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Hello everyone! I hope you're all having a great day and in a helpful mood 
I recently had random BSOD's so I tested my RAM to see if any sticks were bad, and memtest DID detect a bad stick so I tossed the set out and bought a brand spanking new set of G-Skill Ripjaw's to replace my old Muskin RAM.
But as soon as I boot up with the new RAM my computer will instantly power off, wait a few seconds, and then automatically power on again only to instantly power off a few seconds later. This cycle will continue going unless I pull the power cord from my PSU.
So I opened up the case and tried using different slots but the problem still persisted. Then I decided the Ripjaws were bad so I used a TOTALLY different brand of RAM to test it out. The cycle still continues.
Oddly enough, if I leave one stick in there the computer will run perfectly fine. In fact I'm using the computer right now to type this all out. But as soon as I slap in the second stick my computer will revert to it's old cycle and constantly reboot itself.
Advice, anyone? If any more info is needed I can happily provide it for you. I'll be refreshing this tab as I do some college homework.
Tech Specs:
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231426
Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130579
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371044
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I'm not super knowledgeable about these things but that sounds a bit like a motherboard issue to me, rather than a Ram issue. Is this a self built thing or a pre-built computer btw?
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Yeah you should probably get a new motherboard.
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OOOO I just remembered: Sometimes I boot-up with two sticks just fine, but when I turn off the computer and turn it back on again, the cycle comes back.
I agree with both of you in the regard that it's sounding more like a motherboard issue now. Maybe something with the BIOS?
I build this from parts off of Newegg. I played around with the BIOS and changed the RAM voltage setting from 'Auto' to a fixed '1.5Volts'. I'll update this if I find a solution to any future TLer's who get this issue.
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i would suggest running Pc-check, you can usually find a free download of it. Im wondering, is it only certain slots that when you plug them in it goes crazy? but like i said run pc=check and that should tell if its your board or something else
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United Kingdom20322 Posts
You sure you have them in the right slots? If you are running Dual Channel and you have 4 slots then you will need the RAM in slots 1 and 3 AFAIK.
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On October 10 2012 13:07 Cyro wrote:
You sure you have them in the right slots? If you are running Dual Channel and you have 4 slots then you will need the RAM in slots 1 and 3 AFAIK.
Wrong. Just need the same total amount of memory in both channels: http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/cs-011965.htm#dual (this is literally like the 20th time I've explained this in this forum :/ ). Not to mention, even if he had all the RAM in a single channel, the memory controller would just switch to single channel mode. The performance difference for games is negligible anyway. Its for high end applications where dual channel memory makes a big difference.
The only time when memory placement makes a difference is for certain boards that require a dimm in slot 0 of channel A. I've only run into a few OEM Intel boards for which this is the case, and even then the PC still boots; certain functions like fan speed control don't.
The problem described almost has to be an issue with the motherboard. I suppose it could be an issue with the PSU, adding additional RAM would draw extra current--but this seems highly unlikely. I suspect that either one of the dimm slots is bad, or when the OP originally switched out the RAM he inadvertently damaged the motherboard.
I'd be interested to know if it boots with both dimms in channel A. If not, that's a good indication that either the memory controller is fucked, in which case the board is fucked. If it does boot, that probably means one of the dimm slots on channel B is bad, in which case you could use the motherboard. However RAM won't run in dual channel mode, which as I said for games, has little performance effect anyway.
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Have you test all the memory slots individually with one stick of RAM and then the other stick? That would solve a lot of this pretty quickly methinks.
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Make sure Windows is 64 bit, for some reason, windows 32 bit doesn't go over 4 GB ram.
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On October 10 2012 14:42 MrRhobot wrote:
Make sure Windows is 64 bit, for some reason, windows 32 bit doesn't go over 4 GB ram.
I'm fairly certain this wouldn't cause boot problems. Windows just won't recognize the extra RAM.
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I'm using windows xp 32-bit and it only recognises 3gb but I never have reboot problems.
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TRY THIS FIRST: Try using each ram stick in w/e socket the one that "seems" to work is in+ Show Spoiler +. Like...you say it boots with 1 stick, try that stick first, take it out and put another of the sticks in the same socket, try booting with that stick, repeat with all of them.
My other suggestions, to would be to change your bios settings back to what they were when you got the motherboard, see if that fixes the problem+ Show Spoiler + Although I honestly doubt that's the issue.
If that doesn't work, if you've still got warranty left on the motherboard it might be a good idea to just tell the company it's defective and try and exchange it for another. (that's why I asked if it was custom or prebuilt. ;p)
But try the thing at the top first, be a lot easier to identify what's wrong if you do =D Oh, also: if it boots fine with each stick in that slot, try a couple of them, by themselves again, in a different slot and gimme results to that too!
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United Kingdom20322 Posts
Wrong. Just need the same total amount of memory in both channels: http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/cs-011965.htm#dual (this is literally like the 20th time I've explained this in this forum :/ ). Not to mention, even if he had all the RAM in a single channel, the memory controller would just switch to single channel mode. The performance difference for games is negligible anyway. Its for high end applications where dual channel memory makes a big difference.
Just trying to help. I wrote "AFAIK" in case i messed something up, a system i built like 2 years ago wouldnt boot with RAM in the first slots avalible and it is very hard to know everything
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On October 11 2012 10:19 Cyro wrote:Show nested quote + Wrong. Just need the same total amount of memory in both channels: http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/cs-011965.htm#dual (this is literally like the 20th time I've explained this in this forum :/ ). Not to mention, even if he had all the RAM in a single channel, the memory controller would just switch to single channel mode. The performance difference for games is negligible anyway. Its for high end applications where dual channel memory makes a big difference. Just trying to help. I wrote "AFAIK" in case i messed something up, a system i built like 2 years ago wouldnt boot with RAM in the first slots avalible and it is very hard to know everything
Yeah, what Toast says is true if the BIOS isn't bugged and the components are operating well within specification. In practice, RAM compatibility is often marginal or bugged, so it's not rare that two sticks will work in 1+3 but not 2+4 or 1+2. Failures with two sticks in one channel are particularly common.
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Thanks everyone for helping. I just played around with the BIOS and set the voltages to a standard charge instead of letting it run on "Auto".
Works fine now! No problems!
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Hey I had the same issue. And this time, if I boot with 1 memory stick and check CPU-Z, i see that the DRAM is not right. I have 1600MHz frequency DD3 but DRAM Frequency is less than 800HMz. So I changed that and try booting with to sticks.
No good. With 1 stick, voltage shows 1.5v (in BIOS view and CPU-Z). So I tried my luck and change voltage setting from Auto to 1.5v. And it worked! (so far so good).
My mobo is H77M AsRock, sticks is Corsair Vengeance 4gb each.
Glad I got to read this thread. Thanks OP!
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If manually setting the voltages worked, update your BIOS. Sounds like a bug to me. I had issues with one of my older boards setting my PCI-e speeds down to gen 2 instead of gen 3 when set to auto and upgrading my BIOS seemed to fix it.
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EPT
