[SOLVED] 8GB (Half) of my RAM is hardware reserved!

[2feetonmars]

I've put this question off for a couple of weeks now as I've just about embarrassed myself enough on tech forums recently.
The title says it all basically, I've researched every single day for the past couple of weeks and tried everything but nothing seems to work at all.

Task Manager Screenshot

I found a video recently that I thought might work, where someone disables their integrated graphics in BIOS but I don't have an APU. What made me think I had created that issue was when I was fixing my PC and plugged my HDMI straight into my I/O rather than my GPU, but there was no display so I'm assuming there's no integrated graphics on my PC (my CPU is an R7 1700X)

It's safe to say I've made some changes to my PC recently: I've changed my CPU from a 1300X to a 1700X, and reset my windows 10 twice a day apart (I had to reset it the 2nd time because I got blue screen over and over on boot and could actually get properly into windows) and I've updated my BIOS from the very first BIOS version (stock from 2018) all the way to the newest. My motherboard is a Gigabyte A320M-S2H.

The most frustrating thing is I was afraid it was due to my CPU change, but then I realised that before the 2nd reset, all 16GB of my RAM was working perfectly (for context I switched my CPU just after the first reset).
CPU-Z and my BIOS detects my 16GB of RAM perfectly fine and recognises it as dual channel. Both sticks work fine individually. I've switched them around multiple times (although my friend said he once fixed his RAM issues through just reseating them over and over and over for days and it eventually worked)

The issue that it may be (but has never been an issue in the past months) is that my RAM sticks were bought a year apart and weren't part of a kit as I couldn't afford 16GB at the time. They're essentially the same model (the heatsink look different but they're the same frequency and DIMM type). They're HyperX Fury 8GB 2400Hz

I suspect that my GPU is eating it up because I'm hearing lots of complaints about that on forums, but I have no idea how to fix that in BIOS

PSU: CoolerMaster Masterwatt 550
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 1700X (stock cooler)
RAM: HyperX Fury 2 x 8GB 2400Hz
GPU: MSI GTX 1050ti 4GB (I've put a slight overclock in Afterburner - could that be it?)
MOBO: Gigabyte A320M-S2H (just upgraded to latest BIOS)

I'll appreciate any suggestions, but I've tried

• the MSConfig approach,
• looked through the BIOS myself (I disabled IOMMU because that worked for someone apparently, but that didn't work),
• I've changed the paging settings (although I'd appreciate instructions as I'm a little stupid and its been forever since I've done PC tinkering)
• Updated my BIOS
• Switched around the RAM sticks
• Ran the RAM sticks individually

Thanks, everyone!

 

[Wolfshadw]

Aside from the fact that the screen says half is Hardware Reserved, what issues are you experiencing?

-Wolf sends

 

[2feetonmars]

Aside from the fact that the screen says half is Hardware Reserved, what issues are you experiencing?

-Wolf sends

Not much man, just performance at the cost of the RAM deficit. I use Unreal Engine and play GTA V a lot and the FPS is like half of what it should be on both at the moment. I'm no expert but I've usually won most fighting matches with my PCs, and they happen nearly every 2 weeks.
I'm used to horrible performance on games cos that's been my luck all my life when it comes to PCs. But frame rates of 15fps on lowest settings when I've seen benchmarks where they play on high at 80fps with exactly the same system (RAM, GPU, CPU) is beyond heartbreaking given I save a lot for the parts, and I'm still young.

 

[Wolfshadw]

I would say, check your memory usage during high-end game play and see where your memory usage is at. If it's 100% at 8GB, then yes, you have an issue. If not, then the issue is elsewhere.

-Wolf sends