F3-17000CL9Q -16GBHZ & Asus Sabertooth X79

[jimmyc]

Installed 32G of Gskil F3-17000CL9Z INTO Asus Sbertooth x79 motherboard (installed eight 4G strips). The CPU is an Intel Core i7, 3820 3.6G.

Board boots fine, except that it shows only 24G of memory. When I drill down in the BIOS, it states that Dimm D1 and D2 are abnormal. So I rotated the memory originally in Dimms A1 and A2 that were ok to slots D1 and D2. The memory formerally in D1 and D2 now are ok in Slots A1 and A2 but the memory from A1 and A2 now in D1 and D2 are abnormal.

Asus tech support via an e-mail asked me to change to XMP from Auto. When I change to XMP mode, for Profile 1, the board reports only 20G of memory with Slot A1, D1 and D2 reported as abnormal. When I change to XMP Profile 2, the board reports only 24g again with Dimms D1 and D2 as abnormal.

I have made no other changes to the BIOS settings. Anything else I can try other than concluding I have a bad motherboard?

[Tradesman]

The 3820 may be straining a bit to run all the fully populated channels, try raising DRAM voltage + .05 and the MC voltage + .07. If no joy there, take the VCCSA voltage up a notch.

[jimmyc]

Tradesman,
Thank you...I won't have access to the PC until later this evening. I'll try the tweaks you suggest and report back on Wednesday. Thanks! JimC

[Tradesman]

If it's this evening, let me know, I'm generally always in and out

[jimmyc]

Tradesman,
Thanks for the reply. I tried the settings you suggested, but no luck. I think I have a bad motherboard and will press the seller for an RMA.

Your suggestion about the voltage caused me to wonder so I decided to install only 6 of 8 4G strips. The manual states that these need to be in Dimms A1, B1, B2, C1, D1 and D2. I have the same issue with only 6 Dimms--the board reports the memory in D1 and D2 as abnormal and the other 4 as ok. When I switch the memory in the B and D slots....the memory that was previously ok in the B slots is now abnormal in the D slots. Conversely, the former D slot memory strips report as ok in the B slots.

Unless you have any more ideas, I think I need to push the seller for an RMA on the motherboard....agreed? Thanks!
JimC

[Tradesman]

Sounds like it may be bad slots, think I'd prob RMA the mobo also

[jimmyc]

Tradesman, Thanks for your help...For closure to this thread, the replacement motherboard worked propely out of the box properly reporting all 8 slots of memory....so it was 2 bad slots on the original board. JimC

[Tradesman]

Thanks for the update and glad all is good now Keep in touch