# Only 2.5gb detected of 4gb on booting.



## shmave (Dec 10, 2007)

I have this motherboard: ECS P4M900T-m

I purchased this with 2x 1gb sticks of Pc2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM - and at first there were odd issues such as random off color ASCII characters appearing during bootup when 2gb was detected, then sometimes when booting only 1.5gb would be detected and there would be no "random colored characters" and the system would run fine & stable, with only 1.5gb of the 2gb installed ram being recognized/used.

I installed an external video card, and the random character problems went away permanently - before they were intermittent.

I recently purchased more RAM thinking that may solve the problem (2x2gb Kingston KVR667d2n5/2g - 2gb PC2-5300 CL5, but now the system will only recognize 2.5gb of the installed 4gb.

The manual and website says the board supports 4gb.

I have set all the BIOS settings to factory, tried switching the RAM modules around, as well as mixing with my 1gb sticks, but the most that will be recognized when booting is 2.5gb.

I was considering updating the BIOS, but it's not listed as a symptom that the update would solve, so i would like your opinion of how to solve the problem.

Much thanks from Canada!


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## HawMan (May 12, 2006)

What operating system do you have?


You need a 64bit version of Windows XP to recognise the full 4gb - Or windows Vista.


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## Dondie (Jan 19, 2009)

Oh man! I'm having the same issue and virtually done the same thing shmave did but to no avail. I'm using Win Vista 64 SP1. I have the same type of board too.(ECS P4M900T-M)Help!


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## rakotomandimby (May 23, 2009)

I also encounter this problem.

Same motherboard, I plugged 2x2GB of DDR2 667Mhz and: 

- memtest86 only sees 2.5GB
- the mem check at boot sees only 2.5GB

Very furstrating... http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Pr...goryID=1&DetailName=Feature&MenuID=44&LanID=0 is the web page of the item...


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

Seems to be a pattern with ECS Mobo's. A 32Bit OS will only "see" up to 3.35GB.


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## HD_Monkey (Apr 16, 2008)

A word to the wise. ECS is not a good brand. These are known as Fry's free boards (You will notice mobo/cpu combo's are usually the same price as processor alone at other outlets). 

I suggest you replace mobo with a known good brand (Gigabyte boards are good and quite reasonable). 

List your specs. (make and model of everything including ram, psu, vid. card, hdd's) and we would be happy to point you to reasonable and compatible hardware.


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## Riskyone101 (Oct 22, 2008)

A 32bit operating system will see 3.50 of ram.

Theres nothing wrong with ECS motherboards, look at my pc specs
Ive been using this for 4 years now, an excellent motherboard and still
performing great.

Yes a 64bit operating will allow more ram to be seen.

What service pack do you have installed?


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