How to figure out if the memory is bad?












0















I recently had a problem where the computer (Thinkpad E430) hang while booting and I suspect that it is a bad memory issue. Checkbox test fail on memory, but memtest86+ passed. After removing the memory and re-installing I managed to boot the computer. However, the memory information looks odd:





  1. I have 4GB or RAM and running ubuntu 16.04 64 bit



    sudo lshw -class memory:
    *-memory
    description: System Memory
    physical id: a
    slot: System board or motherboard
    size: 4GiB
    *-bank:0
    description: SODIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
    product: HMT351S6CFR8C-PB
    vendor: Hynix/Hyundai
    physical id: 0
    serial: 0A545936
    slot: ChannelA-DIMM0
    **size: 4GiB**
    width: 64 bits
    clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
    *-bank:1
    description: DIMM [empty]
    physical id: 1
    slot: ChannelB-DIMM0



  2. System monitor shows that there is only 2.6GB available and more than 50% is used even though I don't run any program:
    System Monitor image after boot without running any program



    grep Memory /var/log/kern.log:

    kernel: [ 0.000000] Memory: 2562464K/**2730856K available** (8432K kernel code, 1291K rwdata, 3960K rodata, 1484K init, 1316K bss, 168392K reserved, 0K cma-reserved)



How can I figure out if there is a problem in the RAM or elsewhere?










share|improve this question

























  • Can you please add the output of cat /proc/meminfo to your question?

    – Chai T. Rex
    Dec 25 '16 at 2:17











  • Looks fine. However, in most modern machines, you'd add similar size/kind/speed memory in pairs, so you can take advantage of memory interleaving, for speed. If you were to add memory now, you'd want to add another 4G stick.

    – heynnema
    Dec 25 '16 at 22:20













  • cat /proc/meminfo

    – Elad
    Dec 31 '16 at 18:09











  • MemTotal: 2602744 kB MemFree: 110756 kB MemAvailable: 148336 kB Buffers: 18716 kB Cached: 598856 kB SwapCached: 51144 kB Active: 1485224 kB Inactive: 799088 kB Active(anon): 1355032 kB Inactive(anon): 711628 kB Active(file): 130192 kB Inactive(file): 87460 kB Unevictable: 2480 kB Mlocked: 2480 kB SwapTotal: 2729980 kB SwapFree: 1081376 kB Dirty: 172 kB Writeback: 0 kB AnonPages: 1626268 kB

    – Elad
    Dec 31 '16 at 18:13











  • Mapped: 312972 kB Shmem: 399888 kB Slab: 76752 kB SReclaimable: 34952 kB SUnreclaim: 41800 kB KernelStack: 12064 kB PageTables: 56164 kB NFS_Unstable: 0 kB Bounce: 0 kB WritebackTmp: 0 kB CommitLimit: 4031352 kB Committed_AS: 9933100 kB VmallocTotal: 34359738367 kB VmallocUsed: 0 kB VmallocChunk: 0 kB HardwareCorrupted: 0 kB AnonHugePages: 387072 kB

    – Elad
    Dec 31 '16 at 18:14
















0















I recently had a problem where the computer (Thinkpad E430) hang while booting and I suspect that it is a bad memory issue. Checkbox test fail on memory, but memtest86+ passed. After removing the memory and re-installing I managed to boot the computer. However, the memory information looks odd:





  1. I have 4GB or RAM and running ubuntu 16.04 64 bit



    sudo lshw -class memory:
    *-memory
    description: System Memory
    physical id: a
    slot: System board or motherboard
    size: 4GiB
    *-bank:0
    description: SODIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
    product: HMT351S6CFR8C-PB
    vendor: Hynix/Hyundai
    physical id: 0
    serial: 0A545936
    slot: ChannelA-DIMM0
    **size: 4GiB**
    width: 64 bits
    clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
    *-bank:1
    description: DIMM [empty]
    physical id: 1
    slot: ChannelB-DIMM0



  2. System monitor shows that there is only 2.6GB available and more than 50% is used even though I don't run any program:
    System Monitor image after boot without running any program



    grep Memory /var/log/kern.log:

    kernel: [ 0.000000] Memory: 2562464K/**2730856K available** (8432K kernel code, 1291K rwdata, 3960K rodata, 1484K init, 1316K bss, 168392K reserved, 0K cma-reserved)



How can I figure out if there is a problem in the RAM or elsewhere?










share|improve this question

























  • Can you please add the output of cat /proc/meminfo to your question?

