How do I boot into BIOS setting on Boot Camp Windows

Question

Level 1

4 points

How do I boot into BIOS setting on Boot Camp Windows

So I've been using Windows on my Mac for a while, about a year. I realized that my Mac was not running on a lot of RAM. I did some research and realized that my Mac has 8 GB of RAM, and on my Windows partition, only 2.1 GB is usable. I did more research and concluded that I needed to open my computer BIOS settings and go into Chipset Manager. To open that, it depends on the manufacturer. So I don't know how to access it because I've been researching for hours, "How do you open your BIOS setting on Boot Camp Windows?". LIKE MY COMPUTER IS GLITCHING WHILE I'M TYPING. I mainly use Windows for gaming, so you can imagine what my gaming would look like. So I need to know how to access my BIOS setting and get to Chipset Manager, or at least have a solution to my RAM problem. I'm sorry I sound a bit aggressive, but bear with me; my computer is struggling, and I have to get through the day on it. So I would really appreciate an answer FAST. Thanks!

iMac 21.5″, macOS 13.6

Posted on Nov 14, 2024 1:31 PM

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Answer 1

g_wolfman

Level 4

2,116 points

Nov 14, 2024 7:56 PM in response to THEBOIISHERE

You can't access BIOS settings on an Apple computer because there is no BIOS. Apple uses EFI and does some EFI/BIOS fakery behind the scenes to (more or less) emulate the BIOS Windows is expecting.

More specifically given the specs in your profiles, your Mac is new enough that BootCamp Assistant would have kept the GUID Partition Table with a fully protected MBR partition for Windows and installed Windows for UEFI boot. So no BIOS settings.

More relevant to your problem, though, is that Macs don't work the way you are describing. Actually, I'm not sure any computer does as far as RAM is concerned. For PCs that do have a chipset manager, you can use it to configure things like bus timing frequency, RAM operation clock cycles and whether multi-stick RAM systems are in single or dual channel mode. There is no option for changing the "amount" of RAM available for the system to use.

And 2.1 GB available is a nonsensical number - it doesn't match with a useable RAM stick size (whether GB or GiB). It makes sense maybe as an amount of free memory during system operations - but if that were the case, you wouldn't have glitching because that's quite a bit of free memory.

Whatever your problem's root cause, I don't think it is what you think it is.

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Answer 2

g_wolfman

Level 4

2,116 points

Nov 15, 2024 6:07 PM in response to THEBOIISHERE

So the useable number on the installed RAM is an issue - which you know. There are a couple of possibilities. First, it would be good to know what your RAM use in Task Manager looks like:

In particular the info in the bottom right, and whether both slots are being reported as in use.

Beyond that, the most common issue around this seems to be in the Windows system settings and you might try this: https://windowsreport.com/windows-10-isnt-using-all-ram/, in particular the first fix using msconfig (either turning off max memory or setting it to 8192 could be options).

If that doesn't work, you actually might consider taking the iMac to an Apple Authorized Service Provider, since (I believe) you have a 2017 21.5" iMac given you are running Ventura and the RAM slots are inaccessible to you. There might be an issue that macOS can handle that Windows can't - even if just excess dust around the RAM slot. Admittedly unlikely, but it wouldn't be the first time I've seen something like that even if it is weird.

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Answer 3

THEBOIISHERE Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 20, 2024 1:32 PM in response to g_wolfman

Now my computer is using all its RAM thankfully, so thanks! My computer crashed and got into the boot loop, so I was forced to delete it and reinstall it again, and it works way better now. I lost so many important files, though. But, thanks for your help, dude; at least you tried.😉

My performance is now much better:

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Answer 4

THEBOIISHERE Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 14, 2024 2:17 PM in response to THEBOIISHERE

By the way, I'm not really sure of this, but I think my Windows partition had more usable RAM when I first installed it because I didn't get the Not Responding Windows or any lags. I also checked my macOS partition, and It's capable of using all 8 GB of RAM. Just an FYI. And to be clear, I have 2 requests: I want to know how to access my BIOS settings on my Mac in my Windows partition OR find another way to be able to use all 8 or at least 4 GB.

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Answer 5

THEBOIISHERE Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 15, 2024 1:24 PM in response to g_wolfman

Then what could be causing my problem? By the way, I forgot to mention this, but this Tuesday (11/12/24) I'm sure my Windows partition had 3 GB of usable RAM, and on Wednesday I pressed Win+G to use the widgets, and I saw my RAM all the way up to 98%, and it was staying between 95-99% usage. I went to the Microsoft app store and installed a nice app that frees up and defrags the RAM, and I see it does make my computer work faster, but then like 5 seconds later my RAM goes all the way back up and my computer gets slow again. So I'm confident my RAM usage is affecting my computer's performance. As I said before, my macOS partition is using all 8 GB and working perfectly at amazing speed. So I don't see why my Windows partition is limited and why it's degrading on RAM usage. Is there any way to get rid of this RAM limitation without the BIOS since, like you've stated, Macs don't have BIOS settings and apparently Chipset Manager wasn't even relevant. Please, I want to get back to Windows, but it's kind of useless at this point.

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