Hardware New computer help did I screw up?

[darkangel5000]

What GPU does the laptop use?
I'm pretty sure the RAM is used up by the GPU. Had that happen on my desktop machines fairly often when I resetted the BIOS/EFI and hadn't unchecked the ram allocation for the integrated graphics.

edit: Meh. I can't read properly, I'm sorry.

 

[Captain_N]

It's normal for Windows to reserve the RAM. I wouldn't worry about it. I have 32GB of RAM and 27 GB is being reserved. When the system needs more it will use it. The widget "All CPU Meter" will show you how much RAM is in use ignoring the reserved so it paints a better picture of what's going on. Like I said, don't worry about it as there is nothing wrong.

Yes its true windows reserves ram but when its in the Hardware reserved (gray bar) its not avaiable to the os to use as ram. The RAM windows reserves is in the Blue bar take a look this screen from my gaming laptop
It has 8gb ram. The standby is the ram reserved by windows for future use
harware reserved is not useable by the OS

I also notice in his mem screen he has alot of hard faults. that could indicate ram issues.

I dont think the problem resides in the os. its got to be hardware related. In that case i would try different ram sticks or look at the bios settings.

 

[ody81]

I'd grab a sodimm the exact same brand, clock, voltage and clk to rule out incompatibility. You could be dealing with half-assed mobo/ram support. I beleive you are.

 

[jDSX]

What GPU does the laptop use?
I'm pretty sure the RAM is used up by the GPU. Had that happen on my desktop machines fairly often when I resetted the BIOS/EFI and hadn't unchecked the ram allocation for the integrated graphics.

edit: Meh. I can't read properly, I'm sorry.

HD radeon 74xx something.. only has 384mb of vram.

well thats interesting, most of your ram is being reserved making it inaccessible to the OS. perhaps its the GPU. look in the bios/uefi and see if ram is being reserved used as video ram. typically its about 512mb NOT 1.5 gb. There should not be anything reserving that much ram unless its the gpu.

There is definitely a problem. Its not a problem i have ever ran across
Its got to be a bios setting making that ram unusable or your laptop does not like the ram

do you happen do have any other ram sticks to try?

Yeah I tried a 8gb stick and I couldn't believe it, but same thing happen 1.60gb usable WITH the other (7.3gb) in hardware reserve..

 

[Abcdfv]

Yes its true windows reserves ram but when its in the Hardware reserved (gray bar) its not avaiable to the os to use as ram. The RAM windows reserves is in the Blue bar take a look this screen from my gaming laptop
It has 8gb ram. The standby is the ram reserved by windows for future use
harware reserved is not useable by the OS

I also notice in his mem screen he has alot of hard faults. that could indicate ram issues.

I dont think the problem resides in the os. its got to be hardware related. In that case i would try different ram sticks or look at the bios settings.

Hard faults just means it's reading/writing to pagefile instead of actual ram, which would make sense considering OPs problem.

OP, do you have the correct chipset drivers installed?

 

[jDSX]

OP, do you have the correct chipset drivers installed?

Yes all my drivers are from the HP website.

 

[ody81]

Yes all my drivers are from the HP website.

You got the manual?
There should be a RAM compatibility list in it. Some boards have really crappy RAM support. What specs are the chips involved? (The original chip and the replacement chips)
Somethings screwy.

 

[Captain_N]

The os should allocate the ram before any external drivers are installed.
there is a way we can rule out drivers. Boot the computer with a windows 7 or 8 live disc. then look at how much ram is allocated for the os. Search for
Gandalf's_Win8.1SE_x64_& _x86_dual_boot v1.1.ISO
its a live windows 8.1 disc with alot of features it loads alot of the normal os features off the disc. It leaves your os untouched. This way we can at-least prove if its any software he installed.

I read up on it and alot of others had that problem but he already tried some of the methods i read. Something has got to be blocking the ram. The fact that he tried an 8gb stick and it still locks it to 1.6 gb seems to be some kind of setting. Its seems to consistent

 

[izy]

can you show us your Resourse Monitor with the 8GB installed.

From the sounds of it the GPU is reserving your Ram

AMD Radeon HD 6310 Graphics (1972MB total graphics memory)

The GPU in your laptop has no Dedicated memory so it uses it directly from ram

 

[Abcdfv]

can you show us your Resourse Monitor with the 8GB installed.

From the sounds of it the GPU is reserving your Ram

AMD Radeon HD 6310 Graphics (1972MB total graphics memory)

The GPU in your laptop has no Dedicated memory so it uses it directly from ram

He already did, and we already ruled it out.



OP try this:

 

[izy]

He already did, and we already ruled it out

actually he only used the 4gb but yeah sounds like he has hardware reservation in bios set wrong for his gpu

 

[Abcdfv]

actually he only used the 4gb but yeah sounds like he has hardware reservation in bios set wrong for his gpu

The 8Gb is a different stick of ram he tried. His gpu is set to 368mb in the bios.

 

[izy]

He didnt say it was 384MB he said it was a AMD 7Mxx that uses 384mb

This is his actual laptop http://www.amazon.com/HP-2000-2c29WM-15-6-Inch-BrightView-Licorice/dp/B00BLOBRO2

The first one is wrong because it uses a different CPU model entirely


Thats his bios he can try updating to see if it fixes the problem
http://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers...2c00-Notebook-PC-series/5330596/model/5360140


Also as much as it says his notebook supports 8GB max it WILL go higher, manufacturers on state the Max that they tested, i have seen 2008 systems recommended for 4gb running 12gb Stable.


Also his CPU the AMD-E2-1800 is an APU so the GPU Radeon HD 7340 graphics card is integrated and has no dedicated memory it is sharing it *up to 2gb*

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Just to confirm, the RAM you're using now is the original that came with the laptop, yes?

If so, there shouldn't be any kind of compatibility issues, unless you bought it refurbished or used or otherwise.

The hardware allocation issue is usually one of 3 things, the most common being the iGPU eating it up (but we confirmed that wasn't it, or at least the BIOS wasn't set that way apparently), the second is incompatible RAM, the third is faulty DIMM slots.

It's possible that the 8GB stick you tried was also incompatible with the mobo, the best I could recommend is looking around the service manual that usually comes with your laptop, see if it lists what speed and type of RAM it uses and compare it with each stick.

The first thing I would suggest is booting into a live Linux distro and see if it shows the same, and testing with both the 8GB stick and the 2x2GB. If it's the same, then we can confirm it's either a BIOS or a hardware problem and if it isn't we can confirm it's just a bad Windows install, and you can try doing a clean reinstall (or, if you really don't want to unless you're sure, try booting into a live Windows install and confirming before the clean install). If it's the same with the Linux distro, try clearing the CMOS, updating the BIOS, then resetting the iGPU allocation, boot back into the Linux distro and check. Still the same, we can confirm it's either incompatible RAM or bad DIMM slots.

The best way to test that would be to simply buy a couple sticks of RAM you know should be compatible based on what's in the service manual, and seeing if they work. They do, great, just incompatible RAM, if not, faulty DIMM slots, not so great and I would suggest either getting it replaced by whoever you bought it from or using the warranty and seeing if HP will replace it. Before you try buying, you could also try contacting HP and seeing if they'll just send replacement RAM free of charge, but I'd imagine they'd probably just request you send the laptop in anyways.

 

[jDSX]

Well after some hard thinking I decide to get another laptop and retire this one (the one with the memory problem) to online and movie viewing.
Thanks for all your help everyone.