16 GB RAM laptop showing 17.3 GB but only 8 GB available.

[SomethingSomething420]

Hi. A while ago, I bought a Dell Inspiron 15 (I could provide the model number if needed). I didn't pay much mind, but at the time, I was told it had 16 GB. BIOS always showed 16, I never bothered to look, though then a game of mine started genuinely lagging my PC, which was new. I looked at task manager, and it said I had 1 GB available, and said the game was using 7 GB, which was 89%... That concerned me, so I looked into it more. System properties said I had 8 GB installed, yet task manager said I had 4-5 GB (fluctuated) allocated out of 17.3 GB. I checked my system settings through MSConfig, the RAM isn't set to a limit, and the default is 0. I'm curious, what could this be? What is reserving it? Why is the unreserved RAM unavailable? How can I change this safely?


Quick facts:


-Dell Inspiron 15 running Windows 8.1.

-Came as 16 GB, but only 8 GB available.

-System properties shows 8 GB.

-Task manager says 4-5 GB reserved of 17.3 GB.

-MSConfig shows RAM is not set to a specific limit.

-BIOS shows 16 GB.


Quick questions:


-Why does it show 17.3 if only 8 is installed according to system properties?

-What could be reserving it?

-Why is unreserved RAM unavailable?

-How, if at all, can I change the available RAM safely?


I honestly don't mind if it's 8 GB, I'd just like to get the most out of it if there's an untapped pool of RAM. Safety is priority numero uno here. Thank you!

(Edit: changed MSEdit to MSConfig)

 

[Colif]

so hardware reserved shows 5gb? I assume its 64 bit so memory allocated to GPU shouldn't account for it.. i think

can you show some screen shots? Task Manager & System Information might help. This might help - http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2580030/detailed-instructions-posting-images-tom-hardware.html

if 8 is anything like Win 10, the 17.3gb figure includes your page file. Mine shows as 5.1 out of 16.9 committed, I have same amount of ram as you.

try testing ram with memtest86, one stick at a time. Any errors could show why bios sees it but windows won't use it. If you get any errors, stick needs to be replace/removed.

 

[SomethingSomething420]

so hardware reserved shows 5gb? I assume its 64 bit so memory allocated to GPU shouldn't account for it.. i think

can you show some screen shots? Task Manager & System Information might help. This might help - http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2580030/detailed-instructions-posting-images-tom-hardware.html

if 8 is anything like Win 10, the 17.3gb figure includes your page file. Mine shows as 5.1 out of 16.9 committed, I have same amount of ram as you.

try testing ram with memtest86, one stick at a time. Any errors could show why bios sees it but windows won't use it. If you get any errors, stick needs to be replace/removed.

I'm not sure if I should run memtest since I'm 64 bit.

I'll provide the system information, task manager, and MSConfig (I said MSEdit in the original post, sorry) in one screencap.

 

[rgd1101]

did you contact dell for support? hardware reverse sometime mean the ram not working right.

 

[Colif]

Screen shot is showing windows only seeing 1 ram stick, the slots used shows 1 of 1 (I would think it would show 1 of 2 if you had more than 1 slot, mine shows 2 of 4 used)

apart from Committed which includes the page file, then your PC is only seeing 8gb. Hardware reserved is fairly normal so its not the igpu.

memtest runs of a USB at boot, it doesn't use windows. it cares not that you have 64bit, it works on the hardware off the USB.

 

[SomethingSomething420]

Screen shot is showing windows only seeing 1 ram stick, the slots used shows 1 of 1 (I would think it would show 1 of 2 if you had more than 1 slot, mine shows 2 of 4 used)

apart from Committed which includes the page file, then your PC is only seeing 8gb. Hardware reserved is fairly normal so its not the igpu.

memtest runs of a USB at boot, it doesn't use windows. it cares not that you have 64bit, it works on the hardware off the USB.

This is exactly what I was looking for: a succinct, explained reason for what I was seeing. Thank you!