Hi,

Maybe you can help me out. I am a bit confused with this issue:

I am running a single Opteron 246 on the Tyan S2885 board. Bios: 2.02. RAM: 4GB (1GB x 4 Reg, ECC DDR400, all populated in CPU0 banks). Installed Windows XP Pro w/SP2 (I tried with XP Pro w/o SP2 too). Everything went smoothly, except when I check the System Properites in Control Panel, it shows that only 2.71GB of RAM is installed. I have 4GB of physical RAM installed, but why it's displaying differently. I understand that the OS uses some RAM, but I didn't expect it to use 1.3GB.

Your help is appreciated.

Thanks!

BL

In the boot.ini file, add the /PAE switch. This will enable the system to see more of the RAM. Post what your system shows after doing this. You should have a bit more.

J1NG

For those wondering what the /PAE switch is. Go to "System Properties" in Windows XP (I'm going to assume XP here).

Select the "Advanced" tab.

In the "Startup and Recovery" section, click on "Settings". This will open a new panel.

There should be an "Edit" button under the amount of seconds to do whatever. Click on the "Edit" button, and this will bring up the boot.ini file in text pad, or word pad.

It should read something like the following

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional x64 Edition" /noexecute /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /PAE /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

The /PAE switch listed there is where you type in/place the /PAE switch. This will enable your windows to see/utilise more RAM on your system if you have 2.5GB or more installed.

J1NG

Thanks!!!

-------------------------
2 X 250 "E" Opterons, S2895 A2NRF (K8WE) beta bios 1.01T
4 X(2x 512MB Matched) Corsair 3200 Reg ECC(TWINX1024RE-3200LLPT)
nVidia 6800GT, LSI 320-2X U320 Raid (512MB ram Onboard!!)
7 X 15,000 RPM U320 Drives, XP Pro SP2
PC Power & Cooling 850 SSI
IT WORKS!!! AND IT'S TYAN'S TECH SUPPORT THAT DID IT!!!!

also, flash your bios to a bettr beta... 2.03 or 2.02b. look for the post.

edit:
http://forums.amd.com/index.php?showtopic=33863' ">http://forums.amd.com/index.php?showtopic=33863

-------------------------
SYSTEM-1: 2x Viewsonic VX900-2 19"| Tyan S2885ANRF (Rev.A, bios v2.07) | 1x ATI Radeon X800 Pro 256MB | 2x AMD Opteron 248-HE Single-Core CPU | 8x 512mb PC3200 Corsair XMS Series ECC Reg. (CMX512RE-3200LL) | 2x Seagate LVD 36.7Gb U320 SCSI 10,000rpm RAID0 (ST336607LW) | 1x Seagate LVD 36.7Gb U320 SCSI 1

OK
After putting in the /PAE switch, I show only 3.17G of ram. Didn't look at what was shown prior, but I think I can safely guess that it was lower. BUT, somehow I expected more. I've got 8 X 512 sticks of Corsair LLPT. What do you'all think?

Thanks

Flint

-------------------------
2 X 250 "E" Opterons, S2895 A2NRF (K8WE) beta bios 1.01T
4 X(2x 512MB Matched) Corsair 3200 Reg ECC(TWINX1024RE-3200LLPT)
nVidia 6800GT, LSI 320-2X U320 Raid (512MB ram Onboard!!)
7 X 15,000 RPM U320 Drives, XP Pro SP2
PC Power & Cooling 850 SSI
IT WORKS!!! AND IT'S TYAN'S TECH SUPPORT THAT DID IT!!!!

flint, wht bios are you using? did you flash to 2.03 yet?

-------------------------
SYSTEM-1: 2x Viewsonic VX900-2 19"| Tyan S2885ANRF (Rev.A, bios v2.07) | 1x ATI Radeon X800 Pro 256MB | 2x AMD Opteron 248-HE Single-Core CPU | 8x 512mb PC3200 Corsair XMS Series ECC Reg. (CMX512RE-3200LL) | 2x Seagate LVD 36.7Gb U320 SCSI 10,000rpm RAID0 (ST336607LW) | 1x Seagate LVD 36.7Gb U320 SCSI 1

QUOTE (Flintstone @ Jan 15 2005, 12:38 AM) OK
After putting in the /PAE switch, I show only 3.17G of ram. Didn't look at what was shown prior, but I think I can safely guess that it was lower. BUT, somehow I expected more. I've got 8 X 512 sticks of Corsair LLPT. What do you'all think?

Thanks

Flint
I see 3.2GB of 4GB.

It's normal and a problem based in the past. The PCI cards map memory regions below the 4GB barrier that will not be available for your system any more. This region was chosen in the past because it was incredible much memory that no system was able to use at that time. It's the end of the adressable memory area of 32bit CPUs WITHOUT tricks.
You can change the amount of available memory just by hardware changes of your system.

A different configuration of my system reached 3.6GB available memory. Now with the X800Pro installed it dropped to 3.2GB. Don't forget that onboard devices have option ROMs, too, so you will not see the whole 4GB available.

