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M17x owners

post #1 of 16
8/20/08 at 9:02am
Thread Starter 
For those of you that purchased your m17x with 4gb of RAM I'd like to know if any of your systems are actually addressing more than just 2gigs? I've been told by two alienware reps that windows will only address 2gigs. This is contrary to an article on the alienware website which says a system can actually access between 2.5 and 3.5 gigs of RAM. I"d appreciate anyone's help on this matter.
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post #2 of 16
8/20/08 at 9:08am
if you have 4 gigs in their and only 2 gigs is showing up then either you have a bad stick or one stick is not positioned correctly and needs to be reseated... take one ram stick out and boot up and see what happens then turn it off and take that ram stick out and place the other stick in and boot up and see if it boots... this will tell if you have a bad stick or its just not installed correctly... you should see 3.2gigs
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post #3 of 16
8/20/08 at 9:13am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by littlefrankus View Post
if you have 4 gigs in their and only 2 gigs is showing up then either you have a bad stick or one stick is not positioned correctly and needs to be reseated... take one ram stick out and boot up and see what happens then turn it off and take that ram stick out and place the other stick in and boot up and see if it boots... this will tell if you have a bad stick or its just not installed correctly... you should see 3.2gigs
Yeah, tried that already, guess I should have mentioned it, my fault. I reseated both sticks...same problem. And I booted windows with one stick at a time, still no results. Two calls to tech support weren't helpful either. Any other ideas?
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post #4 of 16
8/20/08 at 3:54pm
reinstall the chipset drives...
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post #5 of 16
8/20/08 at 4:21pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by littlefrankus View Post
reinstall the chipset drives...
How do I do that? There isn't anything under myhive that would enable me to reinstall that.
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post #6 of 16
8/20/08 at 6:10pm
try this first download CPU-ID and it will show you how much RAM is installed on your computer and what speed its running at...heres the website just download and run...
http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php


you should have a cd that comes with your computer that has drivers on it... put in your cd rom and open it up it should be the top driver in the window that pops up... also you can see if your 4 gigs are showing up by going into your bios when you boot up and check to see if its showing it...
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post #7 of 16
8/20/08 at 11:47pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by littlefrankus View Post
try this first download CPU-ID and it will show you how much RAM is installed on your computer and what speed its running at...heres the website just download and run...
http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php


you should have a cd that comes with your computer that has drivers on it... put in your cd rom and open it up it should be the top driver in the window that pops up... also you can see if your 4 gigs are showing up by going into your bios when you boot up and check to see if its showing it...
Re-installed the drivers, no change. Took a look at BIOS during the call with AW tech support and it shows 4076. For some reason...this system doesn't want to give me anymore than 2GB for ram...
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post #8 of 16
8/20/08 at 11:48pm
what are u using that shows only 2 gigs...could u post a pic...
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post #9 of 16
8/20/08 at 11:59pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by littlefrankus View Post
what are u using that shows only 2 gigs...could u post a pic...
Here's the pic of the screen. It's the physical memory section that I'm referring to. On other people's computers who have Vista and who have 4GB they usually have over 3076 displayed.
LL
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post #10 of 16
8/21/08 at 12:06am
surely your GPUs are not taking the other ram...
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post #11 of 16
8/21/08 at 12:13am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by littlefrankus View Post
surely your GPUs are not taking the other ram...
I doubt it, as far as I know the video cards supply their own memory.
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post #12 of 16
8/21/08 at 12:19am
very strange thing... armando hes a rep for alienware I would email him hes good at getting down to the bottom of things... hes straight forward on answers... he will find out for you...


heres his link: http://www.notebookforums.com/member.php?u=150735
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post #13 of 16
8/21/08 at 12:32am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by littlefrankus View Post
very strange thing... armando hes a rep for alienware I would email him hes good at getting down to the bottom of things... hes straight forward on answers... he will find out for you...


heres his link: http://www.notebookforums.com/member.php?u=150735
Cool, thanks bud.
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post #14 of 16
8/26/09 at 4:26pm
You would have to install a 64bit operating system to get the Area 51 m17x to solve your problem.

I was running Vista 32bit on my Area 51 m17x with the same problem...4 gigs of RAM recognized in BIOS and by Windows (on the System page - R click Computer and hit properties) but would only get 2 Gigs available for use (Task Manager and other checks confirmed it).

If you go 64bit with your OS it will fix your problem, but you'll have to decide if it's really worth it to you.

-Kelby
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post #15 of 16
9/3/09 at 6:07pm
32 bit OS would usually take up to 3gigs though.
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post #16 of 16
9/3/09 at 7:15pm

m17x - 'Memory Remapping' enabled by default

Motok, you are correct in most circumstances, however, with the bios and chipsets of the Area 51 m17x (Asus board with a P965 mobile chipsets) Alienware enabled 'Memory Remapping' by default in the BIOS which restricts 32bit OS's to being able to address only 2GB of RAM instead of the normal 3+GB. They do this so that 64Bit OS's can address the full 4GB. Sadly, Alienware's BIOS options are slim for this model and restrict things like overclocking and Memory Remap.

-Kelby
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