Bios says 8GB ram Windows says 3.97gb

[joshua3313]

Hello

a friend of mine built his pc and its saying that 8 gb ram is installed but only 3.97 is usable because the rest is system reserved

can someone please help

 

[Aleszandro143]

Hey joshua3313,
So basically 3.97GB is usable because the rest is being taken up by windows to open tasks, and for various background tasks which you cannot see. To increase your friend can try to remove unwanted Applications as well as limiting the applications that open when he starts his pc that way the RAM will be more freely usable.

 

[vrumor]

What version of Windows is he running? 32 or 64 bit?

 

[joshua3313]

Hey joshua3313,
So basically 3.97GB is usable because the rest is being taken up by windows to open tasks, and for various background tasks which you cannot see. To increase your friend can try to remove unwanted Applications as well as limiting the applications that open when he starts his pc that way the RAM will be more freely usable.

He just installed his computer freshly to windows 10 64bit so theres nothing to clean off

 

[joshua3313]

What version of Windows is he running? 32 or 64 bit?

64 bit windows 10

 

[Aleszandro143]

Well then that is just Windows being Windows, it takes a lot of RAM just out ofthe box, similar to mine.

 

[rhysiam]

Having half the RAM as "system reserved" can mean there's an issue with one of your sticks. Try booting with them in one at a time and see if you get 4GB working both times. That would suggest that both sticks are working.

There's a good chance though that the system won't boot when one of the sticks is in there by itself, but will boot fine with the other one by itself -> that's a sure fire sign of a bad RAM stick and you can RMA it if under warranty.