Half of my ram is reserved for hardware. HELP!!!

[Saulkar]

Sorry if this is in the wrong thread, first post.

A few days ago I purchased the parts necessary for my dream computer build. The main components are:
Operating system: Windows 7 64-bit
Motherboard: Asrock x79 Extreme9
Graphics Cards: 9800GX2 (Physx) Asus 560ti 448 (Main card to hold me over until the Nvidia 600/AMD 7000 lineup thus the BIG PSU for SLI/Crossfire)
Ram: G-Skill Ripjaws Z 32gigs
CPU: Intel 3930k - Stock Clock
PSU: Coolmaster Gold 1200 watt


Hardrives: 2 Seagate 2TB and one Crucial M4 64GB for bootdrive.


The problem is that both my BIOS and operating system acknowledge that I have 32GB installed but say in the task manager and system properties that only 16 is usable. When I go to my resource monitor it tells me that 13.7 gigs are free and 16 gigs are reserved for hardware! I have tried everything from switching the ram around, reseating the socket, checking the CPU socket for bent pins (2011 of those suckers!), checking MSCONFIG to see if maximum memory is checked, NOTHING! I am at a loss as to what could be causing this.



Somethings to consider:


Due to the layout of the board's PCI lanes and the fact that the Asus 560TI 448 is 3 PCI lanes wide I had to put the Asus in the second x16 PCI lane so that it would not overlap with the short x1 PCI lane that I use for the included sound card. Instead I have the 9800 GX2 in the first PCI lane.


I have a cord that powers two of the Chassis's fans via 4 pin molex, it had a 4pin female plug which splits off on the cord which me and my friend thought was a fan header plug (stupid us), we plugged it into a motherboard fan header and the computer refused to start. We immediately unplugged it and the computer started fine (we turned off the power first as always before plugging and unplugging). We then tried a fan plugged directly into the header and it worked fine. No further problems noted.

(due to the incredibly small size of my living space and generally risky environment (shag rug, too small desk) I did not assemble my computer here and I rather not lay my computer out and start taking out all of the components to trouble shoot lest I risk damaging one of them so I was wondering if something installed in the PCI lanes could even cause this before I start pulling things out)

Lastly I tried using the built in overclock configurations in the motherboard BIOS to 4.6GHZ before turning it off after deciding it generated too much heat in 3DS Max(up to eighty degrees on the intel lga 2011 closed circuit water cooler).

It was only after all of that, that I checked to see my ram usage and found only 16GB usable.


So I have told you all that I know and revealed embarrassing ignorance. So having laid out this Wall'O'Text, what say you?

P.S. Sorry for any mangled hardware naming.
P.P.S. I do not know why but bold kept turning on, sorry.

[Perineum]

I'm guessing you're running on Windows 7 Home Premium?

[clshades]

That board should have extra power ports for 32 gigs of ram. Read the Manual.

[Saulkar]

Originally Posted by Perineum

I'm guessing you're running on Windows 7 Home Premium?

WTF? It says right here on the case Windows 7 Professional, exactly what I paid for from Staples but the disk and System Properties say Home Premium. Dear God forgive my stupidity! Thank you very much for pointing that out, I am going to have to go back to Staples and hope that they are willing to replace it or at least give me a discount. I do not know how they treat it for a computer software.

Thank you very much one last time and I will let you know how it goes.

[Perineum]

Glad I could help

[enaberif]

Originally Posted by Saulkar

WTF? It says right here on the case Windows 7 Professional, exactly what I paid for from Staples but the disk and System Properties say Home Premium. Dear God forgive my stupidity! Thank you very much for pointing that out, I am going to have to go back to Staples and hope that they are willing to replace it or at least give me a discount. I do not know how they treat it for a computer software.

Thank you very much one last time and I will let you know how it goes.

Did you buy a computer with a free upgrade to professional?

[mchutch]

The usable memory may be less than the installed memory on Windows 7-based computers

x86 x64
Windows 7 Ultimate 4 GB 192 GB
Windows 7 Enterprise 4 GB 192 GB
Windows 7 Professional 4 GB 192 GB
Windows 7 Home Prem 4 GB 16 GB
Windows 7 Home Basic 4 GB 8 GB
Windows 7 Starter 2 GB 2 GB

[Saulkar]

Originally Posted by enaberif

Did you buy a computer with a free upgrade to professional?

No, no. I bought all of the components separately (including the operating system) and assembled it from scratch. I brought the disk back to Staples and after an hour of waiting they finally just gave me a free copy of Windows 7 upgrade anytime or whater it is called since this incident has never happened before and they did not know what to do.

[Saulkar]

Originally Posted by Perineum

Glad I could help

Well, you were spot on! I brought my copy of Windows 7 Professional back to Staples on my lunch break and they were stumped as to what to do with it. They had never seen a Home premium disk packaged in a Professional case (they checked a few more unopened packages and discovered the exacted same thing) so after nearly an hour of running around they finally gave me a free copy of Upgrade Anytime to Windows 7 Professional. I just finished installing it and guess what? All 32gigs are unlocked. Once again thanx!

[supaflyx3]

Originally Posted by Saulkar

Well, you were spot on! I brought my copy of Windows 7 Professional back to Staples on my lunch break and they were stumped as to what to do with it. They had never seen a Home premium disk packaged in a Professional case (they checked a few more unopened packages and discovered the exacted same thing) so after nearly an hour of running around they finally gave me a free copy of Upgrade Anytime to Windows 7 Professional. I just finished installing it and guess what? All 32gigs are unlocked. Once again thanx!

Really? That's weird. I wonder if its only your store that's effected.