2GB of RAM is "Hardware Reserved" !?!

[GoodEnough]

I bought a Corsair 4GB stick for a HPG62-340US laptop.
So, now I have 2GB+4GB=6GB installed.
BIOS sees 6GB installed.

Resmon shows 2GB of RAM is "Hardware Reserved"

Last time, I fixed this by simply re-seating the RAM
Now, this doesn't work. Any ideas what to do?

I can not mess with the BIOS on this F'ing HP, NOT an option.

 

[GoodEnough]

I swapped the order of the sticks. Full RAM now avail.

 

[GoodEnough]

Anyone know why swapping sticks fixed the problem?

 

[alzan]

Anyone know why swapping sticks fixed the problem?

My guess would be a motherboard or chipset issue in which the first DIMM slot "prioritizes" the detected RAM capacity, i.e. a 2GB DIMM in the first slot means only 2GB or less will be seen in the other slot. It's also possible that the 4GB DIMM is has different timings or SPD than the original 4GB DIMM.

 

[cubby1223]

The rule of thumb is to only put matched pairs of ram in computers, never unmatched pairs

In your situation, having a matched pair of 2x2gb ram sticks running in dual channel mode is faster than 6gb running in single channel mode (as you're not even close to using up the first 4gb of ram).

 

[GoodEnough]

Yea, but the down side is that if you exceed 4GB, then you're screwed.
That's when I'd rather have 6GB unmatched.
I have no performance issues, so I am happy with unmatched 6GB over 4GB matched.

 

[S3trio64v2]

Sure it's not 2gb reserved for some onboard video? Though that is a lot.

 

[bonehead123]

Sure it's not 2gb reserved for some onboard video? Though that is a lot.

Not really, cause my HP lappy has 1768mb of my 8 GB matched set reserved for the graphics.....

 

[Matt1970]

The rule of thumb is to only put matched pairs of ram in computers, never unmatched pairs

In your situation, having a matched pair of 2x2gb ram sticks running in dual channel mode is faster than 6gb running in single channel mode (as you're not even close to using up the first 4gb of ram).

Computers now can run dual channel with mismatched pairs as long as the smallest stick is at least 1/2 the size of the largest stick.

 

[bononos]

Anyone know why swapping sticks fixed the problem?

Because its like reseating your memory sticks, like you said in your OP which also fixes the problem.