Computer won't let me use all of my available RAM

[Doombot1]

Hello!

To start off, my Windows 10 Settings show that I have 16GB of RAM installed:
http://imgur.com/xW5kzD6
As does my control panel:
http://imgur.com/WNqOI7U
As well, I ordered my computer directly from Lenovo with exactly 16GB of RAM, and have not changed that amount. For some background information, I have never observed my computer using over 8GB of RAM, and I have had it for a year, despite when having both Autodesk Inventor and Autodesk 360 Fusion open at the same time. When I check the "Users" tab of Task Manager (I only have one account - the one displayed), it shows that I only have ~4GB of RAM (using simple math - 1024(amount it says is being used)x4(Says 25% of RAM is being used)=4096).
Here's TM (Users tab) saying I have ~4GB of RAM (Instead of 16),
http://imgur.com/3PxQWAq
And here's TM (Users tab) saying that I have ~8GB of RAM (Instead of 16, once again):
http://imgur.com/x1BYlmZ
That number switches in between saying that 1024 MB is 25% and 2048MB is 25% (Basically, the computer is saying that in between 1 and 2 GB of RAM is a quarter of its total RAM, when in reality, it should say that 25% of my RAM is equal to 4GB (4096MB).

Does anyone have any idea why this would be happening? I think that something is going on with the amount of RAM my computer thinks that it is able to use, but I'm not sure - would I be correct to say that?

Thank you so much!

-Dylan Treschl

 

[captaincharisma]

i would check with lenovo to see if that laptop can really use that amount of ram and see if there are any BIOS updates for it

 

[CircuitDaemon]

The amount of RAM used by those programs is relative to your workload, they don't necessarily spend all available RAM . But regarding your question, you should be looking at the process tab or the performance tab where you'll have a better view at what is being used. The user tab doesn't really reflect what's being used because it separates apps per user and doesn't take into account the OS and other stuff like services. If you really want to test if it's being used, just open a bunch of google chrome tabs and you'll quickly reach that 16GB limit. Having around 100 tabs will easily eat over 6GB of RAM on their own.

 

[Doombot1]

That's not the issue - Lenovo sold it to me with 16GB of RAM, and I have googled the specs of it - It supports 16GB.

 

[rgd1101]

there also system user. not just your login user. look under the performance tab, not the user tab.

 

[Doombot1]

One last thing - normally, in the windows 10 settings, it shows the RAM as XX GB (XX GB Usable). For some reason, mine doesn't have the part in parenthesis (I'm talking about the first picture in the original post) - why would that be, and is that bad?

Thanks again!

-Dylan Treschl

 

[anbello262]

No, it is not bad. It means that the whole amount is usable.

The (xx usable) only appears when, for some reason, not the whole amount is usable.

 

[CircuitDaemon]

One last thing - normally, in the windows 10 settings, it shows the RAM as XX GB (XX GB Usable). For some reason, mine doesn't have the part in parenthesis (I'm talking about the first picture in the original post) - why would that be, and is that bad?

Thanks again!

-Dylan Treschl

Nothing to worry about, that only happens when the computer detects an amount of RAM but it is being reserved by something else. Usually when the computer has integrated graphics, it'll share RAM as video memory and will reserve certain amount that's defined from the BIOS. That's why some computers say that not all RAM is available, but you might have a dedicated GPU and therefore nothing is being reserved as it has its own memory.