Possibly faulty RAM?

[JorenBus]

Hello all,

 

I'm getting some terrible FPS in games all of the sudden. I think this might be due to faulty RAM.

I have 3 sticks of 2GB RAM installed. Windows says in the top right of task manager (see screenshot) that I have 6GB of DDR3 RAM.

However: with 'in use' it says it only has let's 1.5GB and 500MB available.

I already tried swapping the sticks and refused to boot first (boot failure) I then selected 'reboot with default BIOS settings and it booted up.

Is my RAM broken?

[Guest]

Advice, Don't listen to Task manager. 

It can give extremely faulty readings sometimes, 

Try swapping the kits in different dimms 

you really should look into getting a single 8GB stick of RAM, If it still doesn't work btw, its the RAM, if not it might be the motherboard.

[ZetZet]

Why the new thread?

[Altecice]

Im more interested in your HDD reporting 100% usage. You may be paging to the page file on the hard drive when your ram is +75%.

[DXMember]

the every stick of RAM one by one in every motherboard slot until you find a faulty memory stick or a faulty memory slot

[DXMember]

Im more interested in your HDD reporting 100% usage. You may be paging to the page file on the hard drive when your ram is +75%.

yes, that's exactly how page file Works when you run out of RAM on a Windows operating system and any operating system by that matter

[JorenBus]

Advice, Don't listen to Task manager. 

It can give extremely faulty readings sometimes, 

Try swapping the kits in different dimms 

you really should look into getting a single 8GB stick of RAM, If it still doesn't work btw, its the RAM, if not it might be the motherboard.

Already swapped kits.

When playing Star wars battlefront, MSI afterburner doesn't go above 2041MB of RAM usage, that can't be right, no?

 

Why the new thread?

I assume people here might be able to help me better than on the PC gaming sub, no offense

 

Im more interested in your HDD reporting 100% usage. You may be paging to the page file on the hard drive when your ram is +75%.

C:/ is my SSD drive. Strange indeed. I have page file set to automatic, so I have no idea.

[Altecice]

yes, that's exactly how page file Works when you run out of RAM on a Windows operating system and any operating system by that matter

 

I know that .... but its MUCH slower than RAM so may be a reason as to why its having an impact on FPS.

[DXMember]

I know that .... but its MUCH slower than RAM so may be a reason as to why its having an impact on FPS.

yes that is a very good observation, indeed RAM is a lot faster than any storage device

[DXMember]

C:/ is my SSD drive. Strange indeed. I have page file set to automatic, so I have no idea.

I wouldn't worry about the pagefile, it's doing what it's supposed to do otherwise your system would be constantly restarting and blue screening do to not enough memory

I'd be more concerned about finding out which of the ram sticks or the motherboard slots died

after you've resolved that you can set your page file to manual if you wish

 

if you've already tried switching your ram sticks around, then what was your conclusion?

can you boot into safe mode please and make sure Windows still reports 2 gb of usable there?

[JorenBus]

I wouldn't worry about the pagefile, it's doing what it's supposed to do otherwise your system would be constantly restarting and blue screening do to not enough memory

I'd be more concerned about finding out which of the ram sticks or the motherboard slots died

after you've resolved that you can set your page file to manual if you wish

Yeah I'm going to try to find out that tomorrow.

Also, the RAM is already 5+ years old, so it was only a matter of time.

How is it possible that Windows still detects I have 6GB of RAM though?

[DXMember]

Yeah I'm going to try to find out that tomorrow.

Also, the RAM is already 5+ years old, so it was only a matter of time.

How is it possible that Windows still detects I have 6GB of RAM though?

ram is immortal they all pretty much have lifetime warranty nowadays from manufacturer

i cannot answer the question about Windows detection without further investigation

 

you could try opening up Resource Monitor, what does it think about your memory, there should be a detailed colored distribution graph, I am guessing that it will say 4GB Hardware reserved, am I correct?

