RAM chaos

rudy

rudy

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Apr 4, 2004
Messages
8,704
Can anyone explain to me why windows can see ram is installed but cannot use it?

I am using windows 10 with an X58 mobo it has 6 slots of ram. BIOS posts, windows loads, CPUZ always detects all the sticks of ram and windows shows all the ram is there in settings, system, about. However in most cases not all the ram is usable.

I just have tons of extra ram laying around and I cant believe how hard it is to just use this garbage.

I have 2 gigabyte z68 mobos that can never accept more than 2 sticks with out crashing. My own computer already has all 4 banks full. But these other computers I can never seem to load them up with ram. I get it when BIOS wont post something is clearly wrong but I don't get why we can get all the way to windows, everybody can see the ram is there but its just like oh well cant use it .
 
what version of windows? Home is limited to 16GB. You need pro or ultimate to use more RAM.
 
Is the ram the same voltage? Voltage is more important than timings. Ram will default to the timing of the slowest stick. Voltage however does not do that...
 
I'm not seeing the chaos.
How are you seeing chaos?

Are you using a 32bit OS?
 
SomeGuy133 said:
what version of windows? Home is limited to 16GB. You need pro or ultimate to use more RAM.
Click to expand...
:rolleyes: Yes, if he was running Windows 7. But, he said he was running 10, which is "limited" to 128GB in the home flavor.

The OP deserves a beating for not providing any useful details. How much memory does he have? How does he know it's not being used?

He's probably sees something like this and doesn't understand it:

Memory Usage Win 10.png
 
Stereodude said:
:rolleyes: Yes, if he was running Windows 7. But, he said he was running 10, which is "limited" to 128GB in the home flavor.

The OP deserves a beating for not providing any useful details. How much memory does he have? How does he know it's not being used?

He's probably sees something like this and doesn't understand it:

View attachment 1407
Click to expand...
i never really used 10 so what is that saying exactly..... That looks odd to me so please explain to my ignorant ass :D

BTW surprised MS increased it to 128 for home....
 
OP's mystery RAM issue must be preventing him from posting a decent explanation, now he can't even use the whole forum :(
 
SomeGuy133 said:
so why isn't it getting used?
Click to expand...
Because it's not needed for the tasks currently running. The whole question doesn't make any sense. It's like complaining that your CPU cores aren't being "used" because they're not all at max turbo speed and 100% usage. It's not like Windows 10 is any different from the prior flavors of Windows with regards to RAM utilization.
 
Stereodude said:
:rolleyes: Yes, if he was running Windows 7. But, he said he was running 10, which is "limited" to 128GB in the home flavor.

The OP deserves a beating for not providing any useful details. How much memory does he have? How does he know it's not being used?

He's probably sees something like this and doesn't understand it:

View attachment 1407
Click to expand...
according to this photo he has 40GB of RAM but only 30GB is available....that doesn't make sense

EDIT...er nm. its 40MB lawls. I first read that as 40GB of RAM in hardware and 30GB available with 2GB in use....-_- NM :D Thats why i was confused haha
 
SomeGuy133 said:
according to this photo he has 40GB of RAM but only 30GB is available....that doesn't make sense

EDIT...er nm. its 40MB lawls. I first read that as 40GB of RAM in hardware and 30GB available with 2GB in use....-_- NM :D Thats why i was confused haha
Click to expand...
What photo? The OP hasn't posted a picture. I posted one as an example of what he's likely confused by.
 
Nice, now the confusing OP is turning into a confusing thread. The OP's master plan is working!
 
All the sticks are 1.5V, no computer has more than 16GB, All systems are running windows 10, home or pro. in most cases I am trying to move from 8 GB (2x4) to 12 or 16GB . I have 4 computers I have been screwing around with. Like I said I just don't get why the RAM can get past BIOS and all but then windows doesn't like it, yet knows its installed. I wonder if anyone has seen symptoms like this before and what was typically the culprit.

Windows 10 > Settings > System > About

It says something like this.
Installed RAM 12.0 GB, 7.99 Usable.

All systems have a dedicated GPU.

I have tried many combinations of the RAM and have seen all sorts of inconsistent results.

For instance I think 2 sticks of ram might be bad. But in some occasions I just put one of those "bad" sticks of ram in a computer and it booted and ran fine. But any time I tried to combine that same ram with another from the same set or any others from different sets / companies I couldn't get all 2 - 4 sticks to be usable by windows.
 
rudy said:
All the sticks are 1.5V, no computer has more than 16GB, All systems are running windows 10, home or pro. in most cases I am trying to move from 8 GB (2x4) to 12 or 16GB . I have 4 computers I have been screwing around with. Like I said I just don't get why the RAM can get past BIOS and all but then windows doesn't like it, yet knows its installed. I wonder if anyone has seen symptoms like this before and what was typically the culprit.

Windows 10 > Settings > System > About

It says something like this.
Installed RAM 12.0 GB, 7.99 Usable.

All systems have a dedicated GPU.
Click to expand...

Besides running memtest, you should make sure that Windows itself is not artificially limiting the amount of RAM.

Do a Windows Key + R to bring up the RUN dialogue.

Then type in:
msconfig
and hit return

Once in msconfig, go to the Boot tab and then Advanced Options.
Make sure the Maximum memory: checkbox is not checked.
If it is, uncheck it, hit ok and then ok again and reboot.

If it is not checked, go ahead and check it and enter the amount of RAM that is installeod. 12GB should be 12288 (12 x 1024). hit ok and then ok again, and then reboot.
 
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