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DDR 2 RAM PROBLEM HELPHELP!

Last response: in Motherboards
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Hello!

I have an older rig that I have recently tried to upgrade the memory on.

Here are my old specs:

**2GB DDR2 667 Single Ch 64 bit **
Gigabyte GA-MA69VM-S2
AMD 64 X2 5600+ 2.81GZ
Radeon HD 4670
Win XP SP3

Since my older GA board supports up to 16gb DDR2 max 800mhz in Dual Channel, I found a special for 4 X 1 GB sticks of Crucial DDR2 PC2 6400's online and ordered them.

Well, I have been having a hell of a time installing these 4 sticks. Not only will the board NOT take ANY sticks in the correctly colored dual channel slots, but I have made sure (by sticking each set of new 800's in to my current slots that work) that all the memory I got from Crucial are good.

So, my mobo seems to only want to read/accept these sticks in 1/3 slots, and will NOT boot with them in any combintation of sticks being put into 2/4 slots. My dual channel slots are obviously 1/2 and 3/4.. and the mobo's manual says that dual channel should be applied 1/2 and 3/4.. it also says it definitely will accept all 4 sticks. (I've tried 1/2/3.. 1/2/4...etc.. and when I DO put only 3 sticks in, it will boot, but won't get past the initial Memory Check on the first black screen, and stalls!.. this is ONLY with 3 sticks in, as I merely get the POST beeps if I put 4 in!)

I'm at a loss here.

I was using Award Bios F4 and I had heard it could be a BIOS issue, so I used @BIOS to get the newest update which was F9. Everything loaded perfectly well and still NO GO on these. I went into BIOS to try to manually set the timing, but with no avail.

The current timing on the sticks (2 X 1GB of the new 800z) that CPUID reads is:
JEDEC #3
400mhz 6-6-6-18-24 @ 1.8v

I had also heard that it could be a voltage issue? But in F9 I haven't seen any place to adjust the voltage higher so it will be able to use all 4 DIMM slots. I used the "secret" menu CTRL F1 and still no dice.

Am I missing something!? I know this is probably a stupid question and I COULD suck it up and buy 2x2 GB of the 800z, but even then it seems it wouldn't be able to read in Dual Channel.

UGH!

Any help? Thanks!

James

More about : ddr ram problem helphelp

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It was at 1T, I put it to 2T and tried both. No luck. Someone has advised me to plug all 4 modules in, unplug the power and manually reset the CMOS through the CLR_CMOS jumper and booting up.

Yay or nay? @Prefer Linux - since they have been empty/open so long, would dirty connections make them fail as well? What would you recommend to clean them?
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Ok. What about the timing? I went in and.. due to the BIOS being set to AUTO on the Memory section.. It had the slots at 127ns 75 ns 127 ns 75ns respectively. I tried setting it to MANUAL and setting EVERY slot to 127ns... but that didn't work either. Someone had advised me to increase the memory voltage.. but unfortunately with this BIOS there is no option to do so! I have the current upgraded BIOS through @BIOS as well.. HRM!

Yeah, I looked all over the place there and found no way to increase it. Could that be a factor in all of this? Would setting it to 1.9v even though they are rated at 1.8v really be able to do the trick?

Why is it when I put 3 sticks in 1/2/3 slots it will BOOT, but stalls right before the memcheck on the first boot screen? If the 4th module is put in, it doesn't boot at all and I get the standard POST beeps.

I have definitely tested all 4 sticks of memory to ensure they are good. I JUST bought them too. But I have tried them all individually and they work.

I have thought about the board being faulty since it is so old... it just doesnt make sense that 2/4 slots would go out simultaneously.
Motherboard Master

Well If you really set your timings low ram speed at 333mhz instead of 400 timings at jedec or up to 7 command rate at 2T and you still have problems then I would say the board or the CPU (has the controller on die) is faulty.
Motherboard Expert

I agree with rolli59 sound like your board has issues. I had something similar happen to me . My old asus p5n-d for some reason would not run dual channel in the first setup so I tried the other 2 slots that were for dual chanell and it worked. I came to the conclusion 2 of my slots are messed up.
Motherboard Authority

jamesgutierrez12 said:
It was at 1T, I put it to 2T and tried both. No luck. Someone has advised me to plug all 4 modules in, unplug the power and manually reset the CMOS through the CLR_CMOS jumper and booting up.

Yay or nay? @Prefer Linux - since they have been empty/open so long, would dirty connections make them fail as well? What would you recommend to clean them?

Yes, dirty connections could make them seem to fail as they could cause bad contact, meaning there could be problems, especially if say one pin was not contacting. But I'm not sure how you could clean the motherboard slots, sorry.
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