[SOLVED] A small problem with one of my two RAM sticks

[AshKats]

Two years ago I got my first gaming pc, I went to a local hardware store ordered all of the components and asked them to build it for me since I was still pretty insecure about [mess] something up while building it.

After 1 year and a half I noticed that after around a full day on my pc my Memory percentage in the task manager would go way above 60%, when it was never even above 30% (with gaming around 50%). Now 2 years have passed and the problem still persist yet even more noticeably. Whenever I turn my pc on or restart it, the starting Memory percentage is already at around 40% and after a day it goes up to 80-99%. Which makes everything more laggy. It's gotten to the point where it's annoying since the frame drops and lag spikes happen when I'm in game.

I clean my PC regularly every month, I did a Windows memory diagnostic 4 months ago and no error was found. I also get an error notification whenever I try to restart my PC after let's say two days of leaving it turned on.

My PC specs:

Closer up RAM information:

The part that confuses me the most is the fact that it says 'Total Physical 16GB' and then in 'Available Physical 8.61GB'. Could there be a problem on one of my RAM sticks? Could it be any software interfering with it? Could the frequency be too high/low?

I would really appreciate any help I could get here. Any further questions anyone might have I will try to answer as fast as possible as I really do want an explanation to this problem. If I don't find an actual solution I will probably go replace the RAM stick or use the 5 year warranty I got with them building it.
Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this.

-Kat

 

[rgd1101]

check what is consuming memory?
sound more like software issue than hardware issue

 

[AshKats]

check what is consuming memory?
sound more like software issue than hardware issue

Any way you could help me with that? I can maybe add some screenshots to this thread of like software or anything? Cause I really don't know what could be causing it. Would booting into safe mode do anything to see if the RAM is any different there?
And thank you for the response !

 

[rgd1101]

use the resource monitor.

 

[Bob.B]

Two years ago I got my first gaming pc, I went to a local hardware store ordered all of the components and asked them to build it for me since I was still pretty insecure about [mess] something up while building it.

After 1 year and a half I noticed that after around a full day on my pc my Memory percentage in the task manager would go way above 60%, when it was never even above 30% (with gaming around 50%). Now 2 years have passed and the problem still persist yet even more noticeably. Whenever I turn my pc on or restart it, the starting Memory percentage is already at around 40% and after a day it goes up to 80-99%. Which makes everything more laggy. It's gotten to the point where it's annoying since the frame drops and lag spikes happen when I'm in game.

I clean my PC regularly every month, I did a Windows memory diagnostic 4 months ago and no error was found. I also get an error notification whenever I try to restart my PC after let's say two days of leaving it turned on.

My PC specs:

Closer up RAM information:

The part that confuses me the most is the fact that it says 'Total Physical 16GB' and then in 'Available Physical 8.61GB'. Could there be a problem on one of my RAM sticks? Could it be any software interfering with it? Could the frequency be too high/low?

I would really appreciate any help I could get here. Any further questions anyone might have I will try to answer as fast as possible as I really do want an explanation to this problem. If I don't find an actual solution I will probably go replace the RAM stick or use the 5 year warranty I got with them building it.
Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this.

-Kat

I think what your screen shot shows is that you have 16GB of ram.
You are using a little less than 50%.
You have a little more than 50% available.
So if you add a little less and a little more it comes out to 16GB.

 

[AshKats]

I think what your screen shot shows is that you have 16GB of ram.
You are using a little less than 50%.
You have a little more than 50% available.
So if you add a little less and a little more it comes out to 16GB.

That's not really the problem I'm having here. It's more why my RAM usage is so much bigger than it was 1 year ago? When I still use discord and brave browser like I did a year ago. And my gaming preference has not changed much. And why my memory is so high when I freshly restart my PC. (It's already around 40-45% when I boot it up)

 

[rgd1101]

. It's more why my RAM usage is so much bigger than it was 1 year ago?

that why you need to go to resource monitor to see what is using more.


could be thing that you install that run on the background.
could be malware.
could be windows, MS changed how it use ram to make thing more secure.

 

[Bob.B]

That's not really the problem I'm having here. It's more why my RAM usage is so much bigger than it was 1 year ago? When I still use discord and brave browser like I did a year ago. And my gaming preference has not changed much. And why my memory is so high when I freshly restart my PC. (It's already around 40-45% when I boot it up)

True it's not your problem but it is the question you asked.
Post a screen shot of task manager/startup.