    – Chai T. Rex
    Dec 25 '16 at 2:17











  • Looks fine. However, in most modern machines, you'd add similar size/kind/speed memory in pairs, so you can take advantage of memory interleaving, for speed. If you were to add memory now, you'd want to add another 4G stick.

    – heynnema
    Dec 25 '16 at 22:20













  • cat /proc/meminfo

    – Elad
    Dec 31 '16 at 18:09











  • MemTotal: 2602744 kB MemFree: 110756 kB MemAvailable: 148336 kB Buffers: 18716 kB Cached: 598856 kB SwapCached: 51144 kB Active: 1485224 kB Inactive: 799088 kB Active(anon): 1355032 kB Inactive(anon): 711628 kB Active(file): 130192 kB Inactive(file): 87460 kB Unevictable: 2480 kB Mlocked: 2480 kB SwapTotal: 2729980 kB SwapFree: 1081376 kB Dirty: 172 kB Writeback: 0 kB AnonPages: 1626268 kB

    – Elad
    Dec 31 '16 at 18:13











  • Mapped: 312972 kB Shmem: 399888 kB Slab: 76752 kB SReclaimable: 34952 kB SUnreclaim: 41800 kB KernelStack: 12064 kB PageTables: 56164 kB NFS_Unstable: 0 kB Bounce: 0 kB WritebackTmp: 0 kB CommitLimit: 4031352 kB Committed_AS: 9933100 kB VmallocTotal: 34359738367 kB VmallocUsed: 0 kB VmallocChunk: 0 kB HardwareCorrupted: 0 kB AnonHugePages: 387072 kB

    – Elad
    Dec 31 '16 at 18:14














0












0








0








I recently had a problem where the computer (Thinkpad E430) hang while booting and I suspect that it is a bad memory issue. Checkbox test fail on memory, but memtest86+ passed. After removing the memory and re-installing I managed to boot the computer. However, the memory information looks odd:





  1. I have 4GB or RAM and running ubuntu 16.04 64 bit



    sudo lshw -class memory:
    *-memory
    description: System Memory
    physical id: a
    slot: System board or motherboard
    size: 4GiB
    *-bank:0
    description: SODIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
    product: HMT351S6CFR8C-PB
    vendor: Hynix/Hyundai
    physical id: 0
    serial: 0A545936
    slot: ChannelA-DIMM0
    **size: 4GiB**
    width: 64 bits
    clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
    *-bank:1
    description: DIMM [empty]
    physical id: 1
    slot: ChannelB-DIMM0



  2. System monitor shows that there is only 2.6GB available and more than 50% is used even though I don't run any program:
    System Monitor image after boot without running any program



    grep Memory /var/log/kern.log:

    kernel: [ 0.000000] Memory: 2562464K/**2730856K available** (8432K kernel code, 1291K rwdata, 3960K rodata, 1484K init, 1316K bss, 168392K reserved, 0K cma-reserved)



How can I figure out if there is a problem in the RAM or elsewhere?










share|improve this question
















I recently had a problem where the computer (Thinkpad E430) hang while booting and I suspect that it is a bad memory issue. Checkbox test fail on memory, but memtest86+ passed. After removing the memory and re-installing I managed to boot the computer. However, the memory information looks odd:





