Question Usable Ram is not the one installed

Oct 11, 2019
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Hi all, i came here because i need your help, i have a fresh installed windows 10 pro x64 (straight from microsoft website), and when i go to the system properties it says that i have installed memory RAM: 16.0GB (7.96GB usable), this is not the first place i came for answers, usually when a problem arises i just do a quick google search and solve it away but this time nothing is working, i tried the advanced options on the boot tab from msconfig, tried both clicking maximum memory and clicking off, tried the virtual memory, with both "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives" and no paging file, and from the hardware side of things, i have on my motherboard 4 slots to insert the ram sticks, i tried each stick i have (2 of them, 8GB each), on each slot, and both of them in all the combinations i could, always the same answer 16 installed, 8 usable, i also tried each stick on its own, they both work, i as well went into uefi and tried to see if any option is only letting me use one stick, so far no solution, most of the time i'm somewhat tech savvy but this time i'm at a loss, so please if anyone has a solution help a brother out, next ill list my specs in case it helps
Motherboard: gigabyte 970a-ds3p
Processor: AMD FX(tm)-6300 Six-Core Processor 3.50 GHz
Ram (x2): HX316C10F/8 (HyperX Fury Blue DDR3, 1600MHz, 8GB, Non-ECC, CL10) info from a website that sells it
Video Card: RX 580
Power Supply: Thermaltake Smart 700W - 80 PLUS - SPD-0700P, again from a website that sells it
SSD: Corsair Force Series(tm) LE 240GB Sata 3 6GB/s
HDD: one of 512gb and another one of one terabyte
if i forgot to mention something just ask away and ill post more, just in case i have a constant supply of electricity without interruptions
 

kaehligj

Prominent
Mar 15, 2018
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695
You will never ever ever ever see the usable ram being the same as installed ram, when windows is running.
Windows use quite a lot of memory and so does any application you have installed under windows.

The swap file (paging file) is only there as a dedicated place to store ram content on harddisk, if and when windows needs more ram than there is left after system load.
That rarely happens on modern PC's unless you are running very demanding applications, like video editing.
The swap file does not take up any ram space, its only an empty space on your harddisk pre-occupied for windows.

You are in fact looking for a non-existing problem.

You better reset all the mess you have tried to alter in your search for the "problem".
 
Last edited:
Oct 11, 2019
4
0
10
You will never ever ever ever see the usable ram being the same as installed ram, when windows is running.
Windows use quite a lot of memory and so does any application you have installed under windows.

The swap file (paging file) is only there as a dedicated place to store ram content on harddisk, if and when windows needs more ram than there is left after system load.
That rarely happens on modern PC's unless you are running very demanding applications, like video editing.
The swap file does not take up any ram space, its only an empty space on your harddisk pre-occupied for windows.

You are in fact looking for a non-existing problem.

You better reset all the mess you have tried to alter in your search for the "problem".
nothing i lost mate, every time i tried something i went back to the original state of things, also while it is true that i will never see 100% of the ram i installed, something is not right when HALF of it is not available, i am not some random grandpa that doesnt know how to turn on the computer, you rushed to call me out and ignored what i wrote first, usually i dont have issues, most of computer problems are easily solved, this time is the exception
 
Oct 11, 2019
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Ask yourself : who is supposed to use the ram when windows is running ? :)

Please dont be rude as this is breaking the forum rules.
look you clearly want me to be idle and let this problem go when i know something is amiss, so far we got nothing but our times wasted, if you cant help me just ignore me, this is not some minor thing taking out of proportion, this is like i said and i repeat HALF of my RAM not being used, years ago when i bought most of these components they all worked just fine, and yes even my ram was full shown in the system properties as 16 installed & 16 usable, we would be having a very different discussion if we were talking about 14 out of 16 usable but this time is a whole stick being ignored by the os or something, so once more if you cant or wont help me please ignore this post
 

kaehligj

Prominent
Mar 15, 2018
335
28
695
Right - I think I got your message.

Lets try the other way round:
What do you believe is the problem with this PC ?

Try a download of CPU-Z and let it tell you the system spec.
 
if u have two sticks installed and windows reports half of ram is hardware disabled, than it means it is disabled, because its not working
its on hardware level (has nothing to do with windows, BIOS trains it)

u can reset CMOS, so mobo will try to "train" your modules
u can also try another pair of ram slots (a1+b1 vs a2+b2 vs a1 + b2 vs a2 + b1)
check if slot is clean
check if ram is fully inserted
check bios ram signal settings (proc ODT/CAD)
u may want to tune up RAM timings as you appear to not have dual channel kits, so your SPD/XMP settings might be invalid for dual channel configuration
 
Oct 11, 2019
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hi all i'm back, after some more testing the issue is still here, tried a few extra things (and went back to original state of things) like the registry entry "ClearPageFileAtShutdown", ran a memory diagnostic, did the reset cmos, cleaned once more the slots and sticks, what i did seem to find/realise is that those 8gb missing are reserved for some reason for hardware, i looked into it and my processor does not have an onboard video, regardless of that i went into uefi in case i missed something but found nothing about it, anyhow i keep looking for answers and got some images that if they help here they are, regardless i apologise for my tone and thank all that takes their time to answer me
Task-Manager-Performance.png

Resource-Monitor.png

CPU-Z-Memory.png

CPU-Z-SPD-Slot-1.png

CPU-Z-SPD-Slot-2.png
 

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