[Discuss] disappearing memory

[tmetro+blu at gmail.com (Tom Metro)]

Laura Conrad wrote:
> memtest...sees [8G]... But top and  /proc/meminfo only see 4.
> 
> I'm suspecting that something about the install got screwed up when I
> updated from 14.04LTS to 16.04LTS.

I'm not aware of a software setting in Linux that would cause RAM not to
be seen (other than some advance kernel boot options to create memory
"holes" to bypass bad RAM). I'd wonder about the 32/64-bit issue, but
you ruled that out.

Two things to try:
Boot a live CD, as I suggested in my other post. That'll rule out a
local config error.

Go into your BIOS and reset to factory defaults, just in case you have
RAM settings that make the RAM access marginal. (Though that usually
causes instability and crashes, rather than a whole module cleanly
disappearing.)

 -Tom

-- 
Tom Metro
The Perl Shop, Newton, MA, USA
"Predictable On-demand Perl Consulting."
http://www.theperlshop.com/