Legit Reviews

I know that it's been a long time since I've posted, please call me too busy to do much of anything all the while trying to hang on to my job.

I've got a friend here at work with the following problem:

Just recently purchased 4 GB's (2 x 2 GB sticks) of RAM (Corsair PC6400 DDR2 800MHz) and has matched it up with his existing RAM of the same type and manufacturer. He has an ASUS Motherboard P5N-D with an Intel E8400 proc. Windows XP Pro 32 Bit. While installing the RAM the first 6 GB's work, although XP only recognizes 3.6 GB's. Afer installing the last 2 GB's (8 GB's total) his pc will not boot up. He has tried mixing up the RAM and it all works good. He's also mixed up the slots for the RAM and it all checks good. It just will not work with 8 GB's of RAM. Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance,

Razorbacx

Is the memory listed as compatible on the ASUS site? Only other thing i can think of is to make sure the bios is the latest and try reducing the voltage a bit. Maybe someone who knows more about memory will have a fix.....

Is the system posting and not loading windows, or is it not posting?

I might be wrong here, but wouldn't raising the voltage a tad help with all dimm slots used? I know an intel board I installed for a friend was picky as hell about the voltage. it wouldn't boot with 4GB(4x1GB) but after raising the voltage..it booted..didn't run long tho..The ram needed 2.2v to run, and the board only went up to 2.1v. so he had to settle for 2GB, which booted and still boots fine.

Thanks for the advice. I'll pass it along and get him to sign up and post the results on this thread.

Razorbacx

Maybe this is a stupid question but is he running Vista 64 bit? I'm running Vista Ultimate 32 bit and it's showing all 4 GB of my RAM. On another tack, is it possible that two of the slots are bad? That's why I won't buy ASUS boards anymore. In my experience, I spent more time RMA'ing them than using them. I wish you the best of luck, brother. I know how you feel with this issue.

Jack

oops! Saw that he's running XP Pro 32bit. It's not going to use 8 GB anyway. 4 is the max it will recognize. or 3.6 as you stated. Sorry.

Jack

it is possible the slots are bad. I had 2 motherboard that had that happen..one was coincidentally an Asus board. Which actually still worked if i used the far left memory slots. the other slots wouldn't post at all with even 1 stick. I found out that board, and the MSI board I had, that developed the same issue was due to a power surge from the wall.(I didn't use a surge protector then) Has your friend tried each stick in each slot? I still have a feeling it's voltage related, but unfaithful brought up an old memory of bad dimm slots lol so that is a possibility..

Why on Earth is he running 8GB of RAM in a 32-bit OS? Does he realize that he just wasted money?

He needs to update his OS... He can't use 4GB of memory in 32-bit Windows let alone 8GB... He needs to get 64-bit and with Windows 7 coming out on October 22nd, that should be his best bet. It's pretty slick.

Thanks all for the info. I wasn't sure if he would be able top benefit from the 8 GB's of ram due to the limitations of the OS, but now I (we) know.

Razorbacx

Razorbacx wrote:Afer installing the last 2 GB's (8 GB's total) his pc will not boot up. He has tried mixing up the RAM and it all works good. He's also mixed up the slots for the RAM and it all checks good. It just will not work with 8 GB's of RAM.

well yea he needs to update the OS to 64 bit one to benefit from using more than 3GB, but that can't be why the rig wouldn't boot with all slots filled(that I know of). Not that 8GB is needed.

I had a similar problem when I tried to run 4 sticks. Sometimes it would boot but was unstalbe, other times no boot. I ended up getting 2 - 2GB sticks and it runs fine now.

Apoptosis wrote:He needs to update his OS... He can't use 4GB of memory in 32-bit Windows let alone 8GB... He needs to get 64-bit and with Windows 7 coming out on October 22nd, that should be his best bet. It's pretty slick.

Actual you have a big advantage running a 32 bit os with 8gigs of ram http://www.superspeed.com/desktop/ramdisk.php, add a 4.7gig ram drive. 64 bit os is just bloatware until someone has some hardware that require 64 bit to function.

RamDisk Plus 10 has a most unique feature. Our patent pending technology can access memory beyond the limitation imposed by a Windows 32-bit operating system! In other words, RamDisk Plus 10 can use "unmanaged" Windows' memory e.g. above 4GB. It can also use the stubbornly inaccessable memory between 3.2GB and 4GB.

See the product's help file for detailed explanation of what "unmanaged" memory is and how to access and use it with RamDisk Plus 10.