16 GB of ram but only 8 usable? 8 Hardware reserved

[SithNai]

Good afternoon!

Sorry for yet another thread asking for help, but so far 3 hours in and i cant find a solution...

 

Sadly my Motherboard died without a reason, since we are all very short on cash i bought the cheapest motherboard i could find, but after getting everything together i cant get the system to use the entire 16 gb of ram.... I've allready tried:

 

• MSCONFIG - Untick the "Max Ram on startup"
• REGEDIT -  Memory Management to 1
• Swap between slots
• Boot with 1 stick separately and on all slots
• Run "Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool" with 0 errors or problems
• Looked for any possible setting in the bios regarding memory sharing with graphics

At the back of my head is the feeling since this mobo is super basic maybe i need to manually set the timers or something like that to make it use all the 16 gb... Here is my full system specs and ill attach some screenshots for you, thank you very very much!

 

CPU - AMD Ryzen 5 2600X

Motherboard - Gigabyte A320M-H-CF (BIOS F32a)

RAM - Corsair Dominator 16GB 3000mhz (2x8gb) (CMT16GX4M2C3000C15)

GPU - EVGA Nvidia GTX 1080Ti

Soundcard - Soundblaster Z

***Old Motherboard that died - Gigabyte GA-AX370-Gaming***

 

CPU Z Full Report.txt

[Guest]

The memory controller and board probably hate the memory kit period.

 

Look at the Jedec timings for example. Hate to think it would take all of CL22 to post the memory at 2133mhz when the XMP profile is CL15 at 3000mhz. 

 

In the timings look for gear down mode and disable it. See if that changes anything.

 

I do not know the resolve, but generally it's the hardware not playing well together, as you noted the board possibly being the issue, which also may be true.

 

Won't know unless you try a different Cpu or memory kit. Which ever is easiest. Maybe take it to a shop for some testing if you don't have extra hardware laying around.

 

[Dudeinfire99]

U are using a dual channel kit... U might have placed it wrong... check the manual where to place them correctly

Or use a XMP Profile in u'r bios

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Dudeinfire99 said:

U are using a dual channel kit... U might have placed it wrong... check the manual where to place them correctly

Or use a XMP Profile in u'r bios

If you look at the screen shots.......

 

Running dual channel in Slots 2 and 4.

 

EDIT:

 

And I gotta say, that's THE very best first post looking for help I've seen in a very long time. If I was an admin, which I'm not.... , I'd totally hook this guy up with some VIP access for a day or two lol.

[Dudeinfire99]

3 minutes ago, ShrimpBrime said:

If you look at the screen shots.......

 

Running dual channel in Slots 2 and 4.

 

EDIT:

 

And I gotta say, that's THE very best first post looking for help I've seen in a very long time. If I was an admin, which I'm not.... , I'd totally hook this guy up with some VIP access for a day or two lol.

Uh.. Thx.. This might help u: 

 

[SithNai]

Hi! And thank you very VERY much for your answers

 

@ShrimpBrime Yeah it is somethink that i imagined, because being honest im pairing mid-high end ram with literaly the cheapest motherboard that i could find on amazon, can you help me out with the xmp profile? Honestly im not to experienced with it and the BIOS only comes with "Off" or "Profile 1", if i set it to "Profile 1" the PC wont even POST and i have to clear cmos with the jumper...

Trying different cpu or rams is out of the question because the pc shops here only sell ddr3 like it is cutting edge, so i have no way of testing differrent hardware...

 

@Dudeinfire99 There is really no way to put them wrong cause the mobo only has 2 slots, idk why it reports as i have 4 slots but the mobo only has 2...

 

Im attaching screenshots of the BIOS and a photo of the PC just in case, once again thank you a lot.

 

 

[NumLock21]

Physical ram size have nothing to do with dual channel. OP's new board only has 2 slots so those are the only slots that can be used. It may be the memory controller in the CPU, try reinstall the CPU and CPU cooler, or reinstall a clean version windows.

