Why do i have 8gb of unused ram?

[its complicated as ♥♥♥♥]

It stay in hardware reserved area. Am i supposed to not use it? Or there's something i can do with it?

[meheezen]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von snowboy:

kingston KHX1866C10D3/8G

Ursprünglich geschrieben von snowboy:

quick search from google give me the model name
Kingston HyperX Fury RAM 8GB BLUE (HX316C10FK2/8)
(that is the same as mine)
i bought two of the card

those 2 are not the same. tho both are kits of 2x DIMMs of 4GB each

did you buy 2 kits (4 DIMMs) or a single kit (2 DIMMs)?
if you bought 1 kit of 2 memory sticks then you are getting the ammount you paid for, that being 2x4GB = 8GB
if you bought 2 such kits, 4 memory sticks total, each being 4GB, then there might be some incompatibility with your motherboard.



i went ahead and did a web search for compatible memory with that board, found this link:
https://pcpartpicker.com/products/memory/?compatible_with=msi-motherboard-970ag46#m=23&s=301600,301866&Z=8192001,8192002

how reliable is this list?
i was able to find the HX316C10FK2/8 (DDR3-1600 CL1)[www.kingston.com] in that list, but not the KHX1866C10D3/8G (DDR3-1866 CL9)[www.kingston.com].

[its complicated as ♥♥♥♥]

I buy two 8gb=16gb

Two of these
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/Y8W9TW/kingston-memory-hx316c10f8

[meheezen]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von snowboy:

Two of these
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/Y8W9TW/kingston-memory-hx316c10f8

that is yet another model of RAM.... you didnt look into CPU-Z, did ya?

[its complicated as ♥♥♥♥]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von meheezen:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von snowboy:

Two of these
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/Y8W9TW/kingston-memory-hx316c10f8

that is yet another model of RAM.... you didnt look into CPU-Z, did ya?

I did!
Here

Ursprünglich geschrieben von snowboy:

kingston KHX1866C10D3/8G

That is the part number

[meheezen]

hmmm...the HX316C10F/8 (8GB 1G x 64-Bit DDR3-1600 CL10) is listed as compatible. tho it seems CPU-Z is reporting the wrong model.

did you change any settings in the BIOS? overclock or similar? try setting them to 1600MHz CL10 (or leave at default)

[its complicated as ♥♥♥♥]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von meheezen:

hmmm...the HX316C10F/8 (8GB 1G x 64-Bit DDR3-1600 CL10) is listed as compatible. tho it seems CPU-Z is reporting the wrong model.

did you change any settings in the BIOS? overclock or similar? try setting them to 1600MHz CL10 (or leave at default)

It is compatible but one is reserved in hardware. I dont know why

[meheezen]

also, how much memory does CPU-Z report? does it see 2 sticks of RAM installed? does it report the same model?

[its complicated as ♥♥♥♥]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von meheezen:

also, how much memory does CPU-Z report? does it see 2 sticks of RAM installed? does it report the same model?

It count as two same model

[meheezen]

what about reported speed/frequency? anything weird? (i do find it weird CPU-Z it seems to report a 1866MHz model while you have a 1600MHz stick installed.)

your BIOS apparently allows you to control each RAM slot, there seems to be something in your called "MEMORY-Z", you might wanna take a look at that, see if everything checks out.

some "odd" solution i found on the web, shut down, remove all but one RAM stick (8GB), boot into windows, see how much you have, (should be 8GB), shut down again and insert the other RAM stick and boot into windows again, see if it still "reserves" 8GB.

credit:
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1798182/16gb-installed-usable.html

[its complicated as ♥♥♥♥]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von meheezen:

some "odd" solution i found on the web, shut down, remove all but one RAM stick (8GB), boot into windows, see how much you have, (should be 8GB), shut down again and insert the other RAM stick and boot into windows again, see if it still "reserves" 8GB.

credit:
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1798182/16gb-installed-usable.html

Aight will tell you what happened

[meheezen]

another thing to look into is your operating system version/edition. i just found out some "basic" versions like Win7 Home limits memory to 8GB, which would explain your issue.

Edit: Win8 and Win10 seems to have a 128GB limit.

[its complicated as ♥♥♥♥]

Im using windows 8.1

So its a pass on that

[meheezen]

2 more things to try out later:
1- check for bent CPU pins
2- do a memtest, one ram stick at a time

[its complicated as ♥♥♥♥]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von snowboy:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von meheezen:

some "odd" solution i found on the web, shut down, remove all but one RAM stick (8GB), boot into windows, see how much you have, (should be 8GB), shut down again and insert the other RAM stick and boot into windows again, see if it still "reserves" 8GB.

credit:
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1798182/16gb-installed-usable.html

Aight will tell you what happened

Same result

[meheezen]

well, this is a surprise. it seems the reported model in the OS is indeed different from the model in the packaging. tho it should not report a different frequency like yours do. (1600MHz installed, 1866MHz reported in CPU-Z)

here's an example on one of my systems: https://imgur.com/a/bC1hFxw
(note both package and OS reports 1600MHz/CL10)