Hardware reserved memory issue

[DazleFrazle]

I know there are countless posts about this. I have looked thru so many and the problem has not been resolved. I never noticed this until recently, after formatting my PC. I only had 4gb usable. I thought that since it's "hardware reserved" that it must be using it but windows just categorizes differently. Though I noticed that when I had trouble runnign a VM I bought two new ram sticks to get 16gb to run virtualizations better. But then I noticed it took 8GB out for hardware reserved, then this was a problem.

So my first step was to go to msconfig. Check/uncheck the maximum ram. No luck.
I tried tweaking my ram settings to slower faster no luck.
I moved my ram around and no luck.
What I did notice was that if I put 2 ram sticks on it's own channel then no problem for those. But as soon as I add anything to the second channel (same color with same stick per color) then it wouldn't add in.

I am fairly certain when I set this computer up I had 8gb before the format.

I AM ON 64 bit windows 10.

My board is: GA-970A-UD3

run adata 2x4gb on same channel and then
the g-skill 2x4gb. I know they work together since I can put them 1 and 1 on different channels and get 8GB.

I'm really stuck here.

Any help is awesome. I think it might be due to a driver issue, since for some reason when I reformated windows 10 it still kept some things. So I will do a clean drive install.

Let me know if there is anything I can try in the meantime.


Thanks!

 

[rgd1101]

return/sell those get get a 4x4GB set.

 

[DazleFrazle]

Even when I have 2X4GB of the same set on the same channel I only get 4gb and 4gb reserved hardware.

 

[rgd1101]

go into bios, it is running at the correct speed?

 

[DazleFrazle]

go into bios, it is running at the correct speed?

They are on AUTO which ends up being 1600MHz. Though the actual reading in the BIOS fluctuates from 1607.8-1608.2.

 

[rgd1101]

and they are all 1600mhz ram?

 

[DazleFrazle]

Yes they are.
BIOS is also up to date

 

[DazleFrazle]

After a clean reformat same issue continues. Definitely not a driver issue.

 

[DazleFrazle]

Only solution I see is to return the ram and get 2x8gb and run them in single channel. Though for some reason dual channel doesn't work in windows but I can see it in the BIOS. Really weird!