 

[geofelt]

I suspect that your use of discord is the problem.
I see posts with issues with it.
It may have a memory leak.

Normally, windows leaves code in ram in anticipation of possible fast reuse.
That is normal and good.

 

[AshKats]

These are the processes and startup screenshots you requested. These we taken straight after boot. I also added the Resource Monitor Memory tab and the RAMMap overview screenshots.

Processes:

Startup:

Resource Monitor:

RAMMap:

 

[geofelt]

What is the cause of that 8gb mapped file area?
Just a hunch, stop using discord and see if your problem goes away.

 

[perrynick17]

windows only will recognize 8GB out of 16GB, your bios/motherboard is not configured in dual channel mode. make sure you are putting your RAM in the correct slots
DIMM slot 1 closest to your CPU and DIMM slot 3 should have ram installed leaving slot 2 and 4 empty

 

[AshKats]

My motherboard only has two slots. Should I change something to make it into dual channel mode or? (B450 Aorus)

 

[rgd1101]

why do you have sql server running?

 

[rgd1101]

windows only will recognize 8GB out of 16GB, your bios/motherboard is not configured in dual channel mode. make sure you are putting your RAM in the correct slots
DIMM slot 1 closest to your CPU and DIMM slot 3 should have ram installed leaving slot 2 and 4 empty

The resource show all 16GB, where did you see it only see 8GB?

 

[AshKats]

why do you have sql server running?

My uni professor had this class for like a week, where we were setting up something in sql. And I never really paid much attention but we never closed it or went over how to shut it down. I was wondering about that but my friend told me its probably something to do with Windows. Should I try closing it? If yes I would kindly request some assistance with that.

 

[AshKats]

My uni professor had this class for like a week, where we were setting up something in sql. And I never really paid much attention but we never closed it or went over how to shut it down. I was wondering about that but my friend told me its probably something to do with Windows. Should I try closing it? If yes I would kindly request some assistance with that.

We were basically setting up something in the virtual machine Windows has the possibility to create and also using sql to make databases.

 

[perrynick17]

enable dual channel in the bios

windows cant use the other half because your bios defaulted to single channel

 

[perrynick17]

Two years ago I got my first gaming pc, I went to a local hardware store ordered all of the components and asked them to build it for me since I was still pretty insecure about [mess] something up while building it.

After 1 year and a half I noticed that after around a full day on my pc my Memory percentage in the task manager would go way above 60%, when it was never even above 30% (with gaming around 50%). Now 2 years have passed and the problem still persist yet even more noticeably. Whenever I turn my pc on or restart it, the starting Memory percentage is already at around 40% and after a day it goes up to 80-99%. Which makes everything more laggy. It's gotten to the point where it's annoying since the frame drops and lag spikes happen when I'm in game.

I clean my PC regularly every month, I did a Windows memory diagnostic 4 months ago and no error was found. I also get an error notification whenever I try to restart my PC after let's say two days of leaving it turned on.

My PC specs:

Closer up RAM information:

The part that confuses me the most is the fact that it says 'Total Physical 16GB' and then in 'Available Physical 8.61GB'. Could there be a problem on one of my RAM sticks? Could it be any software interfering with it? Could the frequency be too high/low?

I would really appreciate any help I could get here. Any further questions anyone might have I will try to answer as fast as possible as I really do want an explanation to this problem. If I don't find an actual solution I will probably go replace the RAM stick or use the 5 year warranty I got with them building it.
Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this.

-Kat

 

[perrynick17]

The part that confuses me the most is the fact that it says 'Total Physical 16GB' and then in 'Available Physical 8.61GB'. Could there be a problem on one of my RAM sticks?

'Available Physical should be 16gb

 

[rgd1101]

'Available Physical should be 16gb

it not Available because 8 is being used

 

[geofelt]

My motherboard only has two slots. Should I change something to make it into dual channel mode or? (B450 Aorus)

Your initial post shows that you have 4 ram slots and are operating in dual channel mode.
And, single vs. dual channel is a minor performance impact, not a functional impact.

Really, go back to see what has changed since all was well.
I am betting that you have installed something bad since then.

 

[rgd1101]

windows cant use the other half because your bios defaulted to single channel

if you look at the first post. it already running a dual channel

 

[perrynick17]

2 or 4 slots it doesn't matter but if your bios is not configured correctly it is only going to allow one stick to actually work but windows will tell you that it recognizes the RAM but im only going to use half

 

[perrynick17]

I do remember something abought having to do something in windows to get all your resources