Combining two sets of Identical ram. Can I get them to work?

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Neoton

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Oct 9, 2014
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I had 2x4 gb of Corsair Vengeance ram and wanted 16 so I bought the another 2x4 pack and whenever I add ram the computer gives errors on the motherboard and doesn't startup.

I've tested all the pieces of ram and they all work. The version of the corsair vengeance is different. The old is 7.12 and the new is 8.23. I've tested all my motherboard slots and they work.

I can put two sticks of ram but when I put in more, my pc doesn't start. I can even combine one of the old sticks and one of the new sticks and they work fine. The sticks besides the version number are identical. All are 1600 mhz and have the same item number which is CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9. Is there any way to get them to work? I've tried doing research and I know now that you shouldn't combine ram sets but I thought I could.


EDIT: I didn't think I was very clear. I had 8 gb of ram but I am trying to add another 8 to make 16 but whenever I add in the new ram my PC doesn't start. self built pc i7 4790k, gtx1070, z97x Gaming 7 mobo
 
Solution
geofelt
Your ram is NOT identical.

Ram is sold in kits for a reason.
A motherboard must manage all the ram using the same specs of voltage, cas and speed.
Ram from the same vendor and part number can be made up of differing manufacturing components over time.
Some motherboards can be very sensitive to this.
This is more difficult when 4 sticks are involved.
That is why ram vendors will NOT support ram that is not bought in one kit.
It is safer to get what you need in one kit.
But, it is a bit more expensive because of the added matching of all the sticks to insure compatibility.

What to do now??

1. Check your motherboard support for possibly a bios update that addresses ram compatibility.

DO NOT update just on speculation.
A failed flash...
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mbilal2

mbilal2

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Jun 15, 2017
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What motherboard, CPU and operating system do you have? Need more info. Usually mixing RAMs is a bad idea and causes issues like this one. Sometimes even if you get the exact same RAM modules, the same issue will exist. The best thing would be to get a 32Gb kit but of course that will cost a lot more (considering your mobo supports it).

Go to your BIOS and enable XMP mode. See if it helps.
 
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Calvin7

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Feb 19, 2013
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Corsair guarantees the rated speed and timings of any memory to be obtainable only in the kit it is sold in. If you are adding an additional set of memory, the rated timings may not work due to the extra stress on the memory controller. Therefore, you will need to relax the timings and/or frequencies in order to get 2 sets of memory to work. Another option you may need to do is increase the dram voltages or reducing the CPU multiplier.

It is not unusual for such combinations not to boot up or to be unable to operate at rated specifications. There are no guarantees that such combinations will work at all or how they will run if the PC does boot up.
 
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Neoton

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Oct 9, 2014
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i7 4790k, gtx1070, z97x Gaming 7 mobo

windows
 
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JackNaylorPE

JackNaylorPE

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1. It's a crap shoot. The likelihood of it working diminishes as the performance level rises

2. With more sticks, you gonna need more DRAM voltage

3. I had an experiences w/ Corsair Vengeance pros DDR3-2400..... same model number and didn't work going from 16 to 32. The older Corsairs had 10-12-12-28 timings, the new one were 10-12-12-31. Manually setting them to 10-12-12-31 didn't work....I went up to 1.725 volts and still didn't work. I pulled a set or Mushkin Redline's out of my build and put them in the box w/ the Corsairs ... Mushkin used the same Hynix memory modules as Corsair did early on but when Corsair went to a cheaper supplier, Mushkin stayed pat w/ Hynix. I gave my original set to the user and replaced them with a new set from Mushkin.

4. Remember how these RAM kits are binned.... if it doesn't work at 2400, it gets tries at 2133... if it ... you see where this is going. It's kinda like if you are grading kids in 9th grade as to who can run a race in set times. The categories might be:

5:00 minutes
5:30
6:00
6:30
7:00

Maybe 6 kids in the 100 can do the 5 minutes so your chances of randomly picking 2 who can is small. But as you drop down your chances of picking 2 kids who can do 6;30 is pretty high. To date, I have had only 1 instance where i couldn't get (4) 1600s to work.
 
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geofelt

geofelt

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Oct 9, 2006
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Your ram is NOT identical.

Ram is sold in kits for a reason.
A motherboard must manage all the ram using the same specs of voltage, cas and speed.
Ram from the same vendor and part number can be made up of differing manufacturing components over time.
Some motherboards can be very sensitive to this.
This is more difficult when 4 sticks are involved.
That is why ram vendors will NOT support ram that is not bought in one kit.
It is safer to get what you need in one kit.
But, it is a bit more expensive because of the added matching of all the sticks to insure compatibility.

What to do now??

1. Check your motherboard support for possibly a bios update that addresses ram compatibility.

DO NOT update just on speculation.
A failed flash can render your motherboard useless or difficult to repair.

2. Try raising the ram voltage a bit in the bios. Sometimes this can get the ram to post.


3. If you can, return your new ram and buy a similar 2 x8gb kit.
You will have a known good 16gb.
Keep the old ram as a spare or sell it.
Or... you can try adding that to the 16gb and you may end up with 24gb.
 
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