  1. I have 4GB or RAM and running ubuntu 16.04 64 bit



    sudo lshw -class memory:
    *-memory
    description: System Memory
    physical id: a
    slot: System board or motherboard
    size: 4GiB
    *-bank:0
    description: SODIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
    product: HMT351S6CFR8C-PB
    vendor: Hynix/Hyundai
    physical id: 0
    serial: 0A545936
    slot: ChannelA-DIMM0
    **size: 4GiB**
    width: 64 bits
    clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
    *-bank:1
    description: DIMM [empty]
    physical id: 1
    slot: ChannelB-DIMM0



  2. System monitor shows that there is only 2.6GB available and more than 50% is used even though I don't run any program:
    System Monitor image after boot without running any program



    grep Memory /var/log/kern.log:

    kernel: [ 0.000000] Memory: 2562464K/**2730856K available** (8432K kernel code, 1291K rwdata, 3960K rodata, 1484K init, 1316K bss, 168392K reserved, 0K cma-reserved)



How can I figure out if there is a problem in the RAM or elsewhere?







ram






share|improve this question















share|improve this question













share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited Dec 25 '16 at 1:55









TheWanderer

16k113657




16k113657










asked Dec 25 '16 at 1:52









EladElad

1




1













  • Can you please add the output of cat /proc/meminfo to your question?

    – Chai T. Rex
    Dec 25 '16 at 2:17











  • Looks fine. However, in most modern machines, you'd add similar size/kind/speed memory in pairs, so you can take advantage of memory interleaving, for speed. If you were to add memory now, you'd want to add another 4G stick.

    – heynnema
    Dec 25 '16 at 22:20













  • cat /proc/meminfo

    – Elad
    Dec 31 '16 at 18:09











  • MemTotal: 2602744 kB MemFree: 110756 kB MemAvailable: 148336 kB Buffers: 18716 kB Cached: 598856 kB SwapCached: 51144 kB Active: 1485224 kB Inactive: 799088 kB Active(anon): 1355032 kB Inactive(anon): 711628 kB Active(file): 130192 kB Inactive(file): 87460 kB Unevictable: 2480 kB Mlocked: 2480 kB SwapTotal: 2729980 kB SwapFree: 1081376 kB Dirty: 172 kB Writeback: 0 kB AnonPages: 1626268 kB

    – Elad
    Dec 31 '16 at 18:13











  • Mapped: 312972 kB Shmem: 399888 kB Slab: 76752 kB SReclaimable: 34952 kB SUnreclaim: 41800 kB KernelStack: 12064 kB PageTables: 56164 kB NFS_Unstable: 0 kB Bounce: 0 kB WritebackTmp: 0 kB CommitLimit: 4031352 kB Committed_AS: 9933100 kB VmallocTotal: 34359738367 kB VmallocUsed: 0 kB VmallocChunk: 0 kB HardwareCorrupted: 0 kB AnonHugePages: 387072 kB

    – Elad
    Dec 31 '16 at 18:14



















  • Can you please add the output of cat /proc/meminfo to your question?

    – Chai T. Rex
    Dec 25 '16 at 2:17











  • Looks fine. However, in most modern machines, you'd add similar size/kind/speed memory in pairs, so you can take advantage of memory interleaving, for speed. If you were to add memory now, you'd want to add another 4G stick.

    – heynnema
    Dec 25 '16 at 22:20













  • cat /proc/meminfo

    – Elad
    Dec 31 '16 at 18:09











  • MemTotal: 2602744 kB MemFree: 110756 kB MemAvailable: 148336 kB Buffers: 18716 kB Cached: 598856 kB SwapCached: 51144 kB Active: 1485224 kB Inactive: 799088 kB Active(anon): 1355032 kB Inactive(anon): 711628 kB Active(file): 130192 kB Inactive(file): 87460 kB Unevictable: 2480 kB Mlocked: 2480 kB SwapTotal: 2729980 kB SwapFree: 1081376 kB Dirty: 172 kB Writeback: 0 kB AnonPages: 1626268 kB

