I would like to know why my extra RAM is not being used as my Settings only shows 3.3 GB is seen and I know there is another 4GB in my secondary slot.
I have also done a search in the terminal and is shows up there and can be seen in the picture below.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
do you mean the requirements of my laptop or the requirements of Zorin itself as this laptop came with the extra RAM module added and is to spec but if its the latter I could not tell you.
yes that's what I thought you meant I have checked it myself and it is the correct speed and type for the system according to the guidelines of the manufacturer.
Is your video card an integrated?
yes it is.
Then it uses a portion of the RAM of your computer. Have you checked BIOS for share memeory?
OK so i understand that but my laptop has 4GB soldered onto the motherboard which is shown as only 3.3 because of that but where is the other 4GB in the added slot or am I reading it wrong ?
Ah, you added an extra 4 GB.So you wonder why it's not seing the extra one? That's a good question. I'm sure that the shared memory isn't 4 GB that would be high.
EDIT: The system clearly sees it when you running the memory command
yes the Samsung stick is the one shown in the top and the soldered on ram is shown in the second one by Micron Technology.
I don't think its a bug as I tried to compress some files earlier with a setting that needed just over 4GB and it couldn't do it an reverted me to a setting with just over two.
Not only that but when I use the free command in terminal it tells me I only have 3444964 total mem as seen in the below image.
Does BIOS/UEFI detect extra RAM?
What version of ZorinOs and what Kernel, I vaguely remember an issue with non detection of ram for some non matching sticks in kernel 5.10 - and was fixed for 5.11 and higher.
Also, I would reseat the ram, sometimes it sits funny will be detected and report to the firmware, but because it's seated funny when the computer goes to actually access it, the CPU can't talk to the channels so it ignores it.
There is an interesting reply at the bottom of the page and have been told this by ex work colleague that you have to be careful when choosing memory for a rig with a Ryzen Processor. Have you ever updated the BIOS?
I would also follow the advice about using memtest86 in that last post in the askubuntu thread.
I am currently running the full version of Zorin version 15.3
And my Kernel is 5.4.0-135-generic
In regards to non matching sticks the laptop came from the manufacturer with the added 4GB memory and I only have one slot which is a DDR4 SODIMM slot and has been re-installed several times now.
Not only that but my BIOS detects it as a total of 8192 MB is shown as in picture below.
I wonder if you have ZorinOS USB, does the extra RAM show up when you run "Try Zorin" ?
Yes, the bios will see the module, I've seen this happen before, could be defective ram, or dust in the slot, or improper seating, in windows this will show as Unusable ram. The BIOS grabs the memory information from the micro-controller off the dram module, which announces what it is and how much memory is available - Modern PCs no longer memtest on boot like the pc of my youth lol this is to save on boot time (used to take 30 seconds to do a few hundred kb)
I think before doing anything else download and run memtest86 and verify the ram is actually good. Could be a defective stick,
Seeing as the Laptop came from the manufacturer with the added Samsung stick do you really think it could be incompatible as that would be a bad decision by Lenovo as this is also the RAM they suggest to use from their website with this model ?
As an experiment, have you tried swapping over the new RAM and old RAM in their slots to see if anything changes. i.e. the fault moves. It may determine if it is the RAM or the slots at fault.
Maybe worth carefully cleaning the slots and the RAM module edge connectors with some switch cleaner (isopropyl alcohol).
