Weird RAM issue

[Laurent_C]

Hello,
I'm having a problem upgrading my RAM which is completely baffling me. I will try to describe the issue as clearly as possible.
I have an ASUS M2R32-MVP with an Athlon 64 X2 and I run Windows 7 Pro 64 bit
For a few years now I've run on only 2GB of RAM (2 x 1 GB in dual channel) my RAM was 5-5-5-12 1.8Volts
I am now trying to upgrade to 4GB (or more)
My first move was to get 2 bars of 2GB and replace the 2 1GB bars.
When I boot the BIOS reports an Installed size of 4096MB and a usable size of 3392MB So far so good.
But then Windows will not boot. I get to the black screen that says "Starting Windows" and the machine stays on this screen forever. The animated windows logo never starts.
I thought maybe the RAM had an issue so I tried a different set. This time I made sure to get 2 x 2GB bars that had the exact same timing and voltage as my previous RAM. I got the same behavior.
Out of curiosity I grabbed a couple of 1GB bars I had and tried to launch my machine with 4 x 1GB. Once again same behavior.
Every time the BIOS correctly detects the physical memory but Windows stops on the "Starting Windows" screen.

My BIOS is on version 0906. ASUS released a couple of BETA versions since but only to add new CPU support so I doubt that's the problem.

Does anyone have any idea what my issue might be? I am at a complete loss. I'm turning to Tom's Hardware because it has the most savvy tech people I've ever seen in its forums.

 

[consigliere1]

Hello,
I'm having a problem upgrading my RAM which is completely baffling me. I will try to describe the issue as clearly as possible.
I have an ASUS M2R32-MVP with an Athlon 64 X2 and I run Windows 7 Pro 64 bit
For a few years now I've run on only 2GB of RAM (2 x 1 GB in dual channel) my RAM was 5-5-5-12 1.8Volts
I am now trying to upgrade to 4GB (or more)
My first move was to get 2 bars of 2GB and replace the 2 1GB bars.
When I boot the BIOS reports an Installed size of 4096MB and a usable size of 3392MB So far so good.
But then Windows will not boot. I get to the black screen that says "Starting Windows" and the machine stays on this screen forever. The animated windows logo never starts.
I thought maybe the RAM had an issue so I tried a different set. This time I made sure to get 2 x 2GB bars that had the exact same timing and voltage as my previous RAM. I got the same behavior.
Out of curiosity I grabbed a couple of 1GB bars I had and tried to launch my machine with 4 x 1GB. Once again same behavior.
Every time the BIOS correctly detects the physical memory but Windows stops on the "Starting Windows" screen.

My BIOS is on version 0906. ASUS released a couple of BETA versions since but only to add new CPU support so I doubt that's the problem.

Does anyone have any idea what my issue might be? I am at a complete loss. I'm turning to Tom's Hardware because it has the most savvy tech people I've ever seen in its forums.

I'm having a very similar problem that started when i upgraded my son's PC to Windows 7. For whatever reason, after exhaustive testing, it appears as though the top two DIMM slots will not allow me load both 2GB boards. I tried the single config which allows me to install either one of my 2 GB boards in any one of the top two DIMM slots. That works fine so therefore the 2 x 2 GB boards are fine. Also, each slot working independantly is fine. It's only when I want to have 4GB (2 x2) plug into the top 2 slots that i experience the same problem. The problem is that because of this problem i can only operate the pc with 2GB which is a step down from where it was. It won't work with 6 and needs all 4 slots working in order to give me 8GB RAM. I know its not a hardware issue. Please Help!!

 

[consigliere1]

Hello,
I'm having a problem upgrading my RAM which is completely baffling me. I will try to describe the issue as clearly as possible.
I have an ASUS M2R32-MVP with an Athlon 64 X2 and I run Windows 7 Pro 64 bit
For a few years now I've run on only 2GB of RAM (2 x 1 GB in dual channel) my RAM was 5-5-5-12 1.8Volts
I am now trying to upgrade to 4GB (or more)
My first move was to get 2 bars of 2GB and replace the 2 1GB bars.
When I boot the BIOS reports an Installed size of 4096MB and a usable size of 3392MB So far so good.
But then Windows will not boot. I get to the black screen that says "Starting Windows" and the machine stays on this screen forever. The animated windows logo never starts.
I thought maybe the RAM had an issue so I tried a different set. This time I made sure to get 2 x 2GB bars that had the exact same timing and voltage as my previous RAM. I got the same behavior.
Out of curiosity I grabbed a couple of 1GB bars I had and tried to launch my machine with 4 x 1GB. Once again same behavior.
Every time the BIOS correctly detects the physical memory but Windows stops on the "Starting Windows" screen.

My BIOS is on version 0906. ASUS released a couple of BETA versions since but only to add new CPU support so I doubt that's the problem.

Does anyone have any idea what my issue might be? I am at a complete loss. I'm turning to Tom's Hardware because it has the most savvy tech people I've ever seen in its forums.

OK...so after about 4 glasses of Pinot Noir I decided that I should probably flash the bios to the most recent version.Guess what? It fixed the problem. I'm guessing that the motherboard needs to be flashed because it was/is a 32 bit board now working with a 64 bit OS. My problem was VERY SIMILAR to yours. You should try the same. Good Luck.

 

[Laurent_C]

Updating the BIOS also fixed the issue for me. It might be simply hiding what the issue was since nowadays the memory controller code tends to be done directly from the CPU, the update might simply have shifted the problem away. It could also be a 32 / 64 bit issue like you pointed out. Even though 32 bit systems should be able to handle 4Gb, with the video RAM from the card on top the hardware could have run out of address space if it was only using 32 bit.

 

[Laurent_C]

Best answer selected by Laurent_C.

 

[nikorr]

This topic has been closed by Nikorr.