    – Elad
    Dec 31 '16 at 18:13











  • Mapped: 312972 kB Shmem: 399888 kB Slab: 76752 kB SReclaimable: 34952 kB SUnreclaim: 41800 kB KernelStack: 12064 kB PageTables: 56164 kB NFS_Unstable: 0 kB Bounce: 0 kB WritebackTmp: 0 kB CommitLimit: 4031352 kB Committed_AS: 9933100 kB VmallocTotal: 34359738367 kB VmallocUsed: 0 kB VmallocChunk: 0 kB HardwareCorrupted: 0 kB AnonHugePages: 387072 kB

    – Elad
    Dec 31 '16 at 18:14

















Can you please add the output of cat /proc/meminfo to your question?

– Chai T. Rex
Dec 25 '16 at 2:17





Can you please add the output of cat /proc/meminfo to your question?

– Chai T. Rex
Dec 25 '16 at 2:17













Looks fine. However, in most modern machines, you'd add similar size/kind/speed memory in pairs, so you can take advantage of memory interleaving, for speed. If you were to add memory now, you'd want to add another 4G stick.

– heynnema
Dec 25 '16 at 22:20







Looks fine. However, in most modern machines, you'd add similar size/kind/speed memory in pairs, so you can take advantage of memory interleaving, for speed. If you were to add memory now, you'd want to add another 4G stick.

– heynnema
Dec 25 '16 at 22:20















cat /proc/meminfo

– Elad
Dec 31 '16 at 18:09





cat /proc/meminfo

– Elad
Dec 31 '16 at 18:09













MemTotal: 2602744 kB MemFree: 110756 kB MemAvailable: 148336 kB Buffers: 18716 kB Cached: 598856 kB SwapCached: 51144 kB Active: 1485224 kB Inactive: 799088 kB Active(anon): 1355032 kB Inactive(anon): 711628 kB Active(file): 130192 kB Inactive(file): 87460 kB Unevictable: 2480 kB Mlocked: 2480 kB SwapTotal: 2729980 kB SwapFree: 1081376 kB Dirty: 172 kB Writeback: 0 kB AnonPages: 1626268 kB

– Elad
Dec 31 '16 at 18:13





MemTotal: 2602744 kB MemFree: 110756 kB MemAvailable: 148336 kB Buffers: 18716 kB Cached: 598856 kB SwapCached: 51144 kB Active: 1485224 kB Inactive: 799088 kB Active(anon): 1355032 kB Inactive(anon): 711628 kB Active(file): 130192 kB Inactive(file): 87460 kB Unevictable: 2480 kB Mlocked: 2480 kB SwapTotal: 2729980 kB SwapFree: 1081376 kB Dirty: 172 kB Writeback: 0 kB AnonPages: 1626268 kB

– Elad
Dec 31 '16 at 18:13













Mapped: 312972 kB Shmem: 399888 kB Slab: 76752 kB SReclaimable: 34952 kB SUnreclaim: 41800 kB KernelStack: 12064 kB PageTables: 56164 kB NFS_Unstable: 0 kB Bounce: 0 kB WritebackTmp: 0 kB CommitLimit: 4031352 kB Committed_AS: 9933100 kB VmallocTotal: 34359738367 kB VmallocUsed: 0 kB VmallocChunk: 0 kB HardwareCorrupted: 0 kB AnonHugePages: 387072 kB

– Elad
Dec 31 '16 at 18:14





Mapped: 312972 kB Shmem: 399888 kB Slab: 76752 kB SReclaimable: 34952 kB SUnreclaim: 41800 kB KernelStack: 12064 kB PageTables: 56164 kB NFS_Unstable: 0 kB Bounce: 0 kB WritebackTmp: 0 kB CommitLimit: 4031352 kB Committed_AS: 9933100 kB VmallocTotal: 34359738367 kB VmallocUsed: 0 kB VmallocChunk: 0 kB HardwareCorrupted: 0 kB AnonHugePages: 387072 kB

– Elad
Dec 31 '16 at 18:14










1 Answer
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oldest

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I'd suggest booting from USB memory stick (e.g. Ubuntu 18.04 LTS). Also make sure to use 64 bit variant if you still can find 32 bit version somewhere.



