Memory turning system off

gallowaya

gallowaya

gallowaya

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24 Jan 2012
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I'm not sure how to explain this but I'll try.

Hi, Today I received the parts for my first/new build, anyway after installing everything it was working fine I installed W7, then when I installed my GPU drivers the system turned off (the gpu is fine now). After a little experimenting I found that it would work with 1 ram stick.

Since then I found that if I put a stick in certain slots it would cause my machine when first turned on to turnoff after about 1 second then turn itself on again then proceed to turn itself off again, continuing like this until I turned it off at the psu.
The motherboard is an Gigabyte Z68ap-B3 rev. and the Ram is 2x4gb dual channel Kingston HyperX genesis grey.
I tried inserting the Sticks one at a time and checking the results.
(Order of slots from closest to CPU)
-------------------Stick 1------Stick 2
Slot 4 (Channel A) . Pass ------- Pass
Slot 2 (Channel b) . pass ------- pass
Slot 3 (channel A) . Fail -------- Fail
Slot 1 (channel b) . Fail --------- Fail

I currently have them both in slots 4 and 2 which is akward because it is directly below the CPU cooler fan and I don't benefit from the dual channel

I appreciate any help as I am completely out of my depth. (If I have missed something important please ask.)
 
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gallowaya said:
I'm not sure, I can't get to the bios when the aforementioned slots are used as the system turns off too quick
Click to expand...

Can't you get into the BIOS with a stick of RAM in slots 2 or 4?

Enable the XMP profile but set the DRAM voltage manually to ~1.55V.

Also what CPU cooler are you using?
 
I would test each stick and slot by booting into windows with just one stick and try it from each slot to find out if you have a faulty motherboard or ram problems.If machine fails to boot with just one stick then you either have a faulty ram slot or faulty ram, process of elimination.Sounds like it could be the motherboard unusual to have 2 faulty slots though.Sorry seen you've done that already so cannot be ram so must be motherboard.
Will pc boot into windows with both sticks in either channel a or b ? If it does then could check bios for ram timings for each slot and see if you have timings shown in bios, faulty slot would show nothing.
 
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Surveyor said:
Can't you get into the BIOS with a stick of RAM in slots 2 or 4?

Enable the XMP profile but set the DRAM voltage manually to ~1.55V.

Also what CPU cooler are you using?
Click to expand...

Yeah I can I thought i needed to get into the BIOS with the sticks in the affected slots, anyway.

Just to help both of us out I took some quick pics to better show the situation
I changed this
2gy0pz8.jpg


to this

nnp193.jpg

and I the went into the memory voltage control and changed it to 1.56 as there was no 1.55.

256skk9.jpg


Note because I was unsure about what these may do to my system I decided to run them by you guys because I don't want to irreparably damage anything.

And the CPU cooler is a Gelid Tranquillio Rev.2
 
It looks fine.

XMP profile is enabled in the second screenshot and you've manually set the voltage to 1.56V.

Note that if you didn't set the DRAM voltage manually it would have been 1.65V which is really too high.

The other standard settings you seem to have changed are "Performance Enhance" which by default is "Turbo" and "DRAM Timing Selectable" which by default is "Auto".

You may want to consider changing those back.

Your CPU cooler shouldn't be an issue but if your RAM slots still don't work you can try loosening the 4 securing screws a touch.
 
Surveyor said:
It looks fine.

XMP profile is enabled in the second screenshot and you've manually set the voltage to 1.56V.

Note that if you didn't set the DRAM voltage manually it would have been 1.65V which is really too high.

The other standard settings you seem to have changed are "Performance Enhance" which by default is "Turbo" and "DRAM Timing Selectable" which by default is "Auto".

You may want to consider changing those back.

Your CPU cooler shouldn't be an issue but if your RAM slots still don't work you can try loosening the 4 securing screws a touch.
Click to expand...

My issue with the CPU cooler was that the fan was directly over the top of slot 4 so I have to remove the fan from the heatsink to access the ram slot to either remove or insert ram sticks.
 
gallowaya said:
My issue with the CPU cooler was that the fan was directly over the top of slot 4 so I have to remove the fan from the heatsink to access the ram slot to either remove or insert ram sticks.
Click to expand...

I was asking about the cooler because overtightening can warp the motherboard/CPU socket and cause RAM slots not to function.

The overtightening problem is usually related to coolers like the Corsair sealed unit water coolers but it could, in theory, apply to any cooler.
 
I changed the performance enhancer and timing selector back to auto and proceeded to test the ram in the different slots. Still wouldn't work, I then tried with one stick in an affected slot to gradually loosen the cpu cooler a few turns at a time. No luck.

I could return it if I had to, but is there a drastic impact on performance with 8gb using a single channel over dual channel.

I appreciate the help you've given so far.
 
If it were me i would return the motherboard, i wouldn't be comfortable knowing that it's faulty in some way.Dual channel is going to be faster and you may want to add more ram in the future before prices increase, which would mean you having to get bigger sticks rather than just adding additional. your choice at the end of the day though. Your running at half your possible memory band width if you stay single channel but only about 5% or less speed difference between single and dual channel with 8gb.
 
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dont use quick for setting timings either,ive seen blue screens with that,its beter to manually set timings for both channels of ram

qpi/vtt might be too high for 1333mhz which will also cause freezing/blue screens 124 error ect,should only need stock 1.05v,im using 1.05v with 8gb @1600mhz
 
Ciff1 said:
If it were me i would return the motherboard, i wouldn't be comfortable knowing that it's faulty in some way.Dual channel is going to be faster and you may want to add more ram in the future before prices increase, which would mean you having to get bigger sticks rather than just adding additional. your choice at the end of the day though. Your running at half your possible memory band width if you stay single channel but only about 5% or less speed difference between single and dual channel with 8gb.
Click to expand...

I have a OEM copy of Windows 7, aren't they tied to the motherboard so should I return it I must buy a copy of W7 again.
 
Microsoft normally let you obtain a new licence code if for any reason your motherboard were to fail, in your case faulty from start. I think you have to email them and explain why. Never had to do this myself but have read about it. You shouldn't have to buy another copy due to faulty hardware. Perhaps another forum member who has experience of this maybe able to confirm.
 
If you have activated your oem copy online you will need to contact ms by phone to get another code normally talking to them and explaining why they normally allow small hardware changes.
 
There are two methods either updating through windows it self or using q-flash which requires a usb stick. There are some guide videos on youtube for both methods.
 
Do I have to update in order, because I am on bios version f2 and it goes to f7, can I skip to F7 or do I need to get there in steps F3,F4 etc.

Thanks
 
No you should be able to go straight to the latest one, no need to go in steps as this should contain all the other updates.
 
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