Can't use a two channel setup

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Yoavgat1234

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Apr 13, 2014
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I am using a p8z68-v pro/gen3. At first I tried each of my 4 gb corsair vengeance on a single slot (second from the left) and both worked. Then I tried installing one on the a lot I used before and one on the right most slot and my system wouldn't boot. I tried using the other 2 slots (the black ones) and still it did not work. But when I used both right most slots, I was able to boot with 8gb of ram and it worked fine, but I won't to use a single channel... Any ideas?
 
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volcanoscout
I would recommend running MemTest86 to verify that both of your sticks are good - test them separately in any slot that works. If one of them is producing errors, it's possible for them to run in single channel while not working in dual. If one or both of them is producing errors, you'll want to replace them.

If both of them are good, you can try updating your mobo BIOS and drivers. If that doesn't fix the issue, it's likely that you've got bad DIMM slots. If that's the case, then you can either replace the mobo or just live with single channel.
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Yoavgat1234

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Boosted1g, that would be correct if I had either one stick in single channel or 2 in dual channel. Even asus recommends using 2 of the same channel when using 2 sticks on this board.
 
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boosted1g

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Lets say you are using pc1600 ram which is 1600mhz. Thus the ram channel (2 slots on motherboard) is capabile of 1600mhz. Each ram stick is capabile of 800mhz and so when they are paired (so dual channel ram) they can then utilize the 1600mhz of the ram channel.

Does that help or just confuse things more?
 
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boosted1g

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This is one of the times where the industry just tried to make it confusing and is not the fault of the user.

The use of the term single channel at the motherboard and dual channel on the memory box are in fact the same thing, and thus makes it confusing.
It then gets worse when one generation of ASUS boards the black and blue slots are right beside each other black black blue blue, and in the next one they are stagered black blue black blue


EDITED:
On page 23 of your manual it shows that for 2 sticks of ram you put it in the blue slots.
That is your ideal setup for best perofrmance.
So channel 2 (A2 and B2 which is the blue pairs) is a "single channel" that is divided up into two memory slots that support "dual-channel" memory. In the old days each ram chip was on its own channel, once we switched to DDR the RAM vendors called it dual-channel as it took two ram sticks together to equal the motherboards bandwidth.

When Core i7 first came out they had tri-channel ram which ment that it took 3 sticks of ram paired together to use the max badwidth of the motherbaord. Most high end boards had 2 "channels" so they had 6 slots for 2 sets of the tri-channel memory. Hopefully seeing at pairs of 3 makes more sense then pairs of 2.
 
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Yoavgat1234

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Thank you for clarifying that :) but now that you understand my question do you maybe know how to help me solve it? And by the way how is a set of color coordinated channels called? (If there's an actual name other than all blue/black slots).
 
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Yoavgat1234

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Michael, first of all you're wrong, b1 and b2 are the defaults for 2 sticks of ram (at least on my board). Second of all, if there is one thing I'm sure about is that 2x8 on a single matching color set is better than 4x4 while using both color sets and filling up all ram slots.
 
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Vic 40

Vic 40

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Using one black and blue slot means you're running single channel,if the slots next to the cpu don't work can it be that one channel doesn't work.This could be the motherboard or the cpu.
Try to reseat the cpu in it's socket and make sure you use new paste,also check that the cooler presses even on the cpu.

Maybe do a clear cmos to see if this will help.Also see if you've fot the latest bios and update if necessary.

From what i get out of the manual is that when having two sticks you better use the two blue slots.
Have you tried this? (try this first)
These are btw not the b1+b2 slots,but the a2+b2 slots

You also want to use the same colored slots for dual channel.
 
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volcanoscout

volcanoscout

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Vic 40 is correct - dual channel setup is A1/B1 or A2/B2. Dual channel for four sticks consists of A1 and A2 being two banks on one channel, and B1 and B2 being two banks on the second channel. Dual channel can be faster than single channel - depending on the application, you can see a performance gain of 5%-30%. Dual channel gives 128-bit access vs the 64-bit access of single channel.

AhR8qXp.jpg
 
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Yoavgat1234

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For everyone ever in this post, the 2 channel thing was a mistake, I meant one channel. And if you would read the post you would understand I KNOW I need to use the blue slots, but it won't work! I tried! So all I can do is use the left black slot and the left blue slot (single channel) and that's the only way I am able to boot. Please try to help me according to this, cause I understand I made a mistake and i was helped figuring it out.
 
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volcanoscout

volcanoscout

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I would recommend running MemTest86 to verify that both of your sticks are good - test them separately in any slot that works. If one of them is producing errors, it's possible for them to run in single channel while not working in dual. If one or both of them is producing errors, you'll want to replace them.

If both of them are good, you can try updating your mobo BIOS and drivers. If that doesn't fix the issue, it's likely that you've got bad DIMM slots. If that's the case, then you can either replace the mobo or just live with single channel.
 
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