Windows 7 Not Showing All of My Installed Memory

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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.
 


Been there already which is strange that is not his issue.


Did you read through the microsoft link above?

Can you post your total system specs, all parts included?
 
Holy Shit my apologies....forgot to post my specs (weak!!)

AMD FX-8350
ASUS Sabertooth R2 Latest BIOS v2501
Corsair Vengeance Performance 2 * 4gig w/Heatspreaders
MSI R7 370 w/4gig RAM
EVGA 850w PSU
Coolmaster Cooler
 
Been reading a plethora of posts related to my problem. Every other one says to go to msconfig and uncheck memory which seems to work half the time which means it doesn't work the other half (and not for me).

Let's see.....

RAM sticks working fine
RAM MOBO slots "seem" to be working fine as Windows can see all the RAM but can only use half of it
MSCONFIG fix does not work for me

Discovered a couple of vids over at YouTube about this problem. One guy found a temp solution with a regedit but it only lasts until next power up. Rest of the vids are about the msconfig fix.

Reading a lot about Hardware Reserve which is what "Resource Monitor" reports is using the missing 4gigs except I don't know WHICH hardware is doing it. Ideas?
 
Last ditch effort. If you only have one stick RAM you can only use slot 2 ( currently I am using slots 2 and 4). Restarted with one stick RAM in slot 2 and I got 4gigs RAM perfectly all useable. Replaced other 4gig RAM stick into slot 4 (actually I swapped sticks just for whatever) and I get the same ole 8gigs installed 4gigs useable.

Here's another weird thing. The main page of BIOS shows total memory as 4080 MB but in the individual BIOS settings both slots of RAM are represented. I mean, Windows can't show any memory if BIOS can't show it, right?? Could I have been hit with any malware that may have caused this?? Everything was perfect a few weeks ago only thing that could cause this out of nowhere could be a virus or malware.
 


You're right, that was a dumb suggestion. If you've gone through the microsoft link I posted above, Windows is definitely 64 bit, your memory is seated properly, msconfig is good, BIOS is set to remap memory, I am literally at a loss.

Is there anything else you can think of that changed since before you noticed this issue?
 
I'm getting so desperate how about in BIOS the DDRAM Voltage is 1.498V. Not exactly 1.5v that the RAM needs.

Thing is...my system was flawless for about a week as far as RAM goes and this just happened a few days ago. Can't understand it.
 


Did you try just re-setting the BIOS to completely stock, and then going from there?
 
Something else, probably nothing.

The newer Sabertooth MOBOs come with 4 LEDs installed, each one lights up for a specific problem. CPU, RAM, HDs and vid card all have one. The LED set for the RAM does not light up indicating BIOS/MOBO does not see the RAM as having any problems.
 
Somewhere along the way some device in your system seems to be reserving system memory for itself. Can you post a screen shot of your MSconfig boot/advanced options tab?

Also please run Resource Monitor and click the Memory tab and screenshot the physical memory allocations on the bottom
 
Another desperate post.

Can't stop thinking about the fact that the amount of RAM that I can't use is the exact same amount of RAM on my vid card. Is there a possibility that my pc does not SEE or recognize the RAM on my vid card?
 


I doubt that, mainly because its not integrated. Also if you look at the card diagnostics you would see that the memory isn't working. Likely the PC wouldn't even run.
 
Just learned Windows has a "Windows Memory Diagnostics Tool" which of course I ran and Windows came back and said I had no problems. Does seem more and more like a device or something is grabbing up memory for itself but then I ask myself why didn't it do this before?? There are no new devices added since the birth of my pc when Win7 showed all the RAM properly.
 
When I run Resource Monitor graphic on the bottom which represents RAM allocation is TOTALLY GREEN. Green means "In Use" so for a brief second on start up, RM sees all the RAM and it's usable. Then of course a second later and it fractures into sections in which gray represents RAM that is "Hardware Reserved" and is HALF the available RAM.

Can't stop thinking about the first few seconds where RM sees all the RAM installed as usable.
 
Why do you want the boot/advanced screen?? It has the max mem box unchecked.

I just found a new proggy might help us called RAMMap. Looks promising and I will post a screenshot from both proggys.
 
Rammap.jpg


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