So I'm not terrible with computers, but I'm not that great at all. I did build this computer and it's been working beautifully for 2 years. Recently it started be waayy slower, so after some quick investigation I found out that of my 16GB of RAM installed, only 3.24GB is usable. I've looked all over the internet and tried a bunch of things, but I can't figure it out. Can anyone help?
Simply put, the problem is your version of Windows, shows as 32-bit and there is an issue with more than about 3.2GB to 3.5GB or so. If you were to install a 64-bit version you'd get access to all 16GB.
It's pretty simple. You have OS Windows 7 Professional 32bit system which will never show more that 4 gigs of ram. Windows 32 bit system is unable to use more ram.
What operating system did you have installed before Windows 7 Professional 32bit was installed. Where did you get Windows 7 Professional 32bi?
Really? What do you think the most likely problems would be? Every time I have a program crash (a game for example) my task manager always shows that my Physical Memory is running close to 100% (which according to the task manager is ~4GB). Therefore I guess I assumed it was a RAM issue.
Physical Memory can run up to 100% and if that happens regularly you might check into what your Virtual Memory/paging file is set at, may be good to make it larger, say twice the size of the RAM. I set mine at 1.5 times the RAM and the same number for Maximum and Minimum but games, video editing, large spreadsheets, etc., do need more than the minimum requirements. Running more programs at the same time exacerbates the problem. Windows loves as much RAM as it can get.
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