Task Manager showing 8GB of RAM...and 16GB? See full post!

[TheFriendlyHacker]

I have 16GB of RAM on my PC (2x8GB sticks), and there have been zero problems with it until now. 

Looong story short, I noticed unusually high RAM usage a few days ago. Upon checking Task Manager, it shows that I have a total of 16GB of RAM (correct)...but it also shows that only 8GB of it are being used (see attached image). 

 

I took out both RAM sticks and swapped the slots they were in (aka, just put the stick in "slot 1" into "slot 2" and vise versa). When I booted back up, it showed 16GB total, as well as 16GB "in use". But today, it went back to showing 16GB in total, but only 8GB "in use" (again, see attached image). But this time, swapping / re-seating the sticks didn't fix the problem. 

 

What do you think is going on here (Again, check the glorious screenshot I keep referencing). RAM problem? Mobo problem? Something entirely different?

[Windows7ge]

It could be an issue anywhere between the CPU/Motherboard/RAM but if you look at Hardware reserved it says 8GB which means either something is reserving that RAM (like an iGPU for example) or the OS is having issues talking to one of the sticks so it refuses to use it.

 

You already tried swapping them around try the other two slots if you have them. Also try running MemTestx86 and see if it displays any errors. Right now though it sounds like a bad stick of RAM. RAM errors don't always result in a BSOD but if they're severe enough the OS will refuse to use it.

[Gazereths]

What are the other system specs? Do you have an APU/iGPU that has reserved the 8 gigs of ram as vram? What happens if you just use a single 8GB stick, does it show 4GB reserved?

[TheFriendlyHacker]

1 minute ago, Windows7ge said:

It could be an issue anywhere between the CPU/Motherboard/RAM but if you look at Hardware reserved it says 8GB which means either something is reserving that RAM (like an iGPU for example) or the OS is having issues talking to one of the sticks so it refuses to use it.

 

You already tried swapping them around try the other two slots if you have them. Also try running MemTestx86 and see if it displays any errors. Right now though it sounds like a bad stick of RAM. RAM errors don't always result in a BSOD but if they're severe enough the OS will refuse to use it.

Thanks for the insight! Hopefully it's just a bad RAM stick, since that's the cheapest to replace. 

[TheFriendlyHacker]

5 minutes ago, Gazereths said:

What are the other system specs? Do you have an APU/iGPU that has reserved the 8 gigs of ram as vram?

My other specs are:
- Ryzen 5 2600x
- GTX 1070
- MSI B450M Tomahawk 

All of those parts (including the RAM) were purchased together and assembled into this PC when it was built (in late 2018). And everything worked fine until now. Given there have been no significant hardware changes (aside from swapping out the secondary 1TB HDD with a 3TB one a few months ago), I can't imagine anything suddenly changed that caused this (although you may have some experience that I don't)

Lemme try it with just one 8GB stick rq, I will report back. 

[TheFriendlyHacker]

10 minutes ago, Gazereths said:

What are the other system specs? Do you have an APU/iGPU that has reserved the 8 gigs of ram as vram? What happens if you just use a single 8GB stick, does it show 4GB reserved?

Alright, so I just booted her up with one of the sticks removed. Task Manager appears to be showing exactly what one would expect with a single 8GB stick (screenshot attached)

[Gazereths]

Hmmmm....It seems the speed of the memory has increased in single channel, seems odd. Are these a matched pair of dimms? What speed are they rated for? Have you enable the XMP profile or done any timing/frequency overclocks recently?  Any chance of getting some spare dimms from a friend to rule out motherboard issues?

 

Try the other stick see if it's the same result.

 

Dou you have CPU-Z Installed? Can you put both sticks in and take a screenshot of the CPU-Z memory tab.

 Should look like this:

 

[TheFriendlyHacker]

13 minutes ago, Gazereths said:

Hmmmm....It seems the speed of the memory has increased in single channel, seems odd. Are these a matched pair of dimms? What speed are they rated for? Have you enable the XMP profile or done any timing/frequency overclocks recently?  Any chance of getting some spare dimms from a friend to rule out motherboard issues?

 

Try the other stick see if it's the same result.

 

Dou you have CPU-Z Installed? Can you put both sticks in and take a screenshot of the CPU-Z memory tab.

 Should look like this:

 

They are matching sticks (well...in that they both came in the same kit and have the same heat spreader on them). They aren't from a mainstream brand though. 

They're "rated" for 3000mhz (although I've only been able to get them up to 2933mhz with XMP...so near enough). Ever since I got them, Task Manager has showed a clock speed that's roughly half of their 2933mhz speed. After Googling it, I read that it's apparently normal for Windows to show the speed as 1/2 like that when you have two sticks (seemed strange to me, but benchmarks I've run in the past showed it at 2933mhz). 

 

Unfortunately, none of my (nearby) buddies have any spare DDR4 sticks lying around, so I don't have any spare kits to test out. 

