16 replies to this topic

[bluerip]

Recently I got 2 pairs of Crucial ram,

http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.as...2509AF6A5CA7304

for a total of 4 Gigs. (Not the fastest, but should have been just fine!)
This was matched to my Mobo from Crucial's calculator.
My Mobo = ASUS A8N Premium SLI rev 1.02, BIOS 1302 (ok for 64-bit)
OSes = XP32hm (almost never used), and XPPRO64 (always use), and still have hopes of a
triboot with Vista64. anyway ...

to my shock I can only get fans and LEDs with all 4 sticks of memory in. Total hang, no

beeps, no video, no post screen, and can't enter the bios unless I turn off, unplug and

remove the 4th stick.

After scouring google, ASUS and Crucial forums, and queries respectively (Crucial said its

a Mobo problem, ASUS is incredibly slow - got nothin')
I tried slower dram timings and higher voltages.Each failure (same result as above)

requiring unplugging and removing the 4th stick in order to reboot and make another bios

setting. This has been a real pain.

Questions that I have not been able find answers to (besides the obvious one - Q0. What

will fix this? );

Q1. How high can I 'up' the memory voltage before it is dangerous? this Crucial memory is

normally 2.6volts and I have taken it to 2.75 so far. Do I dare go farther?

Q2.Anyone think this may be a bad mobo' memory slot. I have interchanged all of the memory

sticks to find that they all work otherwise in the 1st 3 slots.

Q3.Since the the mobo, OS, & memory are all supposed to be compatable at 4GBs
is it possible that having the dualboot with XP32 is screwing with this? My thought is it

shouldn't be since it hangs before the POST.

Q4.If this was your problem what would you do? Any suggestions? Cuz unless ASUS finally

comes through with a "fix" I've come to "the best that I can do" point.

Q5. DRAM timing- Is there a begining slow point to start with that should work to start

from? I have been working backwards and getting nowhere.

If you have read this far, Thanks . Even if you have no suggestions.

[m.oreilly]

asus...bios...oh man...blue, you brave soul. were the timings/voltages stock in bios when you installed the extra sticks? in my very humble opinion, finding a cool consumer oriented mobo that does amd s939 and 4 gigs well is a tough one.

[VROSA]

Once my A8V mobo had a problem with a 512MB memory stick which worked fine in slots #1 to #3, but never in #4. I tryed to get some feedback from ASUS and Sansung, but got nothing. So i replaced that stick with a new one and put it in other rig... and it worked... but I never knew what the prob was !

My my opinion is that you have a problem with the mobo !
Dont get shocked if ASUS take a week to reply ...lol...

[Camaro]

Seems like you might have already done this, but have you tried 2T command rate?
an possible change the ram from 400, to 333.

Also one other thing which core is the CPU?

[BlueScreenOfDeath]

m.oreilly, on Apr 4 2007, 02:17 AM, said:

asus...bios...oh man...blue, you brave soul. were the timings/voltages stock in bios when you installed the extra sticks? in my very humble opinion, finding a cool consumer oriented mobo that does amd s939 and 4 gigs well is a tough one.

Relax the timings a little more and dont go higher than 2.7..

[Roadrunner]

Sounds like a motherboard problem-
but isn't bios 1302 still in beta?
Have you tried reverting back to a previous bios to see if it makes a difference?
A long shot, I know, but worth trying before declaring the motherboard bad.

[bluerip]

to mo,
yeah, reset the bios to defaults and auto detect for timings & voltage. should have worked.
"tough one", Why is that?

to v,
a week...ohhgah

to Cam,
yes and yes. CPU...right,
Athlon64 X2 4200+ Manchester
and I forgot to mention the chipset-nForce4 revA3, driver ver. 6.66 (if I was a religous fanatic I'd be worried about this. hehe)

to BSOD,
ok i will relax them even more. 1st I think I need to relax alittle more
oh, and why not more than 2.7v ? I can't find any reading on that.

to Roadrunner,
beepbeep!
it does sound like that. I am hoping its not. hoping asus will say, "So sorry, here is your new bios update. should take care of it." I know. I'm dreaming.
That bios has been in beta FOR A YEAR!!!! same for the chipset driver. Thats not encouraging, is it.
I thought that changing the bios back to an older one was a no,no. Or was that for firmware on DVRs. crap I can't remember. lol

Edited by bluerip, 05 April 2007 - 03:41 AM.

[WFO]

Is there a memory hole option in the bios to play with? A long shot that it would help. It definitely sounds like a mobo problem if any of the 3 sticks boot in the first 3 slots. I just returned a 2x2GB G.Skill kit because 1 stick was finicky and didn't want to boot period. The new set booted just fine with no changes. Good luck!

[bluerip]

WFO, on Apr 4 2007, 09:16 PM, said:

Is there a memory hole option in the bios to play with? A long shot that it would help. It definitely sounds like a mobo problem if any of the 3 sticks boot in the first 3 slots. I just returned a 2x2GB G.Skill kit because 1 stick was finicky and didn't want to boot period. The new set booted just fine with no changes. Good luck!

On this bios it is called "DRAM Over 4G Remapping" and there is a 2nd setting simular to this also. I'd have to go into the bios again cuz I don't remember exactly what it was called. I did try switching those on and off with each change in timing. Also I recalculated the rest of the settings with each change for proper balance. Talk about a pain. :crazy:
Each pair worked fine alone.
This is looking more like a bad mobo slot to me. I really hope not. I hate RMAs.

[m.oreilly]

i dunno...i have repealed a bios once or twice before...these days, i would look at a bios issue, rather than a mobo/ hardware mishap...

[BlueScreenOfDeath]

Going above 2.8v will cook your memory. Mine is spec-ed to go to 2.7v and i wont go any higher than that. If you relax the memory timings you shouldnt have any problems with the ram.

Kinda weird though that i've never seen this problem with this particular motherboard.

[Camaro]

Going too high on the volts will overheat them, Unless you have excellent air flow an know they are not getting too hot I would not go over that on volts either without knowing the limits they can take.

[BlueScreenOfDeath]

Especially them being Crucial..they likely arent tested to go that high and perform good. My OCZ Platinum DDr500 sticks can easily do 2.7 but timings cant be lowered to be more aggressive, they sit at 3-4-4-4

[bluerip]

Thank You all

I just clicked the link that was in the automated response from ASUS for if no real response is received with in 48 hours and.... geez... it lead to an RMA page. I suppose thats what you do if you are so big a company. Don't have time - just give 'em a new one. But what if it is something a bios update could easily fix?
I'm waiting abit longer. Maybe a real responce will come through.

In the meantime I have backed off on the voltage and relaxed the timing even more with the same result. even switched the sticks again - same result - nothing.

time to relax now

[m.oreilly]

whoa, it's beer:30 already
yep blue, it's time to relax...