I thought it was a brilliantly insightful piece of info and very relevant. To fix a problem you need to understand the problem. You couldn't fix a car engine without understanding how it works could you?
Long shot but is there a memory flexibility option or a memory hole remapping option anywhere in the bios?
With your car analogy... It is nice to know how car engine works, but what does it help you if your problem is with leaking fuel tank ? Look at that picture. He explained the green, orange, blue and light blue parts. All nice and fine - but the problem is the big size of the grey part. So what does the knowledge of non-grey parts give us to solve the problem with the grey part ? Nothing. Am i clear now ?
@Flibblebot: unfortunately that doesn't explain the varying amount of Hardware reserved RAM. If memory remap would be the solution, then he would have the same amount of memory reserved all the time. If you check what OP wrote : 1) 12GB installed, 10GB hardware reserved 2) 8GB installed, 14MB hardware reserved 3) 12GB installed, 8GB hardware reserved 4) 16GB installed, 12GB hardware reserved 5) 12GB installed, 5GB hardware reserved As you can see, the hardware reserved values change with every combination he tries. That means a hardware issue (bad CPU pin contact due damaged pin or board being bended by CPU cooler) or a memory controller issue (low memory controller voltage or low memory voltage).
^ this, also another good test is to grab a linux distro whack it on usb and boot into it, see if you get 12 gigs in that os, at least you will know whether its hardware or software related Sent from my HTC Sensation using Tapatalk 2
I believe what he was doing was showing the op that he doesn't need 12gb of ram and that 8 is sufficient, so why waste time and most of your hair trying to get 12gb to work, whilst also giving some background knowledge which most people interested in this sort of thing would appreciate. but that just my opinion. and opinion-3.142=onion.
That might be the case, but since I'm a fan of Occam and his shaving implements, I would try the remapping feature first. If that still doesn't work, then I'd start to look at damaged pins and so on - but I'd start with the simplest option first.
Also the option that doesn't involve completely tearing down the PC is always a good one to try, sometimes the simple answers are the easiest. Although I'd check each DIMM, ensure the voltages are all correct, then check the pins if Memory Hole Remapping isn't the answer.
Sounds long winded but i would boot with each single stick in 1 at a time (i.e. booting with 1 x 2GB stick etc) check and see if you have all of that memory available. When you hit the bad stick you will some reserved/unavailabe by my logic. If all prove to be ok then try different slots 1 stick at a time (using a known good stick) Just my 2cents
