[arch-general] Can't see all my memory

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Fri, 2012-09-21 at 10:52 -0300, Victor Silva wrote:
> 2012/9/21 Ralf Mardorf <ralf.mardorf at alice-dsl.net>
> 
> > On Fri, 2012-09-21 at 16:17 +0530, Aurko Roy wrote:
> > > On Fri, Sep 21, 2012 at 4:16 PM, Roel Deckers <r.deckers.93 at gmail.com
> > >wrote:
> > >
> > > > Does the missing memory show up in other OSs?
> > > > It can be faulty ram if it doesn't show up in any OS, recently had that
> > > > problem.
> > > >
> > > > On Fri, Sep 21, 2012 at 12:37 PM, Guillermo Leira <gleira at gleira.com>
> > > > wrote:
> > > > > Hello!
> > > > >
> > > > > I've installed an x86_64 Arch on a PC with 8 GB, but it seems to be
> > > > seeing
> > > > > just four. What have I done wrong?
> > > > >
> > > > > Bios sees 4 x 2GB Modules and reports 8 GB, but top or free report
> > only 4
> > > > > GB.
> > > > >
> > > > > Best Regards
> > > > >
> > > > > Guillermo Leira
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > You could try running memtest86+ on boot and see if it detects the
> > > additional memory.
> >
> > I never heard that anybody solved this issue, but I read that many
> > people have this issue too.
> >
> > On my computer there are only 3 GB + 768 MB of 4 MB available. The
> > graphics has got it's own framebuffer, 256 MB, but IIRC I once have seen
> > that the framebuffer is 512 MB. I guess I can see it running NVIDIA
> > settings, but at the moment I can't run it, because I'm using the nv
> > driver. IIRC memtest86+ did always show the complete memory on my
> > machine. I don't care, since it doesn't make a difference if I got 4GB
> > or 3.8GB. However, I read often about this 8GB issue, for different
> > distros. And it where definitive threads about 64-bit architecture, not
> > about 32-bit and PAE issues.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Ralf
> >
> > Ralf, if I got right you can't find the buffer memory right?  Assuming you
> got a gpu why don't you disable the buffer on the bios?

It is disabled in the BIOS and in the past there where no issues. I
don't know when this issue occurred for the first time, but there where
no BIOS updates, just kernel updates.

Regards,
Ralf