Ram Help Needed

chimp306 · 9 Oct 2008 at 12:11

Hi everyone

im actually beat this time, i give up but before i throw it all out the window i thought i would ask for some help here.

system as follows

Asus Striker Extreme Mobo
q6600 2.4ghz quad core CPU
320gb Sata HDD
BFG 8800GT GPU
4 x 1 gb Gail Ram
dvd rw drive

pretty basic build to this point, i got the lot second hand from a friend who purchased all of the above from ocuk earlier this year and found the build to complicated...

anyway problem is with 2gb of ram installed vista will run fine. with 4gb installed vista (32 bit) wont boot (wont even install if its in there to start with)

have tested the ram, all checks out ok tested 2 at a time, with all 4 in its error city.

think maybe a bios setting is wrong but im out of my depth now to be honest.

all help and advice gratefully accepted

im running an AM2 / AMD system at the moment which is happy as larry with 4gb of ram so im totally confused over this.

Meloco · 9 Oct 2008 at 12:14

all 32 bit systems are limited to 3.5gb total memory (incl memory on gfx card). But it should still boot. Try a copy of Vista x64 if you can.

Admiral Huddy · 9 Oct 2008 at 12:15

Have you checked the Vdimm for these modules. It maybe worth running them at 2.1v with all four installed at the same time.

chimp306 · 9 Oct 2008 at 12:29

Meloco said:
all 32 bit systems are limited to 3.5gb total memory (incl memory on gfx card). But it should still boot. Try a copy of Vista x64 if you can.

i can do that, im aware that 32 bit systems can only see so much memory but like you say it should boot with the 4gb in there and just report a lower ammount

Admiral Huddy said:
Have you checked the Vdimm for these modules. It maybe worth running them at 2.1v with all four installed at the same time.

would love too, im having trouble with the bios cant find an option to change the voltage anywhere, have been into every menu and cant find it for looking :confused:

can anyone give me a pointer on this i know it must be there

chimp306 · 9 Oct 2008 at 13:49

right, a wee update..

it will run with 3 x 1gb of ram.. add the 4th and we have a hang....

it deffo looks to be the old 4gb on a 32 bit problem so ill download a trial version of windows vista 64 and see if that relieves the problem

managed to find the ram options in the bios at last, why was it under the overclocking menu lol (my bad.. embaressed now)

thanks for the help, once again

Admiral Huddy · 9 Oct 2008 at 14:07

as said, despite the 32bit os not addressing all the available RAM, it should still work ok. I'm suspecting you may have a memory or memory related problem.

Try all the sticks one at a time in each bank and test. It could be a problem with one of the memory banks.

Amonlym · 9 Oct 2008 at 14:29

can you find the chipset voltage, and raise that?
loosen the timings to the ram also if you can.

chimp306 · 9 Oct 2008 at 15:13

Admiral Huddy said:
as said, despite the 32bit os not addressing all the available RAM, it should still work ok. I'm suspecting you may have a memory or memory related problem.

Try all the sticks one at a time in each bank and test. It could be a problem with one of the memory banks.

done that - all ram and all banks passed

thefishdude · 9 Oct 2008 at 15:17

voltages are you prob in my opinion ther ehas to be an place in bios to change them

chimp306 · 9 Oct 2008 at 16:27

thefishdude said:
voltages are you prob in my opinion ther ehas to be an place in bios to change them

voltages currently set at 2.1v as specified on the ram itself (and suggest above)

have also tried the auto detect feature

what would you suggest it should be? sorry but i have no experience in changing ram settings, i have built a few machines but only basic stuff