Official GIGABYTE Forum
Questions about GIGABYTE products => Motherboards with Intel processors => Topic started by: dpack_1 on July 28, 2010, 12:51:47 pm
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Hi there,
New to the board and just wanted to pose a quick question, i've looked around a bit and not found exactly what i'm looking for but it's to do with 12gb of RAM only registering as 6gb usable in the OS.
I have a GA-X58A-UD5 (not sure if it's R1 or R2) and Corsair XMS3 12GB (HX3X12G1333C9).
Bios picks up the RAM as 1066mhz yet the manufacturer states it's 1333mhz. Also, the timings read 8-8-8-20 and again the manufacturer states it should be 9-9-9-24.
I manually changed the settings and it picked up all 12gb just fine, but then after having to reformat my OS installation again it did something weird in not picking up my SSD system drive, i reset the CMOS and defaulted back to factory settings and now it finds my SSD just fine but no matter what i do with the RAM settings it just will not register all 12gb in POST but sees it in the OS, but with 6gb usable.
I'm running Win 7 Professional 64gb if it makes any difference.
Any advice on what i should be doing to fix this would be great.
Thanks!
Darren
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Hi Darren
Have you used the XMP setting for the memory in the BIOS?
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No, the only setting i touched was the DRAM Timing Selectable, set to Quick and manually input the the timings suggested by Corsair, and i set the System Memory Multiplier up to 1333 instead of 1066 (i 'think' that's either 8 or 10?)
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I just checked up on your memory and it doesn't have an XMP option which is a shame. This is yours if I am not mistaken(at the bottom of the tripple channel): http://www.corsair.com/products/corei7/default.aspx
By the way quick edit on the "UD5" ;)
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Yep, that's what i've got.
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Right, what BIOS version are you running and what revision of your motherboard is it?
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Mobo is Rev. 1
Bios is X58A-UD5-F1
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Right well that it a very old BIOS version for that board. It is now up to F6i which is a beta version but should be stable as it's posted on the official website or the F5. Any way I would recommend updating the BIOS.
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3304&dl=1#dl
That may well solve your problem with the memory if not come babk and post again.
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Ok, i'm pretty good with most computer related stuff but never flashed a bios before.
Downloaded the file from the link you gave, extracted that and it gives me 3 files, an autoexec, the bios file and a flashspi executable.
Do i just run the flashspi or is there some other way of doing this?
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Right. unzip the files onto a usb pen drive formatted as FAT32. Insert the pendrive into the USB port and then reboot. Press the"End" key as it is POSTing and you will be taken into the BIOS flashing utility Q_Flash. From there just folow the prompts and DO NOT TURN OFF THE POWER under any circumstances. It will look for the pendrive with the file on it and use that to update the BIOS. Believe me it is not as difficult as it sounds.
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Ok, bios updated.
Still didnt give the proper readings for my ram so i set it back to 9-9-9-24 and 1333, but the new bios also gives a different read out.
It sees that there is 2048mb of RAM installed in slots 1 through 6 but it is only enabling slots 1 through 3, ignoring 4, 5 and 6. Like it knows that there is RAM installed but not enabling them slots to be used?
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Well done, another thing under your belt. Did you load the optimised BIOS default settings afterwards?
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Yep, just cleared the cmos and went in and reset to optimised again to be sure.
This is how i have things set at the moment:
(http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/6564/20100728001.jpg)
You can see in this image how 3 of the slots aren't being used.
(http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/7352/20100728002.jpg)
(http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/4277/20100728003.jpg)
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Well I have been checking all your readings and it seems ok but the only thing I can think of is under the turnaround settings (which are set to auto at the moment) there is the option to change setting for "on the same rank" from 1 to 2. Try that for each Channe lA,B & C. save and exit. Reboot and see if that helps. If not return the settings to auto.
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Still no luck.
Tried setting the turnaround from 1 to 2 on both read and writing for all 3 channels. Made no difference what so ever.
It's weird how this was reading 12gb just yesterday fine and without any hardware changes it's now stuck at enabling just half of it.
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Have you tried re-seating all the ram sticks?
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I'll have to do that later, the thing's been turned on all day and pretty damn hot in there now.
Will get back to you after i've reseated everything and played around some more.
If you can think of anything else in the mean time please let me know.
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I am afraid that I am fresh out of ideas. I can't help feeling that I am missing something but can't think what. :-\ Give me a while to study it and maybe it will come to me.
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Ok, i reseated all the ram, even swapped postioning of the sticks. No change.
