Forum Discussion

HoltSawye's avatar
HoltSawye
Iron Contributor
Sep 18, 2026

Hardware reserved memory suddenly jumped to 4.6GB – only 3.4GB usable out of 8

My laptop used to have about 2.1GB of hardware reserved memory (which I assume is for the GPU). Suddenly, it jumped to around 4.6GB reserved, leaving me with only 3.4GB usable out of 8GB total. On to...
deployment
device management
Jamony's avatar
Jamony
MCT
Sep 20, 2026

The jump from 2.1 GB to 4.6 GB hardware reserved is separate from paging-file size; increasing virtual memory does not establish why physical RAM became unavailable. Your screenshot shows GPU usage, but it does not identify the source of the reservation.

 

Compare the firmware’s detected memory with Installed Physical Memory and Total Physical Memory in System Information. Record the laptop or motherboard model and BIOS version alongside those figures. Then run Windows Memory Diagnostic and retain the result. The black screens make it important to investigate stability rather than repeatedly adjust memory limits, especially since you already unchecked Maximum memory and reseated the RAM.

 

Back up important files before further testing. Because the BIOS update failed, stop repeated flashing attempts and give the manufacturer that failure report and the memory results. Neither a faulty module nor a graphics reservation is established by the information posted.