[Dudeinfire99]

2 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

Physical ram size have nothing to do with dual channel. OP's new board only has 2 slots so those are the only slots that can be used. It may be the memory controller in the CPU, try reinstall the CPU and CPU cooler, or reinstall a clean version windows.

Sorry, i thought he had 4 dimm slots.

[NumLock21]

1 minute ago, Dudeinfire99 said:

Sorry, i thought he had 4 dimm slots.

It's okay. Anyway, if you look at his task manager. 16GB is detected by the board, but windows is reserving 8GB, leaving the remaining 8GB for the end user.

[SithNai]

10 minutes ago, ShrimpBrime said:

EDIT:

 

And I gotta say, that's THE very best first post looking for help I've seen in a very long time. If I was an admin, which I'm not.... , I'd totally hook this guy up with some VIP access for a day or two lol.

I’m sure you guys are as VIP as anyone else 

 

@Dudeinfire99 Sadly I’ve already seen that video and tried his 3 ideas already... 

 

@NumLock21 Ok! I’m reseating the CPU and ill report how it goes

[SithNai]

@NumLock21 I'm back from reseating the CPU, sadly it didnt work.....

[Guest]

A cpu re-seat won't do the trick.

 

I'd manually set the timings for the Jedec when reset all defaults, enter bios before post. 

 

Use any CL 22, 23 or 24. 

If you use 23, you must disable Gear Down mode.

 

Don't worry about anything else

 

The 5 main timings you see in the SPD tab are all you need to worry about.

Set them up trying each Jedec set. 

 

If it remains only 8GB use-able in Windows, you always have the option to install a fresh OS on a partition which you can create in Disk management if your drive has enough space to do so.

 

These are only ideas for diagnosis. I don't think any of this will actually cure the issue without trying it.

[SithNai]

@ShrimpBrime Im back! I've tested all 3 CL's and it didnt work  I'm going to try up next the fresh install of windows...

 

In case i did it wrong im attaching a screenshot of the CL 24 setup...

[NumLock21]

44 minutes ago, SithNai said:

@NumLock21 I'm back from reseating the CPU, sadly it didnt work.....

Then try reinstalling the OS.

[Guest]

21 minutes ago, SithNai said:

@ShrimpBrime Im back! I've tested all 3 CL's and it didnt work  I'm going to try up next the fresh install of windows...

 

In case i did it wrong im attaching a screenshot of the CL 24 setup...

 

Yes that's correct.

If it still does it with a fresh windows install, then you'll know for sure its hardware related.

[SithNai]

@ShrimpBrime @NumLock21 I'm back, sadly with the fresh install it is still the same... I'm starting to run out of hope..... Did I set the timings for the ram correctly? 

[NumLock21]

18 minutes ago, SithNai said:

@ShrimpBrime @NumLock21 I'm back, sadly with the fresh install it is still the same... I'm starting to run out of hope..... Did I set the timings for the ram correctly? 

Could be the ram and board are not getting along with each other. Try 1 stick and see how much it reserves. If there is any memory allocation in the bios for onboard graphic, try disabling that or set the ram size to 0.

And update the motherboard's bios.

[SithNai]

@NumLock21 With only 1 stick it only allocates 48.7 MB, I've checked for any option in the BIOS indicating anything among the lines of that and i didnt see anything, the BIOS is up to date also... I'm attaching the screenshot of only 1 stick in task manager and all the screens of the BIOS, maybe I'm missing something??? I'm going to test the other stick and see how much it allocates.

 

EDIT: Both sticks in both slots behave the same way... 

 

[JuganD]

48MB hardware reserved means its working fine. So when you put single stick in any of the slots it works, but then when you put them together it doesn't?

Your particular memory stick model (CMT16GX4M2C3000C15) is not in the official memory support list from Gigabyte, but its non-RGB version (CMD16GX4M2B3000C15) is in the list so theoretically it should work fine. It might be faulty slot that refuses to work properly in dual-channel. The bad news is you can't really diagnose that, since you got only 2 slots and can't simply move the ram sticks to another 2 slots.