Adding 2GB extra RAM (4GB total after adding) on a 64bit processor (Pentium CPU E5400) causes the system to freeze.

[mihirmishra]

I'm running Linux Mint Xfce (64-bit) and wanted to increase the RAM of my system. So I installed another 2GB ddr2 ram but on system it showed only 3.16 GiB. But after sometime my system started to freeze. I thought the problem was with my new SSD, RAM stick or Linux installation so I installed Windows and some other lightweight Distros exchanged RAM and SSD. But the problem didn't got solved until I ran my system on just 2GB ram.

During the boot time a small error used to flash on my screen. It was:

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mce: [Hardware Error]: CPU:0 Machine Check:0 Bank:0 f200001000

Why is it happening? A 64bit processor should be able to handle 4GB of RAM. (or is it related to motherboard?)

Hardware Info..zip

Hardware Info

(6.4 KiB) Downloaded 23 times

[deepakdeshp]

Namaste,
Post output of

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 inxi -Fxz

in code tags. Both memory stick should be same speed. Preferably but not necessarily same manufacturer.

[buteman]

I think that at boot time you can choose to do a memory check rather than booting into Linux.
It's possible the new Ram was faulty when you got it or got damaged by static when you installed it.
I wonder what would happen if you took the original Ram out and put the new stick in it's place, taking care not to cause static damage to either.

[mihirmishra]

Yes I thought so, that's why when I returned it. I ordered 2 same new ram sticks.

And the ram sticks weren't damaged, because I'm using the new one, not the old one. I'm currently using only single stick and my system is running fine.

[buteman]

I worked in I.T before I retired and a long while ago I upgraded a few systems from 2 to 4Gig ram by adding another stick. One of them failed badly and we ended up having to have a new motherboard fitted. We had a contract with HP at the time and so one of their engineers replaced the board. He told me that the slot had some fluff in it, which I hadn't seen, and it had damaged the slot when I plugged the ram in!!!

[deepakdeshp]

Running memtest in grub tests memory.

[mihirmishra]

I did that previously, everything was fine. I got this reply from reddit post. Can you take a look at it?
Reply
https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comme ... &context=3

Post
https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comme ... urce=share

[rene]

The reddit responder is incorrect, your chipset supports up to 8G. Generally a motherboard it sits on may not but if you got anything above 2G recognized at all that's also not the issue here. Your onboard video uses some main memory as its graphics memory (but would per expectation on that old system not use more than 64M or so, possibly adjustable in the BIOS) and an issue I seem to remember from some time ago was Linux configuring bad MTRR settings for the shared region, something which could presumably cause stability issues indeed.

It is also assumed, by the way, that you are running a 64- rather than 32-bit Linux distribution, but in both that and other senses, we are going to want to see the inxi -Fxz output that deepakdeshp requested, even though your own hardware info isn't useless either. Not to say that anything useful will be able to be said then for this system coming up on 15 years of age --- but you/we can try.

[mihirmishra]

I also thought that this is a Linux problem. So I installed Windows too. But the system freezed in windows too and RAM was showing 3.16GB.

This profile page contains images of all my bios, mce error and Htop (for what ram is showing to me)https://imgur.com/user/itsmishra/posts

inxi -Fxz output:

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System:    Kernel: 5.4.0-70-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 Desktop: Xfce 4.14.2 
           Distro: Linux Mint 20.1 Ulyssa base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:   Type: Desktop Mobo: N/A model: N/A serial: <filter> BIOS: American Megatrends v: 080015 
           date: 10/08/2016 
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: Pentium E5400 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Penryn rev: A L2 cache: 2048 KiB 
           flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 10769 
           Speed: 1242 MHz min/max: N/A Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1242 2: 1275 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel 82915G/GV/910GL Integrated Graphics driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: intel unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa 
           resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel 915G v: 1.4 Mesa 20.2.6 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
           bus ID: 00:1b.0 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-70-generic 
Network:   Device-1: Realtek RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet driver: r8169 v: kernel port: e800 
           bus ID: 02:00.0 
           IF: enp2s0 state: down mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Ralink MT7601U Wireless Adapter type: USB driver: mt7601u bus ID: 1-3:4 
           IF: wlx20e1160089af state: up mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 223.57 GiB used: 178.90 GiB (80.0%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WDS240G2G0A-00JH30 size: 223.57 GiB 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 215.30 GiB used: 178.90 GiB (83.1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1 
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 3.82 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda2 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 54.0 C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Info:      Processes: 186 Uptime: 1m Memory: 1.93 GiB used: 819.6 MiB (41.4%) Init: systemd runlevel: 5 
           Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 Shell: bash v: 5.0.17 inxi: 3.0.38 

[rene]

OK, well, if it's Windows as well it's not going to be some obscure issue at least. Apparently not some very non obscure issue such as with each other incompatible DIMMs either since you say you have the problem with two identical DIMMs. That graphics aperture size option that you show will (likely, I should say; don't believe that generation of chipset remapped above 4G) of 256M limit RAM to 4G-256M --- but that's more than 3,16G, although I'd still set it to 64M; it's not like you're going to be gaming on that system anyway. Screen-tearing on old Intel graphics is par for the course on Linux. The Machine Check Exception you show may in this case actually be relevant --- but says again little other than "there's an issue".

