Less usable RAM than installed on a laptop

[PeterIP]

Hello everyone!

I don't know if this is the right board to ask this question but I need help.

I recently discovered that my laptop has only 5.95 GB usable RAM out of 8 GB. 

A lot of sources say that I need to go through advanced BIOS settings and change some chipset options there to fix this problem. However, hp laptop BIOS doesn't have advanced settings. I have already tried to update BIOS to solve this but it didn't change anything.

I would be grateful if someone helped me fix this problem.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

I would say that most of the missing memory went to support the graphics.

Look at the hardware reserved report.  2.1 GB of memory has been reserved to support hardware.

The only thing you can check is this...

Run the msconfig utility.

Click on the Boot tab.

Click on the Advanced options button.

If the maximum memory box is checked, uncheck it.

If it is unchecked, then your memory usage is what it is and cannot be changed.

There are no tools or advanced BIOS settings to change the memory allocation.

[PeterIP]

Hey Paul,

Thanks for your reply.

The maximum memory box in msconfig was unchecked.

However, during my search I found something interesting that increased my usable RAM to 7.70 GB.

I don't really know how it happened but I'll tell you what I did.

First of all, I tried to recover BIOS using a key press combination (https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c02693833). However, after my attempt a screen popped up that said the recover process cannot be completed. After that I booted into Windows and to my surprise, I had  7.70 GB of usable RAM.

After restarting the laptop usable RAM went down to 5.95 GB. However it is still possible to recreate this using the BIOS recovery key combination.

So, do you have any thoughts on this? It's not very comfortable to boot my laptop through this key combination lol.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Unfortunately, I wouldn't know why doing that changes the memory allocation, but you can see from your illustration that the hardware reserved memory is what changes.

I think the PC is automatically configuring the memory to the 5.95 level, and your trick with the BIOS clears the setting, and it just goes back to the original when you restart the PC.

What is the product number of your notebook?

The specs should tell us how much onboard memory is being used to support the graphics.

If you don't know the product number, use this guide to find it.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c00033108

[PeterIP]

Here is the product number: 6RK48EA

And here are the specs: https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-15-db1000-laptop-pc/26210240/model/28012187/document/c063019...

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Thanks.

Unfortunately, neither the specs nor the service manual tell us how much memory is reserved for the integrated graphics your notebook has.

Doing a general search on the Vega 8 graphics, I cannot find any info where it indicates what is the maximum amount of shared system memory that is dedicated to run the graphics.

Here is the service manual:

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c06245081

But I am 99% sure the memory loss is due to 2 GB of graphics memory going to support the graphics.

The only suggestion I can offer would be to upgrade the memory to 16 or 32 GB.

The service manual indicates the max is 2 x 8 GB, but the Crucial website indicates the max is 2 x 16 GB and Crucial is almost always right.

https://www.crucial.com/usa/en/compatible-upgrade-for/HP-Compaq/hp-15-db1023ur