Legit Reviews

I can't run 2 sticks of ram!!!

I decided to play around with myOCZ Gold sticks of out of boredom....
I only clocked them to 230MHz & 3v for ~30 mins...
I set bios defaults, power off and switch to gskill....now it won't boot.
It will with 1 stick....booting is no porb with either stick in any slot.....just not 2 sticks!
I've tried SPD auto, manually setting 3-4-4-12 / loose misc. timings
2T timing and bank interleve off
I flashed the (latest) bios 3 times.


Any Ideas anyone?

I can't believe this board! deja-vu anyone?

don't worry Joe, this wont effect our arraingement ;)

Hmm... can't say that I ever had that happen on myExpert board Ken, but I did on my UT SLI-D. Just stopped working with one set of sticks. I was able to get it to boot with another set though. I have tried the gold sticks back in it yet?

From what I've heard the expert board is wicked hard to dial in for memory. Which slots are you using? You say it works with 1 stick but have you tried each stick independently...maybe one went bad?

Try them in the orange slots only... Also, did you try to go back to the ocz stuff?

FZ1 wrote:From what I've heard the expert board is wicked hard to dial in for memory.

I've got used to that (i think)

FZ1 wrote: Which slots are you using?

Tried them all, orange always worked best.

FZ1 wrote:You say it works with 1 stick but have you tried each stick independently

yep...

pastorjay wrote:Hmm... can't say that I ever had that happen on myExpert board Ken, but I did on my UT SLI-D. Just stopped working with one set of sticks. I was able to get it to boot with another set though. I have tried the gold sticks back in it yet?

grunt wrote:......Also, did you try to go back to the ocz stuff?

no I haven't tried two sticks of any other ram since.......it's a good idea! I'll try later on.


But I think I might have found the prob. I've set Trc to 7 in the bios, but cpuz etc read 13 and is set trfc to 14 but cpuz says 21.....other timings are off
These timings are same same i get when i set the to auto, except for Trc
It looks like the bios got messed up switching memory types? I've used 3 types in last few months. (I know it shouldn't but this board always had probs)
I'll try flashing again, reset, remove the battery for 24hrs etc.
I've had this kind of prob with the board before, but not as bad....

the board is superpi 32m stable with 1 stick (tested in all slots)

I hope its not dead....i've grown to love this board......it's only problem is, that it hates change but it must be tweaked

Thanks guys..

I can't boot with 2 sticks, dual channel or not.
I tried 3 different rams, UTT / TCCD / UCCC......nothing

I've flashed bios(s) various times.......removed the battery etc.
It could be the board or the CPU........(suspect board)
I will be able to test with an Opty soon (thanks Joe)
If it's the board then I'll RMA it and also get a Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe mobo.

The P4 rig is been sold, to pay for the Opty/mobo.....

having 2x dual cores should help our folding efforts too....

some times mine Ultra-D does simmilar things, i have to put in memory with it hot, not on but hotl. Boot with only one stick then with out unpluging the PSU or powering it down with the lights still on on the mobo add the other stick.

infinitevalence wrote:some times mine Ultra-D does simmilar things, i have to put in memory with it hot, not on but hotl. Boot with only one stick then with out unpluging the PSU or powering it down with the lights still on on the mobo add the other stick.

I've just tried that........now use!
It won't boot with 2 sticks, in any slot, dual channel or not.

It must be 1 of 3 things
1.) "PEBCAC" => Problem exsists between keyboard an chair! --> I'll be the first to admit, I'm still new'ish to AMD...... but it tried downgrading the bios, flashed via winflash and floppy numerous times. Tried 2T, 333MHz divider, stock settings, low and high voltage etc. I removed the battery for over 48hrs. I even tested with my Antec Neopower PSU as this OCZ PSU has known (cold boot) issues with this board. -> nothin'
2.) The board could be fecked, but I doubt it.......just changing memory shouldn't kill a board......even a DFI board!
3.)The CPU memory controller is busted.........but again, how? I run it with ~1.48v and when I used the UTT ram I didn't go over ~3V, so the mem controller should be ok. (I did use more vdimm ~6mths ago)

I dunno.......I wait till I get FZ1's Opty to see if it's the cpu.
I'm thinking of getting the Asus board (A8R32-MVP Deluxe). I could use that with the Opty and then use the currrent cpu/mobo for the second rig.

I'm gonna play aroung with drive strenghts, It might help?

I just can't see how this happened

This board was a struggle from day one....but I've gotten to know it, To me it has personality! ;)

I also can't send it back, as I stood on the stock chipset HFS a while back and it's broken

Now it's working again! I can boot two sticks!

Earlier today the pc wouldn't boot @ all.
This is a known issue, this board has a cold boot issue with the powerstream 600w powersupplies. The only way I could get it to boot was by unplugging my pump @ startup, once the system posts I plugged back in the pump....

I then fixed this issue by pure luck by adding 2 Sata HDD's. I guess the extra 5v load done something?

Long story short, I tried two sticks again...before giving up on this board.....and voila...she boots!!! 2x superpi 32m stable and still running dual prime now for 2hrs8min @ 2.8Ghz / ram 255Mhz 3-4-3-8
When I get my new PSU (hopefully) this will all be a distant memory!

Thanks for all the help everyone...!

:EDIT:

I just read my previous post! Mayby I killed the memory controller on the 4400+???? I'm using the Opty I bought from FZ1.
I don't want to tempt faith and swap cpu's......so I won't know for sure untill I buy another board next week and test on that....

This board........geezzz

What are you hitting on the new opty Ken?

I spent about ~6hrs over the past few days trying to get 2.85 stable.......I've given up....If it's that hard it must be very near it's limit......so I'm going to stick with 2.8......It's got to last me @ least ~6mths.....LOL
Since I've now got my 2GB back, I wanna go back to playing Oblivion.....I only got to play about ~4hrs of it before the rig crapped out on me.......
I'm beginning to think switching to conroe will be a mistake for me.......It will be too boring.....because it will "just work" = where's the fun in just using your pc.....

Thanks again for that heatsink!!!

Yeah, the .5GHz is prolly not worth the risk of a shortened lifespan. I have bump mine down to stock speed while I'm just doing homework etc.

She's dead Jim.......

The Expert mobo is "brown bread".....! It won't boot with any cpu/ram/psu combo.....I used tccd & uccc sticks, antec and ocz psu's, opty 170, 4400 and I even got a loan of a 3000+ to test with.
When I turn on the psu, the LED near the RAM slots flashes
I tested it outside the case.....even reseated the chipset waterblock.......nothin'

Fairwell.......

I think I'll get either a Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe or the A8R32-MVP Deluxe.......prolly the A8R32-MVP since I never liked NV's chipset......and the ATI chipset runs cool.....

when will it end

Sorry to hear about your loss. How old was she?

Shame conroe wasn't out already.

Dan

Got it on Christmas eve........It still under warranty.....'cept the original chipset fan is broken
I'm not going to buy conroe until christmas @ least......by then, the gap between Intel and AMD will be even further...
In a way I'm glad it's dead......there was always something wrong with it.......just why did it have to happen now.......the end of the month would have been ok.....LOL