Dual Channel shows single

[KREIZI]

Guys, I need your help.

I have 2 Kingston HyperX 8GB 1600MHz on dual channel (supposedly) being placed at slots 2 & 4. Now, when opening CPU-Z, it shows that I am running on single channel at 16GB AND the data also shows that they are in Slots 1 & 2, even thought they are physically attached to slots 2&4.

Dxdiag information shows that I am only using 8GB.

I already did some troubleshooting--the individual ram stick test on each slots 1,2,3,4 (same with the 2nd ram stick) they're both functioning properly.

 

[BadActor]

Try moving one of the RAM sticks one slot over. Most motherboards should have the RAM placed in the same colored slots for dual channel. What motherboard are you using?

 

[KREIZI]

Try moving one of the RAM sticks one slot over. Most motherboards should have the RAM placed in the same colored slots for dual channel. What motherboard are you using?

Already did that, I've done all combination possible from 2-4, 3-4, 1-3 and still CPU-Z shows the slots being used are 1 & 2. To the point that I also did a 1-2 ram combination and as a result, my PC didn't boot up, it's just turned on, but no display in the monitor (new symptom is good, right?)

btw... my MoBo is MSI Z87-G43

 

[BadActor]

The RAM is on the QVL and should be compatible. Try booting with one stick and run memtest on both of them, just to make sure there's nothing wrong. Also run Speccy or HWInfo, to make sure it's not just a bug with CPU-Z. That dxdiag is only showing 8 GB's leads me to believe that it's a motherboard fault, so after all this troubleshooting, you may have to call MSI support and see about RMA'ing the board.

 

[mjslakeridge]

I don't think CPU-Z is referring to the physical slots, it is just looking at the "first" stick of RAM and the "second" stick. So I wouldn't worry about that, but as BadActor said, run Memtest86 on each stick individually.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

If the RAM is in the same color slots, you should be golden.

What does BIOS say ?

I'd call MSI Tech Support and have them walk you thru a diagnostic procedure.

 

[mjslakeridge]

Speaking of BIOS, use CPU-Z to check your BIOS version. According to MSI, the latest BIOS version for that board is A.7, released in May, 2015. Have you enabled Dual Channel in the BIOS? (may be default).

 

[KREIZI]

Thank you guys for the help. I will do all those things that you have suggested. For now, I am going to get some sleep and test them after work. I will get back to you.

 

[ko888]

When using two DIMMs they should be placed at the end of the memory bus (i.e. DIMM2 and DIMM4 memory slots) to prevent signal reflections on the memory bus.

In BIOS make sure that the DRAM Timing Mode setting is set to [Link].

 

[BrienC_WeAre138]

I realize that this is several years old now, but I had the same problem with my clevo notebook yesterday. I added a second 16gb Kinston HyperX (something or other, maybe impact?) dual channel ddr4 piece late in 2018 and only noticed when recently running a benchmark that it was set to run as single channel. I took the notebook apart, ram was installed in slot 1 and 3 as written on the motherboard. Clevo is a Taiwanese manufacturer of easily upgrade-able notebooks, and I gave up on finding documentation in their manuals (user or maintenance) on correct ram installation. English would be their second language, at best, and likely most of their functional understanding would be through their knowledge of programming languages, as if tech manuals weren't bad enough already. I did, after many hours of searching, see a picture in their maintenance manual showing two ram pieces installed on the same side of the motherboard, which would be either slots 1 and 2 or 3 and 4 according to the print on the motherboard. I went ahead and took the notebook apart again and moved ram to slots 1 and 2 and rebooted. This fixed the problem completely. Interestingly, cpuZ now sees the ram installed in slots 1 and 3 as opposed to 1 and 2 previously, directly in conflict with the print on the mainboard itself, and running dual channel. The benchmark confirms that things are correct now, moving from the 1st percentile of user benchmarks with this ram configuration to the 87th percentile.

Hopefully this will help the next person with a clevo motherboard setup like this, mine is specifically the clevo P650HP6 with i7-7700HQ processor installed. Just install a second ram piece on the same side of the motherboard as the first, specifically those marked as slot 1 and 2 on the board itself, though likely 3 and 4 would also work properly.