hey all. I’ve tried different ram, a different windows version, I’ve messed around in bios and updated it as well. How can i get my pc to register the rest of my ram??
Are you absolutely sure that your RAM is installed according to the motherboard’s instructions?
Have you tried swapping the two RAM modules between the slots that they are in?
Have you tried using both RAM modules independently from each other?
Edit:
Do both of the modules have the same speciations? Unlikely that this will cause issues (I think, I haven’t tried it but, y’know, in theory) but it may.
When did the issue start? Did you install new RAM? Are both the new sticks identical or of mixed make? A new CPU? Did you unseat and reseat the CPU or anything before this started?
You tried different RAM? Was it properly addressed or no? Did you try the current or different RAM stick by stick to verify each one is working on its own and then in the recommended slots as per your motherboard manual?
These steps/questions are necessary to determine whether the issue is a bad memory stick, something funky going on with the memory controller wrt slots, timings, combination of different modules, etc, or even the possibility of a defective memory controller or a bent/broken pin on the CPU.
Randomly one day I was playing a game and it started stuttering so it worked at one point. Got ram installed into the right slots. Tried a different set, then my old ram stick then tried with new ram and old ram. At that point it states 24gb available 7.9gb usable.
If you reseated the CPU and tried different RAM already it could be you have a defective motherboard. I read some other threads where that was the case.
Update: I stole my partners ram and put 4 x 8gb in there and now it’s showing 16 GB available. Smh. So it seems something is reserving half of my ram. I reset bios to default. PLZ help lmaooooooooo
What happens if you put in 2 x 8gb? Play around a bit with where you put them. Just to be sure if it is half of your physical ram slots that don’t work or if the slots themselves are fine and the issue is further down the line.
Only time I’ve ever had this happen, I had inadvertently over tightened my CPU cooler. Scythne ninja 2 was a godsend for small form factor builds, but damn it was easy to over tighten!
Okay, I’m back and I have slept. Have a look at your CPU. I’m 90% sure that’s where the problem was when I had this issue. I think in my case, one of the pins was slightly bent, and once it was very carefully straightened, the problem went away. But it could also be just not seated properly, or is overheating, or has dust on it.
I saw in another post that you borrowed your partner’s RAM. Is it possible for you to borrow their CPU (assuming it’s compatible with your mobo)? If all the RAM is usable when you’re using their CPU, that would point to your CPU having an issue, as there is the potential for a failure there that’s not visible to the naked eye. If the problem still happens with your partner’s CPU, then at least you’ve eliminated one possibility, which is useful for diagnostic purposes.
What’s weird about it? CPU seated wrong means that some pins may not be making proper electrical contact inside the socket. Pins not making proper contact means that they can’t energize the electrical traces that connect to those pins, or only do so intermittently, so whatever part of your system they control won’t work right either.
I had this issue once on a PC a few years ago. I ended up having to slightly over volt the RAM in the bios. After doing that I no longer had any issues. By slightly I mean I upped it by the smallest increment once or twice.
Since what everyone else has suggested hasn’t worked, there’s 3 more things to test:
Update your BIOS. Depending on the age difference between your CPU and your MOBO, the BIOS might not be configured correctly for your CPU and thus half your RAM is unable to be addressed.
Test your RAM sticks and memory slots individually. Put your sticks in the primary channel (per your MOBO specs) one at a time and reboot to see if they’re actually working. Then try moving them around to see if the issue is a bad slot, rather than a bad stick.
Are you sure you’re not running a 32-bit OS? You’d be capped at 4GB system memory on 32-bit Windows, for example, no matter how much physical RAM you have.
Do you mean you’re getting an error message saying the “selected file is not a proper BIOS file”?
Or are you getting a different error? If it’s the above, you’ll need to remove and redownload the updated BIOS, as it was corrupted during download, and you’ll need to make sure you have a stable connection while downloading to avoid it happening again.
If you’re getting a different error I’d need to know the exact wording to help any further.
Sort of, it depends on implementation. There are some techniques (which I don’t really know) that will allow a 32 bit OS to address more than 4GB, but natively it can’t for the same reason that the process will still be limited to 4GB.
Perhaps you already know this but: 32 bits can only represent 2^32 numbers (4.294.967.296), which is how many bytes 4GB is equivalent to, and so anything after that cannot be reached. This also means 64 bits can address up to something like 17 billion GB, or about 16 EB.
What other hardware do you have installed in your system?
Can you take a screenshot of the Memory tab of Resource Manager?
It looks like the BIOS is reserving the memory for something. Reserving memory is pretty normal, but 8 GB isn’t. Have you tried resetting your bios to default settings.
I once had a TV tuner card use up 4GB of address space taking me from 8GB down to 4GB. Do you have any add-in cards that can be removed for testing? Or maybe any unnecessary onboard devices that can be disabled in the BIOS/firmware.
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