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A7v600 wont use 3 sticks of ram

Forum Motherboards & Memory : Asus - A7v600 wont use 3 sticks of ram

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I have a motherboard (asus a7v600) that fails to boot if i install 3 sticks of Kingston KVR266X64C25/256, yet works if I have only 2 installed. The motherboard has 3 memory slots and I don't understand why installing the 3rd wont allow the system to boot.

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Hepl,
Your RAM is DDR 266 / PC-2100, which should be compatible with your motherboard. And the manual says it does support 3 sticks of PC-2100 or PC-2700 DRAM. However, it does mention that it support only TWO sticks of PC-3200 / DDR 400 DRAM.

Are you sure that all 3 of your sticks are identical. If one of them is PC-3200 it likely won't be allowed.

What's the source of the RAM? Did you buy this new or from another system?

It would be unusual to buy new RAM with such small size and slower speed.

Message edited by mongox on 10-11-2009 at 06:03:50 AM

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Reply to mongox

maybe you should try to bump the ram voltage a bit.

Reply to pat

The ram was purchased new a few years back at the same time, from the same location. I have 4 sticks total, I had been using 2 in this system, and 2 in another. All of them are identical and all of them work when I use just 2, but the 3rd never works no matter which one I place there.

Reply to Hepl

I couldn't find an Asus spec page on their site, likely because it's older, but they do still list manuals and other downloads:
http://support.asus.com/download/d [...] uage=en-us

There are some BIOS updates, several of which discuss fixing RAM errors or adding support. Even tho your problem isn't listed (not unusual) it may have been addressed in one of these updates. I'd avoid the newest one, listed as Beta, but you might try version "A7V600 BIOS 1008" released 9/9/04.

And while you're there, download EVERYTHING they have for that board - never can tell when you can't get it anymore. (site was slow as mud for me just now)

Avoid any program to update BIOS in Windows - you want a process that puts the BIOS files on a floppy and then updates from there. The EZ Flash process available from within the BIOS would be fine. Make sure you write down your current BIOS version and have a copy of it too. If you don't find it on the website, see if you can back it up first. Read the instructions for updating carefully!

=================
The DRAM voltage CAN be changed, which may fix the problem w/o BIOS updates. The reason this might help is that with more modules, each one sometimes likes a bit more power. The default/Auto seems to be 2.55V, might be 2.5V - your RAM says 2.5V. I'd try the manual 2.55V setting, then the 2.65V. With the 3 modules installed. If 2.65V doesn't do it, I'd be leary of pushing it higher.

I don't know what the mentioned JmpreFree mode is - seems only mentioned there in the manual. Might be a motherboard jumper - don't worry about it if you can change the voltage in BIOS.

You got a few things to try now. Try the DRAM voltage first. Then the BIOS. Pat did well to mention the voltage, I don't expect to find adjustments for it on older boards.

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A7v600 wont use 3 sticks of ram

Forum Motherboards & Memory : Asus - A7v600 wont use 3 sticks of ram