Replaced RAM: mobo won't POST - any ideas?

[Rotten Johnny]

My main PC is an ASUS P5E64 WS Professional.  After ensuring the mobo supports DDR3 1333 I went ahead and bought 4 x 2GB Transcend DDR3-1333 DIMMs today.  I poped them in and the mobo fails to post - no beep, no signal to video etc..  A blue LED labelled DIAG DRAM lights up on the mobo. I checked to ensure they're all seated properly etc and retried.  No cigar (or smoke  ).  Put the 2 x 1GB DDR3 1066 sticks back in and it posts.  I noticed tonight that Transcend isn't on the Qualified Vendor List for this mobo, but damnit, dram is dram, not so?  What do you guys think - is the likely a compatibility issue or could the DIMMs be faulty?

[GearSlave]

Have you tried updating the BIOS? Not sure if it'll work, but it generally fixes issues like these.

[Rotten Johnny]

I think I'm running the latest BIOS but will check.  Found some fine print in the mobo manual..."This motherboard does not support memory modules made up of 128mb chips or double sided x 16 memory modules."  Guess that settles it, @$%#^%$#$%^!!!

[ara]

Just be carefull if you decide to buy other ram. Download CPU-Z and check the voltage of the current ram. If memory serves me correct the X38 chipset of your motherboard requires a higher voltage DDR3. Something like these

http://www.prophecy.co.za/kingmax-ddr31333-desktop-memory-p-34995.html and not the new DDR3 that runs at 1.5v/1.65v.

[Rotten Johnny]

Thx Gideon, I'll have to do a little more investigating.  I'm hoping that it's at least possible to get some RAM.  I'm in no mood to buy another motherboard - this PCs quick enough for all my needs, I just need more RAM in it to handle the volumes of data I'm loading in RAM.

Turns out though I'm running a very early BIOS, so maybe, just maybe a BIOS update will result in a minor miracle.  I've clearly lost interest in PCs - there was a time not so long ago I'd always be running the latest BIOS.

[OEMSH4]

It could be that the board has a RAM limit of 4gb,,,? Check your manual, I think my P5K something or other... ASUS board had a limit of 4GB.

 

[Rotten Johnny]

^^^

It's definitely 8GB:
4 x DIMM, Max. 8 GB, DDR3 1800(O.C.)/1600(O.C.)/1333/1066/800 ECC,Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory
Dual Channel memory architecture
*When installing total memory of 4GB capacity or more, Windows® 32-bit operation system may only recognize less than 3GB. Hence, a total installed memory of less than 3GB is recommended.

[OEMSH4]

Sounds like the brand you have is just plain incompatible, sounds stupid but I've had memory that won't work with a correctly spec'd board.
Have you got a bud with 8 Gb of memory to lend you ?  ???

[Rotten Johnny]

According to Transcend's webiste the DIMMs I bought are compatible with that mobo, so I'm just still holding out some hope for a BIOS update solving the issue.  Of course doing a BIOS update in an age where floppy disks don't exist anymore is not fun.

[johnc]

I pity the fool who don't have enough RAM   .... (being one myself )

I think I'm running the latest BIOS but will check.  Found some fine print in the mobo manual..."This motherboard does not support memory modules made up of 128mb chips or double sided x 16 memory modules."  Guess that settles it, @$%#^%$#$%^!!!

Has this possible problem been ruled out?

Have you tried 1 card at a time in each slot? Maybe a stoopid suggestion but it is something to try.

[Rotten Johnny]

Problem solved 

A BIOS upgrade took care of it, I'm up with 3GB showing in Ubuntu 10.10 32 bit.  Will have to switch to 64 bit to get the other 5 in play.  Best I cancel that classified.

[Rotten Johnny]

Just thought I'd add that surprising as I find it, the extra 1GB now visible to Ubuntu has it running noticeably faster than it did with 2GB.  Note to self: future PC builds to have min 4GB RAM.

Rather than install 64 bit I added PAE support as follows:

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get install linux-generic-pae linux-headers-generic-pae
8GB now available:

Code: [Select]

$ free -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          8067       1037       7030          0        105        453
-/+ buffers/cache:        478       7589
Swap:         5892          0       5892

[Rotten Johnny]

So it was a worthwhile exercise - editing tags for around 40k tracks at a time is a breeze 

[Viagara]

Of course doing a BIOS update in an age where floppy disks don't exist anymore is not fun.

Bootable flash drive works a treat.

Referring to the 4GB limit of 32-bit Windows, there are some other "hidden" features, such as that a single process will not be allocated more than 2GB RAM. You may overcome that to some extend by adding the /3GB switch in boot.ini, but rather go 64-bit OS if your processor supports that and then install 8GB RAM else you are wasting your money and time.

[Rotten Johnny]

Referring to the 4GB limit of 32-bit Windows, there are some other "hidden" features, such as that a single process will not be allocated more than 2GB RAM. You may overcome that to some extend by adding the /3GB switch in boot.ini, but rather go 64-bit OS if your processor supports that and then install 8GB RAM else you are wasting your money and time.

Yep, except I'm running Linux. From the data loads I've processed this morning Linux PAE doesn't appear to suffer the same limitation.  When I find the motivation to upgrade to the latest Ubuntu I'll install 64 bit though as I'm sure there'll be further performance improvements.