Question

A technician installs four identical 8 GB DIMMs (32 GB total) into a workstation with four memory slots. After booting, the BIOS/UEFI and operating system report only 16 GB of usable RAM. All modules test good individually in a known-working slot, and the board's manual lists a maximum supported capacity of 128 GB. What is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

One of the memory channels or a pair of DIMM slots is faulty or the modules are not fully seated in two slots

Answer

The motherboard supports only dual-channel operation, which caps total capacity at 16 GB

Answer

The installed CPU does not support DDR memory and must be replaced

Answer

The BIOS/UEFI is limited to a 16 GB memory address space and requires a firmware downgrade