Dell PE 1950 - Only seeing 3.2 gigs of ram

[Jay Chandler]

Dak Ghatikachalam wrote:
> if you calculate the 32bit addressing capability
>
> 2^32 -1  = 4294967296 - 1   = 4GB -1 you could counter I/O space, IRQ 
> space
> for all the devices attached.
>
> I have heard something like parity interleave(I may be misspelling that
> word, but sounds close), you can knock off some more memory for this, and
> something like memory hole,  you should knock off some more memory
> for this.,  sometimes video card also steal  memory for acceleration, how
> much of it all depends.
>
> regards
> Dak
>
> On 1/10/07, Erik Trulsson <ertr1013 at student.uu.se> wrote:
>>
>> On Wed, Jan 10, 2007 at 02:42:59PM -0800, Jay Chandler wrote:
>> > Jeff MacDonald wrote:
>> > >Hi,
>> > >
>> > >I put a fresh install of 6.1-RELEASE on a dell poweredge 1950 server.
>> > >It's configured with 4 gigs of ram.
>> > >
>> > >However when I boot i get the following right before DMESG
>> > >
>> > >786432k above 4GB ignored
>> > >
>> > >Which is strange, but then dmesg shows this
>> > >
>> > >real memory  = 3489300480 (3327 MB)
>> > >avail memory = 3414659072 (3256 MB)
>> > >
>> > >Soo I'm at a bit of a loss.
>> > >
>> > >Jeff.
>> > >
>> > Same platform, same error.  Anyone else have a clue for me?
>> >
>>
>> Part of the 32-bit address space is reserved for various
>> I/O-devices.  This means that a 32-bit OS will not be
>> able to use all 4 GB of RAM but only a smaller amount (usually
>> around 3.5 GB.)
>>
>> If you were to use a 64-bit OS it would probably be able to access
>> all of the RAM if some of it is remapped to above the 4 GB
>> line. (There is usually an option in the BIOS to do this remapping.)
>>
>>
>> (This information is provided by most motherboard manufacturers
>> and many computer manufacturers (including Dell) in some FAQ. )
>>
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> <Insert your favourite quote here.>
>> Erik Trulsson
>> ertr1013 at student.uu.se
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On a related note for this hardware platform, has anyone gotten past the 
"randomly decides not to reboot when told to" issue?  Requires a hard 
shutdown by hand, as the console becomes completely non-responsive.

-- 
Jay Chandler
Network Administrator, Chapman University
714.628.7249 / chandler at chapman.edu
Today's Excuse: Our POP server was kidnapped by a weasel.