Yet another Tech Question

[PfhorRunner]

Hey, I know this really isn't the board for this type of question and everything. But you guys seem pretty knowledgeable about the machines you spend most of your time with. So, I was wondering why my computer won't POST heh..

Gigabyte k8nsc-939 Mobo (nForce3 250gb chipset)
Socket 939 AMD Athlon 64 3200+
Geforce 6800GT
160 gig HDD
500W Antec PSU
4X 512mb Corsair Dual Channel RAM

Alright so the problem I seem to he having is with the RAM, before I had 1 gig, 2X 512mb Dual channel, and everything worked alright, besides some minor glitches with my mobo and graphics card compatibility issues (nforce3 and 6800 series don't like to play nice) which forced me to turn off fastwrites.

Anyways, The issue at hand is that I have recieved from a very kind gentilelady, another gig of dualchannel ram of the same brand and identical to the gig I already had, suspecting nothing would go wrong. Well, now my computer won't even think about booting when I have all 4 sticks in. 2 stick works, even with the new RAM. 4 doesn't. I was just wondering if someone had any clue what this might be, since normally if there's something wrong with the slot, or timing, it would start, then bitch.. not just keel over and Die.

Any thoughts?

[Toomas]

Try mixing them, 1 stick from old ones and 1 from new ones.
If it works then it is your system if it doesnt then the ram, simple as that /images/graemlins/laugh.gif
Or you migh try to put 2 sticks into the slots you dont normally use and leave the other empty and see if it boots, if it wont then your mobo is most likely half dead.

[JonT]

Have a look in the motherboard manual, you quite often can't use all four (or the maximum number of) RAM slots unless it's ECC or Registered RAM.

You might also have to turn off dual channel mode or something before putting all four sticks in but I wouldn't want to offend you by suggesting anything too condescending

[PfhorRunner]

My manual says nothing about limitations on what RAM i can use in all 4 slots. It just says if you have 4 dual channel sticks, to stick them in all the slots... wow.

The RAM works fine, yet all the slots work fine too. I tried moving the ram over to DIMM3 and DIMM4, and it works like normal there.
I tried turning off dual channel mode, didn't change a thing, I also tried setting it from 400 to 333, didn't change a thing either...

Maybe my bios just doesn't like having 4 sticks in...

Thanks for your help though!

[sonic]

Did you try a bios flash to the latest version?

[pyromania]

If your processor is based on the winchester core it could have problems running all 4 slots. With athlon64's the memory controller has moved from the motherboard to the CPU for speed reasons. So now memory compatability depends more on the CPU than the motherboard.

The winchester CPU's had issues running all 4 slots at fast memory timing, like CAS 2 and 1T command rate. With 2 sticks in, go into the BIOS and see if you can change the RAM timing to something lower. Also make sure the timing arn't set to Auto. You need to put in specific timings. Then when you have the timing set, try putting in the other 2 sticks and see if it boots.

[sonic]

if you can't boot with a CAS of 3 and 2T, then I would say no other timings would help you there my friend

and pyro is right, i forgot about the winchester issue

venice ftw /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[PfhorRunner]

stupid winchester shiz...

thanks for the help guys, I returned the RAM and bought 2gb 2X1 gig dual channel, and am selling my other 2 sticks of 512 to a friend.

Thanks again, I'm also looking into a new processor, but that's going to have to wait for a couple more months, and I'd rather use my excessive amount of RAM now...