Read this article to find out how to find specifications for the system memory installed on your computer, including information about its manufacturer, part number, serial number, effective speed, capacity, form factor, type etc.
Introduction
There are many scenarios when the ability of Windows 10 to supply specifications data on installed computer hardware may come in handy. Getting to know the detailed information on system memory (also known as random-access memory, or RAM) can sometimes be very useful in helping you to take the correct decision if any problems arise. For example, if a computer works slowly because it has to run memory-intensive applications or games, then adding more system memory may give it a considerable boost. Knowing certain peculiarities and required standards of the system memory can help you decide on the correct capacity, speed and brand of RAM to buy a piece of compatible hardware for an upgrade.
If you are having issues with system memory, knowing the information on its manufacturer, part number and serial number will help you to contact the tech support and solve the problem. At least, you will be able to find a memory module of the same type which, as you already know, is fully compatible with your PC. Besides, when you are configuring memory settings in the basic input / output system (BIOS) or in the unified extensible firmware interface (UEFI), a chance to have a look at memory information can help you to understand if a particular configuration was applied correctly.
Whatever might be your reasons, Windows 10 can provide you with all the information you may need; what is more, it saves you the trouble of having to open the computer case or install third-party tools, which may trigger a conflict of interest or cause compatibility issues.
In this tutorial, we will try to show you how to find specifications for the system memory installed on your computer, including information about its manufacturer, part number, serial number, effective speed, capacity, form factor, type etc.
A brief note: Despite the fact that Windows 10 lets users see detailed information on the system memory in their devices, some data may be unavailable due to peculiarities of specific hardware.
How to get detailed information on system memory with the command prompt console
If you suspect that Task Manager displays inaccurate or wrong information on your RAM specifications, or if you need to learn more detailed data such as serial number, part number, manufacturer etc on every memory module, Windows 10 is here to help you find all that information by using a certain set of system commands.
To start searching and find specific data on memory modules installed on your desktop PC or laptop, you need to use the functions of the command prompt with administrator rights in Windows 10. There are a few ways to open the Command Prompt application, the rich functionality of which we are going to explore today.
Click the Search button, shaped as a magnifying glass and located on the Taskbar next to the Start button, and open the search panel. There, type command prompt or cmd. The Best match section will show you the app you are looking for. Right-click on it and select Run as administrator from the context menu.
Identify the manufacturer
Here is what you do to identify the manufacturer company (brand or trademark) that produced the RAM modules installed on your PC.
Open the Command Prompt with administrator rights using the way you prefer.
To find out the manufacturer’s name, type the following command and press the Enter key (make sure there are no quotation marks):
wmic memorychip get devicelocator, manufacturer
Read the RAM module manufacturer name under the column Manufacturer.
Identify the part number
To find data on the part number that the manufacturer assigned to a specific RAM module, here’s a simple sequence of steps to take.
Use any method you prefer to open the command prompt console with extended rights.
In the window that appear, type the command to run (without quotation marks) and press the Enter key.
wmic memorychip get devicelocator, partnumber
Under the column PartNumber you will see the product identifier you are looking for.
Note: If the speed of data processing and overall performance of your computer is decreasing, upgrading your RAM modules might be one of the best way to solve the issue. Using modern memory sticks, you can add high-quality components to your machine, with a pleasant bonus of higher bandwidth and advanced settings at an affordable price.
Check the serial number of your memory module
Take these steps to find out the serial numbers for every memory stick currently installed in your computer:
Open Command Prompt with administrator rights using any way you prefer.
In the corresponding line, type the command for identification of RAM serial number (make sure there are no quotation marks) and hit the Enter key to begin.
wmic memorychip get devicelocator, serialnumber
Hint: In the command for identification of the serial number, you can replace the part devicelocator by banklabel to see the serial number of the physical label of the bank where the memory is installed on the motherboard.
The result will be displayed in the Command Prompt window under the column SerialNumber.
Identify RAM capacity
In Windows 10 you can use a variable set of commands to find out total capacity for every RAM module, and for the entire system memory.
Discover capacity of each RAM module
To learn capacity of each memory stick in your configuration, take a few steps.
Open Command Prompt with administrator rights, using any method you prefer.
In the program’s window, type the following command for displaying the memory capacity, and then press the Enter key to run it (make sure the command doesn’t contain any quotation marks).
wmic memorychip get devicelocator, capacity
The total capacity of RAM installed on your computer will be shown under the column Capacity.
Note: The memory module capacity is represented in bytes, so to understand the figure properly you need to convert it into gigabytes (divide the value shown in the Command Prompt window by 1073741824, which is how many bytes are there in one gigabyte).
