4

After a rather arduous and convoluted series of problems that left me without a desktop for ~80 days, I've finally got the thing up and running, having replaced the power supply, motherboard, graphics card and CPU. Now, however, I'm experiencing the 'hardware reserved RAM' issue. Perhaps this is the exhaustion talking, but looking at the question that tends to get pointed to when this kind of topic gets locked as a duplicate hasn't helped.

I have 16 GB of RAM installed in an MSi 970A-G46, which is spec'd for up to 32 GB of RAM. The BIOS recognizes that I have 16 GB installed, and the resource monitor also shows the whole 16 GB, only it shows 8 GB as hardware reserved. I've seen suggestions that it's an OS issue, but the particular installation of Windows 7 (64-bit) which I'm running on my boot drive is the same as the one that could actually access the 16 GB in my previous motherboard (MSi 870A-G54).

I've updated my BIOS using the MSi Live Update tool and restarted the machine with no effect, and I cannot seem to locate any 'Memory Remapping' option as I've seen mentioned. I've physically swapped the RAM between the slots to no effect. I've unchecked the Maximum Memory box in the msconfig Boot tab's advanced options, also to no effect.

EDIT

In an effort to determine if it was possibly an issue with my installation of Windows having some sort of issue, I booted off a Xubuntu live disc and checked meminfo: the listed memtotal was roughly 8 GB.

END EDIT

These are my system's basic specifications

  • OS: Windows 7 Home Premium (64-Bit)
  • Motherboard: MSi 970A-G46
  • CPU: AMD FX-8150
  • Graphics Card: XFX Radeon HD 6870
  • Boot Drive: OCZ Agility 3
  • Storage Drive: Samsung Spinpoint F3 ST1000DM005/HD103SJ 1TB
  • PSU: Thermaltake TR-2 TR600 600W ATX12V v2.3

EDIT: Below is a link to a screen-capture of the Memory node information in Device Manager. This has been posted as an external link because I lack sufficient reputation to post images.

enter image description here

5
  • Are you 100% positive your OS is Home Premium? Nov 2, 2013 at 22:24
  • Yes, the OS is definitely Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
    – user968270
    Nov 3, 2013 at 5:58
  • start device manager (Devmgmt.msc), select Resources By Connection on the View menu, and then expand the Memory node. Post a picture of the complete expanded view Nov 3, 2013 at 6:37
  • Thanks to Journeyman Geek for making a direct image posting available. I still haven't been able to find any solution to this problem.
    – user968270
    Nov 3, 2013 at 22:02
  • How is your memory broken down, e.g. 4x4g sticks, 2x8g sticks? If you have multiple sticks, I'd recommend adding the sticks one-by-one to see what happens. Also, double check the mobo documentation to make sure you are putting the sticks into the correct slots based on your memory configuration.
    – Nick2253
    Dec 21, 2013 at 4:58

2 Answers 2

2

Had the same issue and went looking for an answer in forums and stuff like that, but didn't find anything helpful, until a guy suggested loading the "optimal default settings" on my MOBO (MSI 970A-G46), and it finally worked.

I went to my setup and pressed F6, clicked YES and now my OS recognizes my whole ram.

-4

I do have a last resort option, though it takes time and if not done correctly can screw things up. Try a factory reset of your computer and just take the important files and put them on a USB storage device here is a Link to show you how to do this. Please only do this if you can't find any other answer. Though I can tell you that it fixed mine and I had the same issue, but different hardware.

2
  • 1
    Welcome to Super User! Whilst this may theoretically answer the question, it would be preferable to include the essential parts of the answer here, and provide the link for reference.
    – Braiam
    Nov 2, 2013 at 21:20
  • Thanks for the suggestion, but unfortunately there are no 'factory settings' to restore my computer to, as I built it myself from chosen parts.
    – user968270
    Nov 4, 2013 at 21:13

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .