Half of my ram is "hardware reserved"?

[1signig]

Only half of the 16gb of ram i installed is usable. task manager says it's hardware reserved?

 

Possibly useful information:

ram: patriot viper 16gb 3200 mhz

motherboard: msi b450m pro vdh max

os: windows 10

 

edit: i've already cleared the cmos and confirmed that both ram sticks work

[Windows7ge]

Hardware Reserved seems most frequently to be one of two things.

1. A stick/slot is defective
2. A iGPU is reserving system RAM

[1signig]

1 minute ago, Windows7ge said:

Hardware Reserved seems most frequently to be one of two things.

1. A stick/slot is defective
2. A iGPU is reserving system RAM

1. would the bios show that both dimm slots are populated if  something was defective

2. i dont have an iGPU

[Windows7ge]

1 minute ago, 1signig said:

1. would the bios show that both dimm slots are populated if  something was defective

2. i dont have an iGPU

I cannot verify that 100% but I believe the BIOS would not report the RAM as available. It may tell you that the slot is occupied though.

 

Well that eliminates one possible cause.

[Tristerin]

Reseat both sticks again, ensure they are correctly slotted and in place

[1signig]

i booted the pc with only one stick in the first and swapped them around and they both work, i think i need a new motherboard

[recon_zero_]

When you boot with one memory you get 4gb reserved?

[Skipple]

Just stating the obvious here: You have them in the correct locations, right? Typically in DIMM Slots 2 & 4

 

From your manual:

 

 

 

 

28 minutes ago, 1signig said:

i think i need a new motherboard

 

I wouldn't start jumping to blaming the motherboard just yet. 

[1signig]

2 hours ago, recon_zero_ said:

When you boot with one memory you get 4gb reserved?

no, i have full 8gb available

[recon_zero_]

i blame the ram

[BlackManINC]

@1signig

 

You should disable the Integrated GPU if the motherboard has one, as others suggested.