Question How do I disable Hardware reserved memory?

[BuildUpgradeRepeat]

I recently got a 16GB ram kit and when I installed it, it was recognised that there was 16gb of ram avaliable. However I could only use 8 as another 8gb was "hardware reserved" is there any way around this?

 

[PC Tailor]

I recently got a 16GB ram kit and when I installed it, it was recognised that there was 16gb of ram avaliable. However I could only use 8 as another 8gb was "hardware reserved" is there any way around this?

It's nothing something you can disable, it's usually software/hardware related.
Assuming you mean the 16GB was from the same physical pack?
Do you have latest BIOS installed?
Are you running any overclock or XMP?
Do you have latest Motherboard/chipset drivers?

 

[Gfost73]

Ive had this same issue with RAM only showing half of the available and half as hardware reserved, My issue stemmed from the CPU cooler not being installed properly (was too tight) .. once I removed and reinstalled the CPU cooler mine all was showing fone with only 24Mb as hardware reserved, I have also been told that sometimes having a onboard video will cause this issue as well as the RAM becomes allocated for Video memory .. not sure if either of these could be your issue, but the same thing happened to me, and that was the cause (the CPU cooler improperly installed ) you also would want to check BIOS to see that 16GB are indeed showing, when I had my issue Windows clearly showed all the RAM, the Bios however only showed half as available, as well it set mine as single channel , not dual as it should of been

 

[arlandi]

Check the compatibiliy with your mainboard.
i experienced this after borrowing an additional 8GB (4GBx2) ram and installed it to my already 8GB (4GBx2). it turns out that the mainboard can't accept the combination of those two sets of RAM chips (one was a corsair vengeange, while the other was a no name brand). i can only use 12GB, and 4GB was always a hardware reserved. And system stability went down. windows keep crashing hard. no blue screen, just stop responding...