MSI 790FX-GD70 Winki RAM not working.

bugz000

Distinguished
Dec 7, 2011
1
0
18,510
Hello,
i have bought this rig from a friend as a fully working rig - works great! :)
only problem is that it only has 4gb ram with a 64bit OS - this ram being OCZ gold DDR3 PC3 - 12800

i bought myself some of this cheap skinny-looking ram from Kingston - 2x 4gb PC3 10600 CL9 - hoping to make a total of 8 - maybe with tweaking to 12 (with current ram too)


i put this ram in and it didn't work!
so i thought "Hm - it's not PC3 12800"
so i go and buy myself some other ram - my bank now looking quite empty :(
this package of 2x 4gb didn't work either - i suspected the ram at first so i sent it back and the man tested it saying it was fully working - he give me a refund anyway (Very nice seller)

so i was looking around the forums and it turns out this mobo DOES support PC3-10600 - so i go put it back in and it booted up! :)

...to the Windows loading screen - and thats as far as it gets - it just stops there- even with just ONE stick of this new ram in - totalling 4gb - same ammount as my 2x OCZ gold 2gb - it just sits there.... doing nothing...
HDD light flashing for a while but activity gets less until it's just idle.

i reboot and then it halts on error code d5 - Ram initialisation. (same error code that i got with the ram i sent back)

Now i heard some crazy thing that it was the GRAPHIC CARD!? i know! - tech support is getting worse! :(

so regardless of doubts - i put my brothers graphic card in here and that changed nothing (suprise suprise!)

so can anyone give me a clue as to what i'm doing wrong?
throw anything in the air, i'll try anything so long as it doesn't involve magnets + motherboard - although explosives may be fun.

Thankyou for your time,
Bugz.
 
Mixing identical RAM kits isn't guaranteed to work. Mixing RAM kits with different specs is a very bad idea and is unlikely to work. I'm going to paraphrase an answer to a previous thread with a similar problem:

Don't mess with different voltages.
You get the least headaches when ALL of your RAM is the exact same part number from the exact same manufacturer with the exact same specifications and everything.
Mixing and matching causes a ton of headaches that are just unnecessary.

Get RAM from a single kit. If you want 8GB of RAM then get a single kit that has two 4GB modules of the speed you want.

Then, take the power cord out of the back of the computer and hold in the power button for 1 minute.
Then, using a flat screwdriver, gently push on the metal plate that holds the battery in the motherboard. This will make the battery pop out of the socket.
Take the battery by the sides, trying as hard as possible not to touch the side with all the crisscrossed lines in it and set it somewhere with that side face up.

Look at the clock and note what time it is.

Then, take all the RAM out that is currently in there and set it all aside.

Then, put the sticks of the same RAM in. Once you are sure they are oriented correctly then push firmly. If the tabs on the side don't snap themselves in, then you didn't push it in far enough. It needs to be in as far as it will go. If it is, the latches will fasten themselves.

Then wait.

When the clock gets to 15 minutes after the time you saw before, put the battery back in. The side with the crisscrossed stuff on it needs to be down. The side facing up should mostly be smooth and will probably have letters and numbers on it.

After you do all that, turn it on and hope for the best.

Even if you do all of this, it isn't guaranteed to work the first time. Through no fault of your own you could have the computer just shut right down on you again or restart itself over and over or a bunch of different things.

RAM causes headaches, much more if you do anything other than this process and order of operations. It is possible you may need to pop the battery out and wait for a couple different times in order for it to accept the new RAM.

Eventually, your computer should accept the configuration has changed and try to reconfigure itself from scratch. Once it does this, everything should work afterwards.


Recently, I had to fight with a RAM issue for 7 hours even though the two sticks of RAM were almost exactly the same and they were almost certainly from the same manufacturing run. Sometimes it just happens like that.

RAM is just a touchy touchy thing and doesn't like to be messed with. If you do things right, though, it should eventually be accepted.

However, things like different voltages and different speeds can make it never work. It *should* theoretically work even with different voltages and speeds, opting to choose the lowest of everything, but that isn't guaranteed anywhere that I am aware of. That is why it is suggested to have as close as possible to the exact same thing when you are sorting these problems out.



Thanks to Raiddinn for the original post in this thread:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/302292-30-dp45sg-unable-working-beeps#t2036689

My suggestion to you would be to sell any RAM except the original OCZ gold you have and buy an 8GB kit as similar to the gold in specs as possible, then follow through on the instructions above if it doesn't work when you put them in and try turning the computer on.