half of my ram showed up as hardware reserved

[connie496]

i have 4 sticks of corsair ddr4 3200mhz ram on msi b450 mortar and i tested all the ram are working however whenever i try to boot up with the ram configuration like this: [(ram)(ram)(empty)(empty)] or [(empty)(empty)(ram)(ram)] my computer fails to boot up and the debug led light up on ram.

 

Only with [(ram)(ram)(ram)(ram)] and [(empty)(ram)(empty)(ram)] and [(ram)(empty)(ram)(empty)] does my pc boot up

 

Anyone have any idea if the motherboards is dying or its a bios/software issue? i have already checked my cpu for bent pins and reseated my cpu , cleared my bios ,  reset cmos by taking battery out

 

the rest of my system if it matters: msi ventus gtx1660 super , ryzen 7 2700 , boot drive mx500 1tb

[kb5zue]

Is there a problem?  The computer is supposed to be able to use ram-ram-ram-ram OR ram-empty-ram-empty OR empty-ram-empty-ram.  Those settings are all in response to using dual channel memory.  Booting your computer with the empty-empty-ram-ram OR ram-ram-empty-empty is really screwy and defeats the purpose of dual-channel.  Use one of the options that works and forget about it.  Why try to use it if it doesn't work?  Oh, there is nothing wrong with your machine.

[connie496]

3 minutes ago, kb5zue said:

Is there a problem?  The computer is supposed to be able to use ram-ram-ram-ram OR ram-empty-ram-empty OR empty-ram-empty-ram.  Those settings are all in response to using dual channel memory.  Booting your computer with the empty-empty-ram-ram OR ram-ram-empty-empty is really screwy and defeats the purpose of dual-channel.  Use one of the options that works and forget about it.  Why try to use it if it doesn't work?  Oh, there is nothing wrong with your machine.

i used to have 32gb or ram usable but right now only 16gb is usable and rest is hardware reserved, i just listed out the ram configurations i tried when troubleshooting if the ram slot or channel is faulty

[Lordmage]

Sounds like a bios setting to reserve ram for something usually used for video memory or as a raid cache. It's in your bios set to 16gigs somewhere 

[Eigenvektor]

Check the sticks individually, do they work on their own? Having a whole stick marked as hardware reserved typically means that either the stick or the memory channel is defective. If the sticks work on their own, then it's likely the memory channel that's defective. That could be an issue with the board, but also the CPU.

[OmfgLasers]

Just dealt with this issue a couple days ago. Something was hardware reserving 50% of my Ram. I have the Asus ROG Strix x470-F mother board running on BIOS from 2018, so I started by updating it. EZ Flash 3 wouldn't work, nor would trying to select the BIOS update file from SSD. Figured out I had to extract it to a USB and it worked.

 

Since the BIOS was so old, I started with the very next version. Went through fine. Then I went to the next version and all hell broke loose. After the update, I just got a black screen. After staring at it for a while, I shut down and restarted. No BIOS splash screen, no windows, just the black abyss. After repeating this a couple times, and clearing CMOS, I figured I needed a new Mobo. Did some more digging and found an article where someone fixed the black screen problem by swapping ram from 2-4 slots to 1-3 slots. Figured I'd give it a go. MY CPU cooler interfered with one of the slots so I couldn't do this. However, I just left one stick in the 2 slot and restarted. OMG it worked. Got into the BIOS then booted into Windows. Guess what, the hardware reserved issue also resolved itself. Don't know if it was a BIOS issue, a RAM issue or a combination of the two.

 

TLDR: Tried to fix black screen after BIOS update by clearing CMOS and moving RAM around. Fixed black screen and hardware reserved RAM at the same time.

[connie496]

On 11/19/2023 at 6:43 AM, OmfgLasers said:

Just dealt with this issue a couple days ago. Something was hardware reserving 50% of my Ram. I have the Asus ROG Strix x470-F mother board running on BIOS from 2018, so I started by updating it. EZ Flash 3 wouldn't work, nor would trying to select the BIOS update file from SSD. Figured out I had to extract it to a USB and it worked.

 

Since the BIOS was so old, I started with the very next version. Went through fine. Then I went to the next version and all hell broke loose. After the update, I just got a black screen. After staring at it for a while, I shut down and restarted. No BIOS splash screen, no windows, just the black abyss. After repeating this a couple times, and clearing CMOS, I figured I needed a new Mobo. Did some more digging and found an article where someone fixed the black screen problem by swapping ram from 2-4 slots to 1-3 slots. Figured I'd give it a go. MY CPU cooler interfered with one of the slots so I couldn't do this. However, I just left one stick in the 2 slot and restarted. OMG it worked. Got into the BIOS then booted into Windows. Guess what, the hardware reserved issue also resolved itself. Don't know if it was a BIOS issue, a RAM issue or a combination of the two.

 

TLDR: Tried to fix black screen after BIOS update by clearing CMOS and moving RAM around. Fixed black screen and hardware reserved RAM at the same time.

nice glad that u fixed ur issue but for my pc i got 4 ram stick in all 4 slots so i doubt it will work. I have borrowed another mobo and all the ram and cpu works, going to change my mobo next month

[OmfgLasers]

On 11/23/2023 at 7:39 AM, connie496 said:

nice glad that u fixed ur issue but for my pc i got 4 ram stick in all 4 slots so i doubt it will work. I have borrowed another mobo and all the ram and cpu works, going to change my mobo next month

Try this first. Clear CMOS, remove all ram, put one stick in 2 slot, and restart into windows. See if it fixed itself. If it did, you can throw all your Ram back in. That's exactly what I did pretty much. 

[problemsolver]

On 9/13/2023 at 8:40 PM, connie496 said:

i have 4 sticks of corsair ddr4 3200mhz ram on msi b450 mortar and i tested all the ram are working however whenever i try to boot up with the ram configuration like this: [(ram)(ram)(empty)(empty)] or [(empty)(empty)(ram)(ram)] my computer fails to boot up and the debug led light up on ram.

 

Only with [(ram)(ram)(ram)(ram)] and [(empty)(ram)(empty)(ram)] and [(ram)(empty)(ram)(empty)] does my pc boot up

 

Anyone have any idea if the motherboards is dying or its a bios/software issue? i have already checked my cpu for bent pins and reseated my cpu , cleared my bios ,  reset cmos by taking battery out

 

the rest of my system if it matters: msi ventus gtx1660 super , ryzen 7 2700 , boot drive mx500 1tb

 

The RAM slot order issue:

@kb5zue is correct. I'll explain it a different way and cite your motherboard manual.

 

From your description, this is not an issue and replacing the motherboard will not fix it. Your motherboard is functioning properly when RAM is moved around. RAM should (almost always) be installed in alternating slots. Your motherboard manual also depicts this.

 

Even if you could get the computer to boot, you would suffer a significant performance hit in workloads involving RAM. (like gaming FPS and RAM-intensive applications).

 

However: You can try putting one stick or RAM in DIMM A2 per your motherboard manual, and that should boot the computer. If it still doesn't boot, then it does look like you have some sort of issue.

 

The hardware reserved RAM issue:

Quote

i used to have 32gb or ram usable but right now only 16gb is usable and rest is hardware reserved, i just listed out the ram configurations i tried when troubleshooting if the ram slot or channel is faulty

• Clear the CMOS first and see if that addresses the issue
  • You mentioned you took battery out, but for how long?
  • Use this procedure outlined in your motherboard manual instead
• Since you have to clear the CMOS anyway, I would then update the UEFI to the latest version
  • AMD has improved stability and RAM compatibility, so this might actually affect your issue