Memory Help Asus Rampage II Extreme needed badly

[darkgothic30]

Ok guys I have a sneeking idea I know what is wrong but I want to hear what people think before I go out and purchase another cpu. Yesterday I woke up and logged on my computer to find out it registering 8 gigs of ram instead of 12 gigs. I at first thought it was the motherboard because it did not matter which stick I put in the first or last channel it did not work. I tested all the ram in the other channels worked fine. The ram is mushkin 998675 which has been working fine since sept 08. So I called asus up told them what was going on and they rma me a new board. Got the new board put everything back together and same problem will only register 8 gigs of the 12 gigs I have. but with the new board they sent me its the last 2 channels are what are not working. I talked with a intel rep in online support and he informed me it was possible that the memory controller is failing on the I7 940 I am using because the memory I am using is 1.65v and its only rated for 1.6v. Thought this was humorous since mushkin packaged this for the I7 and when it first came out they had stated 1.65v was the cut off but I am seriously thinking that is what is wrong here. Not the motherboard. Have any of you run into similar issues recently? BTW my system had run slightly o.c. from sept 08 til yesterday with no issues then this happened. I am tending to beleive its chip with 2 boards same problem. Please let me know what you guys think or maybe solution I am not thinking of here.

 

[MikeJRamsey]

Ok guys I have a sneeking idea I know what is wrong but I want to hear what people think before I go out and purchase another cpu. Yesterday I woke up and logged on my computer to find out it registering 8 gigs of ram instead of 12 gigs. I at first thought it was the motherboard because it did not matter which stick I put in the first or last channel it did not work. I tested all the ram in the other channels worked fine. The ram is mushkin 998675 which has been working fine since sept 08. So I called asus up told them what was going on and they rma me a new board. Got the new board put everything back together and same problem will only register 8 gigs of the 12 gigs I have. but with the new board they sent me its the last 2 channels are what are not working. I talked with a intel rep in online support and he informed me it was possible that the memory controller is failing on the I7 940 I am using because the memory I am using is 1.65v and its only rated for 1.6v. Thought this was humorous since mushkin packaged this for the I7 and when it first came out they had stated 1.65v was the cut off but I am seriously thinking that is what is wrong here. Not the motherboard. Have any of you run into similar issues recently? BTW my system had run slightly o.c. from sept 08 til yesterday with no issues then this happened. I am tending to beleive its chip with 2 boards same problem. Please let me know what you guys think or maybe solution I am not thinking of here.

Your BS meter should have tripped. http://www.intel.com/support/processors/sb/CS-029913.htm

"What are the Intel® Core™ i7 desktop processors DDR3 memory voltage limitations?

Intel recommends using memory that adheres to the Jedec memory specification for DDR3 memory which is 1.5 volts. The Intel® Core™ i7 processors should not be used with DDR3 memory that is rated for voltage over 1.65 volts. Anything over this voltage can either damage the processor or significantly reduce the processor life span. "

1.65v memory is supported by the i7 processors as shown here: http://www.intel.com/support/processors/sb/CS-029913.htm

 

[MushkinSean]

Hi,

What do you have the QPI/DRAM voltage set to? Should be 1.2V - 1.25V for 1333MHz
Did you test the ram with MemTest to make sure all of it is 100% ?
If you install three modules does the BIOS and CPU-Z see all three of them?

 

[darkgothic30]

Yeah I was aware of this but and thats why I thought it was humerous. What makes me think it might be that was the sudden way it happened with my old board and then a new board does the same thing seems alittle odd. I spoke with asus again and they want me to send the replacement back for them to look at. I just want to make sure I am not starting some fruitless run ariound with Asus and come to find out later its the chip. I have been running this chip at 3.960 since sept water cooled and its never gone over 55 c but that does not mean I did not get a crappy chip and it just is failing earlier then normal. I have the o.c. off and at normal speeds when I got the replacement and the replacement board was running 1306 bios. Checked memory again and it all worked but in the new replacement board I got it to only register 8 gigs anything more is not recognized.

 

[MushkinSean]

It's more likely to be the board than the CPU TBH.
Check to make sure there are no bent/broken pins in the CPU socket.
On occasion a bad CPU cooler mount or too tight, in the case of water cooling, will cause weird results.

 

[belial2k]

It would be odd for the memory controller to burn out, but the chip function fine in every other way.

 

[MikeJRamsey]

It would be odd for the memory controller to burn out, but the chip function fine in every other way.

Maybe not that odd. http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&id=20081205135018406&board_id=1&model=Rampage%20II%20Extreme&page=2&count=13

"Hey everyone- well, good news. I finally got it working again. The ultimate culprit? The CPU was bad. Man, how often does that happen? I swapped out CPU's and the board passed DET DRAM and onto CheckCPU and the rest and then completed posting. "

 

[darkgothic30]

Hi,

What do you have the QPI/DRAM voltage set to? Should be 1.2V - 1.25V for 1333MHz
Did you test the ram with MemTest to make sure all of it is 100% ?
If you install three modules does the BIOS and CPU-Z see all three of them?

I have it set to 1.2. Oh if I install 3 modules it will oinly recognise 4 gigs of 6 when I use the 3 blue channels or 3 whie channels. Seems with this board its the last 2 channels 1 white 1 blue that will not post. After seeing Mikes posts and searching the net some more. My feelings are getting worse. What I think is happening is the memory controller is not totally fried. It seems to only disable 1 of the channels in the white and blue banks. I also noticed something odd in the bios. That its not recognizing timings correctly and that like it had been before. Bios used to have correct 6-6-6-18 now its stating 8-8-8-20. I can manually set it all and have it hold and have cpu-z register it also. This is frustrating to say the least.

 

[MikeJRamsey]

I have it set to 1.2. Oh if I install 3 modules it will oinly recognise 4 gigs of 6 when I use the 3 blue channels or 3 whie channels. Seems with this board its the last 2 channels 1 white 1 blue that will not post. After seeing Mikes posts and searching the net some more. My feelings are getting worse. What I think is happening is the memory controller is not totally fried. It seems to only disable 1 of the channels in the white and blue banks. I also noticed something odd in the bios. That its not recognizing timings correctly and that like it had been before. Bios used to have correct 6-6-6-18 now its stating 8-8-8-20. I can manually set it all and have it hold and have cpu-z register it also. This is frustrating to say the least.

I was not thinking BIOS but it might be worth it to check if there is a later version.
http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?modelname=A8N-SLI%20Premium&SLanguage=en-us

 

[darkgothic30]

I would like to thank all of you for your replies and opinions on my problem. Just to let you all know it was the CPU. I ordered a I7 950 last week which I installed today in the replacement board from asus. All the problems went away strangely I think I was hit with 2 problems at once because old board still had dead channels. New board the minute new cpu went in 12 gigs registered and all problems went away. I think I have a mutant chip or something with the I7 940. Like some of you stated it is one of those head scratchers. It will still work just will not register anything over 8 gigs of ram on any board. Not to mention on the board its installed in it likes to pick and choose which banks work or not. This all decided to start just recently also. So if any of you guys start seeing random dead dimm banks in your x58 board and a drop in the detected memory keep this in mind it could be the memory controller on the cpu going also. Weird event but I guess I should trust my gut more. Thanks Mike for finding those posts on asus also that helped push me over edge to purchase a new cpu if ZI had not could have been trying to figure this out longer then needed along with many returned m otherboards to asus.