Dell RAM Issue - From 12GB to 4GB

geffo

Honorable
Jun 9, 2012
12
0
10,510
I own a Dell XPS 435 MT and it still runs very well. It has 6 RAM slots and I have 3 x 4GB sticks running in slots 1, 2, and 3 (the three white slots, 4, 5, and 6 are the black slots). BIOS only sees 4GB now. All three sticks are the same size and speed and brand. They were purchased together a few years ago.

Today I noticed that only 8GB was being read by my computer. So I opened it up and carefully made sure all of the RAM was set. I turned it back on and now only 4GB is seen. I moved the RAM to another similar computer where it works fine. I moved two 4gb sticks and two 2gb sticks into the XPS 435 and found these issues:

If I have a single stick in the computer and boot it up, the motherboard beeps twice over and over at me and won't load.

If I put a pair of 4GB sticks into any two of the white slots (1, 2, or 3) the computer loads but only sees 4gb installed.

When I put a 4GB and a 2GB stick into various combinations, only 2GB was seen. Same with two 2gb and one 4gb. Only 2gb is seen in the BIOS and Windows.

Right now for functionality I have two 4gb sticks in and the computer runs fine, but only 4GB is being used or seen. I am on latest BIOS, reset the CMOS, I am guessing this is just a bad memory slot issue - but I can't confine the problem. Slots 1 and 3 work. Slots 2 and 3 work. And slots 1 and 2 work. But only when two sticks are installed and it only reads one of them. Very odd.

Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. All 12gb have worked for years.
 
Sounds like th mobo is headed south, do you have a different PSU you can try? Normally one can adjust the voltage settings to the DRAM and MC to help out the DRAM but would guess, being a Dell you have a locked BIOS. Could also try pulling the CPU and reseating it