Linux: Check Ram Speed and Type

by Vivek Gite · 18 comments

How do I check RAM speed and type (line DDR or DDR2) without opening my computer? I need to purchase RAM and I need to know the exact speed and type installed. How do I find out ram information from a shell prompt?

You need to use biosdecode command line utility. Dmidecode is a tool or dumping a computer's DMI (some say SMBIOS) table contents in a human-readable format. The output contains a description of the system's hardware components, as well as other useful pieces of information such as serial numbers and BIOS revision. This command works under Linux, UNIX and BSD computers.
Open a shell prompt and type the following command:
$ sudo dmidecode --type 17
OR
$ sudo dmidecode --type 17 | more
Sample output:

# dmidecode 2.9
SMBIOS 2.4 present.

Handle 0x0018, DMI type 17, 27 bytes
Memory Device
        Array Handle: 0x0017
        Error Information Handle: Not Provided
        Total Width: 64 bits
        Data Width: 64 bits
        Size: 2048 MB
        Form Factor: DIMM
        Set: None
        Locator: J6H1
        Bank Locator: CHAN A DIMM 0
        Type: DDR2
        Type Detail: Synchronous
        Speed: 800 MHz (1.2 ns)
        Manufacturer: 0x2CFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
        Serial Number: 0x00000000
        Asset Tag: Unknown
        Part Number: 0x5A494F4E203830302D3247422D413131382D

Handle 0x001A, DMI type 17, 27 bytes
Memory Device
        Array Handle: 0x0017
        Error Information Handle: Not Provided
        Total Width: Unknown
        Data Width: Unknown
        Size: No Module Installed
        Form Factor: DIMM
        Set: None
        Locator: J6H2
        Bank Locator: CHAN A DIMM 1
        Type: DDR2
        Type Detail: None
        Speed: Unknown
        Manufacturer: NO DIMM
        Serial Number: NO DIMM
        Asset Tag: NO DIMM
        Part Number: NO DIMM

See also:

  1. Linux Find The Speed Of Memory Through Software Command Prompt

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{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }

1 mhernandez 08.26.08 at 10:22 am

lol; i like you’re site and your howto’s very very much. However, now I know I have to follow your stuff with an unknown type of ram, at an unknown speed. lol

seriously, keep up the good work! :D

2 Mark 08.26.08 at 11:04 am

If only there was a way to see what rank it is too :(.

3 Juan Pedro Sanchez 08.26.08 at 4:03 pm

I’m using Ubuntu 8.10 alpha 3 32bits.
Using dmidecode I get the following results:
jp@jp-desktop810:~$ sudo dmidecode –type 17
[sudo] password for jp:
# dmidecode 2.9
SMBIOS 2.2 present.

Invalid entry length (0). DMI table is broken! Stop.

jp@jp-desktop810:~$ sudo dmidecode –type 17 | more
# dmidecode 2.9
SMBIOS 2.2 present.

Invalid entry length (0). DMI table is broken! Stop.

So, dmidecode is same version, SMBIOS is 2.2 instead of 2.4. And I didn’t get the information from dmidecode.

4 diay 08.26.08 at 5:21 pm

Juan,

You may need to report bug to Ubuntu team. There is not much we can do to fix this issue.

Mark,

ditto

5 sajmon 08.26.08 at 9:32 pm

I get only this:

# dmidecode 2.9
SMBIOS 2.3 present.

and no more info!
Tried both commands.
How can i get info like size, speed, type etc. ?

6 Gagan Brahmi 08.27.08 at 2:15 am

dmidecode –type memory

This should work as well :)

7 Gagan Brahmi 08.27.08 at 6:02 am

sajmon,

You can try using the following command combination and see if that works:

dmidecode |grep -A20 ^Memory

8 sajmon 08.27.08 at 2:35 pm

Gagan Brahmi,
Thanks, works well. :P

9 Sukhdev 09.04.08 at 5:57 am

I am using Fedora 9. 2.6.25.14-108.fc9.i686
Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz
Here is the dmidecode –type 17 output.
No type and speed info.

# dmidecode 2.9
SMBIOS 2.3 present.

Handle 0×0028, DMI type 17, 27 bytes
Memory Device
Array Handle: 0×0027
Error Information Handle: Not Provided
Total Width: 64 bits
Data Width: 64 bits
Size: 1024 MB
Form Factor: DIMM
Set: None
Locator: A0
Bank Locator: Bank0/1
Type: Unknown
Type Detail: None
Speed: Unknown
Manufacturer: None
Serial Number: None
Asset Tag: None
Part Number: None

Handle 0×0029, DMI type 17, 27 bytes
Memory Device
Array Handle: 0×0027
Error Information Handle: Not Provided
Total Width: Unknown
Data Width: Unknown
Size: No Module Installed
Form Factor: DIMM
Set: None
Locator: A1
Bank Locator: Bank2/3
Type: Unknown
Type Detail: None
Speed: Unknown
Manufacturer: None
Serial Number: None
Asset Tag: None
Part Number: None

Handle 0×002A, DMI type 17, 27 bytes
Memory Device
Array Handle: 0×0027
Error Information Handle: Not Provided
Total Width: 64 bits
Data Width: 64 bits
Size: 1024 MB
Form Factor: DIMM
Set: None
Locator: A2
Bank Locator: Bank4/5
Type: Unknown
Type Detail: None
Speed: Unknown
Manufacturer: None
Serial Number: None
Asset Tag: None
Part Number: None

Handle 0×002B, DMI type 17, 27 bytes
Memory Device
Array Handle: 0×0027
Error Information Handle: Not Provided
Total Width: Unknown
Data Width: Unknown
Size: No Module Installed
Form Factor: DIMM
Set: None
Locator: A3
Bank Locator: Bank6/7
Type: Unknown
Type Detail: None
Speed: Unknown
Manufacturer: None
Serial Number: None
Asset Tag: None
Part Number: None

What will be the problem?

10 Gagan Brahmi 09.04.08 at 7:48 am

Is this a white box?? That is what I can make out. Just try the following command to see the server model:

dmidecode –type system
or
dmidecode –type 1

11 KD Kanwardeep 12.09.08 at 11:18 pm

Thanks A Lot for this information

12 BalaKumar 01.15.09 at 6:26 am

Thank u So Much very useful tips..

13 Ceylonerana 03.26.09 at 4:11 pm

Thank You very much. Keep this up.

14 Roachy 06.01.09 at 3:32 pm

Many thanks – useful tip!

15 Prashanth BC 07.17.09 at 2:59 am

Awesome dude…

16 tendo 08.24.09 at 11:19 pm

Thanks for the post! This helped me out with a production server I couldn’t turn off. :)

17 Nosferax 09.04.09 at 7:24 pm

I have the same problem. Speed : Unknown.

Running Ubuntu 9.04.

18 Bob Estes 11.08.09 at 5:41 am

I get the following:
$ sudo dmidecode –type 17 | more
bash: $: command not found
[root@localhost bob]# demidecode –type 17
bash: demidecode: command not found
[root@localhost bob]# demidecode -type system
bash: demidecode: command not found

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