Check RAM on Linux using free. The most popular command in order to check your RAM on Linux is to use the “free” command. $ free total used free shared buff/cache available Mem: 40216 16 480 Swap: 0 0 0.
Sometimes, you want to know whether the free memory (RAM) is enough to launch or install a new program? In this case, you can use free command to get information about memory detail in your Linux system. The free command not only shows you information about the total amount of physical RAM and swap but also free and used memory.

Updated: January 1, 2020 Home » Freeware and Software Reviews

If your computer crashes after installing a new set of RAMs, there are few possibilities. The first possibility is likely a faulty RAM, the second possibility is hardware compatibility. More often than not if it is compatibility due to overspec or underspec, your system would not boot up and will make a beeping sound.

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How to Show the Installed Memory. Open up a terminal window and type in the following command: sudo dmidecode -type memory. At the beginning of the output you’ll see the maximum memory size allowed by your PC, which is important—you can’t put two 4GB memory modules into a machine that only allows a total of 4GB of RAM.

Alternative 2020 Article ➤ 7 RAMDisk vs SSD – Ten Times Faster Read and Write Speed via RAM Virtual Disk

Ffaulty RAMs are pretty rare, almost unlikely if you bought a branded RAM such as Kingston, Samsung, Corsair, Apache and etc, this is because they performed many tests before distributing them to dealers. Based on my experience, here are some possibilities:

Defective RAM ( Use both Windows Memory Diagnostics and Memtest86 to perform a deep scan, run twice to confirm, if both tests show the RAM is in good condition, then it is most definitely another issues. )
Outdated Motherboard BIOS ( Update your Motherboard BIOS if it is outdated )
Outdated drivers and chip-sets ( Update your drivers and chipsets )
Overheating of RAM ( Use a table fan to test this )
Faulty RAM slot ( Swap RAM between slots to see if problem continues )
Incompatibility with your other hardware such as Asus NVidia GTX 970 Graphic Card. ( I’ve upgraded my RAM to 32GB from 16GB for my Dell XPS 8700, unfortunately, the solution to limit the RAM in Windows as shown in Reddit doesn’t work for me. Read more – GTX 970 unstable on system with 32 GB RAM or 64 GB RAM )

After much trial and error, swapping graphic cards and RAMs. I’ve discovered that my Asus Strix GTX 970 is unstable when my Dell XPS 8700 has a 32GB Kingston HyperX Fury or 24GB Kingston + Samsung RAM. It runs without problem when my system has both my old (4x4GB Samsung) and new (2x8GB Kingston) 16GB RAM installed, and with no problem when it is 32GB with my older GTX 745 graphic card. This is a very old issue, Nvidia appears to be dragging their feet or this is exclusively an Asus GTX970 problem.

↓ 01 – Windows Memory Diagnostics Tool | 17 Tests | Windows

This Window memory Diagnostics Tool is the the Pre-installed memory testing software available in Microsoft Windows Vista, Window 7, windows 8 or 8.1 & windows 10. The Memory Diagnostics Tool will run automatically when you restart Windows. It might take several minutes for the tool to finish checking your computer’s memory. Once the test is completed, Windows will restart automatically. If the tool detects errors, you should contact your computer manufacturer for information about fixing them, since memory errors usually indicate a problem with the memory chips in your computer or other hardware problem. Type “Mdsched” and search for the tool.

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↓ 02 – Passmark MemTest86 | 13 Tests | Windows | Mac | Linux

MemTest86 is the original, free, stand alone memory testing software for x86 computers. MemTest86 boots from a USB flash drive or CD and tests the RAM in your computer for faults using a series of comprehensive algorithms and test patterns. The latest version of MemTest86 supports all the current technologies, including:

DDR4 RAM (and DDR2 & DDR3) support
XMP – high performance memory profiles
UEFI – The new graphical standard for BIOS
64bit – From version 5, MemTest86 is native 64bit code
ECC RAM – support for error-correcting code RAM
Secure boot – With MemTest86 being code signed by Microsoft
Graphical interface, mouse support and logging of results to disk
Self booting off USB or CD, without needing DOS, Linux nor Windows
Dual booting – Will boot to V4 in BIOS and V6 in UEFI from a single flash drive

↓ 03 – Rember | Unknown Tests | Mac

Rember is a front-end GUI to the ‘memtest’ command line memory testing program. This application will allow the user to select the number of test loops, as well as the amount of memory to test. There is a ‘Log’ tab that will allow the user to monitor memory testing. The user can toggle a ‘verbose’ switch to limit the amount of output, and can also choose to quit Finder and other applications.

Defective memory can cause computers to malfunction, crash, and behave in a variety of ways which can sometimes baffle end users and computer technicians alike. Apple provides hardware test CDs with most of their products, and there are some third-party utilties for Mac OS X which perform memory testing. In my experience, these tools have not always been able to quickly and efficiently diagnose memory problems. Rember has been designed to simplify the testing, and diagnosis of these problems.

↓ 04 – Apple Diagnostics (Apple Hardware Test) | Mac

Apple Diagnostics is a great way to check your Mac computer’s hardware. Apple Diagnostics helps to identify the potential source of a hardware issue and provides first steps to try and resolve it. Apple Diagnostics will also help you get in touch with Apple Support for further assistance.

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Finding RAM size details in Linux for a System admin is very easy task. We can use free command to check how much RAM is present in our system. But when you want to find how many RAM/Memory sa lots are present in your system is bit tricky one. One way to do open your system and check what sa lots are there and how much RAM. Instead of doing this as a Hardware engineer we can use a command to check which sa lot is having below details.

How much RAM
Speed of the RAM
Maximum RAM supported by that machine
RAM location etc.

As you are already aware of dmidecode command to get all the system hardware info. We will use the same command for getting our RAM details.

To Find RAM details like maximum RAM, location of RAM etc we can use -t option with dmidecode as shown below

dmidecode -t 16

Output:

# dmidecode 2.11
SMBIOS 2.7 present.

Handle 0x000F, DMI type 16, 23 bytes
Physical Memory Array
Location: System Board Or Motherboard
Use: System Memory
Error Correction Type: None
Maximum Capacity: 16 GB
Error Information Handle: No Error
Number Of Devices: 2

If you see the above output we can figure it out how much maximum RAM this machine support, number of RAM devices and location etc.

To get actual RAM details such as how many sa lots, actual RAM present etc, use -t 17 option in dmidecode command

dmidecode -t 17

Output:

# dmidecode 2.11
SMBIOS 2.7 present.

Handle 0x0010, DMI type 17, 34 bytes