Geoff Reidy wrote:
andy wrote:
Geoff Reidy wrote:
Marko Randjelovic wrote:
andy wrote:
Thanks Geoff. I had also read that during the course of my earlier
research on this issue. But ...
:~$ uname -r
2.6.18-3-686
Viola! 686 and still no 1GB mem recognised, only 3/4s (776400KB) of
it, as seen below:
:~$ free
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 776400 732580 43820 0 36980 317528
-/+ buffers/cache: 378072 398328
Swap: 2931852 92 2931760
It would appear that I'm looking at either just accepting this fact or
will have to recompile my kernel, which I am a tad phobic about to be
frank.
Are you sure you have 1GB? What does BIOS report when you restart your
computer?
You can also install the dmidecode package and do something like this as
root:
# dmidecode |grep 'Installed Size' |grep MB
Which gives me:
Installed Size: 256 MB (Single-bank Connection)
Installed Size: 256 MB (Single-bank Connection)
Installed Size: 512 MB (Double-bank Connection)
Geoff
The relevant excerpt from the output of dmidecode is:
Memory Device
Array Handle: 0x0027
Error Information Handle: Not Provided
Total Width: 64 bits
Data Width: 64 bits
Size: 1024 MB
Form Factor: DIMM
Set: None
Locator: DIMM0
Bank Locator: BANK0
Type: DDR
Type Detail: Synchronous
Speed: Unknown
Manufacturer: Manufacturer0
Serial Number: SerNum0
Asset Tag: AssetTagNum0
Part Number: PartNum0
Although the man page will identify as a bug that the info in dmidecode can be
completely wrong (!), this does show that I have 1024MB of RAM - i.e. 1GB. So,
somewhere betwixt BIOS and fired up Etch I have lost recognition for 250MB-odd
of memory.
Now you've got me, I've got a P4 with 1 GB at work running that kernel
and it does see all the memory. I've had motherboards not see an extra
memory stick but you've only got the one 1 GB stick?
You could try booting a cd with memtest86 or knoppix or something to see
if that finds it all, or see if there's a bios update for your
motherboard that mentions some memory issues.
Other than that I'm out of ideas at the moment.
Geoff
Thanks for your thoughts. On a note that might be related, I have just
watched an *.avi video from the hard-drive using Totem and was drawing
100% CPU, with 42% of memory in cache. Perhaps this is normal ?
My only strange experiences with Etch thus far are:
* not having the full 1 GB stick recognised,
* the heavy use of CPU,
* the overflow into swap, and
* the occasional hard freeze when burning DVDs after converting them
from non-DVD formats
Perhaps these issues are related? Could I have a bad stick of RAM? Is it
software? Will the Knoppix and memtest86 CDs you mention help sort out
which is which?
Thanks for your thoughts.
A
