dmidecode

[Net Llama!]

On Tue, 16 May 2006, Tim Wunder wrote:
> Netllama mentioned the dmidecode command on another thread, so I figured I'd
> run it to see what it does. It gave me this curious (to me) output:
> # dmidecode
> ...
> Handle 0x0007
>         DMI type 6, 12 bytes.
>         Memory Module Information
>                 Socket Designation: BANK_1
>                 Bank Connections: 2 3
>                 Current Speed: 60 ns
>                 Type: DIMM SDRAM
>                 Installed Size: 256 MB (Single-bank Connection)
>                 Enabled Size: 256 MB (Single-bank Connection)
>                 Error Status: OK
> Handle 0x0008
>         DMI type 6, 12 bytes.
>         Memory Module Information
>                 Socket Designation: BANK_2
>                 Bank Connections: 4 5
>                 Current Speed: 60 ns
>                 Type: DIMM SDRAM
>                 Installed Size: 512 MB (Single-bank Connection)
>                 Enabled Size: 512 MB (Single-bank Connection)
>                 Error Status: OK
> Handle 0x000A
>         DMI type 7, 19 bytes.
>         Cache Information
>                 Socket Designation: Internal Cache
>                 Configuration: Enabled, Not Socketed, Level 1
>                 Operational Mode: Write Back
>                 Location: Internal
>                 Installed Size: 128 KB
>                 Maximum Size: 128 KB
>                 Supported SRAM Types:
>                         Synchronous
>                 Installed SRAM Type: Synchronous
>                 Speed: Unknown
>                 Error Correction Type: Unknown
>                 System Type: Unknown
>                 Associativity: Unknown
> ...
>
> Well, I happen to know I only have 384 MB RAM in this system, but this output
> seems to be telling me I have 512 MB more than that.
>
> Why?
>
> /me googles dmidecode in the meanwhile...


My guess is that your mobo doesn't support 512MB memory modules, so the
addressable memory in the 512MB slot is getting truncated.  Or its a BIOS
bug you're hitting.  Are you using the latest BIOS for the motherboard
(dmidecode can tell you which version you're using)?

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lonni J Friedman                        netllama at linux-sxs.org
LlamaLand				http://netllama.linux-sxs.org