8GB RAM installed, shows 2.96. up until recently showed 7GB usable.

[Sheadog]

My computer keeps crashing when I play Star wars the old republic. I had no problems and them BAM! RAM starts reading 2.96 usable... How do I fix this problem? I have 32bit Windows 7 and the diagnostic said I had memory problems all of a sudden. I am lost... HELP!

 

[Blaise170]

You can't use more than 4GB with 32 bit Windows. You need 64 bit in order to utilize it.

 

[NBSN]

Well, take a look at this:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa366778(v=vs.85).aspx#physical_memory_limits_windows_7

So, unless you are mistaken about it ever actually showing 8 GB usable, you might be mistaken about your OS. 32 bit Windows 7 can use no more than 4 GB of RAM.

 

[A Wooden Fork]

It's weird that it ever registered 7GB. To the best of my knowledge, Windows 7 32-bit will never address more than 4GB of memory. The "2.96" figure is probably those 4GB minus that being used by the OS. There really is no other solution to this problem other than upgrading to a 64-bit version of Windows.

 

[caqde]

My computer keeps crashing when I play Star wars the old republic. I had no problems and them BAM! RAM starts reading 2.96 usable... How do I fix this problem? I have 32bit Windows 7 and the diagnostic said I had memory problems all of a sudden. I am lost... HELP!

Aside from the usable issue being addressed multiple times above. It seems Windows is telling you that one or more of your memory sticks has gone bad and needs to be replaced. So I'd take care of that and if you want access to the rest of your memory you are going to need to install a 64bit Version of Windows.

 

[Sheadog]

I took the sticks out individually to check and see if there was a change in the RAM. Both were reading as they should.

 

[caqde]

I took the sticks out individually to check and see if there was a change in the RAM. Both were reading as they should.

It may be reading correctly but if windows Diagnostics saw an issue with your memory then at least one of your sticks is likely bad. It may start with that stick but it could cause major issues.

To find the stick I would recommend running either memtest86 or memtest86+ on a flashdisk or cd with each stick to find the culprit.

memtest86+ -> www.memtest86.org
memtest86 -> www.memtest86.com