Usable memory same after RAM upgrade

Dru2 · Jan 2, 2023

Winuser said:
I'm not saying you're wrong but the first pic in post #46 does show 4GB + the first 8GB as having 9.88GB of usable memory and the second pic shows the 4GB + the second 8GB as only having 3.38GB of usable memory. I would think that is showing that the second stick of 8GB memory is defective.

If you look at the OP's BIOS posting, it shows the system saw all 16gig of RAM. I'd think if the RAM was defective it wouldn't show in the BIOS. Anyway, regardless of what the OP is showing in post# 46, I'm more interested to know what Hardware Reserved says. as well as "Memory" usage under Task Manager. That's key. Here's mine...

This from my laptop with 16gig of RAM. No dedicated GPU....

This from my custom build desktop with dedicated GPU. Both systems listed in system specs....

In both instances under "Memory usage" my systems shows all my RAM available (15.8 of 16gig for laptop, and 31.9 of 32gig for desktop). Hardware Reserve is so small to be near nonexistent - (160meg laptop, 81.4 desktop).

So, per the OP's BIOS, his system saw 16gig of RAM, but is seems the BIOS is only allowing the OS 6, allocating 10 to hardware

That said, there is one other possibility, and that's Page File setup - is Windows controlling it (as it should, and what I have), or did he customize? If customized, let Windows Manage and see what happens to hardware reserved. I doubt that's the issue but exhausting all possibilities.

BTW, if you look as Bree's post #3, he too is only limited to 6gig (5.9) as he also has a hardware reserve of 2.1gig.

Bree · Jan 2, 2023

Dru2 said:
BTW, if you look as Bree's post #3, he too is only limited to 6gig (5.9) as he also has a hardware reserve of 2.1gig.

That machine in my screenshot only has 8GB installed RAM, so that's to be expected, the 2.1GB hardware reserved is used by my Radeon graphics.

When Windows detects faulty RAM it will still be shown in Task Manager, but will be 'Hardware reserved' to prevent its use. In Post #46 it can be seen that the OP clearly has one good 8GB RAM stick and another faulty one. With the one good 8GB RAM installed alongside the existing 4GB RAM then 12GB is seen as installed with 9.88GB usable...

.... the remaining 2.1GB will be hardware reserved for the Radeon graphics as expected.

Winuser · Jan 2, 2023

Did @mhmtemnacr post anything about trying just one 8GB stick at a time? I wonder if the second 8GB stick good but just not compatible with the other memory sticks.

Berton · Jan 2, 2023

Winuser said:
Did @mhmtemnacr post anything about trying just one 8GB stick at a time? I wonder if the second 8GB stick good but just not compatible with the other memory sticks.

That's possible, I have 2 Dell Inspiron 15R Notebooks from over 10 years ago, one came to me with DDR-3L 6GB 4+2 [a rehabbed machine] and the other came new with DDR-3L 8GB [4+4]. The 4GB on the rehabbed wouldn't work with either of the 4GB that came with the second machine but I did have another pair of 4+ 4 that is fine. According to Crucial both have a Max. of 16GB but they have none of those on their list to order.

Dru2 · Jan 2, 2023

Bree said:
That machine in my screenshot only has 8GB installed RAM, so that's to be expected, the 2.1GB hardware reserved is used by my Radeon graphics.

Yes, I read that. And can see 2.1 allocated to your GPU. Yours is also reasonable as your system has a "dedicated" GPU, which also means you probably have the ability to alter the amount in the BIOS. The OP has shown no such feature. But I've not seen his "Security" tab yet.

And for this argument....

Bree said:
When Windows detects faulty RAM it will still be shown in Task Manager, but will be 'Hardware reserved' to prevent its use. In Post #46 it can be seen that the OP clearly has one good 8GB RAM stick and another faulty one. With the one good 8GB RAM installed alongside the existing 4GB RAM then 12GB is seen as installed with 9.88GB usable...

.... the remaining 2.1GB will be hardware reserved for the Radeon graphics as expected.

Considering the BIOS saw all 16gig of RAM, I'm not so sure about the sticks being "faulty". But as I said, what does Task Manager show for total available to the OS? That's the one that counts.

Berton · Jan 2, 2023

My Notebook with 8GB and 4GB installed:

Bree · Jan 2, 2023

Dru2 said:
Yours is also reasonable as your system has a "dedicated" GPU, which also means you probably have the ability to alter the amount in the BIOS. The OP has shown no such feature. But I've not seen his "Security" tab yet.

No, there is no such option in my BIOS, I've looked everywhere. I'm stuck with 2.1GB for the Radeon graphics.

Dru2 · Jan 2, 2023

Bree said:
No, there is no such option in my BIOS, I've looked everywhere. I'm stuck with 2.1GB for the Radeon graphics.

Yeah, it's probably hidden as some vendors hid settings to stop users from modifying the board's hardware

Dru2 · Jan 2, 2023

Berton said:
My Notebook with 8GB and 4GB installed:

View attachment 48995

Yes, and Windows is able to use all 12 (11.7) as seen by "Memory usage", thus virtually no "hardware reserved"

Berton · Jan 2, 2023

Dru2 said:
Yes, and Windows is able to use all 12 (11.7) as seen by "Memory usage", thus virtually no "hardware reserved"

The Reserved is very small at 273MB.

Dru2 · Jan 2, 2023

Berton said:
The Reserved is very small at 273MB.

Yeah, that was my point when I said "virtually none"

Mine is 82 (desktop - 32gig) and 160 (laptop - 16gig)

Dru2 · Jan 2, 2023

To clarify, some are going to have a gig or two of Hardware Reserved depending on system configuration. This should be considered the normal range. Where you should start worrying is where more than half your RAM is allocated to hardware. That's wasted RAM and wasted money.

