16 GB of Ram, only 7.96 usable.

thetrooper1998

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Sep 11, 2016
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I'll just get my system specs out of the way early:

CPU: AMD FX-6300
GPU: Radeon R9 270
MB: Gigabyte 990-FXA UD3 (BIOS Version F1, I can't figure out how tp upgrade it)

I originally had a single 8 GB 1600 Ripjaw ram stick, but earlier I got a second 8 GB stick by PNY, also at 1600 MHz. In my BIOS it acknowledges both sticks, but it only allows 7.96 GB of Ram to be used. I tried going into MSCONFIG and changing the settings to not use maximum memory, but that didn't change anything.

I really don't know what to do, I'm banking on you guys to give me a solution. Thanks in advance.
 
1) run Memtest86 or the "memory diagnostic" launched from Windows.

www.memtest86.com

Both will boot into their environment. If you see 16GB (may be in MB, or 16,384MB) then the hardware is setup correctly. It's still a good idea to see if it's working (run a full pass, roughly 1 hour for 16GB).

2) If 16GB shows for above, then it's a Windows setup issue.
One solution is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UgTnRcXR5o

a) go to "msconfig" , boot, "advaned options"

Click "max memory" and save that. Reboot. It may or may not help.

3) Still stuck?

You may need to shutdown, and ensure the memory is properly seated. I know it shows up, so I'm not sure if PARTIALLY seated memory can show up in BIOS but not work in Windows.

(No need to try this if Memtest/memory diagnostic shows all the memory and can read/write to it)
 

thetrooper1998

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Sep 11, 2016
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So something odd just happened: I had to restore my PC to a restore point about a week ago, and now it reads all 16 GB of ram. I'm not sure what's different but I'll take it. Thank you all for your answers.