Weird Ram Issue

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LCBChef18

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Apr 25, 2011
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I had 8 GB of G.Skill Ram. The stuff in my sig. It worked fine but recently I bought another 8 gb, totaling 4 sticks of ram. I loaded the pc up and properties shows that I have 16 GB, and only 8GB usable. The bios only shows 8GB however. I've uninstalled each stick of ram, and made sure to seat all four of them, in no particular order to the mother board. Still to no avail, the bios only recognizes 8 GB

I'm running Win 7 Home Premium 64 Bit.
 
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Just updated MB Bios to 1703, no change. In the bios I clicked on the "Set to optimum settings for 4GB Sticks" and it changed a bunch of settings around. The bios still only recognizes 8gb.
 
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I have Heard that some types of ram are not compatible with the same. What i mean by this is that yes technically you can get 8gb of g.skill x2 and plug it in and it should work, though its not usually the best idea. The safest best idea would be to go with a pack that comes with 4 sticks of the ram you need. Still, Weird issue man.
 
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The ram is the same. All four sticks have the same model number. Same CL, same Voltage, same clock speed, etc.

I fooled around with it for a minute and some really weird shit started happening. I tried one stick. System wouldn't boot no matter which stick I used. I put my 2 old sticks back into their original places. BIOS recognized both sticks, showing 8 gb. I put in one of the new ones, inbetween the two old ones. The system booted and showed 4gb. I then placed the last, new stick in the last slot. System booted and showed 8gb.

For shits and giggles I OC'd the system. My mb has a nifty little oc button. Doing this clocks the ram at 1650 mhz I loaded up the BIOS and voila! I suddenly have 12GB of ram! Tried to boot the OS and it started to loop. I reset the BIOS to default settings (didn't clear CMOS) and still got a loop. I'm going to insert all four again, see if I get a loop. If I do get a loop, i'm going to clear the CMOS, and see if the bios will recognize all 16gb.

If it doesn't I either have:

A) 3rd to the right dead slot.
B) Incompatible RAM. Newer ram, even though the same model number can change I guess. On the old stuff there is this lettering on the side of it "GC" on the new stuff it reads "GE." On the new stuff's warranty sticker thing, the numbers "552" are also printed on it. The old ones don't have that.

Edit!
Option "A" Is wrong. I inserted one of the new sticks of ram into that slot and the bios showed 12gb. My system booted up just fine.

One of my new sticks of ram could be faulty.

2nd Edit!

After the system booted up with 12gb of RAM I tried the other new stick of ram in the same place. Bios showed 4gb of ram. Only thing I can safely assume is that that stick of RAM is bad. Going to RMA them when I get a chance.

Thanks for the... dare I say... help. From the Toms Hardware community. I don't see how this could benefit anyone else lol.
 
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Is this on the Crosshair? If so knowing the model of the sticks would help along with the CPU...but....try raising the CPU/NB voltage to 1.33 and add + 0.06 to the current DRAM voltage and give it a try, AMDs have weak MCs (memory controllers), may need a bit of a boost to be able to use all.
 
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Not to be rude but literally the first sentence of my post is "I had 8 GB of G.Skill Ram." :lol: Dear god I thought you said "Corsair". Yes it's on the crosshair MB. My appologies.

I narrowed it down to it being a new stick of defective ram. If the pc had recognized both of the new sticks as 12 gb (with the other old sticks of ram totaling 8gb). Then I might start to think it's my MB, or try your suggestion. But recognizes one of the two new sticks of ram.

It's very hard to explain all of the "testing" i did with words rather than showing you. You know what I mean? lol.

RAM Model: F3-2133C11D-8GA0
CPU Model: AMD 1090T (I thought this wwas in my sig, I haven't used this site in years)
 
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Obviously and you bought 8GB more and now have 4x4GB. So you have 4 sticks, correct, and you are trying to mix 2 sets of DRAM (which isn't a good idea in the first place, but as long as you have them)? Anyway that's what you said, so you are filling four slots, AMD is set and optimized for 2 stick setups, to run all 4 you often have to increase DRAM and/or CPU/NB voltage (which is the voltage to your MC (memory controller), which is why I made the suggestion I made....To check for a bad one can pretty much just try each stick by itself....when not all DRAM is being seen and available for use, it might also be a bent/broken pin or more on the CPU....lots of possibilities, but right off the bat 4 sticks and mixed sets indicate a lack of needed voltage
 
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I didn't think it would matter mixing two 'sets' of ram even though they're the same model. I know for a fact the pins on my CPU aren't bent. I installed it myself and took great care (after bending, and breaking off pins on the previous CPU trying to install it) making sure none of them got pent.

Will I need to run Memtest/P95 after adjusting the voltage? Can I expect any BSOD's? Or should I be fine to make the adjustments and try it out?
 
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I'd make the adjustments, then if you get all 16 being seen and used, can proceed to using the rig and if you want give Memtest a shot overnight while you sleep, or basically anytime (it takes a while so I normally suggest the overnight thing). If all is stable can play with reducing those voltages a bit at a time while maintaining stability (though they are safe settings, reducing might cut temps a degree or two or more
 
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If they all work individually then that points to slots, mobo or MC, if a third party CPU cooler, might try loosening it up then snug back down, not overly tight, if one corner or side is overly tight it can throw the CPU slightly out of plumb and affect the MC
 
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No matter which stick I try. One stick of ram prevents the pc from booting to bios. All it does is beeps.
 
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"1.4.2.1 Memory issue: Beep (1 long 2 short)
A Clean the Golden Finger of memory
B Clean the memory slots
C Leave only one memory stick to test
D If convenient, please change different memory to test again"

This only occurs when I try testing one stick of ram though. So I don't see how it's an issue.
 
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