Strange memory reading (hardware)

[Dave]

> On Thu, 16 Jun 2011 17:09:30 -0500
> Gary Gatten <Ggatten at waddell.com> wrote:
> 
> > It's quite simple really, it's another hidden tax - "Redistribution
> > of RAM".  You see, even with all the entitlement programs "poor"
> > people can't afford more than 512MB of RAM.  As you are certainly
> > aware that's not enough to watch YouTube and Hulu on their
> > government funded (tax payer funded) ultra high speed internet
> > connections.  So, the government has taken some of your RAM (as you
> > obviously can afford to buy more if needed) and will give it to
> > those who really NEED it - so while they sit around collecting
> > government aid (tax payer earnings) their streaming video's will
> > play smoothly.
> 
> What! I didn't even vote for those guys. :-)
> > 
> > Woa - I guess I digressed a bit...
> > 
> > Ummm, sorry - I don't know why this would be.  Is there some memory
> > mapped video (or disk controller?) stealing RAM?
> > 
> I guess I wasn't clear. Only 2752 MB is show during POST instead 0f
> 4096. It has always shown 4096 on this MB.
> 
> Thanks for lighting up my day with the above humor. :-)
> 
> Robert
> 
> 

What does Memtest86 show, if you try running that?

I've had issues in the past where one stick has a single bad bit (in a 
512M stick) that caused all sorts of strange things with the BIOS, but 
not the OS!..   Memtest86 (eventually) found it, testing 1 stick at a 
time in each of 4 slots.   Took ages...

DaveB