Windows 7 Not Showing All of My Installed Memory

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JBRONCFAN

JBRONCFAN

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Jul 24, 2015
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Finished building my new rig couple weeks ago, been running flawlessly ever since. Very happy with my system temps and timings.

When I go to Computer>Properties I get the description of my system and the Windows 7 running on it. It describes my system in detail and when it gets to describing my memory, it reads "8 gigs installed (3.91 gigs available).

I've never seen this before on any of my other builds or others' pcs. It's meaning is clear but I need to know WHY the whole 8 gigs is not available?? Windows Update won't allow me to update, says it runs out of memory. I opened Task Manager, select the Performance tab and leave it open and shows during an attempted update the pc running out of memory.
 
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Yes, I am running Win7 Home Premium 64-bit.

Forgot to mention I also have 4 gigs of memory on my vid card.

Also forgot that I swapped mem sticks (2 * 4gigs) and still have the same problem. So the sticks are good maybe the slot is not?? Maybe Win is reporting the 4gigs on my vid card and only 1 of the sticks which would explain the only 4gigs Win says I have available.
 
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Assuming you are running 64 bit windows, you should next try to re-seat your ram in the slots. Its possible there is dust on a pin or its not completely properly seated.

If you do that and still have the problem next go to Start / Run, type in msconfig then go to "boot" then "Advanced", uncheck "Number of Processors" and "Maximum memory". Save and close.

Edit:



No Windows will not report video memory like that. This is definitely an issue with system memory.

One other thing I just thought of, go in your BIOS look for system info and memory info and run memory remap. Not all BIOS have this, but if yours does also worth a shot.
 
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Not saying it's not a system mem problem. Just trying to justify showing 8gigs but only 4gigs available.

I ran CPU-Z and it shows both 4gig sticks installed, specs for each and everything.
 
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Right but as I said, windows will not report video memory there. Anyway, please try my suggestions, this is a common issue, and those often fix it.
 
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Since you have 8GB of RAM installed, your system is working just fine. The system is correctly reading that you have 8GB of RAM installed, & is telling you that your open applications (& possibly also the RAM dedicated to the iGPU) are using just over 50% of that RAM.

I suspect that, were you to turn off most of the apps (especially any apps that auto-load at startup), or if you were to tweak the iGPU settings & allocate less RAM to the iGPU, you'd see the "available RAM" go up...because that's what the "available RAM" means: RAM that isn't currently being used by the PC's hardware/software.
 
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Did you try the BIOS like I mentioned?



That is not true, the properties window does not display a real time available memory. This is a common issue people have had. As well he is using an external GPU, so the iGPU memory allocation is irrelelvant, however even if he were using it, that allocation is fluid and not displayed in properties either.
 
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Just went back and reread your post. I have the Sabertooth mobo so there is a good chance I have that remap option. Will go check now.

Windows Experience Index I get 7.9 on everything except Memory which I get 5.9. Windows says if I have 4gigs or less of memory the max score I can get is 5.9. Clearly Windows only sees 4 out of the 8 gigs I have installed. Like I said I swapped slots/sticks and nothing changed so the sticks are good but the slots have to be good also, yes? Since they accurately report both sticks in both slots????
 
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The sticks should be good, and the slots should be as well, it probably isn't a seating issue since you did swap them around and reseated them (unless you somehow managed to do it twice), they are all the way pushed in and the clips engaged right?

Let me know what happens with the BIOS.
 
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Just wanted to say thanks so much for your time and effort, it is much appreciated. Tough building your own system from scratch and have it ALMOST perfect.....you know??? Runs perfectly fine....well, almost. Being 64-bit it certainly could run faster with more memory.

You know, I thought about what you suggested but then figure....eh, it's already enabled nothing else to do. I will go back and do what you suggested so stay tuned!!!!
 
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I'm right in the middle of the disable/enable of the remap option and had to pop over here to tell you that, I went to Start>Computer>Properties and now it says "8gigs installed (2.92gigs available). I LOST A FREAKIN GIG OF MEMORY!!!! Used to say 3.92 so, try to figure out why that happened as I return to BIOS and enable remap.
 
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Something else I did in regards to the memory....pc wasn't reporting the correct speed for my RAM (Corsair Vengeance Performance w/Heatspreaders) which is 1600. I went into BIOS and entered the correct timings and all is well. CPU-Z is reporting both sticks at the correct speeds. Now that I think about it, I am going back into BIOS and see if the timings are the same or if they have changed.
 
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This is something else that can cause the issue, try setting everything back to defaults and see what happens.
 
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I don't believe in coincidences so I'm gonna be setting my memory back to default will do the trick. If I come back and report this, my next question is gonna be how to we set the correct timings for my memory AND work properly???
 
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Think it would be a good idea to try my mem in the other channel?? Slots 1 and 3 are one channel, 2 and 4 a second channel. Manual says single sticks go in slot 2, dual sticks slots 2 and 4. Read a post here someone having a similar problem, different board than mine. They went from slots 2/4 over to slots 1/3 and he got good.
 
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This is also worth a shot. Try the change back to default first though
 
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Set everything back to default (except boot order of course) and still same problem.

Thought: you know Windows has a pagefile system where it uses hd space like it is RAM when needed? I zero'd out the pagefile system since my rigs are usually loaded with tons of RAM. Do you think this could be part of the problem??
 
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Thats not the problem however you should always allow it to have some sort of page file, as we have found it to cause strange issues with both Windows and programs (nothing like this though) if you completely turn it off or get rid of it.

Did you try moving slots?
 
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My Sabertooth mobo did not come with it's own pc speaker. Reason being is it has 4 LED warning lights installed which do the same thing. One for CPU, MEM, HD, VID. I just like to hear that reaffirming BEEP every time I power up.

Anyway, I swapped slots instead of 2/4 like the manual says I tried 1/3. Holy Christ the pc speaker went ape-shit!!! I immediately shut it down and returned the sticks to normal position.

I hate messing with my rig like this I'm afraid I'm gonna screw up a good thing. It runs flawlessly fast, super cool temps....while I surf the net it is also sending HD video to my big screen (I'm a cord cutter). The ONLY problem is when I try to update, it says it can't download updates cause of lack of memory. Fortunately I got my system all of the updates it needs for now but what about the future? Windows is still updating Windows 7, yes??? Really don't want to upgrade to Win 10 if I can help it.
 
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