Thank you for the suggestion. Before calling Lenovo support, I decided to test each sodimm alone in the system to rule out the memory. When I saw that each one could be seen, I put them all back in and the system recognized the full 16 GB. I guess one or two sodimms were not correctly seated (though I had visually inspected them earlier).
I hope that the problem is solved. Thanks again, Richard On Tuesday, August 03, 2010 23:46:10 Eric Olsen <[email protected]> wrote: > Any suggestions on what I should do next? > Call Lenovo support. They might give you the run-around because you > didn't buy the memory with the laptop, and it may not be in the "supported > memory" list, but you can try. > > I'm sure someone with more knowledge will correct me, but the way I > understand it, if the BIOS doesn't see the full amount of memory, nothing > will. Sure, each slot might be able to see 4GB, hence memtest shows 4GB each > slot, but if the BIOS can't handle 8GB as a whole then you're out of luck. > Since Lenovo claims it supports it, they may have a problem with their BIOS > and will have to come out with an update soon. > > Good luck. > > -Eric > > On Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 10:07 PM, Richard Esplin > <[email protected]>wrote: > > > I am curious if anyone has any insight into my problem. > > > > My new ThinkPad W510 arrived today. Though it is a nice machine, I am very > > annoyed that Lenovo stopped selling machines with Linux preinstalled. But > > that is a complaint for another day. > > > > I ordered the minimum RAM from Lenovo, and then ordered 16 GB (4 x 4 GB > > sodimms) off of NewEgg. I replaced the memory, and rebooted the machine. > > > > Facts: > > > > * The BIOS only reports 8GB of installed memory. > > * Using "free", Linux appears to only see 7GB of memory--I am guessing the > > video card has the rest. > > * Memtest reports only 3GB of memory, but I think this is a known bug. > > * Memtest reports 4x4GB Dimms installed. It correctly lists the brand and > > model of each sodimm. > > * Lenovo advertises this model as supporting 16 GB in 4 sodimms. > > * I'm using Kubuntu 10.04 x64. > > * I checked my BIOS version and it appears to be the lastest (1.24). > > > > Questions: > > > > * How can memtest see the sodimms, but the OS isn't using them? > > * Do I need to do something for all the RAM to appear? > > * If one sodimm is bad, will it prevent the other one from being used? > > (i.e. do they have to be paired?) > > * Any suggestions on what I should do next? > > > > Thank you, > > > > Richard <snip> /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
