Another x64 + 4gb Issue

EviLNygma

EviLNygma

EviLNygma

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Joined
10 Aug 2006
Posts
30
I purchased an extra 2gb DDR800 ram a couple of weeks ago for my PC.
I had an existing 2gb of ram (2x 1gb) from when I built the machine.

I decided to go for the same ram type (obviously) to avoid problems.

I now have 4x1gb sticks of OCZ Platinum DDR800 6400 Dual Channel Ram.
All 4 have the same serial references on despite the time difference between buying the first 2gb and extra 2gb.

XP ran at 3.25gb as expected but was unstable...
One of my personal upgrade rules is to never upgrade to a new O/S until at least the first service pack.... So I have bought Vista x64.

It is installed, all drivers up to date and it ran with the 4x1gb=4gb in perfectly until I started to use memory/graphic intensive programs (ie games like World of Warcraft etc etc)...

It kept having random lockups of anything from being online for 30 second to 20 minutes. The machine would either totally freeze, WoW would quit to an error or the machine would BSOD. The error messages I did see were memory orientated.

When I remove the extra 2gb ram and go back down to 2gb (2x1gb) the machine and any game runs flawlessly. I get no BSOD, CTDs or errors at all. It is just with the 4x1gb memory combination.

I have searched the net over the past few days and also the microsoft site and have come to the conclusion (as seems to be the trend on the other posts) that x64 does not like 4x 1gb DDR800 on an older mainboard. It has issues addressing the 4th slot. The microsoft website has a thread spanning from 2007 with hundreds of entries about this issue... which microshaft still seem to not want to reply to.

I have tried changes to the memory timings, voltage and 99.999% of the bios changes I can make. It doesnt help. I have also seen that changes can be made within Vista itself to stop it using the last 1gb of ram.... this IMO is just a workaround and not a fix.... and makes having 4gb pretty pointless.


My question is... does anyone else using an Abit AW9D-MAX mainboard also have this issue when running 4x1gb ram on x64?

The popular fix seems to be switching the ram to 2x2gb instead (which I have just ordered as its amazingly cheap at the moment).

Anyone have any other ideas?

My system:

ABIT AW9D-MAX (bios v17)
INTEL E6600 2.4ghz (not clocked)
4gb OCZ DDR800 6400 Platinum Edition Dual Channel (4x 1gb)
(soon to be changed to 2x2gb Crucial DDR800)
BFG 8800GTS 320MB OC2
36gb WD SATA Raptor (system drive only)
36gb WD SATA Raptor (games drive only)
75gb WD SATA Raptor (backup drive only)
Audigy2 PCI sound

All drivers are up to date and I am using the WHQL registered nVidia driver.
 
yep I have v17 bios which is the latest from Abit before they stopped manufacturing mainboards. The board is a couple of years old and the bios updates stopped last year... but as I say.. its working fine until I run a game.

I have tried the memory in different combinations... 1x1gb, 3x1gb, 2x1gb all works fine... no issues at all. I have tried both the original ram separately and the new ram separately. I have also tried 2gb with the new ram and then with the older ram... and then a combination mixing the two up.

I have run memtest on all 4gb at once, 2gb at a time and 1gb at a time.... no errors.. The memory is fine.

I know that the AWD9-MAX addresses memory slots 1 and 3 first... then 2 and 4 so I have had the memory in that configuration.. The errors that I can see (when it doesnt freeze) are memory addressing errors.
 
Are you 100% sure it wasn't faulty ram? I would've tried RMA'ing the ram to test whether it was a problem with the ram, not the motherboard.
 
Last edited:
EviLNygma said:
yep I have v17 bios which is the latest from Abit before they stopped manufacturing mainboards. The board is a couple of years old and the bios updates stopped last year... but as I say.. its working fine until I run a game.

I have tried the memory in different combinations... 1x1gb, 3x1gb, 2x1gb all works fine... no issues at all. I have tried both the original ram separately and the new ram separately. I have also tried 2gb with the new ram and then with the older ram... and then a combination mixing the two up.

I have run memtest on all 4gb at once, 2gb at a time and 1gb at a time.... no errors.. The memory is fine.

I know that the AWD9-MAX addresses memory slots 1 and 3 first... then 2 and 4 so I have had the memory in that configuration.. The errors that I can see (when it doesnt freeze) are memory addressing errors.
Click to expand...

from what i can see there you have tried everything possible with the ram, definatley looks like the motherboard is having issues addressing the 4Gb of ram
 
Yes meatball I'm sure its not the ram (which I am now selling to a colleague). As you can see from my previous post that I have tested it as far as I can.


Millsy.. thanks for the suggestions..

Hopefully the 2x2gb will solve the issue. I know that using all 4 slots does put more strain on the memory controller and uses more voltage from the mainboard.... so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the 2 dimms with 2gb on each will take the strain back off the controller and hopefully it will work fine.
 
EviLNygma said:
Yes meatball I'm sure its not the ram (which I am now selling to a colleague). As you can see from my previous post that I have tested it as far as I can.


Millsy.. thanks for the suggestions..

Hopefully the 2x2gb will solve the issue. I know that using all 4 slots does put more strain on the memory controller and uses more voltage from the mainboard.... so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the 2 dimms with 2gb on each will take the strain back off the controller and hopefully it will work fine.
Click to expand...

let me know how it goes with the 2x2Gb, as you can see from my sig i have an older motherboard and need more ram, think that 2x2Gb will be the way i go :)

*edit*

currently running the same ram as you i think :)
 
When I first setup my system in early 2007 I had loads of problems as well with 4x1GB sticks of memory.

Turned out at least one of the sticks was faulty... got them RMA'd and everything was fine.

I also learnt that the voltage wasn't being set correctly by the BIOS. It was set to 1.8V whereas on the RAM itself it said it needed 2.1V. So I changed it to that in the BIOS as well when I got the new stuff. I did try the old stuff on 2.1V but by that time it was already too badly damaged to recover. I believe that running it at DDR800 on 1.8V stressed them too much and they died.
 
I have an old Motherboard, the Asus P5B.

I also have 4x1gb sticks of ram, and have never had a problem here.
Runs sweet, both in XP (obviously not all detected) and Vista x64.

However, as NathanE states above, the Corsair ram that I bought did state that it needs 2.1v on the packet, and the BIOS didn't automatically set this.

If I tried running it at 4-4-4-12, I'd get random lockups and freezes.
Changing the voltage to 2.1v has left me with a perfectly stable system, and never had a problem since.

Vin.
 
Well if my ram doesnt turn up tomorrow I will give the voltage change another try.

The OCZ ram I am using does set to 2.0v as default on the AW9D-MAX board. I have tried 2.1v with no success and I have seen posts from people who have experimented with 2.2v but it is risky to take it up so far.

It is Corsair ram I have ordered to replace this so we will see..

As for the post about faulty 1g dimms... I have tested all 4 separately and in different combinations using memtest... no issues with the ram.
 
I had similar issues when I had XP with 4Gb ram.
Turned out it was games only, I had turned the virtual memory off and the games would hit the buffers.

All good when I resorted back to having a paging file again.
 
superfly... how did you do that.
When I installed vista x64 I formatted my system drive first.

From what I can see it automatically set up a paging file.

I will check again tomorrow... unfortunately Im STILL at work 12 hours after I started ... and no sign of being able to set off home yet.
 
Go into System Properties => Advanced => Performance Options => Advanced then choose Virtual Memory.

You can also change the swap file from the default C: drive to another drive, which is a boost from using the C: drive.

Jingz, work sounds a bit heavy!
 
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