Official GIGABYTE Forum

Questions about GIGABYTE products => Motherboards with Intel processors => Topic started by: jfotop on August 17, 2009, 01:02:31 am

Title: GA-8I945PL-G -- RAM upgrade to 4GB
Post by: jfotop on August 17, 2009, 01:02:31 am

A few years ago I purchased the GA-8I945PL-G motherboard with 1GB of RAM.
Lately, I purchased 2 x 2GB Kingston PC2-6400 RAM.
The problem is that, when putting the 2 new ram chips in any combination of the 4 memory slots, bios only shows me 3,4GB of memory.
I then checked the MB's specifications which say:
"4 DDR II DIMM memory slots (supports up to 2GB memory)"

What I also found as I was searching on Intel's site is that the 945PL Express Chipset supports up to 4GB of Ram ( http://ark.intel.com/chipset.aspx?familyID=22211 (http://ark.intel.com/chipset.aspx?familyID=22211) )

So I guess my question is: Is there a way that I could use my 2 x 2GB of DDR2 PC2-6400 with my motherboard???
Is there maybe something that I haven't understood?

Thanks for all replies in advance..

Title: Re: GA-8I945PL-G -- RAM upgrade to 4GB
Post by: jfotop on August 17, 2009, 01:11:23 am

Quote from: jfotop on August 17, 2009, 01:02:31 am

A few years ago I purchased the GA-8I945PL-G motherboard with 1GB of RAM.
Lately, I purchased 2 x 2GB Kingston PC2-6400 RAM.
The problem is that, when putting the 2 new ram chips in any combination of the 4 memory slots, bios only shows me 3,4GB of memory.
I then checked the MB's specifications which say:
"4 DDR II DIMM memory slots (supports up to 2GB memory)"

What I also found as I was searching on Intel's site is that the 945PL Express Chipset supports up to 4GB of Ram ( http://ark.intel.com/chipset.aspx?familyID=22211 (http://ark.intel.com/chipset.aspx?familyID=22211) )

CPU: Intel Pentium D 940 3.2GHz, 800MHz FSB, 2x2MB L2 Cache
New RAM: Kingston KVR800D2N5/2G, 2GB PC2-6400 CL5 240-pin DIMM

So I guess my question is: Is there a way that I could use my 2 x 2GB of DDR2 PC2-6400 with my motherboard???
Is there maybe something that I haven't understood?

Thanks for all replies in advance..

Title: Re: GA-8I945PL-G -- RAM upgrade to 4GB
Post by: Pottypete on August 17, 2009, 08:21:49 am

Hi
Yes you can, ;D
 But win o/s  32 bit will only see 3.2/ 3.4 gigs,  >:(
64 bit o/s will see up to 128gig I believe, ::)
regards

Title: Re: GA-8I945PL-G -- RAM upgrade to 4GB
Post by: jfotop on August 17, 2009, 12:05:43 pm

Thanks you for your response..

Another thing that I don;t understand is if there is a problem with the 3,4GB of RAM that the BIOS can identify? (shouldn't it be 4 point something GB's?)

Thanks again..

Title: Re: GA-8I945PL-G -- RAM upgrade to 4GB
Post by: Pottypete on August 17, 2009, 12:28:56 pm

Hi,
My bad,
If your reading the manual and it's stating that it has 4 memory slots, UP to a maximum of 2gig of memory in total,
that could use 4 x 512 sticks = 2gigs
"        "       " 2 x 1 gig     "    = 2gigs
"        "        "1 x 2gig      "    = 2 gigs
 it does not mean you can use  2 x 2 gigs, as that is exceeding the total memory supported by the mobo,
Clear as mud, :o
Regards

Title: Re: GA-8I945PL-G -- RAM upgrade to 4GB
Post by: jfotop on August 18, 2009, 09:40:04 am

Thanks for the clarification.
Actually the manual said exactly: 4 DDR II DIMM memory slots (supports up to 2GB memory), so I thought that it could possibly mean up to 2 gb per slot (at least I was hoping for that).

Thanks again for the help.I'll just do with the 3,4GB :)

Title: Re: GA-8I945PL-G -- RAM upgrade to 4GB
Post by: Pottypete on August 18, 2009, 10:03:21 am

Hi, jfotop
Glad it's sorted now, Enjoy ;D
Regards

Title: Re: GA-8I945PL-G -- RAM upgrade to 4GB
Post by: ninesvnsicks on October 21, 2009, 03:45:21 am

I thought the exact same thing so I stuck with 2gb they should really word that differently.