Using 8 GB RAM, but BIOS and Windows say only 4080 MB/3.9 GB are usable! No answer for 3 months!

[Demuny]

Hey.
I've been tackling this problem for about 3 months now. My RAM is 8 GB (2x4) of Ripjaws X memory. I have a brother with an identical pc. Windows 8.1 64 bit and my BIOS recognize 8 GB of RAM, but are only allowing me to use 3.9 GB or 4080 MB. How do I fix this? I've tried everything:
I reseated the RAM, enabled remapping, updated BIOS, did something from a large post, something about changing the RAM speeds, I manually set the frequencies, voltage, etc. I RMAed the motherboard! I tried one stick at a time, they both work. I selected and deselected Maximum memory in Windows. I reseated every component!
Please help, I cannot take this. I have gotten no helpful answer for a long time.

 

[Wanttohelp]

Here's my own, weird and shameful (I'm a PC technician... DOH !!!), yet successful story.

So, I've:

- checked and tested all I could in the BIOS;

- reseated in every possible way my Corsair QVL verified and fully compatible CMZ8GX2M2A1866C9 2x4GB dual channel kit;

- verified the CPU was correctly mounted on the socket with no bent pins;

- excluded the RAM was faulty as it was coming from my perfectly working old rig;

- read on a forum about some cases of short circuits on the mobo before I could surrender to the voices in my head yelling "RMA the f***ing thing !";

- extracted the mobo from the case ;

- found the whole damn problem were 2 brass spacers shorting the mobo with one of them bending some of the little pins resulting from the soldering of the RAM slots contacts to the mobo circuitry;

- removed the 2 spacers, as I mounted them with no paper washers and no screws, so the mainboard was simply laying on them;

- straightened the bent pins with my mom's best eyebrow tweezers (with some tons of patience, the best tool for reviving AMD CPUs with bent pins, in my experience... believe it or not...).

Now my BIOS shows 8176MB of RAM (out of 8192...) and my Win 7 x64 system reads 8 GB !

I hope this will be useful for someone.

PS Sorry for my English. Forgive me, I'm from Italy.

 

[Tradesman1]

Thanks for sharing that, I normally use a pair of razor blades from a box cutter to straighten AMD pins, works well also 😉