RAM works separately, but not together?

Iron124 · Sep 1, 2014

Alright, so I have a really odd issue plaguing my new system here. I have two Kingston Hyper X 1333Mhz Ram modules at 4GB each. At first, when I initially built the system, a full 8GB was recognized but only 3.95GB was usable. After software troubleshooting thinking it was a utilization issue, I decided to test the memory individually, one stick at a time, here's what I found.

-Both ram sticks work perfectly, and both pass windows memory diagnostics
-Both RAM slots work fine as well, both pass with either module plugged into either slot

Now here's the thing, as soon as both memory sticks are plugged into the machine at the same time, problems ensue. It either fails to boot, or makes it to "Starting Windows",and then freezes, although it's rare it even makes it this far. I've done all I can really think of as far as troubleshooting. Is it possible that these DIMMS simply don't like each other, even though they are of the exact same model? I really hope it isn't the motherboard, because replacing that would mean rebuilding the entire system as well as losing my Windows 7 product key.

Any and all suggestions would be appreciated.

Here are my full specs as well:

AMD Athlon x4 760k
MSI A55M-E33 FM2+ MOBO
Kingston HyperX 1333Mhz Memory
Gigabyte R9 270 GPU
640GB SATA HD

Tradesman1 · Sep 1, 2014

Were they bought in separate packs? May not want to play if so. Might try going in with one stick, raise the DRAM voltage a little (+0.06) and thensave exit shutdown and try adding the second stick

Iron124 · Sep 1, 2014

Tradesman1 :

They weren't bought in separate packs, but it was from "Amazon warehouse deals" used, which leads me to believe that they might have been "put together" from surplus at Amazon and sold as a pair. I'll try raising the voltage, thanks.

Tradesman1 · Sep 1, 2014

Let me know, there's a couple things yet we can try

Iron124 · Sep 1, 2014

Tradesman1 :

I've tried for a good half hour, but it appears that the DRAM voltage is locked at "Auto" on this motherboard. I can overclock it to 1600mhz+, but the voltage doesn't appear to change. Voltage modification settings on AMD Overdrive are grayed out as well (that's what I get for buying a low-end MOBO)

Tradesman1 · Sep 1, 2014

Are you using software or in the BIOS, in the BIOS set DRAM to manual and may be oddball like use the + and - keys to make adjustments

Iron124 · Sep 1, 2014

Tradesman1 :

Tried both software and the bios, and tried using the + and - keys to make adjustments, nothing seemed to work. MSI doesn't have proper tutorials anywhere either, so I don't have much more to go on than common sense.

Dropped the frequency down to 1066 and put both sticks in. Almost booted then the screen went black (again). Pulled the old module out (That I've been using most of the time) and kept the new module in - no boot. Reseated in a different slot - no boot. I now have that one labeled so I don't mix them up, I believe it's finicky and might be what's causing the problem.

EDIT: Or maybe not. Currently running off of that module now, seems fine. The problem is so intermittent and hard to pin down I don't even know. I think I'm just gonna send the ram back and pick up a 1x8GB kit. No more hassle.

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