-------------------------
Regards,
  Ghostrider

·CPUs - 2*Opteron 246
·Mainboard - Tyan Thunder K8W S2885ANRF
·RAM - 4*Corsair TwinX1024RE-3200LL (4GB, 8*512MB, DDR400, 2-3-2)
·Graphics - HIS IceQ-II X800Pro
·HDD - Western Digital Raptor WD740GD, 74GB, 10k
·RAID - 3Ware 7850, 64bit PCI, 8chn hardware RAID
·RAID-HDDs - 5*WD800JB
·Optical - 1*SlimSize CD-ROM; 1*NEC7441 DVD-RW
·Sound - Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Elite Pro

You know, I thought I'd flashed to the new 2.03, but guess what? I flashed my old NF7-S but not the Dually! It was before Christmas and I got carried away with the holidays and never checked! I'm still on 1.02 because of all the revisions with the 2.02 and the associated problems I read about, I never flashed it as I needed the system up and cranking.

So, What's the verdict? Is the 2.03 Beta worth the effort?

Thanks,
Flint

-------------------------
2 X 250 "E" Opterons, S2895 A2NRF (K8WE) beta bios 1.01T
4 X(2x 512MB Matched) Corsair 3200 Reg ECC(TWINX1024RE-3200LLPT)
nVidia 6800GT, LSI 320-2X U320 Raid (512MB ram Onboard!!)
7 X 15,000 RPM U320 Drives, XP Pro SP2
PC Power & Cooling 850 SSI
IT WORKS!!! AND IT'S TYAN'S TECH SUPPORT THAT DID IT!!!!

YES!! 2.03beta is definitely worth a flash.

-------------------------
SYSTEM-1: 2x Viewsonic VX900-2 19"| Tyan S2885ANRF (Rev.A, bios v2.07) | 1x ATI Radeon X800 Pro 256MB | 2x AMD Opteron 248-HE Single-Core CPU | 8x 512mb PC3200 Corsair XMS Series ECC Reg. (CMX512RE-3200LL) | 2x Seagate LVD 36.7Gb U320 SCSI 10,000rpm RAID0 (ST336607LW) | 1x Seagate LVD 36.7Gb U320 SCSI 1

Well, I flashed and you are right!! Well worth it! Thanks guys!!

Flint

-------------------------
2 X 250 "E" Opterons, S2895 A2NRF (K8WE) beta bios 1.01T
4 X(2x 512MB Matched) Corsair 3200 Reg ECC(TWINX1024RE-3200LLPT)
nVidia 6800GT, LSI 320-2X U320 Raid (512MB ram Onboard!!)
7 X 15,000 RPM U320 Drives, XP Pro SP2
PC Power & Cooling 850 SSI
IT WORKS!!! AND IT'S TYAN'S TECH SUPPORT THAT DID IT!!!!

QUOTE (Flintstone @ Jan 18 2005, 04:07 AM) Well, I flashed and you are right!! Well worth it! Thanks guys!!

Flint
Give the FAN-adjustment settings a try. They make your system pretty silent

-------------------------
Regards,
  Ghostrider

·CPUs - 2*Opteron 246
·Mainboard - Tyan Thunder K8W S2885ANRF
·RAM - 4*Corsair TwinX1024RE-3200LL (4GB, 8*512MB, DDR400, 2-3-2)
·Graphics - HIS IceQ-II X800Pro
·HDD - Western Digital Raptor WD740GD, 74GB, 10k
·RAID - 3Ware 7850, 64bit PCI, 8chn hardware RAID
·RAID-HDDs - 5*WD800JB
·Optical - 1*SlimSize CD-ROM; 1*NEC7441 DVD-RW
·Sound - Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Elite Pro

Where are you guys getting the 2.03 Beta BIOS? And what does it fix or do better than the 2.02?

QUOTE (Hydrad @ Jan 20 2005, 07:58 AM) Where are you guys getting the 2.03 Beta BIOS? And what does it fix or do better than the 2.02?
I recieved it directly from Tyan. You can find it (and the thread about it) here in this forum:
http://forums.amd.com/index.php?showtopic=33863' ">http://forums.amd.com/index.php?showtopic=33863

You can adjust the fan-speeds and set the HT-Link-Speeds to 1GHz, 800MHz, 800MHz.
Old(er) BIOS versions do not work well with the AGP-HT-Link at 800MHz (system hangs, crashes and/or reboots or shows at least a bluescreen)

-------------------------
Regards,
  Ghostrider

·CPUs - 2*Opteron 246
·Mainboard - Tyan Thunder K8W S2885ANRF
·RAM - 4*Corsair TwinX1024RE-3200LL (4GB, 8*512MB, DDR400, 2-3-2)
·Graphics - HIS IceQ-II X800Pro
·HDD - Western Digital Raptor WD740GD, 74GB, 10k
·RAID - 3Ware 7850, 64bit PCI, 8chn hardware RAID
·RAID-HDDs - 5*WD800JB
·Optical - 1*SlimSize CD-ROM; 1*NEC7441 DVD-RW
·Sound - Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Elite Pro

I just had my machine built. It has bios version 2.04 according to the screen on boot up. According to the system tab I am only seeing 2.9 gig of ram of my 4 total. I tried adding the PAE switch but it doesn't seem to have helped.

Anymore suggestions.

Thanks,

teb10