16GB OId Abandoned Ram.

PaulW · 24 May 2020 at 15:34

OK sorry for the delay decided it was a good morning to clean the car.

Anyway about to back up some work just In case before putting in the ram. I looked at the manual and this is what it says about 3 channel.

3 Channel--
1. 3 Channel mode cannot be enabled if only one or two DDR3 memory modules are installed.
2. When enabling 3 Channel mode with three, four or six modules, it is recommended that memory of the
same capacity, brand, speed, and chips be used. When enabling 3 Channel mode with three memory
modules, be sure to install them in the DDR3_1, DDR3_3 and DDR3_5 sockets. When enabling 3 Channel
mode with four memory modules, be sure to install them in the DDR3_1, DDR3_2, DDR3_3 and DDR3_5
sockets

So I'm guessing for this as im not a ram expert, that I put the corsairs sticks in slots 1,2, 3 and 5 and the gskils in 4 and 6.?

Am I correct here or does it not matter?

Joxeon · 24 May 2020 at 16:38

PaulW said:
So I'm guessing for this as im not a ram expert, that I put the corsairs sticks in slots 1,2, 3 and 5 and the gskils in 4 and 6.?

Yes, it should say flex mode when you boot. So 12gb will run triple channel and 12 in single channel.

You've not lost anything since you only had 12gb to begin with all that will happen is if your ram usage exceeds 12gb then the remainder will run single channel which is still better than not having the extra ram at all.

PaulW · 24 May 2020 at 17:16

Placed them in the slots. Looks like it's failing to boot stuck on a windows logo and a loading circle . I didn't see anything about flex mode. Any ideas what to try next?

Joxeon · 24 May 2020 at 18:10

PaulW said:
Placed them in the slots. Looks like it's failing to boot stuck on a windows logo and a loading circle . I didn't see anything about flex mode. Any ideas what to try next?

Try with just the 2 8gb modules on their own in a dual channel set up.

PaulW · 24 May 2020 at 19:27

so it booted this time with just the 2 Gskill sticks in. but i feel like this has been a bit of a wild goose chase its saying my total memory is 8GB...i was expecting 16GB.

so the sticker on the Ram says its F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL but CPUZ is displaying a different part number F3-12800CL9-4GBXL

that says to me its been mislabelled. i love a wild goose chase!

Joxeon · 24 May 2020 at 19:56

PaulW said:
so it booted this time with just the 2 Gskill sticks in. but i feel like this has been a bit of a wild goose chase its saying my total memory is 8GB...i was expecting 16GB.

so the sticker on the Ram says its F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL but CPUZ is displaying a different part number F3-12800CL9-4GBXL

that says to me its been mislabelled. i love a wild goose chase!

I think they are 2x4gb the D means 2 modules and the 8 is the total size.

Gskill says this.

https://www.gskill.com/search?keywords=f3-12800cl9d-8gbxl

The good news it they work so try adding a single 2gb to the pair of 4gb and see if they run in triple channel.

Also make sure when you combine with your old sticks to not run the ram over 1333MHz

PaulW · 24 May 2020 at 20:06

would 10 gb be the max i could use here? they did feel faster. but i was already maxing the 8gb with some intensive programs.

Joxeon · 24 May 2020 at 20:07

PaulW said:
would 10 gb be the max i could use here? they did feel faster. but i was already maxing the 8gb with some intensive programs.

pretty sure you can get the whole lot working but it may just take some tinkering.

If 3 sticks booted now add the other 3 and try all 6 together.

PaulW · 24 May 2020 at 20:33

that didn't work i tried the full set + the two slots that worked and i had a crash and a restart on boot.
then i removed the others but kept slot 5 for the triple channel, but that again crashed and restarted on boot.

i think they just do not want to work together. too bad but hey least we tried

and thanks you and everyone else for helping me

Joxeon · 24 May 2020 at 20:47

might just be a case of upping the Dram voltage or QPI voltage.

PaulW · 24 May 2020 at 21:21

yeah it could well be but i think i'll call it quits. tried getting it to work but i don't want to fiddle around to much with the bios and end up with a system that ceases to work with my existing ram. Thanks again from all your help Joxeon

Quartz · 24 May 2020 at 21:40

PaulW said:
so it booted this time with just the 2 Gskill sticks in. but i feel like this has been a bit of a wild goose chase its saying my total memory is 8GB...i was expecting 16GB.

It looks like this is dual channel DRAM with 4 GB per channel and your motherboard can only take single-channel DRAM or your motherboard has a maximum of 4 GB per stick. There might be a BIOS update for the latter.

PaulW · 24 May 2020 at 22:33

how do i update the Bios safely? is using @BIOS and updating from Gigabytes severs the best way. there does look to be 2 memory updates available.