 

But lemme give CPU Z a try, as well as MemTestx86 as mentioned previously by another user. I shall report back my findings!

 

(Thank you for your help, btw)

[Gazereths]

11 minutes ago, TheFriendlyHacker said:

They are matching sticks (well...in that they both came in the same kit and have the same heat spreader on them). They aren't from a mainstream brand though. 

They're "rated" for 3000mhz (although I've only been able to get them up to 2933mhz with XMP...so near enough). Ever since I got them, Task Manager has showed a clock speed that's roughly half of their 2933mhz speed. After Googling it, I read that it's apparently normal for Windows to show the speed as 1/2 like that when you have two sticks (seemed strange to me, but benchmarks I've run in the past showed it at 2933mhz). 

 

Unfortunately, none of my (nearby) buddies have any spare DDR4 sticks lying around, so I don't have any spare kits to test out. 

 

But lemme give CPU Z a try, as well as MemTestx86 as mentioned previously by another user. I shall report back my findings!

 

(Thank you for your help, btw)

Yes it will report 1/2 the speed when running in dual channel, but it still increased in single channel, not sure whay that would be. Have you tried disabling the XMP profile?

 

Have you tried the known good stick in all slots? Could be a bad slot on the board.

 

Just spitballing here, it's always a lot of trial and error getting to the route of these issues...Helps a ton if you have spare parts you can switch out.

 

Where are you based, I'm in the UK, I could spare a stick of DDR4 for loan/test.

[TheFriendlyHacker]

2 minutes ago, Gazereths said:

Yes it will report 1/2 the speed when running in dual channel, but it still increased in single channel, not sure whay that would be. Have you tried disabling the XMP profile?

 

Have you tried the known good stick in all slots?

 

Just spitballing here, it's always a lot of trial and error getting to the route of these issues...Helps a ton if you have spare parts you can switch out.

 

Where are you based, I'm in the UK, I could spare a stick of DDR4 for loan/test.

Thank you for the offer, but sadly, I am in the USA. 

 

I'm going to have a look at CPU Z and MemTestx86 first and see what it comes up with. From my own experience, I figure the off-brand RAM is likely the issue. Especially since my CPU is (was) a brand-new Ryzen, and the mobo is (was) a brand-new mid-end model from MSI. I assume those two components are solid, considering the reputable companies behind them. While the RAM is from god knows where. Hopefully that's the case

[TheFriendlyHacker]

7 minutes ago, Gazereths said:

Yes it will report 1/2 the speed when running in dual channel, but it still increased in single channel, not sure whay that would be. Have you tried disabling the XMP profile?

 

Have you tried the known good stick in all slots?

 

Just spitballing here, it's always a lot of trial and error getting to the route of these issues...Helps a ton if you have spare parts you can switch out.

 

Where are you based, I'm in the UK, I could spare a stick of DDR4 for loan/test.

Well shit. I just booted my PC back up to run the aforementioned software, and NOW it's showing the correct amount of RAM in task manager. I'll still continue as planned. 

 

Heh. Guess this is proof of the inconsistency of the issue. 

[IkeaGnome]

If you switch to the other 2 DIMM slots does it still do this. If you're in 2 and 4 now, does 1 and 3 do this or vice versa?

[TheFriendlyHacker]

21 minutes ago, Gazereths said:

Yes it will report 1/2 the speed when running in dual channel, but it still increased in single channel, not sure whay that would be. Have you tried disabling the XMP profile?

 

Have you tried the known good stick in all slots? Could be a bad slot on the board.

 

Just spitballing here, it's always a lot of trial and error getting to the route of these issues...Helps a ton if you have spare parts you can switch out.

 

Where are you based, I'm in the UK, I could spare a stick of DDR4 for loan/test.

I wasn't able to run MemTestx86 (it wanted to run off of an external USB drive, and I cannot find my flash drive for the life of me). 

But I was able to get a screenshot of CPUZ's memory tab! Mind you, this was taken when all 16GB of RAM suddenly started showing up / being usable again. 

[Gazereths]

Just reseating the ram might have fixed it. But yeah it might be worth testing out all configurations in all slots to see if you can isolate the issue. If you want to.

 

Might have just been a slight bit of dust or corrosion on the pins of the ram or slot that was cleaned by reseating it.

[Gazereths]

6 minutes ago, TheFriendlyHacker said:

I wasn't able to run MemTestx86 (it wanted to run off of an external USB drive, and I cannot find my flash drive for the life of me). 

But I was able to get a screenshot of CPUZ's memory tab! Mind you, this was taken when all 16GB of RAM suddenly started showing up / being usable again. 

Yeah it's running at close to the rated speed now, in your first screengrab it was at running 1333...Weird.

 

 

You still have half a gig system reserved though, just checked  mine and it's 98MB reserved........Not sure what is reserving the memory.

 

[TheFriendlyHacker]

6 minutes ago, Gazereths said:

Yeah it's running at the rated speed now, in your first screengrab it was at running 1333...Weird.