The fact that lshw lists memory funny is not unexpected. The system I'm currently using has 4x8 GB of DDR3 memory and lshw listing looks basically like this:



  *-memory:0 UNCLAIMED
physical id: 1
*-bank UNCLAIMED
description: DIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
product: 99U5471-036.A00LF
vendor: Kingston
physical id: 0
serial: 6B2B875D
slot: ChannelA-DIMM0
size: 8GiB
width: 64 bits
clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
*-memory:1
description: System Memory
physical id: 5e
slot: System board or motherboard
*-bank:0
description: DIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
product: KHX1600C10D3/8GX
vendor: Kingston
physical id: 0
serial: B804123E
slot: ChannelA-DIMM1
size: 8GiB
width: 64 bits
clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
*-bank:1
description: DIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
product: 99U5471-036.A00LF
vendor: Kingston
physical id: 1
serial: 692B865D
slot: ChannelB-DIMM0
size: 8GiB
width: 64 bits
clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
*-bank:2
description: DIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
product: KHX1600C10D3/8GX
vendor: Kingston
physical id: 2
serial: B704D03D
slot: ChannelB-DIMM1
size: 8GiB
width: 64 bits
clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
*-memory:2 UNCLAIMED
physical id: 2
*-memory:3 UNCLAIMED
physical id: 3


Note how memory:0 seems to have one UNCLAIMED bank which has one stick and memory:1 has three sticks and memory:2 and memory:3 are empty.



The slot: names seem to be okay so I would only trust those.



However, looking through sudo dmidecode output, it seems that this may be due BIOS bug because DMI seems to tell similar configuration for memory.



In the end, if grep "MemTotal" /proc/meminfo does not match the actual memory (minus GPU memory reserved for integrated graphics), then Linux cannot use all of your actual memory. If that is the case, I'd try to look for BIOS updates or try faking OS for ACPI: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/DSDT. In case of broken bios, you could also try noacpi kernel flag which will disable e.g. power management as a side-effect but will help with most ACPI/BIOS problems.






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    I'd suggest booting from USB memory stick (e.g. Ubuntu 18.04 LTS). Also make sure to use 64 bit variant if you still can find 32 bit version somewhere.



    The fact that lshw lists memory funny is not unexpected. The system I'm currently using has 4x8 GB of DDR3 memory and lshw listing looks basically like this:



      *-memory:0 UNCLAIMED
    physical id: 1
    *-bank UNCLAIMED
    description: DIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
    product: 99U5471-036.A00LF
    vendor: Kingston
    physical id: 0
    serial: 6B2B875D
    slot: ChannelA-DIMM0
    size: 8GiB
    width: 64 bits
    clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
    *-memory:1
    description: System Memory
    physical id: 5e
    slot: System board or motherboard
    *-bank:0
    description: DIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
    product: KHX1600C10D3/8GX
    vendor: Kingston
    physical id: 0
    serial: B804123E
    slot: ChannelA-DIMM1
    size: 8GiB
    width: 64 bits
    clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
    *-bank:1
    description: DIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
    product: 99U5471-036.A00LF
    vendor: Kingston
    physical id: 1
    serial: 692B865D
    slot: ChannelB-DIMM0
    size: 8GiB
    width: 64 bits
    clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
    *-bank:2
    description: DIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
    product: KHX1600C10D3/8GX
    vendor: Kingston
    physical id: 2
    serial: B704D03D
    slot: ChannelB-DIMM1
    size: 8GiB
    width: 64 bits
    clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
    *-memory:2 UNCLAIMED
    physical id: 2
    *-memory:3 UNCLAIMED
    physical id: 3


    Note how memory:0 seems to have one UNCLAIMED bank which has one stick and memory:1 has three sticks and memory:2 and memory:3 are empty.



