6GB Ram = no workey?

[neuro]

hai bros.

so my PC has been CONSISTENTLY freezing up, so i figured i'd go check my RAM a bit, taking out my RAM sticks one by one, and seeing if it's fixed.

so i took out one RAM stick, and it all apears fixed.

but for some reason in DXDiag, it only lists 4GB ram, instead of the 6 i expected.

(used to have 4x 2GB, now i've got 3x 2GB installed)

is this working as intended?
do i have to change some bios shit?

[Cortexian]

wat

This sounds really weird. You're saying that you originally had 8GB installed (4 x 2GB) but it was unstable, so you took out one DIMM and Windows is only recognizing 4GB instead of 6GB?

It's probably something to do with dual vs single channel mode not working properly on your motherboard. With three DIMM's installed like that you're only going to get single-channel performance since there's a DIMM missing and the system can't properly sync the first two slots with the second two slots. Anyways, that's my best guess. If you can manually set your BIOS to single channel mode you'll probably see all 6GB, if not it sounds like one of your modules is faulty.

Try replacing each of the installed DIMM's with the one you removed, it's possible that one of the three installed is causing the instability because it's faulty. Therefore when you take one DIMM out the BIOS starts running in single-channel mode and just ignores the faulty DIMM, it cannot do this in dual-channel mode with all four installed so that might be why removing one DIMM seems to solve your stability issues.

[neuro]

yeah it just crashed again though :P

so i took out another stick (2x 2GB installed now) and we'll see how long it lasts this time.

[Patrickssj6]

What processor are you using? ...just for good measures: You are using 64-bit as well?

3x2GB works only good with i7.

[neuro]

got an I7 860, and yeah 64bit, otherwise i wouldn't have 8GB :P

anyway, i removed 2 memory sticks, and it all ran fine.

also, i guess one off my DIMMs is just broken or something, because when i put a ram stick in that one, it doesnt see it at all, and if i put it in another one, it reads 6GB fine.
feck.



so uhh what's the going price for 4 or 8 GB ramsticks nowadays

[=sw=warlord]

Depending on how cheap you go you can get a 4 gig stick for around £10 or €12 upto maybe €25 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CMX4GX3M1A1333C9-XMS3-Desktop-Memory/dp/B003ZDJ42O/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1325088760&sr=8-2)

[BobtheGreatII]

Of course the rule is... you never mix new sticks with old sticks. Always buy all new ones from a kit. If you're in to that sort of thing. Matter of opinion I guess.

[Phopojijo]

Of course the rule is... you never mix new sticks with old sticks. Always buy all new ones from a kit. If you're in to that sort of thing. Matter of opinion I guess.Matched RAM mostly stopped being true semi-lately...

Though what probably is happening is that his motherboard can only accept RAM in pairs... or at least only accept RAM in pairs if it's trying to do multichannel for the other pair.

[neuro]

i think it's just a busted DIMM slot though :P

[BobtheGreatII]

Uhm. One other suggestion I can make... is to check your processor for bent pins. I accidently did it to my i5. And the computer would run and then crash all the time. Which makes sense. But it wasn't my first guess. Also remember. If you have to send your motherboard back. Make sure to put the protective plate back in the processor slot. They love to charge fees for not doing that kind of thing.

[Warsaw]

What processor are you using? ...just for good measures: You are using 64-bit as well?

3x2GB works only good with i7.

Triple-channel only works at all with LGA 1366, and that means i7-920 through i7-990X. i7-860 is LGA 1156, so it's dual channel. Three DIMMs should be fine on that setup, it just won't run as dual-channel. From what Neuro has described, it indeed sounds like a bad slot.

@Bob: Do some motherboards really come with a protector plate in the CPU slot like that? I've never had it on any motherboard I've ever bought.

[BobtheGreatII]

All EVGA ones do.

And when I had to send back my P55 FTW 200. They made me pay $70 to get it back because they thought I didn't follow rules. Which were never stated on the instructions, but were in fact printed on the plate that I had left in my closet for over a year. Lesson Learned.

You can see it here:

http://www.legitreviews.com/images/reviews/1776/evga-z68-ftw-layout-1.jpg

[Amit]

@Bob: Do some motherboards really come with a protector plate in the CPU slot like that? I've never had it on any motherboard I've ever bought.

Every motherboard I've ever seen with pins has one on it. ASUS does it, GigaByte does it, EVGA does it, Intel does it.

[Cortexian]

Every motherboard I've ever seen with pins has one on it. ASUS does it, GigaByte does it, EVGA does it, Intel does it.
Yeah, I've never seen a motherboard come new without the protector. They even come with a warning to reinstall the protector if you need to ship it back for RMA.

[Phopojijo]

Maybe it's an AMD processor which I believe still leaves the pins on the CPU.

[BobtheGreatII]

Yeah, if that's the case then they don't have anything on them I don't think. Maybe a sticker or something just to cover the holes.

[Amit]

Maybe it's an AMD processor which I believe still leaves the pins on the CPU.


Yeah, if that's the case then they don't have anything on them I don't think. Maybe a sticker or something just to cover the holes.

Not entirely accurate, but that may have been the case years ago. My AM3+ motherboard's socket does not have pins. It has the holes instead, but it still came with a protector. I believe it's for preventing tiny objects or dust or other stuff from clogging it up and preventing you from fitting the CPU properly.

[Warsaw]

Well, that explains it. All of the motherboards that I've bought since 1998 are AMD sockets.

[BobtheGreatII]

Just to clear it up:

http://imagecdn.maketecheasier.com/2010/08/intel-amd-socket.jpg

Intel Socket Pins on Motherboard Facing up

http://img.tomshardware.com/us/2004/06/01/amd/socket_939.jpg

AMD Socket Pins are on CPU

[Warsaw]

Yeah, I didn't know that Intel did pins on the motherboard. The last Intel CPU I bought was a Pentium I back in the day. I mean, yeah, I'm running a Core 2 Duo right now, but it was already in the motherboard when I got it.

[Patrickssj6]

Neither did I :V