 

 

 

A few days ago, when this first happened, re-seating the RAM did fix it... until today. Today, re-seating the RAM did not fix it... until right now....for some reason. 

 

Also, I just now put both sticks into the other two available slots. When booting up, I got a message stating that the RAM sticks were not in their "optimal configuration" (basically not using the two recommended slots). But when the PC booted, it did show all 16GB as it should. 

 

But given the inconsistency of this over the past few days, I'm hesitant to definitively say that it's "fixed" at this point. With that in mind, do you think it's safe to say that the RAM itself is the most likely culprit? Because I can happily order a 16GB kit of this Corsair RAM to replace it, IF it's safe to assume that the RAM is the problem:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0143UM4TC/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

[TheFriendlyHacker]

1 minute ago, TheFriendlyHacker said:

A few days ago, when this first happened, re-seating the RAM did fix it... until today. Today, re-seating the RAM did not fix it... until right now....for some reason. 

 

Also, I just now put both sticks into the other two available slots. When booting up, I got a message stating that the RAM sticks were not in their "optimal configuration" (basically not using the two recommended slots). But when the PC booted, it did show all 16GB as it should. 

 

But given the inconsistency of this over the past few days, I'm hesitant to definitively say that it's "fixed" at this point. With that in mind, do you think it's safe to say that the RAM itself is the most likely culprit? Because I can happily order a 16GB kit of this Corsair RAM to replace it, IF it's safe to assume that the RAM is the problem:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0143UM4TC/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

(again, thank you so much for your advice and help)

[Gazereths]

Just now, TheFriendlyHacker said:

A few days ago, when this first happened, re-seating the RAM did fix it until today. Today, re-seating the RAM did not fix it until right now....for some reason. 

 

Also, I just now put both sticks into the other two available slots. When booting up, I got a message stating that the RAM sticks were not in their "optimal configuration" (basically not using the two recommended slots). But when the PC booted, it did show all 16GB as it should. 

 

But given the inconsistency of this over the past few days, I'm hesitant to definitively say that it's "fixed" at this point. With that in mind, do you think it's safe to say that the RAM itself is the most likely culprit? Because I can happily order a 16GB kit of this Corsair RAM to replace it, IF it's safe to assume that the RAM is the problem:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0143UM4TC/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

Well i looked at mine, and task manager shows it running at 3200MHz even though it's in dual channel (and basically running at 1600MHz x 2) so not sure why yours is giving the single channel speed.

 

But yeah I'd point the finger at the ram, might be worth changing it out. Ram is at reasonable price atm.

 

 

 

[TheFriendlyHacker]

Just now, Gazereths said:

Well i looked at mine, and task manager shows it running at 3200MHz even though it's in dual channel (and basically running at 1600MHz x 2) so not sure why yours is giving the single channel speed.

 

But yeah I'd point the finger at the ram, might be worth changing it out. Ram is at reasonable price atm.

 

 

 

Awesome! The RAM is definitely the least "reputable" part of this PC (all other components are from known/reputable brands). 

 

Also, do you happen to know anything about / have an opinion of the Corsair Vengeance RAM I linked in my last comment? Think it'll be a good / reliable replacement?

[Gazereths]

16 minutes ago, TheFriendlyHacker said:

Awesome! The RAM is definitely the least "reputable" part of this PC (all other components are from known/reputable brands). 

 

Also, do you happen to know anything about / have an opinion of the Corsair Vengeance RAM I linked in my last comment? Think it'll be a good / reliable replacement?

No experience with the DDR4 vengeance ram, but I ran the DDR3 low profile vengeance for over 5 years, overclocked to within an inch of it's life (with an i7 4790k that was similarly overclocked) and never had any issues.

 

Aparently the 2600 ryzen doesn't like anything over 3000mhz though (I have no experience in this personally, just been told by a fellow enthusiast) so don;t go wasting money on stupidly rated fast ram that has almost zero real world benefit. It will default to 2133 or 2400 anyway without XMP, and most 2133/2400 kits i have tested go to 2933 with looser timing.

[Tempxstz]

On 12/11/2020 at 5:57 PM, Gazereths said:

Yeah it's running at close to the rated speed now, in your first screengrab it was at running 1333...Weird.

 

 

You still have half a gig system reserved though, just checked  mine and it's 98MB reserved........Not sure what is reserving the memory.

 

Hey, I just now started having this problem. It says that i have the other 8.1 GB reserved but i dont know how to "un reserve" them. Please help.

[HeHeNOPE]

On 12/12/2020 at 10:40 AM, TheFriendlyHacker said:

Well shit. I just booted my PC back up to run the aforementioned software, and NOW it's showing the correct amount of RAM in task manager. I'll still continue as planned. 

 

Heh. Guess this is proof of the inconsistency of the issue. 

Hi, could you help me what did you do to fix it im having the exact same problem i have 2x8gb Corsair RAM and the task manager is only showing 8gb.