Daz 4.9 + Windows 10 = Low memory (Advice needed)

outrider42

Yeah, for some reason, your computer can only use 1.5 GB of ram. Even though it "sees" all 6 gb, the major mystery here is what on earth is holding 4.6 gb of ram that is "Hardware Reserved." This is what is causing your problem. Its not Daz, nor do I think it is Windows. I think the problem began before you did your clean install, perhaps something was leading up to this which caused your slow downs.

I decided to look up "4 gb hardware reserved ram", and I found this thread at Tom's, there are several links to investigate:

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2279101/8gb-recently-installed-4gb-hardware-reserved.html

As well as this:

"Had the same issue: MB: Asus P7P55D-ELX
8GB(4x2GB)installed, Bios and Win7_64 shows only 4GB, 4GB hardware reserved
Finally got it to work with 8GB:
What I did:
Power off
Clear CMOS: Short CLRT, short pin2,3:, (Not just reload defaults in BIOS), and back to Normal: short Pin1,2
Press MemOK
Power on
Delete
Now BIOS/Main/System Info: Usable Size: 8191MB (and Win7_64 reports 8GB)
Note: unless Bios shows correct size, Win wont see it.(even though CPU-Z will report it)"

I am really concerned you have a hardware problem. Given the amount of ram that is reserved, that indicates that the something is wrong where the 4 gb stick is. It may need to be reseated or cleaned. You could also try swapping the two sticks of rams with each other to see if that changes anything. It could be the ram stick itself, or in the worst case, it could be the motherboard or even the CPU. I feel very strongly this is connected to the slow down you experienced before. To be honest, I have a bad feeling about this. But hopefully I am wrong!

How old is the laptop? Is the 4gb ram original? Any recent hardware changes? Are you well past warranty?

kaotkbliss

I haven't worked a whole lot on laptops but many integrated video motherboards have an option in CMOS for reserving video ram for the onboard video card. Look in your BIOS video settings and see if you can find something like this

mjc1016

The problem machine is a desktop...not a laptop.

Silver Dolphin

I would Just Install one stick of ram at a time and see which one is faulty.

hphoenix

Well, the earlier pic showed 512MB of system RAM being used as Graphics RAM (the built-in ATI card was a 512MB, showing 1024MB available).  SO that explains why it went from 2GB to 1.5GB.  But not why the 4GB stick seems to be recognized, but isn't being used.....

Try doing what Silver Dolphin suggests.....take out the stick of RAM in the slot furthest away from the CPU/Fan.  Power it on, see how much memory it sees.  Then power down, swap the memory you removed with the one in the slot.  Power on, see how much memory it sees.  Then power down, put the memory you have out into the 2nd slot (so you have effectively swapped their positions from when you started) and power back on, and see how much memory it sees.

You should see either 4G or 2G on the first single stick test, then the opposite on the second one (if you saw 4G on the first, you should see 2G on the second, otherwise reversed), then on the last, you should see 6G.  If you don't see that pattern (4G/2G/6G or 2G/4G/6G) then either the memory slot on the motherboard is busted/faulty, the incorrectly identified stick of memory has a problem, or something isn't getting seated correctly.  If after doing this, you DO see 6GB of memory being identified, it was probably a loose memory stick.....they can slowly work loose over time, and a few pins might not be making proper contact.  Make sure they are firmly (but don't push TOO hard) seated in the memory slots.

If you aren't comfortable digging around inside the PC, have a friend who is do it, or take it to a local PC repair place.  

 

Taoz

mjc1016 said:

At this point, I think some investigation in the BIOS is needed.  I'm thinking that 4 GB is being reserved for the onboard video...which, for the amount of actual RAM installed is way too much (that would also be consistent with the odd totals elsewhere).  There should be a setting somewhere in the BIOS (I hope HP hasn't disabled that feature) for it. 

That was also my first guess, but devilsatdusk15 says s/he can't find any Memory Map Feature option in the BIOS. I still believe that is the problem, here's how it looks for me when I turn off that feature (plus Windows is much slower):

 

 

kaotkbliss

mjc1016 said:

The problem machine is a desktop...not a laptop.

My bad, I coulda sworn laptop was mentioned. Should have gone back and reread. Anyways, if there's onboard video, the same should still hold true for desktops. However, what Taozen has shown pretty much looks exactly like what is happening with devils.

N-RArts

kaotkbliss said:

mjc1016 said:

The problem machine is a desktop...not a laptop.

My bad, I coulda sworn laptop was mentioned. Should have gone back and reread. Anyways, if there's onboard video, the same should still hold true for desktops. However, what Taozen has shown pretty much looks exactly like what is happening with devils.

I do use a laptop. Thankfully, I didn't mess it up I when I did a clean install of Windows 10 (quite a few months ago). 

Apparently memory mapping hasn't been included in Asus BIOS for quite sometime. 

 

This whole thing had given me a massive headache, which was why I wasn't around yesterday.

I've just taken the panel off and tried to remove the RAM, but it's like they're superglued in the slots. I must've done something, as the read out has changed in Resource Monitor (see attached). Hopefully, it's fixed. Although, I'm not totally happy, because I'm now going to get paranoid everytime I use the computer (I keep checking to see if it's gone back to being faulty). I will never mess with BIOS again. And, if it does go wrong wrong again, it'll be going to the repair shop.

I've learnt more about computers in the last few days, than I have in the last few years. 

A ma-hoo-sive Thank you to everyone that's helped. 

Taoz

Glad you got it working again. If there's no Memory Remap feature in BIOS, there's some advice here about swapping the RAM Modules which should fix it.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-performance/there-is-no-option-in-bios-to-enable-memory/1ba42aeb-aec7-4ee8-af73-52269dd9159b

Did you release the locks at the end of the RAM sockets (there may be other types of locks, I don't know)? Otherwise you can't pull out the modules. I guess you know about protection against static electricity when working with hardware but otherwise there's some info here:

http://www.howtogeek.com/169994/how-to-protect-your-pcs-hardware-from-static-electricity-when-working-on-it/

mjc1016

If jiggling the sticks solved it, then it's likely it was just a loose stick.

SixDs

BTW, devilsatdusk, for future reference, RAM modules are not "glued" in place. All desktop motherboards use standard RAM slots with the modules being locked into place by clips at either end. To remove a module you must first push these little levers downwards at both ends, which will free the modules and allow them to be removed (easily). To replace them, ensure both levers are still in the down position and push the modules into the slots until the levers snap back up into position, again locking the modules in place. Note: the modules will only fit in the slots one way: there is a slot between the contacts on the bottom of the module that must line up with a bar inside the slot.