[JorenBus]

ram is immortal they all pretty much have lifetime warranty nowadays from manufacturer

i cannot answer the question about Windows detection without further investigation

 

you could try opening up Resource Monitor, what does it think about your memory, there should be a detailed colored distribution graph, I am guessing that it will say 4GB Hardware reserved, am I correct?

 

Beschikbaar = available

gebruikt voor cache = used for cache

totaal = total

geïnstalleerd: installed

 

So what does it mean?

[DXMember]

Naamloos.png

 

Beschikbaar = available

gebruikt voor cache = used for cache

totaal = total

geïnstalleerd: installed

 

So what does it mean?

could you also give dxdiag report export?

 

Win+R --> dxdiag --> Enter --> Run 64-bit

and there should be a button to "Save all information..."

[JorenBus]

could you also give dxdiag report export?

 

Win+R --> dxdiag --> Enter --> Run 64-bit

and there should be a button to "Save all information..."

DxDiag.txt

[DXMember]

DxDiag.txt

I suggest you try booting into safe-mode,

if the issue persists in the safe mode,

then tomorrow you will try the memory sticks in different motherboard slots

and if after that you can't make any conclusions then I suggest you contact either Gigabyte or Microsoft to help you out with troubleshooting

because by then my ideas will be exhausted...

 

also, when you boot, does the BIOS correctly recognize and display 6GB of RAM?

if the BIOS recognizes 6GB RAM correctly and Windows still doesn't in safe mode, then

you could try also memtest86 on a USB flash and boot to that and let it run memory checks

[JorenBus]

I suggest you try booting into safe-mode,

if the issue persists in the safe mode,

then tomorrow you will try the memory sticks in different motherboard slots

and if after that you can't make any conclusions then I suggest you contact either Gigabyte or Microsoft to help you out with troubleshooting

because by then my ideas will be exhausted...

So just getting new RAM won't fix it?

[DXMember]

So just getting new RAM won't fix it?

it seems to be detected just fine

it appears that the problem lies withing the hardware/software configuration

 

did you install any drivers lately or maybe Windows installed any updates (you can check that in update history)?

[JorenBus]

it seems to be detected just fine

it appears that the problem lies withing the hardware/software configuration

 

did you install any drivers lately or maybe Windows installed any updates (you can check that in update history)?

Windows did a security update 14/01/16, when the problems began. I've already reverted the update, but it's still the same.

So then what is the problem?

 

Edit: I just tried booting up with each individual RAM stick (I have 3), PC boots up just fine with each RAM stick. 

I have no idea what to do anymore.

[DXMember]

Windows did a security update 14/01/16, when the problems began. I've already reverted the update, but it's still the same.

So then what is the problem?

 

Edit: I just tried booting up with each individual RAM stick (I have 3), PC boots up just fine with each RAM stick. 

I have no idea what to do anymore.

have you tried Windows Safe Mode?

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/start-computer-safe-mode

[JorenBus]

have you tried Windows Safe Mode?

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/start-computer-safe-mode

Good call, forgot about that.

Still the same, it detects 6GB but uses only 2GB. Same again in Resource Management: 4GB Hardware reserved.

[DXMember]

Good call, forgot about that.

Still the same, it detects 6GB but uses only 2GB. Same again in Resource Management: 4GB Hardware reserved.

Go trough your BIOS settings with the help of your motherboards manual make sure that you don't have enabled some odd iGPU memory sharing options

[JorenBus]

Go trough your BIOS settings with the help of your motherboards manual make sure that you don't have enabled some odd iGPU memory sharing options

Went through the entire BIOS, didn't notice any suspecious stuff in the BIOS, definitely not some sort of iGPU memory sharing.

I reset my BIOS settings to default multiple times.

[DXMember]

Went through the entire BIOS, didn't notice any suspecious stuff in the BIOS, definitely not some sort of iGPU memory sharing.

I reset my BIOS settings to default multiple times.

can you try to disable the iGPU completely in BIOS

[JorenBus]

can you try to disable the iGPU completely in BIOS

Done, still the same.

What sorcery is this?