Can I get by with a new Vid Card or do I need to completely rebuild?

[Toad]

Ran the Win7 Memory Diagnostic Tool. "No memory errors detected." Still showing only 8GB usable.

[Toad]

The BIOS is only showing 8GB usable, so it is not a Windows 7 problem.

It's either the BIOS or the Sticks themselves.

Any suggestions appreciated. I'm trying to work through it.

ASUS P7P55D PRO, flashed the BIOS to the latest before the install of Win7/64

<edit> the Windows Resource Monitor confirms 8GB reserved for use of the BIOS, so that checks.

I've been through the BIOS 2X looking for a place to un-reserve/allocate RAM memory. No luck so far. I have this suspicion it is reserving it for the onboard video but I can't find a place to turn that off either!

[oboe]

Are you using two 8Gb sticks?   If so, do you have them installed in memory slots A1 and B1, per the motherboard manual?

Have you tried each stick by itself, using slot A1?

[Bizman]

At first I thought it might be a limitation of the motherboard. Mine only takes 8 GB... But that's not the case here, yours should take 16 GB. As you may have noticed, there's quite a few BIOS updates mentioning memory compatibility improvements.

According to the manual, sticks up to 4 GB are supported. Funny aside, the compatibility listings only show sticks up to 2 GB, the larger amounts being kits of 2 or 3 sticks. You suspected one 8 GB stick possibly being bad, so I assume you have 2x8. The manuals have been published in 2009 in English, the German update from 2011 showing similar data, so 8 GB sticks might be supported, too. As Oboe said, it's important that they are seated in the A1 and B1 slots, especially with the Lynnfield processor you have. Oh, and in the specifications I found there's a MemOK! button on the motherboard for fixing memory boot compatibility issues. It's located at the upper end of the ATX power connector.

As for your suspicion for reserving memory for the onboard video, there's no such thing on your motherboard. I scrolled through the manual for each BIOS option until I looked at the image and the specifications.

If you have any doubts about potential issues with the Windows.old folder possibly interfering your current setup, reinstall Windows for your piece of mind. At this point it still isn't too much of an effort.

[mikeWe9a]

According to this post: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/304241-30-asus-p7p55d-core-16gb-usable

You may see good results from reordering and/or reseating your memory DIMMs.  Also, reseating the CPU has been suggested, which will take a bit more work.  Finally (although check this first, as it is the simplest and you can do it without opening up your machine), go to msconfig, boot tab, advanced options, and make sure that "maximum memory" is NOT checked, or if it is, that it is set to the actual amount of memory you have installed.

Mike

[Toad]

I actually have 4x4GB, so all 4 slots are used. It is Corsair CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9B, 9-9-9-24 and 1.50V I am going to try each stick in A1 next.

I just did the MemOk! Test with all 4 installed. BIOS reported the test passed and told me to save settings, which I did. It still only reports 8GB in the BIOS though. True, I also found no video; I was just trying to figure what might me using the memory that Win7 reported as reserved for Hardware.

I have tried the Maximum Memory checkbox. It was initially unchecked. I checked it and set 16GB, did not help. I then unchecked it, rebooted, no help. That would have been an easy fix but it's not this problem I guess.

I'm going to run all the sticks through A1 first and see if maybe there's a bad stick even though it passed the MEMOK! test.

[Toad]

Latest twist.

Trying one stick at a time in the A1 slot, the computer won't boot.

Trying each stick one at a time in the B1 slot, the computer boots and reports 4GB usable RAM.

So...all the sticks are good; nothing wrong with the RAM. They each report at 4GB in the B1 slot.

Something is up with the A1 slot though. Work continues.

<EDIT> So all the RAM is good. I am getting the 8GB from the B1/B2 channel. I believe A1 is dead and with A1 either full or empty, putting a stick in A2 changes nothing (as expected). Looks like an A channel problem.

<Edit2> Doing a chat with ASUS support right now.

[alskahawk]

You can always just space out your rebuild by replacing parts as time and money permit. I don't know about win 7 but with win 10 you can replace the CPU no problem. That would be the first thing I would upgrade.

[Toad]

Well, ASUS says send the board in for $ervicing. What a $urpri$e!

I don't think it's worth the bother, given the age of the this mobo and CPU. I think I am just going to live with the 8GB.

It's still twice the RAM I had before.

There are some bits floating about the 'net saying this can be caused by a bent pin on the CPU. Remove/Inspect/Straighten if necessary/reinstall CPU.  I may do that someday if I'm really bored. It sort of amazing how many posts for help are out there on ASUS mobos saying that the A1/A2 RAM slots don't work.

Anyway, it's running well on 8GB right now and I'm playing AH3 at a fairly decent resolution/frames on the other Lenovo computer so I think I'll stand pat a while.

I looked at a Ryzen5/mobo/RAM/Vid card setup but I'm not ready to sink ~$700 into this project just yet.

I appreciate all you spending your time to offer suggestions. Thanks!

[Brooke]

I have an i5-2400 (3.1 GHz) and a GeForce 750 Ti card.

I get 60 fps once I set environment map slider to none, reflections and shadows off, and everything else at default.

It's fine for me.

Toad, you system with a better graphics card would probably be better than mine.  If I were buying a new graphics card, I'd go for one of the $180 GeForce 1060's.

[Chalenge]

I would be really surprised if that board ran stable with all four DIMMs populated. You might find something like 1 in 4 boards that would work, but probably it's closer to 1 in 12. That's not simply an ASUS bias, but fairly common to all manufacturers until you get into higher end, or even WS boards.

Just my experience.