    The slot: names seem to be okay so I would only trust those.



    However, looking through sudo dmidecode output, it seems that this may be due BIOS bug because DMI seems to tell similar configuration for memory.



    In the end, if grep "MemTotal" /proc/meminfo does not match the actual memory (minus GPU memory reserved for integrated graphics), then Linux cannot use all of your actual memory. If that is the case, I'd try to look for BIOS updates or try faking OS for ACPI: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/DSDT. In case of broken bios, you could also try noacpi kernel flag which will disable e.g. power management as a side-effect but will help with most ACPI/BIOS problems.






    share|improve this answer




























      0














      I'd suggest booting from USB memory stick (e.g. Ubuntu 18.04 LTS). Also make sure to use 64 bit variant if you still can find 32 bit version somewhere.



      The fact that lshw lists memory funny is not unexpected. The system I'm currently using has 4x8 GB of DDR3 memory and lshw listing looks basically like this:



        *-memory:0 UNCLAIMED
      physical id: 1
      *-bank UNCLAIMED
      description: DIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
      product: 99U5471-036.A00LF
      vendor: Kingston
      physical id: 0
      serial: 6B2B875D
      slot: ChannelA-DIMM0
      size: 8GiB
      width: 64 bits
      clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
      *-memory:1
      description: System Memory
      physical id: 5e
      slot: System board or motherboard
      *-bank:0
      description: DIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
      product: KHX1600C10D3/8GX
      vendor: Kingston
      physical id: 0
      serial: B804123E
      slot: ChannelA-DIMM1
      size: 8GiB
      width: 64 bits
      clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
      *-bank:1
      description: DIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
      product: 99U5471-036.A00LF
      vendor: Kingston
      physical id: 1
      serial: 692B865D
      slot: ChannelB-DIMM0
      size: 8GiB
      width: 64 bits
      clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
      *-bank:2
      description: DIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
      product: KHX1600C10D3/8GX
      vendor: Kingston
      physical id: 2
      serial: B704D03D
      slot: ChannelB-DIMM1
      size: 8GiB
      width: 64 bits
      clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
      *-memory:2 UNCLAIMED
      physical id: 2
      *-memory:3 UNCLAIMED
      physical id: 3


      Note how memory:0 seems to have one UNCLAIMED bank which has one stick and memory:1 has three sticks and memory:2 and memory:3 are empty.



      The slot: names seem to be okay so I would only trust those.



      However, looking through sudo dmidecode output, it seems that this may be due BIOS bug because DMI seems to tell similar configuration for memory.



      In the end, if grep "MemTotal" /proc/meminfo does not match the actual memory (minus GPU memory reserved for integrated graphics), then Linux cannot use all of your actual memory. If that is the case, I'd try to look for BIOS updates or try faking OS for ACPI: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/DSDT. In case of broken bios, you could also try noacpi kernel flag which will disable e.g. power management as a side-effect but will help with most ACPI/BIOS problems.






      share|improve this answer


























        0












        0








        0







        I'd suggest booting from USB memory stick (e.g. Ubuntu 18.04 LTS). Also make sure to use 64 bit variant if you still can find 32 bit version somewhere.



        The fact that lshw lists memory funny is not unexpected. The system I'm currently using has 4x8 GB of DDR3 memory and lshw listing looks basically like this:



