Notebooks & Netbooks

[Gabe1972]

How is it that the notebook has 4GB of memory, which 3526MB usable, when it only has one 2GB Kingston memory module installed?  Does the motherboard come with an embedded 2GB module, and anything you put into the single RAM slot is in addition to this built in memory?  My notebook is no longe under warranty, so when I installed an SSD I removed the module and took the info from it.  It's a Kingston module, model# ACR16D3LS1NGG/2G, which is clearly a 2G module.  Even cpu-z shows the module as being 2048mb.  The kicker is that in cpu-z, under the memory tab, the size shows as 3526MB.  On the SPD tab, it shows only slot 1 filled, with a module size of 2048MB.  Nothing in slot 2.  In Belarc Advisor, it shows DIMM 0 as having 2048MB installed, with a serial number, and DIMM 1 with 2048MB installed, but no serial number.  The serial number for DIMM 0 is for the Kingston module.  Can anybody figure this out?  As I said, there is only one slot on the motherboard for a module, and the module in it is 2GB.  In all my other PCs in the past, the only memory that shows up is what you have installed.  But this notebook has a phantom 2GB module somewhere.  I'm sure there is a logical explanation for this, and I'm sure the notebook does actually have 4GB (3.52 useable), but where is the other 2GB coming from if not the installed module, and why is Belarc showing a second module that isn't physically there?  Thanks in advance.

[Alan-London · Accepted solution]

I am not familiar with your machine but I believe it to have:

One slot which can support up to 4GB.

(There is a further 2GB of RAM (DDR3-1066) soldered to the motherboard. It cannot be changed.)

[Gabe1972]

Ah, it's the 2GB of RAM that's soldered to the board that was throwing me off.  I never knew that there were motherboards with permanent memory like this before, and that the memory that is installed in the slot is in addition to the memory that's soldered to the board.  I wonder if the computer would run on this soldered in memory alone, without the memory in the slot.  I'm NOT going to find out.  This definitely answers my question.  Thank you.

P.S.  This could definitely pose a problem later on.  If the memory installed in the slot goes bad, you can always just replace it.  Not so with this permanent, soldered in memory.  Thank God the computer was free, as finding this out might really irk me if I had paid for it.