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Speccy free v1.26.698 x64 reports "-1" free memory slots


tomshifi

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Hi.  Quite surprised to see this result after downloading/running Speccy free on my new (used) Panasonic Toughbook CF-52 core i3 I just recently purchased.  It has 2 physical mem slots and is populated w/one 1GB module and one 2GB module.

 

Attached is the txt file dump from Speccy for the system in question...check the RAM section and you'll see what I mean.

 

Thanks for any info on this.

 

(FYI - never had *any* problems w/all the Piriform products I've used...great reliable software!)

 

Regards,

-TOM

CF-52_speccy_000.txt

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as you have discovered, Speccy is not 100% accurate, it's more a guide than a gospel.

so with that in mind, if you go down to the SPD group of the RAM section you'll see your 1gig stick and the 2gig stick are quiet different.

I take it the notebook either came with 2gig and you had 1gig added or vice-versa.

 

although the unit is functional, you are using modules of 2 different speeds and the PC is setting both to the slowest.

Dual Mode works best when both modules are the same size, frequency, latency etc.

 

again, if we can believe Speccy (all it does it get it's info from the components firmware) you notebook is 'months' old but you memory is 'years' old - and both different at that, with the 1gig stick being around 5 years old.

 

personally, with laptop memory being so cheap, I'd replace both and get 2x4gig DDR3 modules in kit form so you know they are exactly the same.

Backup now & backup often.
It's your digital life - protect it with a backup.
Three things are certain; Birth, Death and loss of data. You control the last.

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Hi.  Thanks for your quick response.  Everything you said is true but misses the point - Speccy should have some "sanity" checking built in for these situations,...so that when a blatent impossible result comes up, it flags it for the user.  Don't get me wrong, I'm sure in most cases this is a probably a very difficult thing to do...but this particular instance... reporting "-1" empty slots is simply not helpful to the user.  (Maybe suspicious results could be flagged in red, or something like that...)

 

Anyway, I was just surprised to see that result as I consider Piriform software to be so stable and well done - it's one of the few pieces of software that I go ahead and install the latest version, as soon as it comes out, without hesitation.

 

Regards,

-TOM

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I suspect most of Speccy's heavy lifting simply comes from interrogating the relevant components firmware.

It probably does no, or little, identifying of hardware itself.

What you are seeing, the -1 slots, is part of what it does do, in that case, subtracting Used Slots from Total Slots and getting a negative.

That part we can blame on lazy programmers not catering for such an eventually.

Rule #1 in programming, always assume Murphy's Law.

Backup now & backup often.
It's your digital life - protect it with a backup.
Three things are certain; Birth, Death and loss of data. You control the last.

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