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Yesterday I needed to install Docker on Windows along with the WSL2 to run elasticsearch in the Docker container.

After the installation, I spotted that out of 16 Gb of physically installed RAM, my PC only uses 8 Gb. This is the screen of my Windows information window:

enter image description here

And from the Task manager:

enter image description here

In my Resource Monitor, I've got the following situation:

enter image description here

I ran both Windows included Memory check and Memtest86 - both finished with no errors at all. At my BIOS settings all 16 Gb of RAM are being displayed (also in the Resource Monitor Windows recognizes all of the installed RAM), so I assume that the second physical RAM bar is usable and not damaged.

I might assume that this issue occured even BEFORE Docker and WSL installation and I only spotted this issue now. Need to mention that I already uninstalled both of them correctly - using the "uninstall".

Any possible solution for my situation?

Update Not sure if this is the same as Resource Monitor says (probably it is), but in Task Manager I noticed the following:

enter image description here

Max Krizh
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    Possible duplicate>>>https://superuser.com/questions/668774/half-of-installed-ram-is-hardware-reserved?rq=1 – Moab Feb 17 '21 at 17:12
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    Without any additional information I would agree that the CPUs iGPU is using the 8 GB per the firmware settings as it's currently configured. – Ramhound Feb 17 '21 at 19:12

1 Answers1

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Reverse your memorybanks.

I just spend a long time reading about this issue and solved it for myself by:

  1. remove one memory bank. Restart. Check memory in windows (win+pause): 8/8GB available.
  2. remove that memory bank too, replace with the other. Restart. Same check, same result
  3. add other bank in other slot. They're effectively reversed now. Restart. 16/16GB available.

I've seen forumthreads stating that they tried the same and could not start their system in situation 1 or 2, indicating that that memory bank was actually broken. cpu-z would still read the memory banks metadata correctly and can't predict it's failure.

Some things that helped other people:

  • resetting the bios.

Some things that were suggested, without any evidence of them working:

  • change the amount of memory windows should start with (in msconfig > boot > advanced)
  • change the virtual memory settings (settings > system > advanced > advanced)
  • change the registry setting to clear virtual memory on reboot (HKLM > system > currentcontrolset > control > session manager > memory management > clearPageFileOnShutdown > 1)

This might be helpful:

  • cpu-z will tell you the exact reference number for the memory bank, which you can cross-reference with the compatibility list that the motherboard should provide.
  • reputable brands like corsair offer a lifetime warranty.
  • as for the cause, I also used docker with WSL2 (and minikube). There might be some niche problem around configuring/starting/stopping any of those, that might cause it.
Roel
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  • Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please [edit] to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center. – Community Nov 09 '22 at 22:28