2x2GB Memory works in Windows but not in Linux (Mint and others)

Nai

New Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2020
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Credits
42
To install Linux I had to remove one piece of memory, doesn't matter which one or in which of the two slots it is. With two it never gets to the live session. I installed Linux with one, then put the second one in again, but again it won't boot. Both are from Samsung. 2GB 2Rx8 PC2 6400s 666 12 E3, but have different ID numbers. Memory tests on Windows and from the Linux DVD (Memtest86) reveal no errors. Both memory pieces are listed with the correct numbers.
Is there a way to generate a dmesg for the failing boot attempt that I can read after I take out the second memory piece and boot again ? Or does someone have another idea? After a few hours searching I am about ready to give up.
 


Is there a way to generate a dmesg for the failing boot attempt that I can read after I take out the second memory piece and boot again ?
I take it that you see no boot messages while booting, is that right? It's been a while since I last tried Mint but as far as I remember and I believe this is a cross-distro thing, pressing the Esc will bring the grub menu up, press e to edit boot options, locate the line that reads
Code:
 GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
and delete quiet, then press Ctrl + x to boot. You should see those instructions anyway on the screen, look for then just in case they've changed. After doing so you should be able to see boot messages.

Hope this helps! :)
 
Thanks for the suggestion. I did that, also use nosplash, but it goes so fast that I can't read most of it, and there is nothing red. I thought there may be some key combination to slow it down? Also, dmesg seems to me to be more detailed but maybe it only works when the system has booted?
 
dmesg is regenerated each time you boot, but it is possible to read it anytime in a terminal by issuing the
Code:
dmesg
command. You can also issue the command and pipe it through "less" so you can scroll through the list, or pipe it through "grep" and look for specific text.
 
Thanks for the suggestion. I did that, also use nosplash, but it goes so fast that I can't read most of it, and there is nothing red. I thought there may be some key combination to slow it down? Also, dmesg seems to me to be more detailed but maybe it only works when the system has booted?
Yes, only once and the system's booted you can use dmesg to view system's boot messages in a terminal. I never really thought one could slow down the boot process so those messages don't pass by in a flash, so out of curiosity ran a web search and turns out it is possible, at least according to the information given here https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Common_kernel_problems?rd=KernelCommonProblems and it says
Slowing down the speed of text output with boot_delay=1000 (the number may need to be tweaked higher/lower to suit) may allow the user to take a digital camera photo of the last thing on screen.
so edit the boot options just as I described in my previous post and add a line like boot_delay=1000 press Ctrl + x to boot and confirm whether or not it works for you.
 
Unfortunately boot_delay did not work. I found a website that used it with printk, but that also did not change anything. I read some other reports of how to slow down the boot messages but they were much too complicated for me.
The good news is that my primitive diagnostic attempts brought me new information!
I successfully installed Ubuntu 14.04 (32-bit) using the (for me important) 2x2GB memory! Then I tried installing Ubuntu 14.04 as 64-bit still using 2x2GB memory, but it didn't work. I also know that the Mint 19 (64-bit) can be installed using only 1x2GB, but not using 2x2GB.
At the moment I am using Mint19 as 32bit using 2x2GB and it runs much better than 64-bit with 1x2GB. But still the CPU is up between 50 and 100% capacity watching a video with Firefox. So I'm not completely happy, and wondering if it is still worth the trouble to try and get the 64-bit version going on this laptop with 2x2GB. Does someone have an opinion on this?

Code:
hawes@hawes-R509:~$ lscpu
Architektur:                   i686
CPU Operationsmodus:           32-bit, 64-bit
Byte-Reihenfolge:              Little Endian
CPU(s):                        2
Liste der Online-CPU(s):       0,1
Thread(s) pro Kern:            1
Kern(e) pro Socket:            2
Sockel:                        1
Anbieterkennung:               GenuineIntel
Prozessorfamilie:              6
Modell:                        15
Modellname:                    Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual  CPU  T3200  @ 2.00GHz
Stepping:                      13
CPU MHz:                       1570.389
Maximale Taktfrequenz der CPU: 2000,0000
Minimale Taktfrequenz der CPU: 1000,0000
BogoMIPS:                      3990.16
L1d Cache:                     32K
L1i Cache:                     32K
L2 Cache:                      1024K
Markierungen:                  fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts cpuid aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm lahf_lm pti dtherm
 
A Bios Update did the trick. I didn't manage to find a way to view the boot messages from a failed installation.
 
Last edited:
Ein BIOS Update hat das Problem gelöst. Zu einer Fehlermeldung habe ich es nicht geschafft.
toll, dass du es gelöst hast! :) BTW, posts must be in English only.
 

Members online


Top