Using the OP, they paid for 16gig of RAM, but their system will only allocate 6 to the OS, the rest to hardware where it'll likely to never get used

Another reason why people need to insure they know how much RAM their laptop can really use. If not you could end up paying to something you really can't use.

Winuser · Jan 2, 2023

Dru2 said:
Using the OP, they paid for 16gig of RAM, but their system will only allocate 6 to the OS, the rest to hardware where it'll likely to never get used

With one 4 GB ram stick and the first 8GB ram stick there is 9.88 GB of usable memory. The problem is only happening when they use the second 8GB memory stick. I know I could be wrong but I'm going to stick with my thought of something being wrong with the second 8GB memory stick.

Bree · Jan 2, 2023

Dru2 said:
people need to insure they know how much RAM their laptop can really use.

Several sources, a review in post #39 and Crucial.com in post #40, say that the OP's Pavilion 15-ec0003 can use up to 32GB.

Here's a 3rd source:

How much memory does the HP Pavilion Gaming 15-ec0003ca Laptop take?

You can upgrade your HP Pavilion Gaming 15-ec0003ca Laptop to up to a maximum memory capacity of 32GB Memory.

https://www.memorystock.com/memory/HewlettPackardPavilionGaming15ec0003ca.html

Dru2 · Jan 2, 2023

Bree said:
Several sources, a review in post #39 and Crucial.com in post #40, say that the OP's Pavilion 15-ec0003 can use up to 32GB.
...

I don't doubt that. Still, we see the OPs BIOS shows 16gig installed, and yet 10 gets put into Hardware Reserve

And to confirm, you can't decrease your hardware reserved. And is Windows managing your page file?

glasskuter · Jan 2, 2023

Fabler2 said:
Just for info you could run a Crucial Ram scan

That has always been my go-to method for years except with this Dell I bought last year, adding Crucial ram failed me. With 3 different Dell motherboards, it recognized the Crucial ram, the ram tested good, and the PC worked with no issues, but the ram speed dropped dramatically. Most people would not have even recognized this but I was determined. I ended up having to get ram from Dell to get the ram speed I was supposed to have. Luckily, because of what I went through, Dell ended up not charging me for their ram. Now I'm stuck with 2 sticks of new Crucial ram I will never use. It's not that the Crucial sticks are bad, just something about the particular proprietary mobos that are incompatible. After working with Dell support for 2 weeks, they did not have any answers for why the ram speed dropped. Part of my Dell nightmare.
But, yes. In most cases, Crucial is the way to go when adding ram.

Berton · Jan 2, 2023

glasskuter said:
That has always been my go-to method for years except with this Dell I bought last year, adding Crucial ram failed me. With 3 different Dell motherboards, it recognized the Crucial ram, the ram tested good, and the PC worked with no issues, but the ram speed dropped dramatically. Most people would not have even recognized this but I was determined. I ended up having to get ram from Dell to get the ram speed I was supposed to have. Luckily, because of what I went through, Dell ended up not charging me for their ram. Now I'm stuck with 2 sticks of new Crucial ram I will never use. It's not that the Crucial sticks are bad, just something about the particular proprietary mobos that are incompatible. After working with Dell support for 2 weeks, they did not have any answers for why the ram speed dropped. Part of my Dell nightmare.
But, yes. In most cases, Crucial is the way to go when adding ram.

I got a Dell Vostro 3400 [from Dell itself] a year ago , checking Crucial offered DDR-3 modules and their scanner said it was fast. Having such modules on hand from salvaged Notebook I opened it and found the motherboard was marked for DDR-4, further checking found I had actually received an even newer Vostro 14 (3400). Changing the model number on Crucial's site did show the correct info. It came with 8GB RAM but I had a 4GB I could add, works great with 12GB.

ShamrockRig · Jan 2, 2023

Bree said:
No, there is no such option in my BIOS, I've looked everywhere. I'm stuck with 2.1GB for the Radeon graphics.

It isn't in the bios try this
Step 1. Press Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box, and then type msconfig in it and hit Enter.

Step 2. In the System Configuration window, navigate to the Boot tab, and then select the Operating System from the list and click on Advanced Options.

Step 3. Untick the checkbox next to Maximum memory and click on OK to save the change.

Step 4. Click on Apply and OK in the System Configuration window.

then process of unchecking Maximum memory

My hardware reserved is only 80mb

Bree · Jan 2, 2023

ShamrockRig said:
It isn't in the bios try this... ...Untick the checkbox next to Maximum memory...

Thanks, but mine is already unticked....

ShamrockRig said:
My hardware reserved is only 80mb

That's because you graphics (Intel?) has its own RAM and does not used shared RAM as my AMD Radeon graphics does.

ShamrockRig · Jan 2, 2023

Bree said:
Thanks, but mine is already unticked....

That's because you graphics (Intel?) has its own RAM and does not used shared RAM as my AMD Radeon graphics does.

I actually have the intel integrated one turned off so it'll be my 2070super, Maybe why its so low as the card ofc has its own.

What about if you ticked it and changed it to something else? Like 3gb just for test purposes ofc. Its been a long time since i used onboard, Believe it was back when i had my amd 3420m(4 core at 1.5ghz, Most pointless 4 core cpu ever) that came with an amd 6520g and a 7470m that had its own masssive 1gb of ddr3 lol. So a good while ago and with not very good hardware at all

Usable memory same after RAM upgrade

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How much memory does the HP Pavilion Gaming 15-ec0003ca Laptop take?​

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