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jfw2

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7 years ago

J

jfw2

4 Posts

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1787

March 7th, 2019 10:00

T7400 hardware reserved memory

I have a vintage T7400 (dual xeon e5420 , bios is at A11). I installed a complete riser kit populated with 16 identical Kingston PC2-5300 8GB sticks for a total of 128GB. BIOS setup says 64 GB installed, then correctly enumerated all 16 sticks. Windows sees 128 GB DDR2 FB-DIMMs with 64 GB available, 64 GB hardware reserved. Other than that the system boots and runs fine.

Things I've tried: Reset CMOS, scrambling the sticks - no effect. Removing the top 4 sticks - reduces the amount of hardware reserved, but otherwise no effect.

Any thoughts on how to liberate the remaining RAM would be appreciated. 

  • bmcowboy

    4 Apprentice

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    Posted March 7th, 2019 18:00

    Hi @jfw2 ,

    Check out page #29 of the User's Guide:

    Maximum memory 64 GB with optional memory riser cards

    1.jpg

  • jfw2

    4 Posts

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    Posted March 8th, 2019 06:00

    There's that, but see this for comparison:

    https://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/precn/en/precn_t7400_specsheet.pdf 

    Several other Dell sources online, as well as nearly all memory vendors suggest that 128GB should be possible.

  • bmcowboy

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    Posted March 8th, 2019 07:00

    Hi @jfw2 ,

    You are right. I further search on Userbenchmark: Precision WorkStation T7400 builds and do located several T7400 run with 128GB RAM, like this and this

    Several ways for further diagnostic on your case:

    • Refer to this thread, similar problem on a T7400 solved by resitting memory module. Note that this may only works on cases with non-identical RAM, i.e. mix RAM from different manufacturers. Therefore may not apply to yours.
    • Refer to another thread, user fix it by BIOS reset by PSWD jumper on motherboard.

    See if information above provide any help.

  • jfw2

    4 Posts

    1535

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    Posted March 8th, 2019 10:00

    Hi again,

     

    tried those. Even went so far as to remove the cmos battery.

    For the ram, I removed all the sticks scrambled the order and reseated them (They're all the same P/N)

    No difference still 64 GB available, 64 GB hardware reserved. I notice that the two examples on the benchmark site use X5492 processors. I wonder if that's a clue. Shouldn't be, but...

  • jfw2

    4 Posts

    1334

    1

    Posted May 7th, 2019 08:00

    Just for the historical record, I isolated the problem to a bad (apparently a poor reproduction) secondary riser power cable. Everything works now.