Re: [Blind-sysadmins] ram not right

GRML, like many other live Linux CDs contains a memory tester in the boot menu/bootable from the boot prompt. If I recall correctly it's named Memtest86+. The only way to get accessible output from that unfortunately is to hook up a serial console. However, it's the reference memory test that I use when suspecting RAM because it runs very low level and can test all memory parts very thoroughly. If you have a beeper/PC speaker you can enable beeps on error, but then you'll not know which bank caused that error. So it's best to fire it off and have someone sighted have a look at the results after a few hours. Good luck, Bram On 3-5-2013 17:05, John G. Heim wrote:

Well, you pretty much got it for checking ram with grml. You could use the free command as well, "free -m" to show megs of ram and "free -g" to show gigs of ram. There is probably a mem testing program on the grml cd, something that writes to ram and sees if it can read it back. I can ask about it on the grml list if you'd like.

BTW, the accessability features of grml 2013 are the same as 2012. It will recognize braille displays w/o you doing anything. If you want to start speakup, you wait until its done booting (this will be indicated by a 3 tone tune), press q to exit the grml menu, and type two commands, "modprobe speakup_soft" and "espeakup". You may then have to increase the volume of the speakers with alsamixer. Type "alsamixer" and then just keep pressing the page up key until you get the volume where you want it.

On 05/03/13 09:40, David Mehler wrote:

...

Hello,

Thank you everyone for your replies.

Ok, first of all I've got four banks of slots for ram. They are all from the same manufacture, same speed, and same size, I just ordered them in two separate orders. I'm going to get a pair of eyes on them today and give me a chip by chip check to confirm this.

I do not have onboard video, my motherboard did not come with it so I've had to use an expansion card.

Ben, thanks I did not get your reply, but I'll answer it here. I've removed and replaced each ram chip and the clips are indeed all aligned correctly, the ram is in. I did as I said remove and check the ram count, I've got dual channel so I thought i'd h ave to have the ram in in pairs, which I did during the testing, the numbers were all the same, as I said I can't believe I've got one to two bad chips one per order.

Processors, I've got an AMD fx8120 8 core processor in the system.

I've checked out the specs, and my motherboard is the rev 1.4. The fx8120 processor is supported as is 1866 mhz ddr3. As for slots, I've got all of them filled though thanks for the info on colors, I didn't throw a color identifier in the box. Specific processor? I hope I didn't make a mistake in the processor vs. the ram, otherwise I'll be having some hardware to part with.

Thanks for the info on grml, I've actually got grml 2012.05, I'm going to give that a try, but any information you can give me on it about all I know is to test /proc/meminfo and see what it says, and it's been a while.

Thanks again for all the suggestions.

Dave.

On 5/3/13, John G. Heim wrote:

...

If it was my machine, I would see what linux said. If you are interested, I can tell you how to do that. There is an accessible live linux distro called grml (pronounced "gremel"). See www.grml.org. We at the UW Math Dept are a mirror so you can download the ISO file at http://dl.math.wisc.edu/grml/

I gave you the the directory name so you could get to the checksums if you want to. A link to the latest iso itself is:

http://dl.math.wisc.edu/grml/grml64-full_2013.02.iso

On 05/02/13 10:53, David Mehler wrote:

...

Hello Everyone,

I've got a new machine and I maxed out it's ram. The board can take 32 GB of ram and that's what it has. It's running win7 professional 64 bit, (I checked Microsoft and that can take 192 GB of ram), and it's not showing ram right.

In system information I'm seeing total physical ram 24 gb, a full 8 short, usable physical ram 16 GB, and available when I look is 14.7 GB. I don't think these numbers are right.

The board is a gigabyte GA970-d3 rev 1.4. I believe it's dual channel. I took out the ram chips in pairs so instead of four the system had two, numbers were still not right, got 12 gb of total ram instead of 16.

The ram is g.skill 1866 clockspeed I believe but in the bios that's only at 1333. I can't believe I've got four bad chips, or since this came in two separate orders one bad chip per order. I'm now wondering if it's a timing issue, if the ram can't clock down from 1866 to 1333 usually in my experience hardware can clock down one level but not two.

I'm going to try a grml 64 USB disk when I return later today see what that shows, and I read it had a ram tester I'll give that a go.

I'd appreciate any thoughts or suggestions.

Thanks. Dave.

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