[Solved] How do I get my i7 950 to recognize all my RAM

That's bad advice from Intel saying you can only run 800 or 1066mhz ram. I have 1600 ram and are running it at 1650 with my overclock. I had the same problem with my ram it would show up as 2 gigs even tho I have 6. I just reseated mine and all 6 showed up.

The only thing I had done in BIOS was change the RAM setting to 1600MHZ and up the Voltage to 1.65, and it still has the same issue. I have gone back and reset the BIOS to default settings (1066MHz and 1.5V) and it still does the same thing. I spoke with Intel again today and they said that the memory isn't compatible and that it will burn up the processor (Intel said it is common with this board) oh, and they also said I could void my warranty running ram that isn't supported. I have removed and reseated my RAM several times talking with ASUS support and it keeps changing every time I do it, but it never stays stable (i.e. it shows 8 GB and the next time 6 GB) Could it be that I just have the CPU tightened down too much? I have seen others say that having having the mounting bracket too tight on the CPU can cause issues?

Okay, I just got off the phone with ASUS Tier 3 support and he recommended I shut down the system and remove all ram except for the A2 slot and then remove the CMOS battery for about 10 min. Then after restarting go into AI Overclocker and change to XMP, shut down and reinstall all remaining RAM. I have done this and it posted the 12 GB of RAM. I shut down the system and it still posted 12 GB the second time. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this will be the same when I next turn on the system tomorrow. If not, back to the drawing board.

Thanks to those who posted on this

Eki

Yep, that was an update, but I actually have another one

I logged in today and now I am showing 10 GB of RAM. Also, last night, I could run most applications and browse the web just fine, but when I tried gaming, the system would crash to BSOD sometime within a minute or two of entering the game and sometimes I could play for about 20 min. Trying to contact ASUS again to see WTF is going on here. I think it may be setting it to XMP instead of manually setting the timing and MHz

Basically, no I am not OCing. The only thing that Tech support told me to do were the steps above (remove the CMOS battery, restart and when in BIOS change to XMP from Auto which detects your RAM speed and latency and sets it for you). I did this, it worked fine last night except I couldn't game (I think the longest I played Homefront was for about 20 minutes before I got the BSOD). I started it back up and logged into my NHL GameCenter account and watched a game for 3 hours with no problems streaming video. My have to check some other games out to see what happens. I am also running CoreTemp and my max temps showing never exceeded 54 degrees C, so that shouldn't be a problem.

Did that previously, no faults found

I have tried putting RAM in each slot and it worked fine, it was only after installing all of the RAM that I get the issues. Basically, it comes down to two things, I can install all or some of the RAM and run the system on default settings, but then I only show 6 - 8 GB of RAM, I have it on the XMP and it showed 12 originally and now 10, but system is unstable when I game, fine for everything else though. Actually minor change to that, I just tried playing Counter Strike and it didn't seem to have a problem with that. I could go buy some new RAM to test it out, But not sure what would be a better latency, the one I have is tested at 8-8-8-24. I have also read that if the CPU is seated too loosely or to tight, that it may cause issues, but I will check that out this weekend (don't have time after work to tear my system apart and put it back together). Other than that, I am waiting for ASUS to call back about this and see what they say.

From what I understand, when tightening down the CPU cooler, if you over or under tighten it, it could cause contact issues. I think that would warp the MB though and the MB isn't warped, so i don't think that is it. I may take it apart this weekend just to make sure though. This board (ASUS Rampage III Formula is supposed to handle 1600MHz + RAM, so it could just be an issue with the MB.

In my BIOS, the default for the RAM was 1066MHz and that's what the XMP setting does, it steps up the clocking to 1600MHz and the Latency to 8-8-8-24 to match the RAM

That's what I need to check up on. I have read in some other threads/forums to not use the XMP, but to manually set the voltage, speed and latency. I may give that a try tonight and see how it works.
The computer runs fine on everything but games although I did play Counter Strike without any problems for about 10 or 15 minutes last night, but it isn't as much of a resource hog as BFBC2 or HomeFront, but with a EVGA 580GTX vid card with 1 GB of RAM, I didn't think that would be the issue. And running CoreTemp program, none of my CPUs cores are going above 54 centigrade (or there about) so it shouldn't be crashing from overheating.

Yeah, you could say it has me stumped. I am not going to buy 1066MHz ram as there is none that I saw that was particularly good, and I am not sure why I can't get my system to read all the mem in it when it seems others can. This is the first time I have run into an issue like this and this is the third comp that I have built, I just never really got into the OCing or tweaking of the computers because I was afraid I would wreck them and they ran sufficient for my needs. However this RAM issue has got me quite puzzled.

I told you that... LOL
keep it going, good work thus far..

Best answer selected by ekipage.

one bad stick of RAM or one bad anything bro can cause all kinds of issues...
send the RAM back and we'll see what happens next..