Ram lower than installed.

[Jeremy_87]

Alright I have 2 8GB ram sticks installed, and yet I get that installed memory is 12GB, Total physical is 8GB. And available is only 6.45 at best. Now i figured one stick might be bad so I pulled one and restarted and the computer would not boot. I then took that one out and restarted with the other instead and again, it would not boot. It seems the system won't even start unless both sticks are in, even though one might be faulty. I have no idea what might cause this. I thought about ordering new ram, but I'm wondering now if that would even solve the issue.

 

[The_Staplergun]

Use memtest86 to test each stick and then together. Test each slot on the board too to make sure it's not the slot.

If it throws errors only in one specific slot the slot is bad. If a particular stick of ram throws errors no matter where you put it, the ram is faulty.