Displaying total amount of RAM
In addition, you can quickly learn the total size of system memory on your computer by taking another sequence of simple steps.
Open Command Prompt with administrator rights.
When the corresponding window opens, type the following command to see the total system memory size installed on your computer with Windows 10, and press the Enter key to run the command (remove any quotation marks).
systeminfo | find “Total Physical Memory”
Note: If the total memory size is not displayed, try a similar command:
systeminfo | findstr /C:”Total Physical Memory”
With every command, make sure there are no quotation marks.
The total size of physical system memory (in megabytes) available on this computer will be shown in the corresponding line.
Check RAM speed
To find out the speed that the memory modules are operating at, here are the steps to use:
Open the Command Prompt console with administrator rights in any way you prefer.
Type the command to determine the RAM speed and press Enter on your keyboard (make sure there are no quotation marks):
wmic memorychip get devicelocator, speed
In the corresponding Speed column, the program will display the speed of your memory modules (in MHz).
Check RAM type
To check the system memory type (generation) in Windows 10, take these steps:
Open Command Prompt with administrator rights, using any method you prefer.
In the corresponding line, type the following command to determine the memory type and press Enter on your keyboard (make sure there are no quotation marks):
wmic memorychip get devicelocator, memorytype
The MemoryType column will contain a digit from zero to twenty-five that denotes a certain memory type. For example, if you see 24 in the column, it means this computer is using DDR3memory modules.
Also, you may see zeroes in the MemoryType column: it means the Windows system tool wmic.exe cannot identify the memory generation properly (it may happen if you’re using DDR4 modules), as such values are not provided in the specifications.
The comprehensive list of supported memory types
Below, find the comprehensive list of file types that can be identified by this command:
0: Unknown.
1: Other.
2: DRAM.
3: Synchronous DRAM
4: Cache DRAM.
5: EDO.
6: EDRAM.
7: VRAM.
8: SRAM.
9: RAM.
10: ROM.
11: Flash.
12: EEPROM.
13: FEPROM.
14: EPROM.
15: CDRAM.
16: 3DRAM.
17: SDRAM.
18: SGRAM.
19: RDRAM.
20: DDR.
21: DDR2.
22: DDR2 FB-DIMM.
24: DDR3.
25: FBD2.
Check RAM form factor
The word “form factor” (standard size) suggests certain standard dimensions of a memory module which also includes additional characteristics such as the module shape. By form factor, there are twenty-five types of system memory. However, the two most widespread categories are DIMM and SODIMM.
To find out if your RAM sticks are DIMM or SODIMM, follow these steps:
Use your preferred method to open Command Prompt with administrator rights.
In the window Administrator: Command Prompt, type the following command to identify the memory form factor and press the Enter key (make sure there are no quotation marks):
wmic memorychip get devicelocator, formfactor
If the result in the FormFactor column is 8, then your computer is using DIMM modules (the default option for desktop computers). Otherwise, if the command displays the number 12, then your computer is using SODIMM modules (the typical choice for laptops).
The comprehensive list of supported memory form factors
Here is the list of form factors that this command can identify:
0: Unknown.
1: Other.
2: SIP.
3: DIP.
4: ZIP.
5: SOJ
6: Proprietary.
7: SIMM.
8: DIMM.
9: TSOP.
10: PGA.
11: RIMM.
12: SODIMM.
13: SRIMM.
14: SMD.
15: SSMP.
16: QFP.
17: TQFP.
18: SOIC.
19: LCC.
20: PLCC.
21: BGA.
22: FPBGA.
23: LGA.
24: FB-DIMM.
Displaying all RAM details
The commands described above allow you to identify the most important data about memory modules. However, if you want to find all the information, here’s what you do:
Open Command Prompt with administrator rights in any way you prefer.
In the corresponding line, type the following command to display all memory details and press Enter to run it (don’t forget to remove any quotation marks):
wmic memorychip list full
View all the available information for each RAM module installed on your computer.
(Optional) if the list of data is too big and you don’t actually need all that stuff, type the following command to view only the necessary things and press Enter (everything should be typed into one line; remember to remove the quotation marks):
wmic memorychip get devicelocator, manufacturer, partnumber, serialnumber, capacity, speed, memorytype, formfactor
Now you can view the memory information you prefer.
Conclusion
Using the steps described in this article, you’ll get an impressive amount of data on the RAM modules installed on your computer. These hints will come in handy when troubleshooting PC issues, tweaking configuration (e.g. when overclocking), or when you’re planning to upgrade your system memory to improve overall computer performance.
Top comments (0)