memory upgrade then allocation


dasgoot

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I recently upgraded my unraid box from 4GB to 16GB. My plan is/was to give half of it to a windows 8.1 vm that is currently configured for 1.5GB and the other half to unraid/docker/etc. However the interface will not let me assign that much memory to the VM.  it currently only offers up to 3072MB. If I try and assign that much however I get an error when trying to start the machine. It seems the Highest I can go is 2048 MB.

 

If I chose 2560 I receive: Execution error    Unable to read from monitor: Connection reset by peer

If I chose 3056 I receive: Execution error    internal error: process exited while connecting to monitor: 2016-01-30T02:32:31.226315Z qemu-system-x86_64: cannot set up guest memory 'pc.ram': Cannot allocate memory

 

Trying to edit the xml file directly has similar results.  My current theory is despite the dashboard showing I have 16,384 MB and memory usage shows 24% somehow KVM needs to be reinitialized or configured or something to realize there is much more memory in the system now. Anyone have any ideas if I'm on the right track and if so what the fix is?

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I'm noticing the dashboard only shows allocated as 3507 MB. I was interpreting this as that much was in use as compared to the 16,384 MB it shows as installed. Does this actually mean that is all unraid is allocating and the rest is not being used/assignable? If so that would explain why the VMs interface doesn't offer to let me assign more than 3GB of RAM.  Could this be part of my problem? If so perhaps I need to have this moved to the general support forum.

memory.JPG.3408109b4f50f569b01b81439713a70e.JPG

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I'm noticing the dashboard only shows allocated as 3507 MB. I was interpreting this as that much was in use as compared to the 16,384 MB it shows as installed. Does this actually mean that is all unraid is allocating and the rest is not being used/assignable? If so that would explain why the VMs interface doesn't offer to let me assign more than 3GB of RAM.  Could this be part of my problem? If so perhaps I need to have this moved to the general support forum.

 

What does your BIOS/POST show for the amount of ram currently installed?

After adding the ram, did you run Memtest for a while to ensure it is "playing nice" (recommended)?

If you do run Memtest, it will also show the amount.

 

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yes, my post counts up the full 16gb. I've not run memtest, but suppose i can take down the array some night here soon to give it a few passes.  Motherboard is a P7P55D-E with 4 slots that supports a max of 16gb (otherwise I might have gotten more  ;D). Verified has the latest bios update. I've put in 4x4GB chips. two sets of these to be exact: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ZRG009S?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage

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ok i see from the link you may have bought high density ram . If you did i think this may be the problem?

 

    * LOW DENSITY modules have 100% compatibility with ALL systems and ALL chipsets as it fully follows JEDEC guidelines.
    * HIGH DENSITY modules only have 10% compatibility and are VERY SLOW as it breaks all JEDEC guidelines.

 

think you should have bought this http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-Ballistix-PC3-12800-BLS2KIT4G3D1609DS1S00-BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00/dp/B006WAGGUK

 

If you did buy the high density kit I should return it and swap it for the low density ones.

 

 

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I'll admit in my years of building PCs I've never dealt with high density and low density. But that said if it wasn't compatible would it still post with nothing but all the same high density chip? and show as installed in unraid?

 

oh actually now that i think about it this would be another thing that memtest could help eliminate as a problem. I'm going to try and run that at lunch here. pain in the but since I don't have a monitor in there and the box is like 50 pounds :) but it will be worth it for the test

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I'll admit in my years of building PCs I've never dealt with high density and low density. But that said if it wasn't compatible would it still post with nothing but all the same high density chip? and show as installed in unraid?

 

oh actually now that i think about it this would be another thing that memtest could help eliminate as a problem. I'm going to try and run that at lunch here. pain in the but since I don't have a monitor in there and the box is like 50 pounds :) but it will be worth it for the test

 

If you see the memory in POST, UnRaid should read it as that.

There were some issues with misreporting of maximum ram for certain boards, however most of that has been solved (and doesn't directly apply).

Seeing the output of your syslog would be helpful, or provide the full diagnostics file (has syslog included).

To attach you'll want to leave them zipped, or it will be too large. The diagnostics file even zipped may still be too big, if so, host externally and provide a link (if you choose to include that).

 

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I had a short time to goof around at lunch trying different chips (i have way too much old hardware in my house). I'm thinking this may just be an issue with the motherboard. I took out the 4x4GB chips and put in just 1. Then I put in just 1 of a kingston hyperx 4GB chip that I have from another machine. then I went back to the original 2x2GB that I have been running. No matter what combination I put in. it still will only allocate 3507MB.