          *-memory:0 UNCLAIMED
        physical id: 1
        *-bank UNCLAIMED
        description: DIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
        product: 99U5471-036.A00LF
        vendor: Kingston
        physical id: 0
        serial: 6B2B875D
        slot: ChannelA-DIMM0
        size: 8GiB
        width: 64 bits
        clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
        *-memory:1
        description: System Memory
        physical id: 5e
        slot: System board or motherboard
        *-bank:0
        description: DIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
        product: KHX1600C10D3/8GX
        vendor: Kingston
        physical id: 0
        serial: B804123E
        slot: ChannelA-DIMM1
        size: 8GiB
        width: 64 bits
        clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
        *-bank:1
        description: DIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
        product: 99U5471-036.A00LF
        vendor: Kingston
        physical id: 1
        serial: 692B865D
        slot: ChannelB-DIMM0
        size: 8GiB
        width: 64 bits
        clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
        *-bank:2
        description: DIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
        product: KHX1600C10D3/8GX
        vendor: Kingston
        physical id: 2
        serial: B704D03D
        slot: ChannelB-DIMM1
        size: 8GiB
        width: 64 bits
        clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
        *-memory:2 UNCLAIMED
        physical id: 2
        *-memory:3 UNCLAIMED
        physical id: 3


        Note how memory:0 seems to have one UNCLAIMED bank which has one stick and memory:1 has three sticks and memory:2 and memory:3 are empty.



        The slot: names seem to be okay so I would only trust those.



        However, looking through sudo dmidecode output, it seems that this may be due BIOS bug because DMI seems to tell similar configuration for memory.



        In the end, if grep "MemTotal" /proc/meminfo does not match the actual memory (minus GPU memory reserved for integrated graphics), then Linux cannot use all of your actual memory. If that is the case, I'd try to look for BIOS updates or try faking OS for ACPI: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/DSDT. In case of broken bios, you could also try noacpi kernel flag which will disable e.g. power management as a side-effect but will help with most ACPI/BIOS problems.






        share|improve this answer













        I'd suggest booting from USB memory stick (e.g. Ubuntu 18.04 LTS). Also make sure to use 64 bit variant if you still can find 32 bit version somewhere.



        The fact that lshw lists memory funny is not unexpected. The system I'm currently using has 4x8 GB of DDR3 memory and lshw listing looks basically like this:



          *-memory:0 UNCLAIMED
        physical id: 1
        *-bank UNCLAIMED
        description: DIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
        product: 99U5471-036.A00LF
        vendor: Kingston
        physical id: 0
        serial: 6B2B875D
        slot: ChannelA-DIMM0
        size: 8GiB
        width: 64 bits
        clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
        *-memory:1
        description: System Memory
        physical id: 5e
        slot: System board or motherboard
        *-bank:0
        description: DIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
        product: KHX1600C10D3/8GX
        vendor: Kingston
        physical id: 0
        serial: B804123E
        slot: ChannelA-DIMM1
        size: 8GiB
        width: 64 bits
        clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
        *-bank:1
        description: DIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
        product: 99U5471-036.A00LF
        vendor: Kingston
        physical id: 1
        serial: 692B865D
        slot: ChannelB-DIMM0
        size: 8GiB
        width: 64 bits
        clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
        *-bank:2
        description: DIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
        product: KHX1600C10D3/8GX
        vendor: Kingston
        physical id: 2
        serial: B704D03D
        slot: ChannelB-DIMM1
        size: 8GiB
        width: 64 bits
        clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
        *-memory:2 UNCLAIMED
        physical id: 2
        *-memory:3 UNCLAIMED
        physical id: 3


        Note how memory:0 seems to have one UNCLAIMED bank which has one stick and memory:1 has three sticks and memory:2 and memory:3 are empty.



        The slot: names seem to be okay so I would only trust those.



        However, looking through sudo dmidecode output, it seems that this may be due BIOS bug because DMI seems to tell similar configuration for memory.



        In the end, if grep "MemTotal" /proc/meminfo does not match the actual memory (minus GPU memory reserved for integrated graphics), then Linux cannot use all of your actual memory. If that is the case, I'd try to look for BIOS updates or try faking OS for ACPI: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/DSDT. In case of broken bios, you could also try noacpi kernel flag which will disable e.g. power management as a side-effect but will help with most ACPI/BIOS problems.







        share|improve this answer












        share|improve this answer



        share|improve this answer










        answered Jan 9 at 7:22









        Mikko RantalainenMikko Rantalainen

        554515




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