Ok, I am on the fence about returning the board for the odd beep code. Only time it does it is on cold start up. On restarts and exits from the bios, it is just the normal beep code. Still think I should return it for another or just risk it?
On the memory issue. Here is some things I have collected (all info as at idle with only monitor programs running {and correction my BIOS is the FA ver.}):
In BIOS under MIT current status
Dimm Slot 1 2 3 4 5 6
2048 - 2048 - 2048 -
Enabled Slot - 2048 - 2048 - 2048
Total Memory Size 4096
Channel ABC (combined for space) 8 8 8 24 6 24 88 2
tCL tRCD tRD tRAS tRRD tWTP tRFC tRMD
In BIOS underAdvanced Memory Settings
XMP Profile1
reads as 1600 @ 1.65v
Channel Inerleaving 6 Auto
RankInterleaving 4 Auto
Under Channel ABC - Timing Settings, all readings are the same except for Round Trip Latency. Only Channels B + C show a RTL of 58 and Channel A lists no reading just a "-".
After leaving BIOS and entering the OS environment, every monitor that I run shows there are 3 sticks totaling 6144Gb or RAM on 3 Sticks. Just an example of the monitors I am using are CPU-Z, SiSoftware Sandra, EasyTune6 etc.
The most interesting reading though comes from the Windows 7 basic system information screen. It is reading like this:
Installed Memory 6gb (4gb usable)
I thought this odd so I looked into Task Manager. The basic Task Manager infor read like this:
Physical memory (MB)
Total - 4094
Cache - 1208
Available - 2908
Free - 1870
Still looking odd, I expanded the Task Manager Resource Monitor. At the top of the Memory Manager, it read 26% Used Physical Memory.
I expanded the resource manager and these are the readings it gave me:
Available - 2899mb
Cached - 1203mb
Total - 4094
Installed - 6144
And the graph right above these readings read like this from left to right
Hardware Reserved 2050 MB , In Use 1093 MB, Modified 161 MB, Standby 1086 MB, Free 1754 MB
Adding up those numbers above it comes to exactly what my installed RAM total should be - 6144 MB
From what I can tell, all the memory is being utilized but how it is being represented by the BIOS information and the Win7 information is different. I know that Win764bit is a much more RAM intensive OS than xp or the 32bit version. It looks like with Win7 eating up so much ram just for basic info, the mobo bios doesnt actually see the other 2gb of ram hence why it is only showing 4gb in the MIT current status in BIOS (and other BIOS areas). So going off this information, what we all are perceiving as a loss of 2gb of RAM is not actually happening, it is just that Win7 is taking up so much that it is not reading on the BIOS. Does that make sense?
The other thing that stood out to me is the number 4094 from the Task Manager information. I knew I had seen it somewhere before. I did. It happens to match the number in the Virtual Memory Paging File in System Properties. From XP, I remember that this was the maximum XP would let you set as that value. Out of curiosity, I clicked "Change" and in the next screen unchecked the "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives". After I did that, I noticed that the recommended size was now 6141, go figure it is the amount of RAM I have installed. So I set a custom value of Max 6141 and Min 6141. That is where I sit now. I am going to apply this setting and see if changes the settings in BIOS to show the full 6Gb or RAM