Problem with installing 4gb of memory!

[exponent]

Hi all.

I am having a problem with my comp when i install 4 identical strips of memory (corsair CMX 1024 - 3500LLPRO) into an asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe.

It will boot up fine with just two strips (in DDR mode) (2gb) but when i install the other two strips into the remaining two slots my comp wont even boot up!!!???

It obviously turns on and the fans all spin but it never actually reaches the point where it boots up.

Has anyone got any ideas as to why this is happening??

Is there a BIOS setting or something that I have overlooked to enable it to work??

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks, Mike.

 

[kda]

Interesting. A friend and I purchased identical systems using the MB you have as well as that same memory.

We started with 2 GB (2 modules) but later we each purchased two additional modules of identical memory and each of us experimented with using all 4 GB on this MB.

Have you flashed up to the latest BIOS. I know we had read we needed to do that so we did, before introducing the additional memory.

In both cases, we simply inserted the memory and booted. The boot went just fine. The BIOS reported all 4 GB of the memory. Timing in BIOS remained untouched and WinXP SP2 booted fine.

Later we experimented with various settings in BIOS in an attempt to get WinXP to see "most" of the memory (tough on a 32 bit operating system). We read tons of opinions of whether WinXP was using it all (for various other purposes) or not, but at no point did we have trouble booting with the A8N32SLI-DLX MB / 4 GB Memory combination or running in a stable manner.

I mention this so that you will have two examples of this setup "working" and perhaps that will help direct you to the real problem, which may just be your MB. You can also swap memory modules and boot with the new pair only to make sure they are really OK.

Good luck. FYI, we have now removed the last 2 GB modules and will probably not re-introduce them until VISTA is on our machines. VISTA is really the reason we bought the last 2 GB anyway and we were just experimenting to see that the RAM was OK ... we were not planning to permanently use it with WinXP with it at this time since we could see no discernible benefit over 2 GB.

 

[exponent]

I dont really want to clear the CMOS because the jumper is right behind the release pin for my graphics card! (the only niggle with this mobo)!! As far as the BIOS is concerned, it is the latest (1103).
I have manually input the correct timings for when i had 2 sticks installed and because the 2 new sticks are indentical i thought i wouldnt have to change anything.

I mite try to put the timings back on auto just to see if the additional memory is detected.

Thanks for your help! Mike.

 

[chuckshissle]

Try running a memtest for errors.

 

[theboomboomcars]

Did you try booting with just the new sticks to make sure you didn't get any bad ones?
Is your computer making any unusual beeps when it's turned on?

 

[bluntside]

How do you change RAM timing??

 

[chuckshissle]

Go to bios and change the ram timings control from auto to manual. Then you can individually change the timings.

Look at this for example:

 

[Thar]

Try removing the two new sticks. Booting to the bios and selecting the reset defualts. Save and exit. Then before the computer can start to reboot flip the power switch to off.

Stick the memorry in and see if it boots.

Can also try booting with just the 2 new sticks to give a quick check for bad memorry.

I recently bought the same mb and 4gb of cosiar memorry. I had a devil of the time getting it to install win xp with all 4gb installed. I did finally get it installed and ran ok for a month. Not perfect. I did keep having problems which I was thinking might have been a virus that I could not find.
Anyway one day after 2 blue screens of death my computer would not boot back to win xp. It started to but hung. After turning it off and rebooting I got asus's crash free bios utility. But reflashing the bios did no good. I finally pulled two sticks my memorry and it worked fine.

I could get it to work with either two sticks. But not all four. I downloaded memtest as someone suggested you do and sure enough. I had one bad stick.
I just got my free replacement memory. Two sticks since they were a matched pair from corsiar. Stuck them in just now and booted up no problem.

 

[Spenzer4Hire]

If your motherboard memory timings are not set to auto, you must change the memory timing from 1t to 2t when you move up to 4 sticks of ram. atleast, thats what i heard.

 

[mitch074]

Let's sum it up:
- either your BIOS version is too old; you said it wasn't but check again.
- your RAM settings are set to 1T command access time: switch it to 2T (loss of performance, but it is required if you have all banks filled with dual faced RAM sticks)
- one of your RAM sticks is faulty: use memtest on all of them (test them independantly)
- your mobo can't provide enough volts to your RAM: try lowering the memory bus (from 200/400 to 166/333) and/or increase RAM voltage, and see if it helps.

The latter is my own; it can happen that a mobo revision or production batch can't deal with some settings while others can.