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Problem running two sets of ram

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electronicsfreak

electronicsfreak

Technical User
Sep 2, 2004
2,509
US
I recently decided to add 4 more gigs of memory to my system. I was currently running 2 1GB sticks of Gskill memory.


And I now bought and added this.


This is where the problem comes in. I can run either pair by themselves, and the computer will boot up and run just fine. However, if I combine the two, it refuses to load, or even kick on the monitor.

I have tried every possible combination, even switched all slots, and tested them all, and all slots work. They are the same brand of memory, same voltage, same speed, just different size.

I even flashed my bios to the newest version to see if that would help.

The ram is listed above, and my motherboard is Gigabyte GA-EP43-UD3L. Processor is Intel Quad Core X3220 2.40GHz, video card is Palit Nvidia GTX 260.

Any ideas what might be causing this?

There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon
 
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as you noted, it just don't like that RAM and you may never get it to work with that board...

it is not even listed on the compatibility list by GigaByte for that mainboard...

had a similar board the EP35, and it too did not like the first set of RAM sticks I threw at it, once in a while it would just BSOD for no reason (RAM tested fine and works without problems in my ASUS P5Q mainboard with the same CPU)...

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"
 
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Think I might have come across the reason. I think the 2GB sticks are double sided while I know for a fact the 1GB sticks are single sided. Think that is why it's not working. The memory works fine with the board, each pair by itself, no issues. Ran the 1GB sticks for years, they are just a bit small for Windows 7 lol. Anyway, whenever I feel like turning off the computer again, I will look and see.

Thanks though.

There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon
 
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Well it's the only thing I can possibly think of, as the ram works fine by itself.

the 2 x 2GB pair works fine no matter which combination in every slot, same with the 2 x 1GB pair, yet you put them together, and it all fails lol.

I just broke down and sent Gigabyte a support ticket. Let's see if we get anywhere lol.

There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon
 
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Sorry.. I see that you already updated it from your previous post. My bad.
 
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Not a problem. Thanks for trying to help. And yeah, I am currently running F9, which is the newest version listed for my board. Still waiting on a reply back from them, probably will have to break down and call.

There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon
 
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Just called them, to which the answer I got was "they must be the same size due to dual channel configurations ...."

Personally I think he was just reading basic errors off his screen, which the support from that company has always been horrible from my past experiences.

There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon
 
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It makes sense that the Memory management on the motherboard might need to see a homogeneous array of memory. (either all single-sided or all double-sided) Memory is inexpensive enough now, just buy another pair to match your newest sticks, and have 8 GB instead of 6GB - or just use the two newer ones with 4GB. Some boards will accept more than their documentation says - I have an 10 year old Thinkpad, came with 64MB, the book with it said it would accept 128MB modules. I tried adding a 128MB, then replaced the 64MB with a 256MB - and it worked. It's retired now -my new laptop came with 4GB. You've just tried a combination that didn't work - relax and enjoy what does!

Fred Wagner

 
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As far as memory being inexpensive, ddr3 is, ddr2 is not lol. And I am enjoying the 4GB, just wanted to use all my memory. Oh well lol.

There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon
 
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I haven't priced RAM recently.... but it has gotten cheaper over the years. We just shut down an IBM netfinity server, that was installed in 2001 - it had 4GB of RAM (that was all Win2K Advanced Server would address), and a terabyte of disk, in 3 volumes, with a total of Thirty disks - two in RAID 1 for the boot volume, and two 14 drive RAID 5 arrays. We got to see the concept of MTTF (meant time to fail) in action - the drive failures got more frequent over the years! That was a quality piece of equipment!

Fred Wagner

 
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How did you manage to get Win2k to see more than 3.2GB of ram? Or was that all it seen with the 4GB in there?

With that many drives and lasting that long, I am guessing you were using scsi?

There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon
 
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It saw what it wanted to, 4GB was the amount installed. Yes, it was a 4-channel SCSI card, 3 channels used, one for the two drives in the CPU case, and the other sets of drives in separate rack cases, all hot-swappable, with IBM RAIDServe to check on status of things.
The first server I was responsible for was a 286 with 4MB a 50MB ST-506 drive, running Netware 2.0a - added an 80MB ST-506, then upgraded it to ESDI with a 300MB drive and Netware 2.15. When I left that company, my next setup was a maxed out 386-16 with 16MB of RAM, with a Raid-1 1GB, maxed out. upgraded to a 486-66 with 64MB, added 1.5GB of RAID-1, and that was maxed out. Next were a pair of Compaq ProLiant's with P-66's and 250MB, and hot-swappable 2.0GB drives... Moore's law in action! With the Proliants, it was still Arcnet to the clients, but we did a 10BaseT backbone, then I bought some 10MB TCNS pieces, demo'd the performance to influential partners, and we got the budget to rewire the whole firm with 100BaseT. And that was in the last century! It's been a fun ride, still is!

Fred Wagner

 
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Sounds like it, of course working with technology is always fun lol.

There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon
 
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