Windows 10: Hardware Reserved Memory issue, common fixes don't seem to have worked

Hey guys,

I have the seemingly common Hardware Reserved Memory issue, wherein I have 32GB (4x8) of RAM installed, but the system is reserving 8.1gb.




System specs:
Windows 10 Enterprise, 64 bit
Motherboard: MSI x399 Pro Carbon, CPU is Threadripper 1950x
RAM: G Skill Trident Z 32GB (4 x 8), F4-3200C16Q-32GTZR

I've tried some of the common fixes for this issue, such as forcing a pagefile dump at shutdown, making sure the maximum memory option is unchecked in the Boot tab of msconfig, and making sure the RAM is installed into the proper channels as indicated by the motherboard manual. BIOS is latest version.

I will note that I have been unable to find any settings on my mobo BIOS that is/is not allocating memory, memory remapping, allocation to my GPU, etc., nor could I find anything to that effect in the manual of the motherboard. I'm not sure how relevant this is but some online posts have shown this could be an issue. Going into Device Manager and sorting by memory resource usage does show my GPU at the top of the list:





CPU-Z shows all four slots with identical settings:





Going into BIOS shows this; all four sticks are detected, but only 3 are usable/included in the DRAM.





Any help would be appreciated, thank you!

:)

 

Windows 10 long boot/black screen/2 display drivers

Hi,

Thanks for your suggestion. I just fixed this issue by disabling 'EnableULPS' in regedit, as described here:

How to Disable ULPS on AMD Crossfire Setups - Graphics Cards

It now boots with no issues. If this is the cause for most people I hope you can fix it or publicise this fix as many people seem to have the same issue with AMD and switchable graphics.

I've also since noticed that my system reports 5.6GB of 'hardware reserved' memory. Could this be connected to the graphics card issue? I'm on a 64bit system with 8GB ram, currently only 2.4GB useable meaning I'm always running at ~90%. If you think this
is unconnected I can make a new question for this.

Thanks again for your help!

EDIT: The 'hardware reserved memory' issue was solved by unchecking 'maximum memory' in msconfig->boot->advanced options. I'm not sure if it was connected to the ULPS registry fix for the slow boot so I'll leave it here.

 

5.9 GB of 8 GB is listed as hardware reserved!?

My RAM is mem tested and all good. Running Windows 10. 5.9GB is listed as unusable, hardware reserved!!! How do I get it back? Should I want to? My system runs great; no errors. Still, I assume that 5.9 out of 8 GB is excessive.

note: the common "fix" to clear max mem box in msconfig does not work! Tried it. My bios has no memory configuration settings. Where did my RAM go? Anyone, please, have a solution that does work?

 

Hi, have you read thru e.g.
Hardware Reserved Memory 5.5GB - Windows 10 Forums
Problem about RAM Hardware reserved. Need advice. - Windows 10 Forums
Hardware reserved memory issue - Windows 10 Forums
Installed RAM 16GB (7.18 usable) Solved - Windows 10 Forums

- more if you search for
hardware reserved

Have you checked/tried everything in those?

 

Yes, I have tried all of the common proposed fixes, none of them seem to have worked.

I am using Win10 Enterprise, which should not have the 16 GB limitation (and my system currently works with 24 out of the installed 32GB). The motherboard/OS/CPU-Z/etc. recognizes all 32 GB installed but only 24GB are listed as usable.
Maximum memory is unchecked.
The motherboard does not have a memory remapping feature as far as I can tell, it's likely just enabled by default. There is no iGPU to disable since it's an AMD Ryzen (Threadripper) chip, so there is no integrated graphics.

 

Has it ever worked with 32Gb or have you recently added RAM?

 

I have a year-old Desktop that came with a single 8GB module [single-channel], later on I upgraded to 16 GB [2 x 8GB] and changed the BIOS to dual-channel memory, works good. My Hardware Reserved is showing 84.7MB.

 

This is a fresh build, all four RAM sticks were added together.

 

Giving this a bump, any insight appreciated.

 

You don`t say anything about a video card, the hardware reserved is for video.

You need to buy a video card.

 

A screenshot on his post says he's got GTX 1080 Ti

 

Looking at the bios screenshot which is only showing 24576MB as useable I would suggest either a motherboard or ram stick problem, maybe try the A1 A2 B1 B2 combination and see what happens? As its clearly showing a problem in the bios looking at a Windows fix isn't going to achieve a lot.
Reset bios to default settings? Ryzen boards seem to be a bit problematic regarding memory speeds.
Could also remove each module in turn and find out which module or slot is causing the problem which would be the one that doesn't decrease the usable memory in the bios when removed.