 

I had been assuming it wasn't showing the full 4GB allocated because half a gig was used for disk caching or some other thing. But now that I see thats all I get no matter how much is installed I'm thinking it's a hardware issue. I was wrong in thinking it showed all of it in post as well. Post always shows as 3576MB unless I have just one of my 2GB chips in then it shows 2040.

 

Unfortunately I'm on the latest bios that asus shows on their site. I'm going to contact their support before I buy anymore RAM in an attempt to max this thing out so I don't bang my head into the same wall.

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I had a short time to goof around at lunch trying different chips (i have way too much old hardware in my house). I'm thinking this may just be an issue with the motherboard. I took out the 4x4GB chips and put in just 1. Then I put in just 1 of a kingston hyperx 4GB chip that I have from another machine. then I went back to the original 2x2GB that I have been running. No matter what combination I put in. it still will only allocate 3507MB.

 

I had been assuming it wasn't showing the full 4GB allocated because half a gig was used for disk caching or some other thing. But now that I see thats all I get no matter how much is installed I'm thinking it's a hardware issue. I was wrong in thinking it showed all of it in post as well. Post always shows as 3576MB unless I have just one of my 2GB chips in then it shows 2040.

 

Unfortunately I'm on the latest bios that asus shows on their site. I'm going to contact their support before I buy anymore RAM in an attempt to max this thing out so I don't bang my head into the same wall.

 

Did you check for that "Above 4G Decoding" setting in your BIOS?

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I have a similar board, and like JonP mentioned you have to enable memory remap in bios for >3.5GB support.

 

In mine, P7P55D it’s on:

 

Advanced > Uncore Configuration > Memory Remap Feature > set to Enable

 

I looked around but didn't have a lot of time. Fortunately this is the motherboard I have so when I get back home I'll go follow these steps and look for it.

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Johnnie you're my hero, well at least a little bit. Do you happen to be running a full 16GB setup in yours? I'm making progress and it is definitely a motherboard thing not unraid config. With that setting set I can now go over 3.5GB. In fact I can get up to 12GB by using one set of my new RAM chips, and the original set that was in there. If I try and use all four of the new chips though it hangs when it tries to count up the memory on POST.

 

Interestingly enough I can use any combination of the new chips along with the two original to get up to 12GB so I don't think any one of them are bad. It just doesn't like having all four at once. And actually I can only use two of my new ones when they are running in the first two slots. If I try and run with just two of them in dual channel configuration I get the same lock up. Meanwhile if I take them out and put the original 2GB chips in the exactly same slots it boots just fine. 

 

I suspect I have some clock setting tweaks to play with to get it maxed out. But for now 12GB is more than I really need. I could just return one set of the new RAM I suppose. But now its like a personal challenge to get it all working :)

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well phooey so much for just swiping your settings from you :) I think I'm out of the woods on the high density vs low density front based off the fact that I can get a pair of them working. 12GB showing good in unraid now. I'm reading that getting four sets of 4GB chips may somehow require overclocking on the CPU side which is odd. Haven't OC'd since the good old celeron 366 days. I'm going to have to dive deeper on it when I get done with dinner and such tonight.

12gb.JPG.93914c9d51829016fc3e31b3dc1107e7.JPG

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actually i'm giving up on the high density entirely. I wanted to believe so bad since it counted it up and booted and unraid allocated it. But it has now crashed twice complaining about swap that I'm sending it back and just going back to my original 4GB for now. I'm going to see how amazon returns takes to me returning it after having opened it. If they give me my refund with no issues maybe I'll look into buying the low density set. I've never had such a hassle dealing with memory before. I guess I've been lucky. Or I suppose this is also the first time I've tried to max out a motherboards capacity.

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speaking of giving up. I think I may have to give up on the idea of upgrading the memory at all in this thing. Out of curiousity I started checking manufacturers sites and filling in forms for this motherboard and they all come up with just one or two products that are compatible and of course none of those are still in stock.

 

Reading up on it more it sounds like everyone has switched to high density memory which makes sense. But even more annoying a lot of them didn't change the product number along with the switch so even some that were low density orginally and have since switched still go by the same name. Which leaves me basically not trusting anything I can find to actually be compatible.

 

Even the other kit from crucial listed on the same amazon page as the one I returned comes back as not compatible if you go to crucials site and fill in their form. Sad day for my unraid server. I know I'll eventually use it as an excuse to replace the mobo/proc/ram but it seems such a waste to give up a great 3.6 Ghz proc and motherboard with so many SATA ports.

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