[GTALUG] Not recognizing added RAM

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Wed, Oct 10, 2018 at 11:40:16AM -0400, Lennart Sorensen via talk wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 10, 2018 at 12:37:47AM -0400, Evan Leibovitch via talk wrote:
> > Hi all,
> > 
> > I thought I would know how to handle this but it turns out that I don't.
> > 
> > I just added two new sticks of RAM to a system but it's not recognized by
> > the BIOS or OS.
> > 
> > 
> > # inxi -m
> > Memory:    RAM: total: 7.74 GiB used: 2.93 GiB (37.9%)
> >            Array-1: capacity: 16 GiB note: est. slots: 4 EC: None
> >            Device-1: DIMM_A1 size: 4 GiB speed: 800 MT/s
> >            Device-2: DIMM_A2 size: 4 GiB speed: 800 MT/s
> >            Device-3: DIMM_B1 size: 4 GiB speed: 800 MT/s
> >            Device-4: DIMM_B2 size: 4 GiB speed: 800 MT/s
> > 
> > So Inxi sees all 16GB (as does memtest) and yet in the first line it shows
> > RAM total at 8. dmidecode output is below
> > 
> > Motherboard is an Asus F2A85-M. BIOS has been reset to defaults but not
> > updated since the mobo was purchased.
> > OS is current Manjaro KDE.
> > 
> > The website specs say it can take 64GB.
> > Is updating the BIOS necessary or are there other solutions?
> > 
> > All help is greatly appreciated.
> 
> Check the setting for the UMA Frame Buffer Size in the BIOS.  Apparently
> AMD's onboard video likes to take a LOT of memory by default if set
> to auto.  Many people have seen the auto setting like to take 50% which
> is of course insane.
> 
> See page 2-20 in the manual.

You could also have not quite seated the new sticks properly.  After all
if the I2C bus connects, dmi data will show the sticks, even if the
memory controller can't talk to them.

How much memory does the BIOS see?

-- 
Len Sorensen