Please help guys...

[drboffin]

Long story, if you'll indulge me...
two weeks ago, i had a fairly decent running dell xps 630i system
with the impending release of wow cataclysm i thought i'd update my machine.
unfortunately that wasnt the case
motherboard - nvidia 630i
chipset - quad 4 something
gfx - nvidia 9800 gtx2
ram - 4 gig dell specific
If you need more info please get in touch....
i decided to buy a 2 gig gfx card and 8 gig of corsair ram, unfortunately
that blew my motherboard (according to dell), but hey, we live and learn..
i would like to know why the board i have bought (asus p5n - d ) cant take 8 gigi of ram?
it takes 4 gig no problem but when i try to install more i get bsod and no boot, i've tried
altering the bios menu to alter voltage and ram speed but nothing, please help....
any assistance is greatly appreciated...
B
(ps, the long story can be extended if needs be...)

 

[Emperus]

Please give the RAM specs.. Also provide the PSU details..

 

[jsc]

Work through our standard checklist and troubleshooting thread:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-read-posting-boot-problems
I mean work through, not just read over it. We spent a lot of time on this. It should find most of the problems.

If not, continue.

I have tested the following beep patterns on Gigabyte, eVGA, and ECS motherboards. Other BIOS' may be different.

Breadboard - that will help isolate any kind of case problem you might have.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/262730-31-breadboarding

Breadboard with just motherboard, CPU & HSF, case speaker, and PSU.

Make sure you plug the CPU power cable in. The system will not boot without it.

I always breadboard a new build. It takes only a few minutes, and you know you are putting good parts in the case once you are finished.

You can turn on the PC by momentarily shorting the two pins that the case power switch goes to. You should hear a series of long, single beeps indicating memory problems. Silence indicates a problem with (in most likely order) the PSU, motherboard, or CPU. Remember, at this time, you do not have a graphics card installed so the load on your PSU will be reduced.

If no beeps:
Running fans and drives and motherboard LED's do not necessarily indicate a good PSU. In the absence of a single short beep, they also do not indicate that the system is booting.

At this point, you can sort of check the PSU. Try to borrow a known good PSU of around 550 - 600 watts. That will power just about any system with a single GPU. If you cannot do that, use a DMM to measure the voltages. Measure between the colored wires and either chassis ground or the black wires. Yellow wires should be 12 volts. Red wires: +5 volts, orange wires: +3.3 volts, blue wire : -12 volts, violet wire: 5 volts always on. Tolerances are +/- 5% except for the -12 volts which is +/- 10%.

The gray wire is really important. It should go from 0 to +5 volts when you turn the PSU on with the case switch. CPU needs this signal to boot.

You can turn on the PSU by completely disconnecting the PSU and using a paperclip or jumper wire to short the green wire to one of the neighboring black wires.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FWXgQSokF4&feature=youtube_gdata

A way that might be easier is to use the main power plug. Working from the back of the plug where the wires come out, use a bare paperclip to short between the green wire and one of the neighboring black wires. That will do the same thing with an installed PSU. It is also an easy way to bypass a questionable case power switch.

This checks the PSU under no load conditions, so it is not completely reliable. But if it can not pass this, it is dead. Then repeat the checks with the PSU plugged into the computer to put a load on the PSU.

If the system beeps:
If it looks like the PSU is good, install a memory stick. Boot. Beep pattern should change to one long and several short beeps indicating a missing graphics card.

Silence or long single beeps indicate a problem with the memory.

Insert the video card and connect any necessary PCIe power connectors. Boot. At this point, the system should POST successfully (a single short beep). Notice that you do not need keyboard, mouse, monitor, or drives to successfully POST.
At this point, if the system doesn't work, it's either the video card or an inadequate PSU. Or rarely - the motherboard's PCIe interface.

Now start connecting the rest of the devices starting with the monitor, then keyboard and mouse, then the rest of the devices, testing after each step. It's possible that you can pass the POST with a defective video card. The POST routines can only check the video interface. It cannot check the internal parts of the video card.

 

[Gekko Shadow]

Was it the same ram?
What OS were you running?

Have you done a BIOS update?

 

[drboffin]

sorry about the lack of info, really shouldnt drink and post...
current ram specs - 8 gig corsair, ddr2 800mhz
vista 64
power supply is 850w
not done a bios update yet, but thats next on my list.
I've been through and tested all the ram in all the channels on the mobo, and everything is ok when running 4 gig, just doesnt like it when i try to install more, puzzling considering that the board claims it can take it.
cheers

 

[Hard Line]

have you gone in bios and checked your timing on the ram? if it is running 1T that could be your prob. set it to 2T and that may just be your problem. I have seen boards that can run 1T with 4GB but when you populate all memory slots, you need to lower to 2T

 

[drboffin]

Ok, done a bios update and lowered the timing to 2T and still no luck, with 6 gig it will post but as soon as windows begins to load i get bsod, with 8 gig i get a quiet beep, then a consectutive beep lasting about 3 secs and no boot at all.

 

[Hard Line]

according to this thread it seems that 6230i chipset has some issues runing 8GB of ram another guy had to lower the ram speed to 667mhz : http://www.maximumpc.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=100299&sid=3739dbe07e29565bb07b5878298c472c

Also, have you tried just 1 stick in each of the slots to rule out a bad slot?

 

[Plumble]

Are the RAM modules double sided?
Some chipsets have a real problem with that.

There should be something along the lines of
2Rx8 DDR2 SDRAM

The 2R means two rows and 1x means one.

I have heard the ASUS P5N-d can only a limited number of rows (or banks) Double sided RAM has two per module wheras Single-sided only has one.

have you tried all the modules one-by-one? if they all work independantly, this may be your answer.

 

[Shadow703793]

1. Lower the RAM speed or increase RAM voltage.

2. Download Memtest86+ and test the RAM.

3. Do what jsc said.

 

[drboffin]

Yeah, tried all the sticks one by one, all are working as they should. As for being double sided, i'll be perfectly honest, i dont know. It says CM2X2048-6400C5DHX, i got 4 of them. I am starting to believe the mobo just wont like all four sticks in, i've emailed asus to see if its a known problem. Hopefully they'll get back to me...
Thanks for the continuing help folks.
B

 

[Plumble]

I had a quick look but can't seem to find out either. Did you try to reduce your RAM speed as Shadow suggested?

 

[drboffin]

Well, unfortunately, it doesnt seem as though asus are interested in my little problem. I did try reducing the RAM speed, to no avail im afraid. Nevermind, at least the warrranty is still in effect...
Thanks anyways people.
B

 

[Emperus]

Bizzare explanation may be but this could be a heat up issue.. The DHX module RAM's are pretty thick in dimensions.. As such, i guess there is not much spacing left between the RAM sticks for adequate/required airflow (they might as well be touching).. This could be causing the BSOD's and all the wierd stuff(s).. Just for the sake of it, try running three sticks at a time..