Solved PC is using only half of my ram

[Duciux]

Hi, i have this issue with my ram, i have 4x4gb sticks installed in my pc all of them worked fine for 3+ years, but now the pc is using only half of the ram (7.9gb). I tried to update my drivers, reinstalled windows, also tried to only use only 2 sticks on a single and dual channel, then it was using 8gb out of 8gb, but when i installed one more stick (12gb) then it was only using 4gb. So now i'm kinda lost on what to do. Could it be that i have 2 dead ram sticks ?

 

[veeg]

Hello

Download and post:

Download Speccy | Find your computer specs, free!

Speccy - find the details of your computer's specs. Great for spotting issues or finding compatible upgrades. Download the latest version today.

www.ccleaner.com

To post: https://support.piriform.com/hc/en-us/articles/360049015271#saving-speccy-snapshots-0-0

@phillpower2

 

[Duciux]

http://speccy.piriform.com/results/RpMs2u8QqwKoCtkBY5XJALk

 

[Duciux]

i also just had a blue screen crash with (IRQL NOT LESS OR EQUAL) code

 

[Rustys]

While you are waiting for @phillpower2

Did this start when you upgraded the system to Windows 11?

Did you perform as an upgrade for what previous version of windows and or was it a clean install.

 

[Duciux]

So 2 days ago i upgraded to win11 from win 10, and yesterday i tried clean install and it was still the same.

When i was on win10 my pc blue screend like 6 times in 1 hour, after the 2nd blue screen i noticed that the pc is using only half of my RAM, and thats when i decided to upgrade to win 11, because i thought that something with my windows 10 is wrong.

 

[phillpower2]

Couple of things of note in Speccy;

There are no system drivers shown to have been installed since Windows 11 was.

The 120GB SSD is way too small for accommodating Windows.

The Seagate ( E: ) drive is failing.

The RAM should be 2667MHz as opposed to the slower 2133MHz.

What are the brand and model name or number details of the PSU.

Will wait on the PSU details for now.

 

[Duciux]

My PSU is Cooler Master MWE V2 550w, as far as i know it is enough for my system.

Why is 120gb ssd to small for Windows ?

I know that my ( E: ) drive is failing.

RAM is next on my list for upgrading.

 

[phillpower2]

You have not responded to the lack of system drivers, the lack of them on its own will cause issues, see my canned info below;

Once Windows has been clean installed you must then install first the MBs chipset drivers, then the storage/SATA drivers and third the graphics drivers, the drivers can either come from a disk provided by the motherboard manufacturer ** or downloaded from their site and saved to a flash drive etc, this is a must and Windows should not be allowed to check for updates before it has been done as more often than not Windows installs the wrong drivers or in the incorrect order and this can cause all sorts of problems.

** For OEM computers/notebooks such as Acer, Dell and HP etc you must only download drivers from their support page, OEMs may sometimes redirect users to a third party site such as AMD or Nvidea to obtain the latest drivers for their GPUs, this tends to be for high end gaming notebooks and desktops though.

The chipset drivers are what enables the MB to be able to communicate with all the other hardware which is the reason why they must be installed first.

The quality of the PSU is not the best + you have additional drives and a second monitor hooked up to it, this puts it under the type of load that it is not suitable for, fyi, when independently tested here the PSU was rated as Tier C • Low-end

Windows needs to be installed on a minimum of a 256GB drive or on a 256GB partition on a larger capacity drive, couple of reasons for this, Windows needs plenty of room for moving files around and Windows is just going to keep on growing rather than new versions being sold on DVD, any new version will just be an upgrade of the existing OS and all the Windows and Windows Defender updates, these updates fill up a drive in no time and once your drive gets down to around 15GB of free storage space you are looking at data corruption.

So you knew that the E: drive is failing, have you actually considered the possibility that it could be the cause of your troubles.

RAM info acknowledged.

1. Copy any dmp files from C:\Windows\Minidump onto the desktop.
2. Select all of them, right-click on one, and click on Send To> New Compressed (zipped) Folder.
3. Upload the zip folder using the Attach button, bottom left of the dialogue input box

 

[Duciux]

After i updated all drivers i had the same issue (that was after i sent the specyy info), then i ran windows memory diagnostic tool, it said that i have bad memory or something like that, so i tried swaping RAM between slots, and when i tried to turn on the pc, it didn't even post.
So i decided run it with only 1 stick, to test each slot and each RAM stick individually. And it appears that i have 2 bad sticks of RAM, because with only 2 sticks pc reads 8gb out of 8gb and games or Windows hasn't crashed since removal of those 2 sticks.

 

[phillpower2]

And it appears that i have 2 bad sticks of RAM, because with only 2 sticks pc reads 8gb out of 8gb and games or Windows hasn't crashed since removal of those 2 sticks.

Well does that not tell you that you have solved the issue for yourself.