W10, 8GB RAM installed but only 1.85GB available in Windows

Snapsh0t

Snapsh0t

Suspended / Banned
Messages
2,709
Name
Jonathan
Edit My Images
No
I've just built a little Gigabyte E20-3050 to stream the output from an action cam. I'm using two Corsair 4GB DIMMs from Gigabyte's hardware compatibility list and the BIOS reports 8GB present. There's also a 256GB mSATA card for storage. 64MB is allocated to the on-board graphics.

I've installed and activated W10 Home 64-bit and it's fully updated. CPU-Z can read the details of both DIMMS so they they're definitely there but when I go into Control Panel/System Windows reports "8GB RAM (1.85GB available)". It also reported "4GB RAM (1.85GB available)" when I tried two 2GB DIMMs.

I have, of course, Googled this and found a good number of similar reports but all the responders seemed convinced it was a a hardware error which I don't believe it is, given that everything is sure that there is 8GB of RAM present. I have tried the suggestion to set Maximum RAM in MSCONFIG/Boot/Advanced but this made no difference.

I'd appreciate some suggestions on how to fix this as 1.85GB RAM is just a little crippling......
 
What do Gigabyte have to say on the matter e.g. BIOS update?
 
Is the RAM on their compatible list?

When I build my i7-2xxx I had a field day getting RAM to work with a Giga board. Support was not helpful.

Switched to ASUS and never looked back.

Are you also 100% sure you installed 64bit OS?
 
Last edited:
Neil, please read the second sentence of my OP. And, yes, I am sure. I don't have 32-bit in the house plus W10 clearly says 64-bit on the System page.
I think Box Brownie has the answer. The BIOS should be F1 or F3 in normal Gigabyte fashion but this is D10 so I suspect my supplier has bought in a batch with a custom BIOS. Further evidence of this is that Memtest86 also only shows 1.85GB of RAM. I shall be having words with them tomorrow.
 
32 bit windows was my first thought too. Is there some kind of switchable compatibility mode (Bios?) that could be hiding memory?
 
Would the board take the latest Gigabyte BIOS update from their website?
 
The custom BIOS theory was confirmed by Mini-ITX although they didn't know anything about it it, just that they were offered a batch at a good price by Gigabyte. I needed two attempts to get the BIOS correctly flashed to F3. Now Memtest86 sees (almost) 8GB and Windows reports 8GB (5.9GB usable) so still not perfect but good enough that I'm not going to spend more time on it.

Tori_T said:
Would the board take the latest Gigabyte BIOS update from their website?
Click to expand...
F3 was the latest from Gigabyte's web site.

Retune said:
To eliminate some possibilities, it might be worth booting to a Linux live CD/DVD or USB, seeing how much RAM it can see when booted, and also running memtest86+ from the boot menu:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/591488/how-do-i-run-memtest86
Click to expand...
I ran Memtest86 on the bare metal.
 
Snapsh0t said:
The custom BIOS theory was confirmed by Mini-ITX although they didn't know anything about it it, just that they were offered a batch at a good price by Gigabyte. I needed two attempts to get the BIOS correctly flashed to F3. Now Memtest86 sees (almost) 8GB and Windows reports 8GB (5.9GB usable) so still not perfect but good enough that I'm not going to spend more time on it.


F3 was the latest from Gigabyte's web site.


I ran Memtest86 on the bare metal.
Click to expand...

Pleased to hear you got it sorted and based on your post above about a non standard BIOS as supplied is I would think unusual!

Perhaps see make contact with Gigabyte and see if they can offer any insight???
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top