System only renders 3,22 GB usable out of 6GB of RAM - Windows 7 x64

[Qornholio]

Hey Community.

I have a problem. I installed a new PSU not long ago, and since then out of my 3 x 2 GB RAM, Control Panel\System and Security\System tells me this: Installed Memory (RAM): 6,00 GB (3,22 GB usable)

Why does it do this?
Notes
* The reason for having 3 x 2 GB RAM is because I had 4 RAM sticks from the start, but one broke over 1 year ago. It has been working fine with 3 x 2 GB sticks tho for over a year.
* My previous PSU broke not long ago. (2-4 weeks) It was probably because it had overheated (due to lots of dust inside the computer)
After replacing it with a new one this started.
* Again, 3 x 2 GB worked before the new PSU. I don't know if it's PSU related or what it is.. But I need a solution ASAP please.

I want to for example start playing Planetside 2 again. But it requires about 2 - 2.5 GB of RAM to run.
Buying new RAM's is out of the question.

Help!!!

[Geek-9pm]

Installed Memory (RAM): 6,00 GB (3,22 GB usable)

No PSU ever makes a change to RAM.
The most logical explanation is something other than just a PSU failure took place. Something else got damaged.

[Qornholio]

Well how do I know this? If something gets damaged, why does it detect 6GB?

[Geek-9pm]

What OS are you using?

[Qornholio]

Really? You're asking me that? Look at the title...

[Geek-9pm]

Just want to be sure. Is it up to date?
Some users report Win 7 64 reports less RAM under some strange conditions.
Like 3.337 GB when there is 4GB.
Or 7.63 when there is 16 GB.
Here is one that sounds like yours
Windows 7: Got 6GB ram but can only use 3.25GB

Some 64 bit desktops can not support more than maximum RAM size. If that is you problem, check out a diagnostic tool that probes your system to see what the motherboard can support.
The link below will lead to a test program you can try.
http://www.crucial.com/

For my current desktop it tells me I can only have 4GB b recuse of the Dell motherboard. So When I run the 64 bit Winn 7 thee is hardly any advantage.

[Qornholio]

OK. I have to update you on what just happened...

So since I only had 3,22 GB RAM now, I decided to troubleshoot my motherboard.
I had an previous motherboard that I thought broke on me (so I bought a new one) but it was one of the RAM sticks.
I plugged in all the parts into this previous motherboard and try starting.
To my surprise, it didn't boot up at all. So I looked at the CPU and I noticed one of the pins and been severely bent.
I try bending it back, but it had been bent to much that it actually broke off.
I got an AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 970 3,5 Ghz. If you go straight diagonally from the where the arrow points on the CPU to the other side, that's the one.
Also.. Another weird thing.. Pluggin it back in I happen to find my old RAMstick that broke some while ago. I decided what the *censored* lets plug it in. AAAND to my surprise it's still working. I guess it was the motherboard that was damaged...

So NOW, I got 5,97 GB Total Physical Memory that is usable out of my 8GB Installed.
I guess because of the bent pin (now broken pin) (surprisingly my computer booted up with my original MB) the CPU is not sending enough power to the RAM sticks???
I have no idea how the CPU and motherboards work in depth, maybe someone could figure this out and I could do some overclocking settings for the RAM to give it more power to be able to give me a full 8GB.
I should probably tho get this CPU pin fixed.

[Geek-9pm]

Sorry about the bent pin. Redundant pins are needed for speed. A few pins are unique and you have to have the unique pins. The redundant pins allow full speed. You may want  reduce the CPU clock a bit.

All the articles I read indicate that false RAM misreporting comes for almost always two things:
A) The RAM is damaged. (This should show in the POST.)
B) The motherboard design does not allow  more RAM. Recent designs have limits of either 4, 8 or 16 GB.

The item B is talked about in  Tom's Hardware and other places.
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1802799/motherboard-ram-limit.html
Brut in the thread they start thinking the PSU had some influence. WRONG! There is a limit set by the ASMD chip set and is documented by AMD.

If you get your system up to 8 GB you should be happy. 

[BC_Programmer]

Sorry about the bent pin. Redundant pins are needed for speed. A few pins are unique and you have to have the unique pins. The redundant pins allow full speed. You may want  reduce the CPU clock a bit.

CPU's do not have redundant pins that affect speed. They do sometimes have extra NC or Ground pins that aren't critical to operation.

All the articles I read indicate that false RAM misreporting comes for almost always two things:
A) The RAM is damaged. (This should show in the POST.)
B) The motherboard design does not allow  more RAM. Recent designs have limits of either 4, 8 or 16 GB.

There is a possible C, given what they've described- Bent Address pin. If the pin used for Address line 22 is bent or has no connection, memory beyond 4GB could be inaccessible entirely- as a result all mapped Adapter memory and other hardware apertures would appear at the end of that 4GB, and the rest would be usable to programs once booted. The system would still be able to see the total RAM since it is reported via other means, but it would be inaddressable/usable due to the missing address line.

