Ugh... do I have a bad mobo or.... BIOS settings.

Good evening,

I just put together a PC and I am having problems with all of the RAM not showing up.

I have a ASUS P6X58D Premium motherboard and I am using triple channel G.Skill Ripjaws 12GB for ram. RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231356

The BIOS sees only 4GBs, Windows 7 Pro 64bit only sees 4GBs, but CPU-z sees 12GB.

I have tested each individual DIMM in slot A1 and each DIMM boots the system fine, but when I take one DIMM and try out either B1 or C1 the system will not boot.
According to the motherboard's manual, "You may install one memory module in slot A1, B1, or C1 as a single-channel operation." Does that mean if I take one DIMM and put it in B1 (or C1) the system should still boot? Because it doesn't... If I only put one DIMM in either B1 or C1 the MemOK! light blinks and the system will not boot.

Since I know that each DIMM works (from testing them each in A1), does that mean my board needs to be RMAed?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.
Pent

 

Like usual I'm too lazy to research (dinner's almost ready), but maybe the BIOS needs an update?

 

Oops, forgot to include that in my original post.

The BIOS is the newest one for the motherboard.

 

I just removed the RAM and CMOS battery for 40sec or so, and put everything back in and fired it up.

Now the BIOS is showing 8GBs or RAM. Still not the 12GBs I have installed, but better than the 4GBs it was showing earlier.

 

I am at a loss... I have tried every possible combination that I can think of and I can not get the 12GBs of RAM to show up, and when the bios saw 8GBs it wouldn't let Windows boot up.

I have tested each stick in slot A1 and they all show up as 4GB.

Before each of the following combinations I removed the RAM, CMOS battery, and the power from the PC.

Each stick will be called a different letter (X, Y, and Z).

X in slot A1 boots 4GBs. (I always left stick X in A1 except for when I tested Y and Z in slot A1 to make sure they work)
X in slot A1 and Y in slot B1 boots to 4GBs.
X in slot A1 and Y in slot C1 boots to 4GBs.
X in slot A1 and Z in slot B1 boots to 4GBs.
X in slot A1 and Z in slot C1 boots to 4GBs.

I could only get the DIMMs to boot up to 8GBs if all three were installed, and set to 1066 (not 1333 like they are)... and then Windows would give BSoDs. And even then booting to 8GBs was a maybe/maybe not situation.

So... do you think it is the motherboard, RAM, or the BIOS settings?

To make matters worse... my Windows 7 Professional wants me to activate it, but I don't want to until I figure out if I need to return the motherboard...

 

Could be any of the 3 plus others.
Go to the ASUS support forums and in the motherboard subforum is a sticky that deals with this problem. Evidently this board is very finicky when it comes to large amounts of memory.

 

Sounds like RMA time! Since I don't know if you have AMD or Intel have a look at this board as it can fit all that ram http://www.foxconnchannel.com/product/Motherboards/detail_overview.aspx?ID=en-us0000459

 

Read the following ASUS forum thread: http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx...1&model=P6X58D+Premium&page=1&SLanguage=en-us

Read through that and adjusted some things and now the bios and Windows sees all 12GBs of RAM.

Here is what I did:

Removed the mobo from the case.
Removed the aftermarket HSF and CPU.
Noticed the CPU socket had what looked like a slightly bent pin. Took a sharp knife and straightened it out.
Removed the thermal paste from the CPU and reseated in the socket.
Installed the stock HSF which had its own thermal paste already on it. (A question on this later)
Noticed there was a black rubber cover covering 4 pins near the 4-pin ATX plug-in I had been using.
Removed cover and plugged in an 8-pin ATX plug instead of the 4-pin I had been using.
Put everything back in the case.
Booted it up.
Win.

I never changed the voltages or anything for the RAM.

I did force the bios to use DRAM frequency 1333 (the RAM is 1333), because on Auto it was only doing 1066.


The PC doesn't have its normal GPU (EVGA 480 GTX) yet, and the case side is still open. Once it is closed I'll have a 200mm intake fan on the side blowing in.

I am not going to be overclocking anything.

The CPU is seeing temps of 48-49C at idle, is that OK? (Or do I need to clean off the stock paste and reapply Artic Silver?)

 

No,if your leaving the stock cooler on not much point pulling it off again,of course if you pull it off again to replace your after market HSF you'll have to clean it off and reapply paste.

I can't see a reference to the model of CPU you have so you'll have to check the operating temps yourself to see if its within tolerance,if you want to be sure of stability its recommended you run your chosen burn in or benchmark program while monitoring temperatures,I like speedfan for CPU due to the chart function,sis sandra also has a logging chart function.When you come to test your vid card MSI's after burner is good it also has easy overclocking features and logging chart function.

Burn in stress test

http://majorgeeks.com/Burn_In_2008_d5943.html

http://majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=5948

http://folding.stanford.edu/English/Download


Temperature monitoring


http://majorgeeks.com/MSI_Afterburner_d6254.html

http://majorgeeks.com/SpeedFan_d337.html

http://majorgeeks.com/SiSoftware_Sandra_d92.html

Good luck!

 

Oops, sorry.

Intel i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz

According to SpeedFan the CPU is running on average of 33.5C, but the bios says 48C-ish.

 

I would clean and re-apply using at least a %70 Isopropyl alcohol and a lint free shammy and make them shine!This is what the stock fan gave me when I built Frankie Jr. Seeing as you have a GTX480 then you probably game and that would push your temps into the 70's which is getting close to the max.

Run OCCT or any stressers that Rikky posted, however I like OCCT as it stresses everything and keeps an updated inventory of graphs to track your performance. Leave it on overnight after you change the TIM and if anything breaks then at least it's istill n warranty.

 

I think we posted pretty close together so you may have not seen my reply.

Intel i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz

Speedfan says 33.5C.
Bios says 48-49C.

Why would the temps be so much different?

 

The general rule is keep it under 80C,my bloomfield 930 with the stock cooler idles at 42C so your about right when I max it,it rises to 65C which is pretty standard,I think I have a good one though as I've overclocked it from 2.8GHZ to 4.0GHZ and it hasn't even stuttered,on stock cooling and voltage which is just insane,its the most stable CPU I've tried in over 12 years of building computers and I still don't know how high it will go yet,reminds me of the old freaky coloured one off AMD durons you used to to be able to buy.

Different CPU's have different temperatures though even with identical model numbers.

You may find this interesting reading especially the process of binning.

http://www.pugetsystems.com/blog/2009/02/26/intel-core-i7-temperatures/

 

Try PC Probe II, should be on your mobo's install CD, and SIW as a referee. I never liked SpeedFan as it kept telling me my CPU was going to burn up! You have the opposite issue. I'd still re-apply the TIM no matter what these programs say.

Crap Rikky, you won the bloody CPU lottery man!:-D 4GHz on stock cooling eh? Is it winter over there and you have the windows open?:-D

 

I went ahead and took the HS back off and cleaned it and the CPU.

Applied some Artic Silver 5 ("AS5" just looks... bad... ) and stuck everything back together.

After about 20-30min of idling I took a look at the temps. (I know that isn't a long time, but it's about the same as I tested it before)

Bios says 37-38C.
SpeedFan says 30C.
SIW says 30C. (System Information for Windows)

 

Good temps though it always confuses me when the BIOS is out so far. Maybe it's reading the tMj temps which are around 8C more. At any rate, you're good to go now.