Question Ram showing as 8gb instead of 16gb

[Bayliss404]

Motherboard: asus p9x79
Ram: corsair 16gb(4x4) kit

I have all 4 ram stick installed as per the user manual but it only renders as 8gb in task manager but on speccy and bios it says i have 16gb

 

[william p]

Some operating systems have an artificial RAM Limit. Win7 Starter, and WIN7 Home Basic both have an 8GB limit.

 

[Bayliss404]

Some operating systems have an artificial RAM Limit. Win7 Starter, and WIN7 Home Basic both have an 8GB limit.

I have windows 10 installed

 

[mehur0]

Specify more your operating system, and try taking all ram sticks out and putting them back in, and what does it say that u have 16gb and that usable is 8?

 

[Gfost73]

this may not be the issue.. but I have known in the past that installing CPU coolers incorrect can cause DIMMs to fail.. Ive had a situation where Bios was showing only half the ram.. the Windows was showing all the RAM but half was "hardware reserved"..not saying this is the issue.. but if you've recently installed a CPU cooler you may just wanna make sure all its standoffs etc are installed proper.. if you haven't lately done that.. then id remove the 2hnd stick.. boot with 1 only.. and try both to see if they work separately .. if both RAM sticks work, then Id be looking at the DIMM slot itself, might have dust or debris. make sure to have all the new drivers etc..

 

[Zizo007]

this may not be the issue.. but I have known in the past that installing CPU coolers incorrect can cause DIMMs to fail.. Ive had a situation where Bios was showing only half the ram.. the Windows was showing all the RAM but half was "hardware reserved"..not saying this is the issue.. but if you've recently installed a CPU cooler you may just wanna make sure all its standoffs etc are installed proper.. if you haven't lately done that.. then id remove the 2hnd stick.. boot with 1 only.. and try both to see if they work separately .. if both RAM sticks work, then Id be looking at the DIMM slot itself, might have dust or debris. make sure to have all the new drivers etc..

Its not the cooler its the pins on the CPU or motherboard. I had the same issue with a Ryzen 1800X, with bent pins, half of my memory was reserved until I fixed the bent pins and then I had full 16Gb.

 

[Gfost73]

Its not the cooler its the pins on the CPU or motherboard. I had the same issue with a Ryzen 1800X, with bent pins, half of my memory was reserved until I fixed the bent pins and then I had full 16Gb.

very well could be … but as I did say I wasn't saying it was for sure this issue.. its just one ive personally had to deal with repairing a customers PC and it turned out die to a cooler standoff not being installed proper the cooler was pressing too much on a corner of the CPU wich caused the DIMM slot to not work .. Bios didnt recognize the RAM however windows did.. I only discovered the solution when I was going to replace the board, but decided to try booting the PC without the cooler mounted ( I just had it sitting on CPU for the few seconds to get to Bios) and low and behold all ram was showing.. so once standoff was found and fixed.. all was good.. but it very well could be bent pins too.. but id hope not if he has the CPU installed and pins bent that bad.. hopefully Pins even there still..