ESXi sees half the RAM installed

Sylverac · Dec 26, 2013

I built an ESXi whitebox and am having a strange problem. Here are the specs:

Motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128509

CPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113285

PSU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256065

Initial build RAM:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233144

Later added RAM (low profile to fit under CPU fan):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233186

CPU fan/heatsink:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099

HD:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236339

El cheapo video card (since I'll be accessing it through vSphere after the initial install): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127705

ESXi is only detecting half the memory that I have installed (8GB out of 16GB installed). BIOS detects all 16GB but when I boot to ESXi (I've tried v5.1U1 and v5.5 now) it only sees 8GB. I made the system with 8GB of memory to start and later installed 8GB more. The initial build had this type of memory: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233144 and I added 8GB of this type: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233186

All of the memory is exactly the same, with the exception of those huge heat spreaders so that they can fit under the giant CPU fan.

I've googled this problem as much as I can stand and I am at a loss. Most "solutions" say that I may have memory mirroring turned on but I don't see an option for that in BIOS or that a Firmware update is needed. I've tried 3 different versions of the BIOS firmware including the most current beta firmware.

I've RMAed the motherboard twice, tested all the memory with memtest86+, re-seated all components about a dozen times and I've re-installed ESXi several times. I've also done the rain dance once for good measure. No luck. Any ideas? I'm fresh out. Thanks in advance for any help offered.

AxlFone · Dec 26, 2013

I did have issue with mu Gogabyte 990 FXA UD3 and it did 4 beebs. I did istall memory and after that it have been working fine. What OS do you have?

Maybe Gskill memory works better. I look tomorrow again to this tread and post if I have some good idea..
Hope you get system working soon

Sylverac · Dec 27, 2013

As I said in the previous post, I am running ESXi 5.5 for the OS. Thanks for the well wishes.

Tradesman1 · Dec 27, 2013

Are you running Win7 Home Basic? it has an 8GB cap. If not, try going into BIOS and manually typing in the freq (1600), the DRAM timings (9-9-9-24), the CR (Command rate/timings) to 2N or 2T, then set DRAM voltage to 1.575 and CPU/NB voltage to 1.2

Sylverac · Dec 27, 2013

I am not using a windows OS. ESXi is a bare-metal hypervisor OS. It caps the RAM at 32GB so 16GB shouldn't be a problem.

As for the RAM timings and voltage, I have not mucked with that yet. I can give it a shot. Are you certain the DRAM voltage should be 1.575V? The RAM specification page says it operates at 1.5V and I just want to be sure that wont hurt by putting it at 1.575V.

Thank you for the help, I'll let you know what happens tomorrow after I try this out.

Tradesman1 · Dec 27, 2013

My bad, first thought when not all available is Win version, not sure about ESXi - don't use it....in general could reseat the DRAM and if no joy try raising the DRAM and MC voltage, the sticks may be a little starved voltage wise

Sylverac · Dec 31, 2013

This is driving me nuts. I tried what you suggested and made sure the timings were 9-9-9-24 (which they were). I saw was that it was running at 1333 so I tried pushing it up to 1600 (my board says it can support up to 2000). This worked but didn't fix my problem. What I forgot to do was modify the voltage, I'll try that tonight (it was sitting at 1.5V). The only thing I noticed that seemed weird was the tRFC vaule was different between channel A and channel B. I cant remember the values but the difference between the two was around 50. I changed the tRFC values manually to make them match and that still did not fix it.

After even MORE research, I found a couple instances of people saying that they re-seated the processor and that did the trick. I tried this (even though I had already several times previously) 4 times last night, still no joy.

My latest thoughts on this is perhaps it is the memory controller on the processor?

Does anyone else have any ideas? I'm beating my head against the wall here...

Thanks!

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ESXi sees half the RAM installed

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