the method you described. I don't feel the need at this point to try that and here is why - when I reflashed the bios with a freshly downloaded and burned copy of 83.iso and with default BIOS settings I found the system recognized all 12gb of ram. When I reset the computer moments ago and loaded up a saved overclock profile I found myself again losing much of the ram to hardware reserve.

So as you said - you cannot use previously saved profiles. Perhaps you are right. I will go back and try to replicate the overclock without using the saved profile.

You said that BIOS 83 has some subtle differences that change overclocking - might you be able to name one such change? A little hint as to what to watch out for would be very helpful.

thanks for the post, may just have helped quite a bit