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I recently installed another 8GB of RAM, but my computer isn't able to use it. Apparently, it's all "hardware reserved." I don't think that Windows 10 needs 8GB of RAM to run, and I would like to be able to use the memory I installed. Can anyone help?

My MB is the MS-7693 970 Gaming by MSI, and the memory in question is Corsair Vengeance (CMZ8GX3M1A1600C10)

16.0 GB (7.95 GB usable)

Owen
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4 Answers4

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Read about mixing computer memory.

Identify your motherboard with powershell. See if your choice of motherboard and cpu supports 16GB of the type of memory you have installed by reading your manual.

Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_BaseBoard | Format-Table Manufacturer, Product, SerialNumber, Version

Identify your memory with powershell:

Get-WmiObject win32_physicalmemory | Format-Table Manufacturer,Banklabel,Configuredclockspeed,Devicelocator,Capacity,Serialnumber -autosize

If you have used a supported amount / type of memory read the following.

Windows 10 Won’t Use Full RAM

  • Windows 32-bit can only use up to 4GB of RAM.
  • If you have an integrated GPU you cannot use the full memory as an integrated GPU uses memory from your RAM.
  • Defective RAM.
somebadhat
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  • My RAM is supported by my MB (MS-7693) and modifying RAM on Boot didn't do anything for me. I don't really know how to change my BIOS settings, but I do know how to get into my BIOS, just once I'm in there I have no idea what I'm doing. – Owen Jan 04 '20 at 02:38
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Windows 10 detected a problem with the 8GB RAM that you recently installed, and is reserving it so that it does not get used.

Your computer may have one of these problems.

  • The new RAM stick is bad.
  • There is a bad memory slot in the motherboard. Try swapping the RAM stick around to another slot.
  • The new RAM stick is not compatible with your computer's hardware.

Run the Memory Diagnostic tool in Windows 10 to troubleshoot the problem.

  1. Click the lower-left Start button on the desktop to expand the Start menu, and then select Settings in it.
  2. Type "Diagnose your computer’s memory problem" in the search box and press Enter.
  3. Follow the on-screen instructions to run it.

Windows Memory Diagnostic

If the new RAM is not compatible with the version of Windows 10 that is installed the Memory Diagnostic tool will report it.

If you have a Linux live USB handy, it may show a message about the RAM on the screen when booting the USB to a live session. If you take a photo of this message and search for it online it will help you to troubleshoot the problem. It has been my experience that if a RAM stick is bad the relevant message will appear on an otherwise empty black screen for less than a second right after the manufacturer's splash screen disappears when the computer is booting.

karel
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  • I used the Memory Diagnostic but Windows didn't detect a problem with the memory. – Owen Jan 04 '20 at 02:36
  • You should use something like memtestx86 which is much more extensive then the memory diagnostic built-into Windows – Ramhound Jan 04 '20 at 05:08
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    Memtestmemtest runs from a USB stick to check your RAM. Crucial.com has a different free utility for checking/identifying RAM (and they will try to sell you the correct type; albeit at decent prices from what I've seen.) – ashleedawg Apr 01 '20 at 11:04
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After going through hell and every possible solution out there I have another one to add to the list:

  • Make ABSOLUTELY SURE that your RAM slots are not polluted. I had a tiny amount of dust in one of these slot's which caused this issue.

3 hours of troubleshooting because of this tiny dustcorn -_- Everything back to normal now

user1766512
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I had the same issue, (4 x 8gb sticks) 16gb worked the other 16gb just reported in task manager as hardware reserved, tried everything initially no joy. I then noticed two of the ram were rated faster, so I removed all the memory and installed only the faster memory, the computer rebooted like 3 times just after bios screen then eventually into windows. I then powered down added slower ram and rebooted straight into Windows. All memory is now available. Just sharing what worked for me.

Dave 24-7
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