Started it up today, it had enabled another 2gb so was reading 8gb, but after a shakey boot (restarted 2 or 3 times before getting to my windows log in screen) it finally made it to a desktop for about 10 seconds before BSOD'ing with an IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error.
I'm baffled now, i'm gonna guess bad hardware but is it the RAM or Mobo?
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Well I would go with the ram but to be honest it could also be an overheating CPU.
I found this quoted by smoeone on the web and thought it made good sense:
Most commonly it is the CPU overheating. A close second would be bad RAM. The first thing I would do if you have this issue is to run the machine till it gives you that error, then immediately reboot it, go into the BIOS and check the CPU temperature. 3/5 times it will be way too hot.
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It literally happened as soon as i turned it on this afternoon, had been off for over 20 hours.
I have a water-cooled CPU, it's never over 60C under heavy load and around 39 at idle.
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I think that you need to run Memtest86+ on your memory modules and let it do a thorough test. It is not quick will take a few hours to check properly but at least you wil know for certain.
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I cant run it on all the modules though because some of the slots aren't being enabled?
I can only test the sticks that are enabled at that time, which is now varying on every reboot between 6gb and 8gb.
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Remove half of the sticks and then run the test. Replace the first set with the second and redo the test.
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What's the model of PSU that you're using?
Manufacturer's Specs:
Corsair XMS3 12GB (HX3X12G1333C9)
1333MHz
9-9-9-24-2T
1.5v
I read somewhere (can't remember where it is) that when all six memory slots are occupied, the motherboard sometimes may not be very happy and it refuses to detect some of the memories or some of the memories may not work properly. If my memory serves me well, it has something to do with the "voltage".
For an i7 you are not supposed to run the memory in excess of 1.65V because the memory controller voltage is tied to the RAM voltage.
You may try two things:
[1] Increase the DRAM voltage. But make sure it won't be more than 1.65V as mentioned above.
[2] Relax the memory timing, e.g. 10-10-10-24
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Yes, onemilimeter it was so much easier when you could just up the memory and Northbridge voltages to compensate for the extra load wasn't it? ;)
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Hell, full specs are:
PSU: Corsair 950W - CMPSU-950TXUK
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD5
CPU: Intel Core i7 930 2.80GHz
RAM: Corsair XMS3 12GB HX3X12G1333C9
GPU: OcUK Value GeForce GTX 480 1536MB GDDR5
HDD's: 40GB Intel SSD - 140GB WD Raptor - 2TB Samsung
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Yes, onemilimeter it was so much easier when you could just up the memory and Northbridge voltages to compensate for the extra load wasn't it? ;)
Agree, Dark Mantis... when more slots are used, the "sourcing current" of the memory controller (which is embedded in the processor) may not be enough if the DRAM voltage is low.
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Upped the DRAM voltage to 1.62, no change.
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I cant run it on all the modules though because some of the slots aren't being enabled?
I can only test the sticks that are enabled at that time, which is now varying on every reboot between 6gb and 8gb.
Varying observation... are those detected memories always from the same few slots?
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Just goes numerically, slots 1-3 are always good, sometimes it goes up to slot 4.
Doesn't matter what sticks are in what slot. I'm thinking this is pointing to a motherboard problem?
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Hi...
Probably we may reduce the scope of the problem into the following components:
Memories <==> Memory Slots <==> Signal PCB Traces <==> CPU Socket <==> Memory Controller Embedded in CPU
[-A-] Defective Parts:
[1] Defective memory module(s) - you may confirm this by testing each module one-by-one or two modules each time using Memtest86+
[2] Dodgy memory slot(s) - you may place a single 2GB module to each slot and see if the OS can detect it
[3] Problematic CPU socket (e.g. bent pin(s))
[-B-] Poor Hardware Installation:
[1] Memory modules are not installed properly - you may try to reseat them
[2] CPU is not installed properly - you may try to reseat the CPU
[-C-] Software Related:
[1] BIOS settings - adjust DRAM voltage and timings
You've tried [-B-][1] and [-C-][1]. You may also try the rest and you probably should only try [-B-][2] as last option considering the amount of work. If the problem still can not be solved, I suggest you to RMA the memory kit as well as the motherboard.
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Okay.
Thanks for the help guys!
I'll work my way through the list there and give feedback on any changes but i'm guessing this is going to end with an RMA.
Thanks again.
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I'll work my way through the list there and give feedback on any changes but i'm guessing this is going to end with an RMA.
I agree with you too... May be you should consider to RMA the CPU too :)