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Motherboards only seeing half of installed memory

Motherboards only seeing half of installed memory
« on: January 18, 2013, 02:26:33 pm »
Hello and Greetings!

I am hoping I can get some help on an issue that has been plaguing me for the last week, and I can't figure it out for the life of me.

Problem: Board is detecting half of installed RAM at POST.

Model: Gigabyte GA-G41MT-S2P rev. 1.3 (yes, I am aware it is an older board)
RAM: Kingston KVR1333D3N9K2/4G (Set of 2 for a total of 8GB) RAM speed is 1333Mhz DDR3, which according to the motherboard manual is compatible.
CPU: Intel Dual Core Duo 3.06, socket 775

What I have done to troubleshoot the issue at this point:

-Flashed the BIOS to the latest version (F3), no dice.
-Restored settings to optimized defaults and fail-safe defaults. No change in both cases.
-Removed 1 stick of RAM. BIOS will only see 2GB and not 4.
-Swapped RAM sticks. No change.
-Re-seated CPU and checked for bent pins. No change there either.
-Tried manually changing multiple configurations in the BIOS as far as memory speed, and some of the voltage stuff but I wasn't able to get it to play nice. I started messing around with it to the point where I had to unplug the power and pull the CMOS battery out because the system would no longer boot! That's when I said time to get some expert help!

Other observations:

-On startup, POST says its operating at Dual Channel Interleaved, which, I believe, is what it is supposed to be running in. Again, I'm not a hardware expert so I'm only going by what I have researched and my own observations.
-BIOS is underlocking the memory from 1333Mhz to 1066Mhz. I can't seem to find an explanation as to why its doing that, when the manual says it will take up to 1333Mhz. And playing with the speed settings, I can make it go slower, but not faster.

Any advice at this point would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Re: Motherboards only seeing half of installed memory
« Reply #1 on: January 18, 2013, 03:57:18 pm »
Hi

Try removing the cmos battery( remove for 10-15mins) to clear the bios.
Hope that works for you!

Kain

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Re: Motherboards only seeing half of installed memory
« Reply #2 on: January 18, 2013, 05:06:40 pm »
Did you try one stick in every slot to make sure all slots on the motherboard work?

Re: Motherboards only seeing half of installed memory
« Reply #3 on: January 18, 2013, 06:05:16 pm »
Hi Clint,

Thanks for the reply. I took the CMOS battery out and left it out for about a half hour, put it back in, and powered it up. Not change.

Hi Kain,

Yes I tried that as well. I had the same results as having a single stick in slot 0. 2GB shown instead of 4.