[SOLVED] PC has 32GB of RAM installed but only 15.9GB of my Ram is usable?

[Zagh]

I understand this seems to be a common problem, but none of the common solutions have solved this issue for me. I have 32 GB of ram installed in my PC, my PC recognizes that I should have 32 GB of ram, however, as shown in the screenshot of Task Manager, 16.1 GB are reserved by the hardware.
Here are my specs to start:
Device name ZachsPC
Processor AMD Ryzen 5 2600 Six-Core Processor 3.40 GHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte B450M DS3H f41
Installed RAM 32.0 GB (15.9 GB usable)
Device ID BF540D49-4DC1-4CFA-870C-610F9B4F9BC9
Product ID 00326-10113-47935-AA751
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Pen and touch No pen or touch input is available for this display

I have four 8 GB ram sticks that I have tied swapping around the RAM Sticks in the ports on my motherboard to no avail. I also tried loading them onto my PC just two Ram Sticks at a time each just to see if I had a faulty RAM stick, but from what I can tell that is not the case. I have checked for a BIOS update for my motherboard but it is fully up to date. I tried msconfig as well.

Everytime I restart my computer after changing the options Maximum memory would always revert to 0. I have seen some post saying to leave the box unchecked, I have seen some say to make it 32768, both have not stopped the 32.0 GB (15.9 GB usable) issue, always only having 15.9 available for use. I have also gone into my BIOS to enable XMP profile to absolutely no avail either. I have also tried Customize Virtual Memory.

I will admit when I tried to customize the size I was not particularly sure what numbers to input so I went with Initial Size: 800 and Maximum Size: 22000. This did not work after a reset and neither did selecting no paging file. I have also launched a Windows Memory Diagnostic only for it to say that my PC is perfectly fine with absolutely no issues. I have even tried typing "msdt.exe -id DeviceDiagnostic" in Run to see if that would catch any errors with my PC, but this also did not solve the 15.9 GB available 16.1 GB Reserved. After all of that, I even removed my ram again to clean it out with an air compressor incase it was something as simple as that. Even though way more dust came out of that thing than I anticipated, it also did not solve the issue.

I have also tried changing the value in ClearPageFileAtShutdown from 0 to 1. I then reattempted the System Configuration steps again also to no avail. I searched around BIOS to see if there were any options that I may have missed but nothing caught my eye. I am pretty out of ideas beyond all of this and do not know what try next. Any help would be incredibly appreciated. P.S. Sorry for all the snippets I was not sure what all people would need to see.

 

[Zagh]

Did you have any trouble finding a pencil eraser. lol Shines them up real good. That oxide is hard to get off sometimes. A metallurgist once told me oxides can be harder than the metal itself. Gee, and I thought all metals just rusted. lol

I actually had a bunch of unused pencils just lying around so It woked out perfectly.

 

[Alan Alan]

Don't use an actual mechanical air compressor. They spit out a fair amount of oil and water. Compressed air in a can is the best, hold any fans still when doing it if you happen to clean them too. Spinning fans in a computer create electrical currents that are not necessarily good for your computer.

Mine is an oil free compressor. I use it for painting with an inline filter to keep moisture out. But it's not for use with air tools that need constant lubrication.

 

[Kona45primo]

Oooh fancy, probably should be fine, just keep the psi within reason.

 

[Alan Alan]

I actually had a bunch of unused pencils just lying around so It woked out perfectly.

Sweet, Now maybe I can get a sticky thread explaining this problem. Seems the admins want proof. So many memory problems around here and I never see anyone who knows about this. I asked for help when my computer wouldn't boot and told me I had a memory problem. Tried them one at a time and none worked. So I got a new motherboard and still had the same problem. Then I thought the old board must have damaged all 4 modules. Went online searching for memory and came across an old computer tech showing tarnishes memory contacts and how to use an eraser and the whole bit.

 

[Alan Alan]

Oooh fancy, probably should be fine, just keep the psi within reason.

I turned it on and started blowing with almost zero psi. It blew that clean in less that 10 seconds. I doubt there's was more than 5 psi at the time. One time a hose popped loose at 90 psi and wholly mackerel king fish. RUN!!!

 

[Alan Alan]

I actually had a bunch of unused pencils just lying around so It woked out perfectly.

I did mine like this guy. https://computerinfobits.com/how-to-clean-ram-contacts/

 

[Rexie4]

I actually had a bunch of unused pencils just lying around so It woked out perfectly.

Wait, was cleaning the contacts actually the solution to the entire problem? I'm confused if by "it worked out perfectly" you mean you cleaned them perfectly OR that the whole "half my RAM is 'reserved for hardware' and only the other half is usable" problem got solved. I'm having the same issue, similarly to you nothing is working, and I would like to know if really all I need to do is clean the modules' contacts.

 

[Rexie4]

Wait, was cleaning the contacts actually the solution to the entire problem? I'm confused if by "it worked out perfectly" you mean you cleaned them perfectly OR that the whole "half my RAM is 'reserved for hardware' and only the other half is usable" problem got solved. I'm having the same issue, similarly to you nothing is working, and I would like to know if really all I need to do is clean the modules' contacts.

LOL it DID solve the problem. After running a bunch of updates and diagnosis it feels weird that a simple eraser would do the trick. I'm extremely happy that it worked, thank you guys!