Guys, I've just built a new system, based around a i7-950 CPU, a X58 Sabertooth board and 6GB of Dominator RAM, but it's been giving me a real headache. I've been fighting with it since Christmas Eve and it's pretty much taken over all my time since then.
The main problem is that it doesn't always see the full 6GB of RAM, sometimes reporting 4GB or even 2 GB instead. I've tried replacing my Viper cooler with the stock heatsink/fan, reseating the CPU, reseating the memory sticks and changing their slots, trying different DRAM voltages, but none of these have cured the problem.
I find that reseating the CPU will usually restore the 6GB, but at the next boot (when the system has been left off for a few hours) it will be back to 4GB. At first when I was swapping memory sticks around I thought I had found one that was faulty, but then all of a sudden that one would start working again and another fail. I had a similar experience with memory slots.
Because of this intermittent/shifting nature of the fault I suspect the memory is probably okay and that there is some kind of circuit/contact type issue either on the board or within the memory controller on board the i7 CPU.
I'm currently waiting for the Post Office to re-open tomorrow so that I can RMA both my motherboard and RAM, as this was what OcUK support recommended when I phoned them yesterday. I just hope they see the problem straight away, as sometimes 6GB will show from the first boot and remain all day long. Also, running Memtest on the RAM sticks brings up no errors.
Anyone got any thoughts on this or have had a similar experience?
The main problem is that it doesn't always see the full 6GB of RAM, sometimes reporting 4GB or even 2 GB instead. I've tried replacing my Viper cooler with the stock heatsink/fan, reseating the CPU, reseating the memory sticks and changing their slots, trying different DRAM voltages, but none of these have cured the problem.
I find that reseating the CPU will usually restore the 6GB, but at the next boot (when the system has been left off for a few hours) it will be back to 4GB. At first when I was swapping memory sticks around I thought I had found one that was faulty, but then all of a sudden that one would start working again and another fail. I had a similar experience with memory slots.
Because of this intermittent/shifting nature of the fault I suspect the memory is probably okay and that there is some kind of circuit/contact type issue either on the board or within the memory controller on board the i7 CPU.
I'm currently waiting for the Post Office to re-open tomorrow so that I can RMA both my motherboard and RAM, as this was what OcUK support recommended when I phoned them yesterday. I just hope they see the problem straight away, as sometimes 6GB will show from the first boot and remain all day long. Also, running Memtest on the RAM sticks brings up no errors.
Anyone got any thoughts on this or have had a similar experience?