Does your BIOS detect 4G with both DIMMs installed? If also no it'll likely be a motherboard limitation. Unfortunately the inxi output doesn't show its make/model, but I expect you may need to look in/for its manual as the first step.

[rene]

Come to think of it it used to be (relatively) common that a motherboard could have limitations as to single- or dual-rank/sided DIMMs depending on just 1 or both slots filled and not fail gracefully for an unsupported configuration. Motherboard manual would again say; it'd in that case be a half motherboard / half DIMMs issue.

[mihirmishra]

OK, well, if it's Windows as well it's not going to be some obscure issue at least. Apparently not some very non obscure issue such as with each other incompatible DIMMs either since you say you have the problem with two identical DIMMs. That graphics aperture size option that you show will (likely, I should say; don't believe that generation of chipset remapped above 4G) of 256M limit RAM to 4G-256M --- but that's more than 3,16G, although I'd still set it to 64M; it's not like you're going to be gaming on that system anyway. Screen-tearing on old Intel graphics is par for the course on Linux. The Machine Check Exception you show may in this case actually be relevant --- but says again little other than "there's an issue".

Does your BIOS detect 4G with both DIMMs installed? If also no it'll likely be a motherboard limitation. Unfortunately the inxi output doesn't show its make/model, but I expect you may need to look in/for its manual as the first step.

Not the Bios but when the system starts the American Megratrends screen show that I have 4096 MB of RAM.
Screen tearing issue is not my concern, I'm using Xfce, screen tearing used to happen on Cinnamon.

I have given all the images of bios, you can check whatever you want. Every bios setting is on default setting.

[mihirmishra]

Come to think of it it used to be (relatively) common that a motherboard could have limitations as to single- or dual-rank/sided DIMMs depending on just 1 or both slots filled and not fail gracefully for an unsupported configuration. Motherboard manual would again say; it'd in that case be a half motherboard / half DIMMs issue.

Yeah I also thought that it was the motherboard, I called the man who assembled the pc but said he can't remember the motherboard model since he made it in 2016.

[rene]

OK. BIOS recognizing 4G does say something, but I'd still feel you'd need to look in a motherboard manual. Simply opening up the system and looking at the motherboard will be useful: it'll have a model number printed on it somewhere.

[mihirmishra]

I tried finding it, but motherboard's model name isn't written anywhere on it.

[rene]

Fairly unexpected if it's a regular desktop (and if it's not, i.e., is some HP prebuilt or something you'd google for specs of the machine itself) but I guess I can't assist then. If also happening in Windows means it's not a (Linux specific) software issue; you'd need to be fairly specific about what the hardware is for someone to have a further chance.

[mihirmishra]

I'm also trying to get answers. I think motherboard is from some Chinese manufacturer that's why it doesn't have the model number on it. I tried everything but the system works when there is only 2GB ram in it. I just wanted to know, Why this is so?

Guess we'll never know.
I've already sent bios pictures. And other stuff.

If you want then I can send a picture of the motherboard.

[rene]

I doubt I'd be any the wiser from a picture of the board although you can of course try. Perhaps finding out if your current DIMMs are single- or dual-rank is more useful; if they are dual-rank there's a somewhat elevated chance that indeed two DIMMs won't work correctly; that you'd need 2 single-rank ones. As to how much elevated I couldn't tell you, but if conversely your current DIMMs are single-rank then I believe you'll be okay forgetting that rank-theory entirely. There will supposedly be type numbers on the DIMMs; usually on a sticker.

[mihirmishra]

They don't work that'll explain system freezing. but that didn't explained why the system shows that only 3.16GiB is installed while running the system and on American Megatrend page it shows 4096MB. I scoured the bios page there was nothing that said 800 MB ram is allocated to graphics.

I was using this RAM http://imgur.com/a/PAICyNl it was a 800mgz ram so I brought another 800mgz RAM from amazon
https://www.amazon.in/Simmtronics-Dddr- ... 00m&sr=8-2

And when the freezing started happening I replaced the new RAM brought from Amazon. But the issue still wasn't resolved. So I brought another Simmtronics RAM (exact piece that I brought before). Because someone suggest maybe the system is failing because of two different RAM try using two of the same ones.

I don't understand the concept of dual rank single rank, can you check it from the links I've provided?

[rene]

Not from that picture no. If there's not a more informative sticker on the DIMMs themselves I'll also not be able to tell you that. Here's a link with some information as to how it's usually identified: https://www.oempcworld.com/support/singlevsdualram.html. If all else fails, you could supposedly write to Simtronics support to ask.

Note again; it's just a hunch anyway; might not even be relevant. It depends on your motherboard if it is --- but it can in fact be the case that an unsupported configuration gives strange results as to total capacity. The BIOS might at boot simply list the values the DIMMs advertise (i.e., 4G) whereas what an OS sees is what the memory controller in fact sees.

It in any case seems I will not be able to assist without more detailed information as to motherboard and DIMMs themselves.

[EDIT] Actually, on that very same site your old RAM is listed as dual rank: https://www.oempcworld.com/OEMPCworld-com/012460.html. No idea bout the Simmtronics ones.