Check RAM voltage?

[emacsomancer]

Is there any way to check the RAM voltage on a x220? (I'm running Linux on it, if that makes any difference.)

I couldn't find anything in the bios, and I tried various Linux tools which spit out RAM info, but nothing tells me what voltage the RAM chips are running at.

(I'm curious because I put 1.35 low voltage memory in, and I wondered if it's actually running at 1.35 or really at 1.5.)

[edit: I put "battery" rather than "RAM" in the original post title.]

[hengster]

download cpu-z, run the program and you would be able to see the operational voltage under memory section.

[emacsomancer]

download cpu-z, run the program and you would be able to see the operational voltage under memory section.

I can't find cpu-z in either Void's or Arch's repos.

[sheinz]

Hi,

You can try dmidecode.
It shows voltages on my machine:

Code: Select all

        Minimum Voltage: 1.5 V
        Maximum Voltage: 1.5 V
        Configured Voltage: 1.5 V

But I'm pretty sure x220 and x230 support only 1.5v RAM.

[rjwilmsi]

Certainly X220 and X230 are happy with either DDR3 or DDR3L RAM, as I have used all sorts of variations and combinations on both.

If you look at the Intel info on the CPUs:

https://ark.intel.com/products/52231/In ... o-3_40-GHz

https://ark.intel.com/products/71257/In ... o-3_40-GHz

The X220 ones (Sandy Bridge) don't list DDR3L support, so dual-voltage DDR3L RAM should be falling back to DDR3 1.5V.

Wheras the X230 (Ivy Bridge) lists DDR3 and DDR3L support, so should be at DDR3L 1.35V

dmidecode on my X220 doesn't include info on RAM voltage. Same on X230. dmidecode v2.12 (may be a bit out of date)

[emacsomancer]

Hi,

You can try dmidecode.
It shows voltages on my machine:

Code: Select all

        Minimum Voltage: 1.5 V
        Maximum Voltage: 1.5 V
        Configured Voltage: 1.5 V

But I'm pretty sure x220 and x230 support only 1.5v RAM.

I'm on an X230 now, but I've coreboot'ed it, and I just get "Unknown" in dmidecode for voltages.

[sheinz]

I've just checked dmidecode output on my x230 and it also doesn't show voltages.
And my x230 has a stock bios.
So, it seems like x230 doesn't provide RAM voltage information.

[sheinz]

And I also have DDR3L modules installed in my x230 and they are working just fine.

What I meant by saying "x230 supports only 1.5v RAM" is that it will run RAM with 1.5v. And as DDR3L backward compatible with DDR3 (it can work with 1.35v as well as with 1.5v) it will work just fine in DDR3 slot but with voltage 1.5v.

So, DDR3L memory will not benefit from it's lower voltage (lower power consumption) in x230. But it will work OK.