220-1102 · Question #112
A technician just completed a Windows 10 installation on a PC that has a total of 16GB of RAM. The technician notices the Windows OS has only 4GB of RAM available for use. Which of the following…
The correct answer is D. The newly installed OS is x86. If a Windows 10 PC with 16GB of RAM only shows 4GB available, it is most likely due to an x86 (32-bit) operating system installation. 32-bit operating systems inherently have a maximum addressable RAM limit, typically around 4GB.
Question
A technician just completed a Windows 10 installation on a PC that has a total of 16GB of RAM. The technician notices the Windows OS has only 4GB of RAM available for use. Which of the following explains why the OS can only access 4GB of RAM?
Options
- AThe UEFI settings need to be changed.
- BThe RAM has compatibility issues with Windows 10.
- CSome of the RAM is defective.
- DThe newly installed OS is x86.
How the community answered
(27 responses)- B4% (1)
- C4% (1)
- D93% (25)
Why each option
If a Windows 10 PC with 16GB of RAM only shows 4GB available, it is most likely due to an x86 (32-bit) operating system installation. 32-bit operating systems inherently have a maximum addressable RAM limit, typically around 4GB.
While UEFI settings can sometimes reserve a small amount of RAM, they would not limit 16GB down to 4GB.
RAM compatibility issues typically lead to system instability or failure to boot, not just a specific reduction to 4GB.
Defective RAM would likely cause system crashes, blue screens, or instability, rather than the OS consistently reporting exactly 4GB available from a larger installed amount.
An x86 (32-bit) operating system has an architectural limitation on the amount of RAM it can address, typically around 4GB (2^32 bytes), even if more physical RAM is installed. Therefore, if only 4GB of 16GB RAM is available, it strongly indicates that a 32-bit version of Windows 10 was installed instead of a 64-bit version.
Concept tested: 32-bit vs 64-bit OS RAM limits
Source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/memory/memory-limits-for-windows-releases
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