RAM Usage halved

[Startinez]

Hi,

I had a problem recently and my laptop screen seemed to freeze on a very weird screen, lots of pixelated content and weird bright green/pink colours. Had to hold the power button to turn off the laptop as nothing else worked.

A few hours later I loaded up a game which requires 8GB RAM and always warns me that I have 7.4GB available, but today it told me I have 3.4GB available. It seems one half of my 8GB RAM is no longer recognised. I'm not 100% sure the two are linked but I played this game a few days ago and it was at 7.4GB warning then, so it's definitely in the last few days.

When I check BIOS I can see that 8GB is recognised there but despite following a lot of guides on manually adjusting the RAM limit etc. I've got nowhere. The next step I'm going to try is to backup & reset Windows but this is a long process.

I'm pretty handy with tech but my laptop is still in warranty so won't be taking anything apart. I'd get in touch with HP directly but as BIOS is recognising the correct amount of RAM I figure the issue is probably with the OS. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

[Huffer · Accepted solution]

run memtest86 on the memory. Just google that and go to the website. Its a safe open source program that will thoroughly test your memory way beyond what the OS or even BIOS does. My guess is you have a stick of RAM going bad. The odd images on the screen is kind of a giveaway for memory issues. If memtest86 passes then it is a software issue. Be aware the test can take a few hours to complete but let it test every nook and cranny of the memory. 

[Startinez]

Thanks. I've run the test and although it's showing no errors, it does say I have one empty RAM slot so it appears that module has totally gone. Onto HP support I go.