GA-G41M-Combo won't POST

[insane_cobra]

Hi, everyone. I bought a new GA-G41M-Combo Rev. 2.0 motherboard and two 4 GB Kingmax DDR3-1333 sticks. The motherboard supports both DDR2-1066 and DDR-1333. With an old 2 GB DDR2-1066 stick it boots into Windows just fine, but when I replace it with DDR3 sticks, I just get a repeating long string of short beeps.

I tested it with both sticks at the same time, and also with each of them separately in either of the DDR3 slots, but I always get the same result, so it's probably not bad RAM, unless both sticks are faulty. I don't think anything's short-circuited, and I tried unplugging and reconnecting all the cables, but to no avail. When I try to boot up with no RAM at all, I get three long beeps, so it's not the same code.

Mind you, those sticks are not on the official memory support list so it could be that, although I've never encountered a similar issue before. Also, the DDR3 slots on the motherboard could be faulty, but I 'd like to explore other options before returning either the RAM or the motherboard.

One thing I noticed is that on the Gigabyte website DDR3 support for the motherboard is listed as "DDR3 1333(O.C.)", so I guess it supports DDR3-1333 only through overclocking, but shouldn't it still boot, only with RAM running at a lower clock initially? Sorry, I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to those things. I checked the Gigabyte guide and the POST thread, but couldn't find any useful info.

The full specs are:

GA-G41M-Combo Rev. 2.0
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200
on-board GPU for testing, although I plan on using it with Leadtek's GF 9600GT
2 x 4 GB Kingmax DDR3-1333 FLFF65F-D8KQ9 BAES
Maxtor 320 GB SATA HDD
Chieftec 450 W GPS-450AA-101 A PSU

Any suggestion is much appreciated.

 

[geep999]

Did you check that the RAM voltage is OK in the BIOS?
Default should be 1.8V for DDR2 or 1.5V for DDR3.

I was looking to buy this mobo but according to the downloaded manual for both Rev 2001 and Rev 1302 it only supports 4GB of DDR3, but 8GB of DDR2.

Cheers,
Peter

 

[BerylLee]

dual channel having problem? or single memory caused the same? did you test your DDR3 one by one?
maybe you need a bios update to catch up with your DDR3, you can use DDR2 to boot up and into bios and then change to DDR3 after bios update.

 

[insane_cobra]

Did you check that the RAM voltage is OK in the BIOS?
Default should be 1.8V for DDR2 or 1.5V for DDR3.

I was looking to buy this mobo but according to the downloaded manual for both Rev 2001 and Rev 1302 it only supports 4GB of DDR3, but 8GB of DDR2.

Cheers,
Peter

It locks at the very start of the POST sequence, nothing is shown at the screen and you can't enter BIOS.

I can enter it when using DDR2, but it's of little use to me then.

By the way, the manual does say that it supports only 4GB of DDR3, but some people online claim that it in fact supports 8GB in both cases. In my case it doesn't work with either 4GB or 8GB.

dual channel having problem? or single memory caused the same? did you test your DDR3 one by one?
maybe you need a bios update to catch up with your DDR3, you can use DDR2 to boot up and into bios and then change to DDR3 after bios update.

Yes, I tested them both one by one and in the dual channel configuration, no difference.

There's no BIOS update available, there's only one version so far. I did try to boot with DDR2, set the memory values manually, save, take out the DDR2 RAM, put in the DDR3 and then boot, but nothing changes.

 

[BerylLee]

did you have other DDR3 for test?

 

[insane_cobra]

Unfortunately not. I ended up returning both the motherboard and the RAM, now I'm waiting to see what they have to say after testing.

 

[BerylLee]

let them solve the problem.