[Solved] Asus P5Q3 blue-screens with RAM in Channel B

Hi all,

I have an Asus P5Q3 motherboard with Crucial DDR3 1333 RAM (2 sticks of 2G each). I built the computer in November and installed the RAM as recommended by the manual: "It recommended that to install the memory module from orange slots for better overclocking capability." (That's a quote.) This meant one module in channel A, and one in channel B.

I immediately started having problems with blue screens under various conditions. After much experimenting and testing, I found that I have problems if any module is in either slot in channel B. I now have both modules in channel A, and it's rock-solid.

Does this mean that memory channel B on my mobo is damaged? Or was I misunderstanding the manual?

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks,
- Steve

Hi Proximon,

Thanks very much for the response! I have been keeping up with the BIOS updates, hoping that one of them would be an easy fix, so I am using the latest version.

I haven't spent any time in the "AI Tweaker" portion of the BIOS - don't really know what I'm doing yet and I don't want to blow up my computer - but I do know that everything is set to auto. Are you saying that I should manually set the timing and voltage for the RAM to the manufacturer's specification?

Thanks,
- Steve

Hi Proximon,

Thanks for linking me to these tools. Asus has some similar utilities, but frankly they don't work very well and these are better.

Strangely, though, CPU-Z is seeing me 1333 MHz RAM as 667 MHz, and that's the maximum frequency settings it is showing me. It's also showing the manufacturer as Micron, rather than Crucial. If I do a WMI query, it reports 1333 MHz.

What do you think? Memory configuration is definitely NOT my strong suit.

Thanks,
- Steve

Hi Proximon,

Thanks again for your continued help. I copied the settings to the BIOS - so far so good! I haven't actually moved the RAM around in the slots yet - I wanted to make sure that my computer booted with the new settings.

One question: is tRC the same as tRFC? That's the closest setting I could find in the BIOS. If so, CPU-Z is recommending 34, but the BIOS doesn't allow that - I could do 30, or 35.

Thanks,
- Steve

Thanks, Proximon! I moved one of the DIMMS into channel B last night. So far, so good! You've been a real help.

Hi Proximon,

Hope you are doing well! I've been meaning to update this for a while but I kept forgetting. I'm afraid the news was not good. The first time I went to play a game on my computer (probably the activity that taxes the memory the most) it blue-screened. So, I moved the RAM all back to channel A.

What do you think? Time to open up a support case with Asus?

Best,
- Steve