Maximum RAM capacity discrepancy

Damocles

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I'm running Linux Mint on a 12 year old Acer Aspire 7745-7949 laptop. I'm wanting to increase its RAM and when I ran "sudo dmidecode -t 16" in Terminal it came back with a maximum capacity of 16GB. However, when I tried to confirm this with the manufacturer I was informed that this machine's maximum capacity is 8GB.

Why should I be getting a different result? And who to believe?

This machine is currently running 4GB so it's a difference between buying one or three RAM sticks and obviously I would hate to buy three if I only need one...
 

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The workshop Manuel says max 8gb for that motherboard
 
I am a hardware man, so I stick with what the book says
 
if your laptop is standard spec the only workable upgrades are 2x4 of ram an swap the old sata drive for a higher performance ssd [ similar to this]

Integral P Series 5 SATA III 2.5 inch SSD 120GB Drive​


  • Product Type: 2.5 SATA
  • Capacity: 120GB

  • Product code: FTINSSD120GS625P5
  • Read Speed: up to 560MB/s
  • Read Write: up to 540MB/s
  • Operating Temperature: 0c to 70c
  • Dimensions: 100mm (L) x 69.85mm (W) x 7.0mm (H)
  • Weight: 50g
 
Thanks. I do appreciate your input but I'd really like someone to explain to me why Linux Mint tells me one thing while everybody else tells me another.
 
You have asked this question in a few places, Michael.....without any helpful result.

Is the motherboard standard/...Have any changes been made ?

Others will follow here with more opinions/suggestions

Being an international site there are , of course, time zone differences to take into account.

Have you actually seen the installed ram module ?

Welcome to Linux.org
 
If you look carefully on your first image it says number of devices 4, you only have 2 in a lappy, its not mint lying to you but dmidecode
 
From the dmidecode man page:
BUGS
More often than not, information contained in the DMI tables is inaccu‐
rate, incomplete or simply wrong.

You should trust published specifications.

You could also try another tool for comparison:
Code:
sudo inxi -m
 
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if you run the inxi code inxi -m you need to run it as superuser $ sudo inxi -m for full information
 
I have successfully installed more RAM than the OEM claimed I could multiple times.

I have a working theory...

That's the amount of RAM they're willing to support. Additional RAM isn't guaranteed to work, or they just won't support it so that you pay for a more expensive model.

However, in the days of 8 GB limits being common, I'd plop and 8 GB stick into both slots and have twice what the OEM claimed. I'd sooner believe dmidecode than an OEM's claims about max RAM.
 
The dmidecode program gives you the DMI information as reported by the BIOS. It is as accurate as the BIOS makes it. Inaccuracies are common

From the dmidecode website here - https://linux.die.net/man/8/dmidecode - scroll down you will see

Bugs​

More often than not, information contained in the DMI tables is inaccurate, incomplete or simply wrong.
---------------------------------------------
Typically motherboard manufacturers do not complete the customization of the BIOS which they outsource. If whoever put together your BIOS put wrong data in, or if someone flashed a new BIOS with wrong tables, then the tables won't describe true capabilities

Personally I do not put much faith in dmidecode and go by the computer manual
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Personally I do not put much faith in dmidecode

LOL I have an article about that, actually. Anyhow, I can verify multiple instances of cramming more RAM in there than the OEM - even the mobo spec page, not just the 'Dell' info - claims as the maximum. I do not know why.

Heck, I've even seen the CPU (Intel's pages) say they only support 8 GB of RAM but had extras kicking about and tried it. I'll try to find it tomorrow (it's late here), but I still have an older test box (too slow to bother with these days) that has 8 GB of RAM when the max supported is 4.

I say go for it. Worst thing to happen is you return a stick of RAM for a refund. Or add it to your box of RAM and misc. adapters, cards, and cables. (I'm not the only one with that box, am I?)
 
I say go for it
Yes I had an old Gateway that said it would only take 1 GBs of ram but I put 2GBs in it and it worked it only had 1 slot for the ram

Even if it don't work - at least if you keep it you have a replacement - nope you are not the only one with "that box" I have one myself you never know when you might need something

Personally I think it is just carelessnes on the part of the manufacturer for not putting the correct data in the BIOS in the first place otherwise dmidecode would be correct, because of this is why I do not put much faith in it - garbage in garbage out as they say
 
GIGO... I haven't seen that used in a while.

I'm a bit of a cynic, so I'd not be surprised that it's not advertised because they want you to buy a more expensive option. The reason it works is also fiscal in nature - it'd cost more to actually limit the board to the specified limits. So, instead of customizing it, they just say it can only handle so much.

That's pure speculation...
 
Using #11 as an example, it still relies on dmidecode. My Dell shows as (with the 2 options)

Code:
[11:20][~]-> inxi -m
Memory:
  RAM: total: 15.53 GiB used: 3.76 GiB (24.2%)
  RAM Report:
  permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required.

[11:20][~]-> sudo inxi -m
[sudo] password for chris:
Memory:
  RAM: total: 15.53 GiB used: 3.74 GiB (24.1%)
  Array-1: capacity: 32 GiB slots: 2 EC: None
  Device-1: ChannelA-DIMM0 size: No Module Installed
  Device-2: DIMM B size: 16 GiB speed: 2400 MT/s

Cheers

Wiz

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