16g RAM W7 pro only uses 8g

[PaulyFrustrated]

Hi people Im new here, so hello everyone,

I have signed up here because Im at a total loss what to do about my RAM problem.

I built a new system a few weeks ago, I installed 16g @ 1866mhtz of crucial ram, onto a Sabertooth motherboard, the CPU is an AMD 8 core 9590 @ 4.7ghtz, and Windows 7 pro is a legit copy I installed from disc here at home.
I have 3 copies of Windows 7, and 3 PC's, all other pc's read correct ram and its all usable.
The other systems are.
AMD 8 core 8150 @ 3.6ghtz, sabertooth 990fx mobo, 8g ram @ 1728mhttz, ssd drive 120g, Windows 7 Pro, ATI 6990 dual GPU video card x2 in crossfire.

Intel 5960x 8 core CPU @ 3ghtz, 16g ram @ 2100mhtz, SSD 500GB, GTX 980 NVidea video, Windows 7 Pro.

All windows copies are separate disc, all copies are activated, all are legitimate copies, all are Windows 7 pro versions and all are kept up to date.

This is the first system to do this to me, I build my own pc's for cost reasons.

What I have done so far.........

I have tried pulling the RAM sticks out and swapping them, testing, then pulling them out again and swapping them back, testing, didn't work.
I have CPU-Z installed and it reads a full 16g of RAM.
In CPU-Z, under SLOTS it shows both sticks of RAM working properly, timings , speeds etc.
Under task-manager in Windows, its reading only 8g of RAM.
In the Bios its reading 16g of RAM.
Under Performance Monitor in windows task-manager it reads............
Available.......5094bm
Cached.........4757mb
Total............8090mb
Installed......16384mb

So hows that for confusing !

The OS definitely see's this RAM, but just outright refuses to use it !

I thought maybe some one here at the Windows forum may have seen this before or may have an idea of what direction to go in next.
I was considering windows 10?
Is it worth the effort ?
And does Windows 10 support games, games like Space Engineers and Empyrion ?

I would prefer to just fix the issue if possible though.

Any help would be great, if I have left something out just ask.

Thanks in advance.

Paul.

 

[maxie]

Hi ... Welcome to Seven Forums ... See if the Link below helps ...


http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/66482-memory-set-maximum-amount-used-windows.html

 

[LMiller7]

Check the advanced boot options in msconfig. Be sure the "Maximum memory" checkbox is unchecked. This is the default state but is sometimes changed.

 

[PaulyFrustrated]

Thanks for fast replies people.
I have checked this just now and the box was un-checked, so I checked it , set the amount [16384 mb ] rebooted but it still came up as 8090mb max usable. 16384mb visible.
So I brought up the msconfig found the diddly doodley window box again and unchecked it, the number disappeared out of the box below, I rebooted, and its reading 8090mb still.
Murphy must be watching me, and laughing !

Thanks anyway people.

 

[GokAy]

Try loading defaults in BIOS, then check if timings are correct. Don't change multiplier yet. See if it is detected correctly.

 

[Layback Bear]

I would like to see this from your system.

 

[PaulyFrustrated]

Hi Layback Bear,

Pic's for you champ.

 

[GokAy]

Please check my post #5, and comment. It may be your RAM overclock causing this. 1600Mhz is about right for 890-990FX as far as I know.

 

[Layback Bear]

Every time I see hardware as high (8294MB) as yours the normal causes are:

1. Ram not installed correctly. Re-seat your ram.
2. Mismatched ram.
3. Ram settings not proper. Set ram to default in bios. Set your bios to default.
4. XMP going crazy.
5. The wrong ram installed for the motherboard.
6. People who have been messing with System Configure/Boot/Advance Options.
7. People trying to change video card ram usage.

Windows sees 16gb of ram and only uses 8 gigs because that is all Windows need to use with the load on the computer.
What makes you think Windows should be using more ram?

 

[GokAy]

Yeah, AMD are not very good with overclocking the RAM, and very little gain as far as I know. HT/2 is usually good enough due to how the system works. (Not saying it wouldn't work by the way)

From my mobo manual (890FXA):

To reach DDR3 1866 Mhz or above, you must install two memory modules and
install them in the DDR3_3 and DDR3_4 memory sockets.

I would think 990FX not be much different, but check your manual.

As said earlier, I would first make sure they are detected correctly with default settings (possibly 1033 or 1600 Mhz). Then work my way from there.

 

[Layback Bear]

I'm not a AMD user.

Just some suggestion on my part.

I will set back and watch.

 

[GokAy]

That's pretty much all I can do at the moment too, and going to bed soon.

 

[PaulyFrustrated]

Well I built the pc myself, I will try re-seating the RAM sticks today, but they are definitely matched sticks, they are 2x8g sticks,
from the same packet, all numbers on them match.
I haven't changed any settings in the bios for the ram speed or timings, I bought 2100mhtz DDR3 RAM assuming it would de-clock itself to the correct setting maybe this is the issue.
It says its running at 1866mhtz but I can set it back to 1600mhtz and I will let you guys know what happens within 24 hours.
The 2100 ram was as cheap as the 1600 ram is why I bought it. I know sabertooth boards don't like anything over 1728mhtz usually but I just never thought of this, so thanks people I will go test this stuff out and get back to you all.

The reason I need more RAM than 8g is, I am a game tester for Empyrion and I have been doing huge world tests and I am eating RAM like its going out of fashion.

I have an Intel system, 5960x i7 @ 3ghtz, with 16g ram @ 2100mhtz, gtx980 video ,x99a mobo, where the maps in Empyrion will use more than 8g of ram on some of these maps, I really need to get the AMD system up to speed with the amount of RAM available to use to do proper testing.
Empyrion is a game like Space Engineers, very demanding on pc recourses.

Thanks for every ones time on this, much appreciated.

 

[GokAy]

It is possibly a misconfiguration, keep us posted

I am running 16GB on 890FXA no problems with 1600MHz.

 

[profdlp]

It wouldn't hurt to go here: MemTest86 - Download now!

Get the Image for creating bootable USB Drive under the Windows Downloads section, then give it two or three passes. I'd do the re-seating and configuration things the others have mentioned first, though.

 

[GokAy]

We have a tutorial for it http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105647-ram-test-memtest86.html

 

[PaulyFrustrated]

OK hello everyone,
First I want to thank every person who put a reply in here.

The problem has been resolved.

Special thanks to Layback Bear, and GoKay, the problem was indeed the RAM speed setting, I re-seated RAM, had no effect, so I then entered the bios and manually set the RAM speed to 1600mhtz as it was setting it to 1866 automatically, at 1600mhtz it reads the full 16gig and it has access to use the full 16g.

So thanks for the effort to help me resolve this niggly problem, I have 20 odd years of building pc's [W3.11 ! ] and I am not a pc technician or programmer, for me I learn something new every generation of cpu !
Thanks for the education .

 

[GokAy]

I am a sad panda but glad it got sorted.

 

[Layback Bear]

Very gook PaulyFrustrated.

Happy computing.

 

[AddRAM]

What`s that delete option on the bar, I`ve never seen that before.