Laptop detects only part of the RAM memory

j . andradas Sat, 26 Sep 2009 10:20:18 -0700

Hello,

last week, when booting a virtual machine, I discovered that my laptop only recognizes 
one of the RAM modules (supposed to be 1 GB, but truly providing 880 MB).&nbsp; I 
realized this when VirtualBox complained that I had configured more than the available 
RAM to the virtual machine.&nbsp; I had not changed the virtual machine 
configuration, and the virtual machine had about 950 MB assigned (and my physical host, 
only had 880 MB).


Since I previously had 2 GB of RAM, I assumed one of the chips was broken somehow.&nbsp; 
I replaced one of them, and I still got this output for the "free" command:

$ free
&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; total&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
used&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; free&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; shared&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; buffers&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; cached
Mem:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 902264&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 892608&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
9656&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 0&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 23624&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 621432


So I put the original module back on, and changed the other one.&nbsp; I entered the BIOS, 
and it detected 2048 MB of RAM.&nbsp;&nbsp; I run a test on the memory (from the BIOS), 
and everything seemed allright.&nbsp; But my Debian keeps seeing only 902264 of RAM.

I downloaded a new Kernel, re-compiled, but everything is still the same.&nbsp; 
I am running Debian Sid, if that could matter, but I can't see how that would 
affect the amount of RAM available.

Running lshw, I get the following ouput:

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; *-memory
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; description: System 
Memory
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; physical id: a
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; slot: System board or 
motherboard
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; size: 2GiB
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; *-bank:0
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
description: SODIMM DDR2 Synchronous 533 MHz (1.9 ns)
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
product: 9905293-014.A00LF
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
vendor: 7F98000000000000
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
physical id: 0
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
serial: 41CC9DE7
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; slot: 
DIMM #1
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; size: 
1GiB
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; width: 
64 bits
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; clock: 
533MHz (1.9ns)
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; *-bank:1
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
description: SODIMM DDR2 Synchronous 667 MHz (1.5 ns)
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
product: 9905295-066.A00LF
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
vendor: 7F98000000000000
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
physical id: 1
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
serial: 66078142
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; slot: 
DIMM #2
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; size: 
1GiB
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; width: 
64 bits
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; clock: 
667MHz (1.5ns)

Could the difference between the clocks available on the RAM chips only allow for one of them to be used?  Thank you in advance,

Best Regards,

--
Jonás Andradas

Skype: jontux
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/andradas
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Laptop detects only part of the RAM memory

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