Does lshw list the "factory" speed of a memory module or the effective speed and how to find the former?

Posted by Panayiotis Karabassis on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by Panayiotis Karabassis
Published on 2012-03-30T08:11:14Z Indexed on 2012/03/30 11:32 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 198

Filed under:
|
|

I hope I phrased this correctly. lshw gives:

         description: DIMM Synchronous 400 MHz (2.5 ns)
         product: M378B5773CH0-CH9
         vendor: Samsung
         physical id: 0
         slot: DIMM0
         size: 2GiB
         width: 64 bits
         clock: 400MHz (2.5ns)

And indeed the memory speed is set is set to 800MHz in the BIOS, which I think makes sense since it is a double rate.

On the other hand, Googling strongly suggests that to this product number corresponds the PC3-10600 type, which is 1333MHz, not 800MHz. And this seems to be confirmed in the BIOS, where if I select Auto for memory bus speed, 1333MHz is selected "based on SPD settings".

However in the latter case, the computer does not boot, i.e. the kernel panics, complaining that something attempted to kill the Idle process.

So, I am I am beginning to suspect that I have been given defective memory, the technician that installed saw this, and lowered the bus speed. Is this a possibility?

© Server Fault or respective owner

Related posts about linux

Related posts about memory