Linux: Check Ram Speed and Type
Q. 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?
A. 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
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Tags: asset tag, ddr, ddr2, dmi, dmidecode, hardware components, Linux, memory device, ram information, ram speed, serial numbers, synchronous speed
August 26th, 2008 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!
August 26th, 2008 at 11:04 am
If only there was a way to see what rank it is too :(.
August 26th, 2008 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.
August 26th, 2008 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
August 26th, 2008 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. ?
August 27th, 2008 at 2:15 am
dmidecode –type memory
This should work as well
August 27th, 2008 at 6:02 am
sajmon,
You can try using the following command combination and see if that works:
dmidecode |grep -A20 ^Memory
August 27th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Gagan Brahmi,
Thanks, works well.
September 4th, 2008 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?
September 4th, 2008 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