Question How is the DMI physical memory array max size calculated?

Nobody-Important

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Oct 31, 2013
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I have no idea what the DMI physical memory array is, so i have no idea how the maximum size for the ram it can support is determined.
Is this one device that handles all the memory? Is this just the limitation from the processor passed down? Or is this the sum of what some devices managing the separate ram slots can handle?

This usually wouldn't make much of a difference except in this case one of the two slots has physically failed, and failed again after being repaired, so i'm stuck with only one out of two slots and a dmi physical memory array limit of 8gb.
  • If this is just the CPU limitation passed down, i could put in a different CPU i have, and use a 16GB RAM stick. (because the 8gb limit would just be from the processor and the other one can handle 16gb)
  • If this is the limit of of a device handling all the memory on the motherboard i could still use an 8 GB ram stick. (because the device could maximally handle 8gb)
  • However if this is the sum of the capacity of devices handling the ram slots individually i could only use a 4gb ram stick. (because the 8gb is actually just 4gb+4gb)
 
Max RAM supports starts with the motherboard chipset. You are not really asking the right question here.

What is your motherboard brand/model and the CPU you have? From the post you should have just asked "I have this motherboard, can I use a single 8 GB RAM stick in it?"

Or better yet, check the motherboard vendor support site and see what the manual and specs say.
 

Nobody-Important

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The motherboard itself has no specs online, and others asking similar questions relied on that cpu-z data, that's why i asked this question.
It's a HP 1669 8.39.

Also HP support isn't exactly stellar, and one support person there said they'd rather trust external sites than their own descriptions when it comes to what ram modules a laptop can handle.
Also the specs for my model of laptop have been accidentally completely deleted from the website.
And the specs for all laptops only state the max amount of ram altogether anyway.

This is why my original question was not wrong.
 
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The motherboard itself has no specs online, and others asking similar questions relied on that cpu-z data, that's why i asked this question.
It's a HP 1669 8.39.

Also HP support isn't exactly stellar, and one support person there said they'd rather trust external sites than their own descriptions when it comes to what ram modules a laptop can handle.
Also the specs for my model of laptop have been accidentally completely deleted from the website.
And the specs for all laptops only state the max amount of ram altogether anyway.

This is why my original question was not wrong.

Crucial site does not show any 8 GB single sticks for that model. There is no way to know exactly what is limiting the RAM amount, could be BIOS, could be chipset, in laptops there are no set rules for what works past what the vendor supports on it. Try an 8gb stick and see if it boots, they are cheap enough used to find one.