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Dell studio xps i7: "bios reserved too much memory" error with TrueCrypt 6.1a
A software encryption program called TrueCrypt 6.1a is unable to set up system (boot-level) encryption on the Dell studio xps i7, because the BIOS reserves 602K of memory on boot. (It may be that the Intel RAID bios is the one grabbing so much memory.) The recommended fix from the software maker, apart from disabling RAID, is for Dell to release a new BIOS with a reduced memory footprint.
LopezM
58 Posts
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December 16th, 2008 22:00
Thanks. I think it is not being assigned any memory--it runs before the OS. (The OS is not relevant.) I don't know the details, but like most preboot environments, the TrueCrypt system disk encryption (which encrypts the boot OS itself) needs to have access to old realmode memory bounds, below 640K. If the BIOS is taking up 602 of that 640K, that's too much--TrueCrypt requires something like 47K.
(Note that I do NOT have the program installed now--so it's not related to the two other Dell i7 threads I started.)
I have 12 GB RAM installed, but I believe that is not relevant since we're taking about the first 640K -- but perhaps not.
Mr._Pseudonym
315 Posts
1
December 16th, 2008 22:00
:^/ I haven't tried that application, and so cannot speak from experience, but is there any reason why it connot use whatever block of memory it's assigned to use? If there isn't enough RAM altogether, perhaps a simple RAM upgrade would solve the problem?
It'd help others to help you if you included a few more details, such as which OS you were running and how much RAM you have installed, and so on.
Maybe I misundertand just what TrueCrypt is trying to do....
Mr._Pseudonym
315 Posts
1
December 17th, 2008 10:00
:^/ Ahhhh, I see what you're saying now. Thanks for clearing it up.
Unfortunately, I have no solution for you....
;^)°º(-except to bump the post for you. Ahem.)
bdorroh
3 Posts
0
February 13th, 2009 20:00
Has there been a fix for this yet? I just tried to do the same thing with Truecrypt and got the exact same error. I know i could just encrypt the system partition, but i wanted to do the whole disk. Sadly, PGP Whole Disk Encryption (which I use on my other Dell) doesn't support the RAID 10 I have on the new XPS.
polocanada2
4 Posts
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May 16th, 2009 07:00
DOS has max 1 MB memory to run programs, unless you create a DOS raddisk. You could try that. I am sure Truecrypt community can help you, there is the right place to search for solution.