[Geek-9pm]

CPU's do not have redundant pins that affect speed. They do sometimes have extra NC or Ground pins that aren't critical to operation.

Lack of reference.

[BC_Programmer]

Lack of reference.

I tried to find a AM2+ pinout diagram, but AMD is not really forthcoming about their socket pinouts, apparently.

At any rate, the pinouts of other sockets is available, and none of them have pins that are both redundant AND affect the speed of the processor. The CLK pin affects processor clock speed, but if it is missing, the CPU would not run at all; the clock pin oscillating between high and low inputs is what determines clock speed. CLKMULT pins affect clock multipliers, but most AM2+ CPU's would presumably have a locked multiplier. In unsure what a missing CLKMULT pin would do, however the OP has not mentioned anything about their reported CPU speed being different- Clock multipliers and CLK speeds would end up being reported as the running CPU speed. What they have reported is that their RAM size is <4GB and they have a bent CPU pin. an AM2+ Pinout would probably help determine what that pin is, but given the information and their listed symptoms, I don't think it is a leap to conclude that their issue is possibly caused by the bent CPU pin and the A22 pin being bent could neatly explain why physical memory addresses higher than 4GB are inaccessible.

[Geek-9pm]

It is not likely the user just happened to pull the pin for A22. The redundant pins are the power rails. More likely he got one of them.

I never meant to suggest that missing pins would slowdown the CPU.
Rather my intent was to explain that modern CPUs have redundant pins due to dings considerations. Ideally the CPU should have a ground plane  and a wide voltage bus. At high speeds crosstalk occurs when you have a thin supply rails. At lower  speeds less current is used and  crosstalk would be negligible. 
That is why we do not prototype fast digital stuff with wire wrap . Too hard to cut down high frequency crosstalk due to the 'common mode' effect. Future pin designs may change this. (That  is off topic .)

Anyway, what I wanted to say is that the CPU can run with out a pin if it is one of the redundant pins. The effect would be to increase the noise level on some signals. Most  likely no change in performance that the user would notice. Of course, if one of the unique pins is gone the CPU would would have major trouble.

The amount of memory your can put in a motherboard is determined by the chip set.  Example: The chip set supports 4GB memory. If the board has only  two slots. you are stuck at 8GB.mac on that board. But if the board has 4 slots, you can go 16GB.
Some users wrongly think you can put a 8GB chip in the place where you should have a 4 GB.  If the chip set does not support it, you can not have it.

[Geek-9pm]

Aprendum
Going into my bookmarks I  saw  this thread.
http://superuser.com/questions/752185/will-8gb-ram-stick-work-if-my-motherboard-has-limit-of-16gb-for-4-slots

Will 8GB RAM stick work if my motherboard has limit of 16GB (for 4 slots)?
his one is quite tricky and I can't find any decent information source/documentation.
I have Gigabyte motherboard from 2008: Gigabyte MA770T-UD3P rev. 1.0.
It has 4 RAM slots and total limit of RAM of 16 GB.
My question is - what if I buy 2 8 GB sticks. Will they work? Because if there's limit of 16 GB, it gives 4 GB per slot. How does motherboard RAM limits work, is it slot-dependent or more likely this is the top limit of chipset so even 16 GB stick would work?
I've been looking for info about AMD 770 chipset itself but I can't find any public documentation anywhere.
There's memory support list for my mobo, but it's really outdated.

 18 down vote
The Gigabyte MA770T-UD3P main board will only accept memory modules with a size of 4GB or less in pairs of 2 for best performance. This is a limitation of the AMD 770 + SB710 Chipset see AMD support

[Calum]

Bent or broken/missing pins are known to cause this problem, it's pretty common and I've seen this many times.
I doubt a repair to the CPU would be cost effective if it's even possible, I've never heard of one being repaired after a pin has broken off.

[DaveLembke]

Bent or broken/missing pins are known to cause this problem, it's pretty common and I've seen this many times.
I doubt a repair to the CPU would be cost effective if it's even possible, I've never heard of one being repaired after a pin has broken off.

While there is no official repair kit that I am aware of to fix broken CPU pins, I have been able to get a Pentium 75 working again when a pin was missing many years ago when i had a desperation to have a Pentium vs 486 and it was a free broken CPU that someone snapped the leg off of on a corner. I was able to place a very short and small piece of copper wire strand into the socket hole and mate it up with the gold flat of where the broken pin was once....so when the CPU was placed into the socket and locked down it made contact. And it worked. Without this pin the CPU would not boot. The copper strand I got from taking a strand off of a larger gauge copper stranded wire and the strand that came from I think it was a 10 ga stranded copper wire was about a same diameter match to that of the pin diameter around and so it worked.

So my first Pentium ever, and my gaming rig back around 1996 was a free Pentium 75 which was perfect until i needed more processing power for Quake II in which i paid for a Pentium 200 Upgrade =)