New Ram, wont Post/Boot/keep stable

Mr.Nick · 19 Mar 2010 at 20:16

I recently bought 2x1gb sticks of GeIL Ultra ram off of the members market to add to my existing 2gb of GeIL (same model) but however, when I insert all four of the ram modules, the computer does not post or will not boot (hangs at Bios screen).

I have tried all four off the ram modules individually and they all work. I have managed to get it to boot up with 3 modules in but after it got to the desktop, the first time it restarted and the second time it took an excessive amount of time to load my applications (fences, rainmeter, objectdock).

Sorry for the mouthful.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

RJC · 19 Mar 2010 at 21:19

What motherboard are you using, you probably need to increase MCH voltage (northbridge) as your utilising all slots.

Are you overclocked, you may need to decrease the overclock.

Mr.Nick · 19 Mar 2010 at 21:25

I am using a Gigabyte EP31-DS3L motherboard and I have no overclock.

I will try increasing the north-bridge, how much approximately should I increase the voltage by?

Thanks

RJC · 19 Mar 2010 at 21:45

Increase by .2v ~ and see how you get on.

Mr.Nick · 19 Mar 2010 at 21:47

Ok, do I do this then insert my new ram? As I cannot enter Bios at all with them in.

mattjd · 19 Mar 2010 at 21:57

That should be fine.

Mr.Nick · 19 Mar 2010 at 23:01

Ok, I increased MCH by .2v but it still didn't Post it with all four modules in. How much further should I go and what do you recommend I do not go past?

Thanks

Mr.Nick · 20 Mar 2010 at 00:09

Ok, ram is running at 2.128v. I've increased the MCH by 0.3v, which seems the highest i can go :confused:

So far on these settings I have gotten it to Post, but it wont boot up, any suggestions?

Thanks

mame · 20 Mar 2010 at 10:44

Are you overclocking? It could be that your motherboard is happy to run (E.G. made up figures) RAM @ 480mhz with 2 sticks but only 440Mhz with 4 sticks.

Mr.Nick · 20 Mar 2010 at 11:21

No I am not overclocking.

Sorry but I don't understand what you mean.

Should I try upping the memory voltages a little? Above 2.1v?

mame · 20 Mar 2010 at 11:50

I'm tempted to say clear the CMOS. If you arn't overclocking then all this should mean is you have to set the date/time after. This will reset everything in the BIOS back to defaults.

You say you have tried the sticks individually but have you tried one stick in each slot in turn?

run CPU-Z and see what timings your motherboard has decided for your memory, also what final RAM speed it's running at. Say your RAM is rated at 5-5-5-15, maybe AUTO settings has it running at 4-5-4-14. Some motherboards seem to try and offset any difference in memory speed by changing the timings if things are left an auto. On my old gigabyte board if i ran the RAM over its rated 400MHz with auto timings, it would decide some mad numbers like 6-7-7-7-36.

Sorry I'm waffling now

I would try:

Clear CMOS
Boot with 2 sticks
go into the BIOS and set VDIMM (RAM voltage) and timings to the manufacturers specs
Maybe increase MCH a touch
shut down and install other 2 sticks

mame · 20 Mar 2010 at 12:00

I've had another thought. Since you arn't overclocking you could try using the 1:1 memory divider just to see if the system wil boot up. Now this will give you quite a low RAM speed but depends which CPU you have. Would probably be 200,266 or 333. This would help rule out a broken RAM slot and will give you a starting point to get the RAM speed back to where it should be.

Mr.Nick · 20 Mar 2010 at 12:16

mame said:
Clear CMOS
Boot with 2 sticks
go into the BIOS and set VDIMM (RAM voltage) and timings to the manufacturers specs
Maybe increase MCH a touch
shut down and install other 2 sticks

Ive tried all of this already, except clearing CMOS, each individual module works fine, and so does each Dimm slot.

try using the 1:1 memory divider just to see if the system wil boot up. Now this will give you quite a low RAM speed but depends which CPU you have. Would probably be 200,266 or 333. This would help rule out a broken RAM slot and will give you a starting point to get the RAM speed back to where it should be.

I don't understand this (sorry, I know absolutely nothing about Ram), but I'm running an E7400 (2.80 GHz)

Mr.Nick · 20 Mar 2010 at 13:59

I can get it to Post with all four Modules in, but still wont boot :confused:

Mr.Nick · 23 Mar 2010 at 21:30

Nobody?

Jayce85 · 25 Mar 2010 at 00:31

Hi,

All these timings, voltages and other BIOS tweaks ar most likely useless. Here's my story;

I had 2x1GB of Corsair Dominator 1066MHz RAM. Wasn't enough for games, so I bought what i considered a matching pair. 2x1GB Dominator 1066MHz RAM.

I encountered the same no boot problems as you. I manged to get 3 sticks to run, but not all four.

I then put my original pair in and went to CPU-Z, I had a look at the SPD tab and noted the JEDEC timings.
I then replaced them with my new pair and did the same timings check.
I found that each pair ran at different timings, and because of this they wouldn't boot.

I also then noticed that one set was labled version 4.1, the other was 5.1. So I contacted my suplier who found another 5.1 pair of Dominator modules.

The extra 5.1 modules run at the same timings as the original 5.1's and I was able to boot up with 4x1GB of Dominator modules for the first time. Success!

I would check the timings of each set, as from my experience if they run at the same timings the worst you will encounter is that the motherboard underclocks them.
Then i would suggest its time to increase the DRAM voltage and increase the RAM speeds.

Hope this helps.

Also, Corsair later told me that if I had contacted them they would be happy to replace my unmatched pair for a matching one for free! Oh well, made my money back on eBay anyway.