MSI P55-CD53 Motherboard

[Flattus]

I just bought this board along with new ram and an i5 processor. I'm having one problem though. 2 of my 4 gigs of ram is being reserved by hardware and I have no idea how to free it up.

I called MSI and the guy was quite stupid and no help whatsoever. So I turn to fellow BGers and in high hopes of helping me ungimp my PC.

I have G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3 Ram sticks 2G each.

[Flattus]

I also went into the BIOS to see if I could free it up in there, and there was nothing in it that would allow me to.

[Evanos]

I know this might seem like a stupid fix, but are you sure you have them in the right slots? I've seen that more often than you think.

edit of edit: scratch that, black slots

[Flattus]

I have them in DIMM1 and 3 (Black slots), I know DIMM1 is always supposed to be filled. I tried DIMM 1 and 2 and I got nothin. But I havent tried 1 and 4 yet.
EDIT: the BIOS recognizes 4G installed, so does windows but it only says 1.99 is useable. I'm on Windows 7 x64 also

[Evanos]

This would be uncommon, but try putting in in one of each color (next to each other). Perhaps they are labeling by channel (that would be very usual) and you are putting all 4 GB into one channel. Worth a shot anyway.

[Flattus]

Hmm, I suppose its worth a shot

[Evanos]

If that dosen't work, try flipping around the 2 RAM slots (put what you currently have in 1 into the second black slot and vise versa). If that will not boot up or there are errors, perhaps there is a problem with your RAM (I've actually received brand new sticks of bad RAM).

[Flattus]

Hmm, is there anyway to tell if you have a bad stick? I'm starting to think thats what ive got

[Evanos]

Try booting up with only 1 stick of RAM (single channel) if nothing is working right, you've got a problem.

[Flattus]

Hmm, okay. Appreciate the advice~

[Flattus]

Alright, I fixed it. I just kept switching all my sticks into slots until it worked.
Appreciate it

[Evanos]

What slots did it end up working in?

[Flattus]

3 and 4 lol.

[Evanos]

3 and 4 lol.

Figures, I wonder if something is wrong with one of your first 2 slots. Do you think you'll ever put RAM in those 2 slots (aka upgrade to 8GB?). If not, even if there is an issue it probably wouldn't make much difference to you.

[Binkie]

You could try flashing to the newest bios.

[Flattus]

I dont know, i'm pretty content with sticking to 4G at the time. I'm not sure whats wrong with it

[sruon]

Took me 6 hours when I got my motherboard (not this model) to get it to recognize the 4 GB, turned out I just had to put extra pressure on the sticks :/