32 Gb Ram 16 Gb usable Win 8

[NalaShirt]

Hello I have 32gb of ram in my computer and only 16 gb is usable. I have windows 8

 

[kanewolf]

Does the BIOS show all 32GB? Msoft shows 128GB as the limit for Windows 8. Was this a new install or an upgrade from Windows 7? Windows 7 Home had a 16GB limit, but Windows 8 doesn't.

 

[NalaShirt]

It was an upgrade from Windows 7

 

[reedo_43]

maybe your mainboard has a limit?

 

[NalaShirt]

I dont think its my main board when I first put it together it allowed all 32

 

[NalaShirt]

My motherboard is this one ASUS M5A99X EVO R2.0

 

[reedo_43]

Maybe check with another reporting program. Possibly windows is buggy for some reason.

 

[NalaShirt]

I also checked in my task manager and it also shows 16gb

 

[kanewolf]

I also checked in my task manager and it also shows 16gb

You never answered if the BIOS still shows 32GB.

 

[NalaShirt]

Kane where can I find this in the Bios?

 

[kanewolf]

It should be right on the screen where the date and temperatures are shown, right underneath the CPU type. Paragraph 3.2.1 in the users guide.

 

[NalaShirt]

It only shows 16gb of ram in my bios

 

[kanewolf]

It only shows 16gb of ram in my bios

So it isn't a Windows thing. To have 32 GB I assume you have 4 x 8GB sticks. Are they a matched set or are they mix and match?

 

[NalaShirt]

They are mixed and matched, again they worked fine for the first 2 months

 

[kanewolf]

They are mixed and matched, again they worked fine for the first 2 months

It is always better to buy a matched set.

Re-seat all 4 sticks (pop them up and push them back down).

Clear your BIOS and reload optimized defaults.

Otherwise you could have a failed DIMM which you will have to figure which one.

 

[NalaShirt]

How could I clear my bios?

 

[NalaShirt]

Alright i did everything still shows only 16gb and a failed DIMM is?

 

[kanewolf]

Alright i did everything still shows only 16gb and a failed DIMM is?

The BIOS has an option under TOOL -> ASUS SPD Information. That should identify which memory slots the motherboard is detecting correctly.

Any slots that aren't being detected correctly will have to be removed and tested one at a time to see if they are working.

 

[NalaShirt]

So the slot thats not working that ram stick is defective?

 

[kanewolf]

So the slot thats not working that ram stick is defective?

That is a good possibility. You will have to do more testing as I said in the last post. Does the failure move as you move DIMMs around or does it stay with a particular slot? Put a sharpie mark on the one(s) that are having problems now so that you can track them. Pull out all the DIMMs and test the marked ones one at a time. Does it boot? Can you run Memtest for 1 or 2 complete passes? You are on the right path but I can't tell you where it will lead...