4x1G ram on p5w dh deluxe
hi all
I have problems when trying to run 4 sticks of ram on the p5w. System is:
(p5w) - BIOS 2704
Intel e6600 stock with thermalright 120 ultra extreme
2x1G Corsair 6400C4
2x1G Crucial Balistix Tracer 6400
4x750 + 1x640 HDDs with various raid volumes
Digitalnow quattro s-t tv capture card
Creative Audigy 2 zs platinum
Coolermaster Real power 850W psu
Symptoms vary, but usually what happens is:
0. (computer is off - has been off for at least 15 minutes)
1. Turn on computer
2. Video card posts
3. You hear a single beep indicating normal post
3. Mobo hangs on post (you see the p5w splash graphic, but nothing happens - have waited for hours)
Other symptoms i have had include:
- no post at all - this only seems to happen when the crucial sticks are in the orange slots and the corsair sticks are in the black slots
Eventually i can make the mobo post and load the OS etc by LEAVING the computer frozen in post for at least 10 min (if I only leave it a short time, it doesn't tend to work) and then powering off and powering back on (reset doesn't seem to work at all). When the mobo does eventually post, it sometimes tells me that "overclocking has failed" and I have to go into the bios (changing nothing doesn't stop the OS loading next time), but at other times it just loads the operating system straight away. This procedure doesn't always work (ie. the computer won't always get to the OS on the second attempt), but eventually after enough powering off and powering on it will 'randomly' work.
The interesting thing is that once I have got into the OS, I can shut down the computer and it will always work first time if I try turning on the computer again after no more that 1 or 2 minutes. It is almost like the RAM needs to warm up!
How do I know this is caused by the RAM? I am not 100% certain, but here are a few points and questions:
1. If I use less than 4 sticks, the computer will always work first time.
2. I can get rid of the splash screen, and when I do this i see that the last thing shown in the printout is something about usb device detection. The next thing that should come up is the ram detection stage.
3. I usually run my ram at 2.2V 800mhz 4-4-4-12-4 - I am currently trying to run slower speeds and looser timings, but this doesn't seem to help. I haven't tried "default to spd".
4. I wonder whether the bios battery could be dying
5. I wonder whether this could be caused by a hardware incompatibility. I haven't actually gone to the length of pulling out all my expansion cards and trying to post with 1 hdd, vid card, and the 4 sticks of ram, but at various times I have had each of the cards out individually with no change.
6. PSU should be more than adequate - to ensure this i pulled out all power except mobo and still had issues.
7. bios memory setting?
8. could be a memory seating issue, except that i have had the sticks in and out often and whenever it is only 2 or 3 sticks it always works
9. dodgy memory stick - when the mobo gets through post I've been able to run memtest through and I get no errors at all.
10. the cpu and vid card are *NOT overclocked*
So in summary I'm looking for advice from people who might have come across similar issues to what i am encountering. I keep hearing of people who are able to run 4 sticks in this board without any issues so i wonder whether it is something that I'm doing wrong. Any advice or constructive comments would be appreciated.
uomenothing
4x1G ram on p5w dh deluxe
Hi Radlord
Thanks for your comment. As I said in my first post, memtest runs and finds no errors with all four sticks in at 800MHz 4-4-4-12-4 - obviously I can only run memtest on four sticks after it has got through post though. I have also tested the sticks individually at this setting (and higher) and they check out fine.
Since I posted last I have tried setting bios to use spd, as well as trying manual settings at 533MHz 6-6-6-18-6 - neither of these settings worked...