Problems when mixing a 9-9-9-24 dual channel with a 10-10-10-30 single channel

[Shabasy]

Hi,

My 2x4gb (F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL) used to only give almost 4gb performance and the remaining was hardware reserved. so I just bought a single 8gb stick ( F3-12800CL10S-8GBXL) to add it to the pair. and at first boot, they played fine and I got a total of 12gb actual memory but after one shutdown, my pc won't start and the MemOk button was red.
I tried multiple swaps and realized that going back to the old pair(or even one of them which is something that used to work too) never starts the machine and sometimes when added to the new 8gb stick they were completely hardware reserved.
I did tinker with the timings a bit manually and used the xmp profile but it never made a difference neither a cmos reset did. I'm no expert at this bios/ram stuff so I can only seek help here if there are some specific timings or voltage I don't know about or if the old pair just went bad after one attempt of mixing.

Thanks.

Specs:
ASUS M5a97 EVO (Bios: American Megatrends ver1604)
AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1090T Processor
ASUS GeForce GTX 1050 Ti STRIX OC
Corsair CX500
G.SKILL Ripjaws X DDR3 (2x4GB) F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL & (1x8GB) F3-12800CL10S-8GBXL
Windows 10 Enterprise 2016 LTSB 64-bit

 

[Darkbreeze]

There is no such thing as a dual channel memory module or a single channel memory module. There are ONLY memory modules, and they can OPERATE in single, dual, triple or quad channel based on the architecture of the motherboard and CPU.

Any pair of identical matched set modules, or any two modules that are close enough together to "play nice", can run in dual channel. Buying them in tested, matched sets highly increases the chances that they WILL run in dual channel, but it is not always 100% necessary. It sure helps though.

Running different modules together is always a crapshoot. It's an even bigger problem when not all of the memory has the same speed, timings or voltage, or any one of those is different.

Try putting the original sticks back, by themselves, or singly, without the 8GB stick, in the A2 slot or whichever one is designated for operation with a single module installed according to the motherboard manual. Then, unplug the power. Remove the CMOS battery for five minutes. During that time, press the power button for 30 seconds. After the five minutes is done put the cmos battery back in the motherboard, plug the power back in and try to POST.

Out of curiosity, how old is that CX500 power supply?

 

[Shabasy]

Well I followed your instructions and now I'm back to the 12gb situation. I have to note that I tried them on a Gigabyte MB and the bios recognized the whole lot of them. But on my Asus MB, I noticed that there's one certain stick from the old pair that's able to start the pc and it must be on the A1 slot.
I have the new 8gb stick on the b1 slot. Seems like my MB is somehow defective and I'm not sure to what extent.
And as for the psu I purchased it 5 years ago.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Ok, so, since you're back to the 12GB, that means that most likely one of the 4GB modules isn't registering correctly.

What is your EXACT motherboard model number?

Do you know what increments the motherboard allows you to make adjustments to the DRAM voltage is?

I'd recommend bumping the DRAM voltage up by one increment. But it would be helpful to know what voltage they are currently at and what increments the board allows when adjusting DRAM voltage. Usually it's either .005v or .020v, depending on the generation and the manufacturer.

 

[Shabasy]

The motherboard increments DRAM voltage by .00625. The default was 1.5 as Auto but I always notice a slight change in the shown voltage by .03 or so (for example, when it's 1.5v auto it sometimes bumps up to 1.503v and when I increased it by one increment it goes up to 1.509v etc...).
I honestly tried setting the voltage at 1.65v and it never exceeded it. Just for clarification, I'm now using only two sticks: the 4gb(the one that works) and the 8gb and they're both at the same black channel.
Btw I read that a CPU reseating might help as it did for some guy who owned a similar MB, so I'd try that too.
This is my motherboard specs:

And these are some example pics for the DRAM voltage thing:

 

[Darkbreeze]

You pictures are wrong. You need to post images like this, which is the only way, and the URL, MUST end in an image format like .jpg, .png, etc.

1.65v is WAY too high if the XMP/AMP profile voltage setting is 1.5v. Both those modules are intended to be run at 1.5v, so I would NOT run them higher than 1.58v even if they were overclocked to 1866/2133mhz, which probably wouldn't run on that board with that CPU anyhow.

I'd try small steps, 1.50625, then 1.5125, etc., up to 1.58 if absolutely necessary. Since they are not overclocked past their XMP/AMP value, they should not need more than 1.54v maximum to run at their advertised speed and timings.

 

[Shabasy]

Ok I fixed them.
And it seems now that no matter how higher I go with the voltage it still hovers above it with approximately half an increment, so I left it now at 1.54v.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Ok, so now are you still only at 12GB? Even with all three modules installed?

Make sure that your 4GB modules are populated in slots A2 and B2. Install the 8GB module in slot A1. Slot A2 is the second slot away from the CPU. Slot B2 is the one closest to the edge of the motherboard. Slot A1 is the one next to the CPU. No other way should they be populated.

Then, go into the bios, if they are not currently working and seeing 16GB, and find which channel the 8GB module is using. Manually change the timings for ALL modules to 10-10-10-30 with all of the other memory timing settings on auto or just left alone if auto is not an option. Save settings, exit, try again. Still no love, you might have to drop the memory speed to 1333mhz to get them to all run together. If they still will not all register with the timings the same and the speed lowered to 1333mhz, at the voltage you have set now, then those modules are just not going to play nice together and that is not terribly surprising because AM3+ platform is VERY fickle about memory configurations.

Ryzen is too. This is nothing new. AMD has never been as broadly permissive as Intel when it comes to memory compatibility and configurations.