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    XPS 15 9550: Upgraded to 32gb BUT 31.2gb is hardware reserved!

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by magurochan, Jan 12, 2017.

  1. magurochan

    magurochan Newbie

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    So I decided to upgrade the XPS 15 9550 from 16gb to 32gb.

    It had 1 stick of 16gb PC4-2133 which I changed to 2 x 16gb PC4-2400 Ballistix.

    Everything in the bios (1.2.18) looked fine and I went into Windows 10 (64 bit) where the fans were blowing like mad and the system was stalling along.

    I checked the task manager and System info and it showed 32gb but 31.2gb hardware reserved leaving only 800mb for use! Windows memory usage is close to 100%.

    I thought it might be bad memory so I tested each stick individually and both worked normally and had no issues with memory tests.

    Running a single stick of 16gb has no issues as well, memory allocation and usage is normal.

    I tried different sticks of memory and the same issues when running 2 x 16gb for a total of 32gb.

    All sticks run fine if they are used as single sticks, all sticks have been memory tested.

    I googled and found things like the boot setting in msconfig but changing the max memory setting has no effect.

    Latest bios, clean install of windows, good sticks of ram...

    I'm stumped.

    Anyone experience this or have advice?
     
    magurochan, Jan 12, 2017
    #1
  2. GoNz0

    GoNz0 Notebook Virtuoso

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    Not normal, I have 186 mb hardware reserved.
    1, reset BIOS defaults.
    2, check the paging file is set to auto.

    Can you post screenshots?
     
    GoNz0, Jan 12, 2017
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  3. magurochan

    magurochan Newbie

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    Hi GoNz0, thanks as always for your replies.

    The BIOS seems fine... though I can reset it (I'm running ahci will that cause it to revert to raid?)

    It does not appear to be a paging file issue as only when 32gb is installed there is an issue. It doesn't matter which memory sticks I use if there are 2 x 16 I get huge amountr reserved for hardware!

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
    magurochan, Jan 12, 2017
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  4. GoNz0

    GoNz0 Notebook Virtuoso

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    It will go back to raid but you can soon change that again.
    I have the horrible feeling it just isn't compatible ram.

    Reset the BIOS to defaults to rule that out (in AHCI)

    You could try and verify windows (reboot after to see if it is fixed) http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/verify-the-integrity-of-windows-vista-system-files/

    then this http://www.windowscentral.com/how-use-dism-command-line-utility-repair-windows-10-image

    I would go as far as creating a small partition and installing new windows if that fails to check if a 2nd install has it. But windows reserved is usually BIOS related tbh.
     
    GoNz0, Jan 12, 2017
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