I have a Samsung NP300e5Z Core i5 laptop. I am using Ubuntu 14.04 in this laptop. My system RAM is 4GB and I want to increase it but I am not sure how many memory slots are available in my system. So, how to check
Any suggestion will be appreciated.
You can use this command:
sudo lshw -class memory
It will give you an output like this:
*-memory
description: System Memory
physical id: 33
slot: System board or motherboard
size: 4GiB
*-bank:0
description: DIMM [empty]
physical id: 0
slot: ChannelA-DIMM0
*-bank:1
description: DIMM [empty]
physical id: 1
slot: ChannelA-DIMM1
*-bank:2
description: SODIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
product: AD73I1C1674EV
vendor: Fujitsu
physical id: 2
serial: 43D30100
slot: ChannelB-DIMM0
size: 2GiB
width: 64 bits
clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
*-bank:3
description: DIMM [empty]
physical id: 3
slot: ChannelB-DIMM1
Here in my system I have 4 memory slots in which currently I am using only one slot. In other slots you can see it shows empty.
For maximum supportable memory use:
sudo dmidecode -t 16
or
sudo dmidecode -t memory
or
sudo dmidecode | grep -i "Maximum Capacity:" | uniq
EDIT: more interactive way to see Slot use small script (suggested by Serg)
sudo lshw -class memory | awk '/bank/ {count++} END {print "You have " count " slots for RAM"}'
Another way to get all the numbers directly;
To get the total number of slots:
sudo dmidecode -t memory | grep -c '^Memory Device$'
To get the number of slots used:
sudo dmidecode -t memory | grep -c -Po '^\tPart Number: (?!\[Empty\])'
To get the maximum capacity:
sudo dmidecode -t memory | grep -Po '^\tMaximum Capacity: \K.*'
ubuntu@ubuntu ~ % sudo dmidecode -t memory | grep -c '^Memory Device$'
4
ubuntu@ubuntu ~ % sudo dmidecode -t memory | grep -c -Po '^\tPart Number: (?!\[Empty\])'
1
ubuntu@ubuntu ~ % sudo dmidecode -t memory | grep -Po '^\tMaximum Capacity: \K.*'
32 GB
The number of memory devices in the results of sudo dmidecode --type 17 is equal to the number of memory slots, so the command to print the number of RAM slots is:
sudo dmidecode --type 17 | grep 'Memory Device' --count
The results of this command will be one integer number equal to the number of RAM slots.
The command to show the size of each of the installed RAM sticks is:
sudo dmidecode --type 17 | grep -i size
This is a very informative command because it shows the number of empty RAM slots, the number of RAM slots that have RAM sticks installed and the size of each installed RAM stick.
The command to show the maximum RAM capacity (the maximum size that you can increase the RAM to) is:
sudo inxi -m | grep capacity
This example output shows that the computer has 4 RAM slots (2 empty slots & 2 full slots), and two 4GB RAM sticks (8GB RAM).
$ sudo dmidecode --type 17 | grep 'Memory Device' --count
4
$ sudo dmidecode --type 17 | grep -i size
Size: No Module Installed
Size: No Module Installed
Size: 4096 MB
Size: 4096 MB
$ sudo inxi -m | grep capacity
Array-1 capacity: 32 GB devices: 4 EC: None
dmidecode shows the number of slots available for the controller. There are up to 4 DMI types, 2 can be memory arrays, and 2 can be specific slots. 2 are less common. The information in dmidecode/inxi is extremely unreliable when it comes to the array data, but the actual slot data is generally very reliable. If you are looking into buying or upgrading RAM, you should always check the product specifications to make sure that what inxi/dmidecode reports is actually correct. This goes in particular for maximum RAM size and array capacities.*
I use the following command to ckeck:
sudo dmidecode -t 17
Out:
# dmidecode 3.0
Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.
SMBIOS 2.7 present.
Handle 0x0009, DMI type 17, 34 bytes
Memory Device
Array Handle: 0x0008
Error Information Handle: Not Provided
Total Width: 64 bits
Data Width: 64 bits
Size: 4096 MB
Form Factor: SODIMM
Set: None
Locator: ChannelA-DIMM0
Bank Locator: BANK 0
Type: DDR3
Type Detail: Synchronous
Speed: 1600 MHz
Manufacturer: Samsung
Serial Number: 78111110
Asset Tag: None
Part Number: K4B8G1646B-MYK0
Rank: Unknown
Configured Clock Speed: 1600 MHz
Handle 0x000A, DMI type 17, 34 bytes
Memory Device
Array Handle: 0x0008
Error Information Handle: Not Provided
Total Width: 64 bits
Data Width: 64 bits
Size: 4096 MB
Form Factor: SODIMM
Set: None
Locator: ChannelB-DIMM0
Bank Locator: BANK 2
Type: DDR3
Type Detail: Synchronous
Speed: 1600 MHz
Manufacturer: Samsung
Serial Number: 22800022
Asset Tag: None
Part Number: M471B5273CH0-YK0
Rank: Unknown
Configured Clock Speed: 1600 MHz
[NOTE]:
You could also use the sudo dmidecode -t 16 to get the summarized details.
