Predicament: RAM used to work, but not anymore?

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akkad

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Hello everyone,

Around 2 years ago I purchased 2 sticks of Crucial Ballistic 2GB and 2 Kingston Blu 2GB for a total of 8GB fully functional with Dual Channel this whole time. Two days ago I installed a new copy of Windows 7, reset the CMOS and updated my BIOS (Asrock Extreme3 Gen3) (To be honest I have no idea what CMOS was, I was troubleshooting and I could not locate the motherboard's battery). After I got Windows running smoothly, I realized that the computer was running real sluggishly. After some more troubleshooting it turned out the PC was only acknowledging 4GBs. When it rains it pours huh.

Both sets of RAM (Crucial and Kingston) work perfectly by themselves, but they just don't work together anymore (despite working flawlessly for 2 years). It will be some hardship to purchase new sticks, so what could be the possible solution? I remember when I first installed them I did something in the BIOS (other than lowering the speeds to a certain denominator) that helped them chug along, but after scouring the BIOS options, manual and Google, I have yet to remember.

Thank you for any help in advance,
Frustrated PC user
 
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akkad

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Yeah, I checked the voltages. They match at 1.65. I only have 1.67 and 1.64 but messing with that did not help. What is the memory remapping and timing? Unfortunately, this new version of BIOS gives me even more limited options. Half the features are stuck on AUTO, not that I understand said features.
 
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akkad

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I could not find the VCCIO, however I messed around with the VCCSA but to no avail.

EDIT: When I said messed around, I mean there was not any 1.03 option (can't put custom numbers), but I tried values lower and higher.
 
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akkad

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I found VTT, also tried the values and it did not work :|

Here is a new problem though. I just purchased some Crucial 2x2GB and installed them separate of the old sticks, with the old Crucial sticks and then with the Kingston sticks. In each case the BIOS only recognized a max of 4GB. It is driving me nuts! Sometimes it sees the first 2 slots, sometimes the first and last, sometimes the 2nd and 3rd, etc. This is beyond me. I will run memtest tonight see if there is something wrong, but I highly doubt that is th ecase because it happens no matter how i mix the 6 sticks I have.

I also want to tell you that I greatly appreciate your help. You seem to be the only person interested in soothing my PC pains.
 
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akkad

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I did. I also tried air cleaning the slots and resetting CMOS. Still not working. The 2 new sticks work on their own but that is just 4GB. They are Crucial too, almost exactly the same as the old Crucial ones I have.
 
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akkad

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Yeah, I tried all those :\ Anything else I can try maybe?
 
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Tradesman1

Tradesman1

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What we've tried will normally get odd sticks to play, but there are often times you get sets that just won't, see this happen about daily, but there's still a lot of folks out there telling people just to add more sticks and telling them 'no problem', when it often is
 
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akkad

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Ok, thank you for your time! Why do you think the sticks decided to stop working?
 
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Tradesman1

Tradesman1

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May have 1 going bad, may have to do with the new BIOS, may be the voltage on the mobo.....let's try one more thing, can you post up your advance timings for the DRAM from the BIOS, and the exact model #s of the sticks.....am starting to think they may have stepped backward on the timing setup in the BIOS with the new version, it occasionally happens
 
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akkad

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Ok. By advance timings you mean the BIOS page that has all the options, right? I will take clear pictures of each and attach them to my reply.
 
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akkad

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I could not find an option to add attachments, however I did upload them here.

http://phantomtr1.imgur.com/all/

The Crucials in the pic are the new sticks. The kingstons are the old, current sticks. I have the old Crucials removed currently. For the BIOS, there is an option you cannot see; 'MRC fast boot: Enabled.
 
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akkad

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Hello. I'm still working on returning the sticks, so I will reply as soon as I can!
 
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akkad

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Hello there Tradesman1!

I bought some new Kingstom Blu (same as my old Kingstons) and returned the Crucials. Now, having 4 Kingstons of the same model, I tried using 4 sticks and it still doesn't work. I will try the new settings you posted and reply again.

On another note, ever since this issue started I've been getting BSODs and random crashes/freezes. It does not matter which sticks I use, do you think this is relevant?
 
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