Not all memory recognised

[Atomic_Sheep]

Hi, I purchased a new computer a couple of months ago here are my specs:

Intel i7 930
Gigabyte X58A-UD3R
12Gb G-Skill DDR3-1600 PC3-12800 (CL9-9-9-24 1.5V)

When I first got the computer assembled, I only had 6Gb of memory and it was very capricious in terms of how much was being recognized and when. It appears that a cold start usually brought about the problem for most people but in my case, sometimes I would get the full 6Gb from a cold start, sometimes I would get 4. After the cold start, if I got 6 and rebooted I might get 6 or I might get 4 and if I got 4 after a cold start I would get 6 once it heated up a bit and then it would swap back to 4 etc etc... you get the picture. This was on the first day of struggling with the computer and I hadn't read that DD3 and X58 proved to be a pain in the backside for a lot of people... anyway...

As I said, temperature didn't appear to play much of a role when it came to how much memory was actually going to recognized. I did all the troubleshooting, I reseated the memory, I swapped the sticks, I tested them one by one, it all seemed fine but as soon as you would plug in the full 6 gigs, it would just die. Basically something was wrong and I went back to the shops to exchange the memory and the PSU (different story... I think it was faulty as now the new one works fine... anyway)... Considering how annoying some retailers are, I knew that I wasn't going to be able to just come in and exchange my 6 gigs for a new set without them taking the whole thing away... without me having to pay money... blah blah... with the result being quite obvious so I decided to take a risk... I purchased a second set of the exact same memory... so I had 1 'faulty' set and another new one. I came home and plugged the new 6 gigs in... everything was running sweetly now. The new memory seemed to be totally stable... after many many reboots... 6 gigs.

I then went back and exchanged the original 6 gigs for a new set, as I finally had proof enough to get an exchange without all the stuffing around, so I ended up with 2 new sets of 6 gigs i.e. 12 gigs. I once again came home and plugged in the additional 6 gigs... much to my dismay... i was once again seeing not all the memory being recognized... I was flipping between 8 gigs or 12. So... I did the whole trouble shooting thing for each set again... I tested just the first set... swapped the sticks... reseated them... etc... nothing... was getting a stable 6 gigs... took that out... put in the second set... nothing... no problems... once again, I was getting 6 gigs stable no matter how many times I reset the computer.

So basically... there appears to be no problem with the individual sets... but as soon as you plug them in together... bam... I get the old problem of only getting 2/3 sticks from each set being recognized in a haphazard fashion. Any ideas guys? I've finally got some time to sort out the issue, hence not trying to sort it out sooner... been using 6 gigs with the other 6 gigs sitting inside my table waiting to be installed and for the whole thing to finally start working hopefully.

I have no idea what the issue might be or how to continue the troubleshooting because as I said, I've tested each set individually and they seem fine by themselves but together its a different story. I started playing around with over clocking the CPU (not too much... I went from 2.8 - 2.93ghz or something... so on the stock fan still) and as soon as I started to play around with over clocking... the memory started acting up again... maybe it's something to do with the ratio or whatever it's called or something of the sort I don't know... when I get my new case and plug in a better cooler hopefully by the end of this week, I'll see whether over clocking ruins the stability of the 6 gigs... but yer... getting really frustrated with all this to be honest... just looking for some tips.

EDIT: I just read that there might be a mismatch between the two sets of memory... why would this be case? Can't imagine the same model memory being any different in different batches?

[GSKILL TECH]

Yes, different batches can cause a problem. This is why we suggest a 12GB kit instead of two 6GB kits.

BUT, this may not be the case just yet. Try raising the QPI/VTT Voltage to see if that helps. Also, go down this list as there are many reasons for this issue.

http://www.gskill.us/forum/showthread.php?t=5136

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[Atomic_Sheep]

Got my new case, installed the new cpu cooler and tried plugging in the full 12 gigs of ram again. Haven't overclocked anything yet but switched it on for the first time totally expecting to see 8 gigs again... immediately saw 12 gigs... was pleasantly surprised... hopefully I don't gynx anything but after a couple of resets and startups, it's still showing the full 12 gigs quite consistently. Didn't do anything in the end apart from trying the full 12 gigs and it seems to be working without any tweaking... so good news (for now at least). I think sometimes you need to complain a bit just for the sake of it for something to start working. The classic bash the part until it works trick... fingers crossed for the future. I'm sure I'll be back once I start over clocking though :P.

[GSKILL TECH]

Your CPU cooler may have been too tight, causing the memory controller to not operate properly. That seems to be the difference that may have caused the problem.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[Atomic_Sheep]

Yer, I read about that being a possibility... quite strange considering I was using a stock intel cooler. When I initially installed the new CPU cooler... I actually tightened like a madman (despite this... all the memory was being recognised)... until I realised you can actually break the CPU if you overtighten, so I reseated it again as I got a really poor contact patch last time and was getting very high temps and this time I was a lot more careful to ensure that I didn't overtighten. I overclocked the CPU to 4Ghz and the memory stepped up as I was overclocking from 1066 to 1360 or something but the main thing is, it was all being recognized all the time. The true test will come when I just get the memory up to spec leaving the CPU at whatever speeds... i.e. vary the Voltage ratio.

EDIT: I just tried getting the memory up to spec whilst keeping the CPU at stock speeds... all the memory was being recognised but the only problem were the voltages. I kept the base clock at 133 and bumbed up the multiplier to 12 or whatever it was to get the memory up to 1600. I didn't change anything else. I logged into windows and went into the gigabyte peripherals program and it showed DRAM @ 1.7+ volts!!! I immediately went back and changed it back down to a multiplier of 8 which is what it was running at before i.e. 1060 and the voltage dropped back down to 1.5v. Why did the voltage increase so much? I kept everything auto... there are two columns in my bios... the left one I believe... shows the current state? and the right column enables you to make the manual selections and set settings. It seemed to be showing 1.5v in BIOS.

[Atomic_Sheep]

Well, just got my first 10Gb bootup. So the problem isn't totally gone. I restarted and it was 12Gb again. I'm not overclocking at the moment (went back to stock speeds a couple of days ago)... so hmm... quite disappointing I think. So basically... the fact that not all the memory is being recognised is down purely to the fact that there are physical differences in the memory sticks themselves?

EDIT: Also... on my memory sticks it says 1.5v... same as on the box... why then is it stating 1.5-1.6 on these identical ones?

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...review-10.html

[GSKILL TECH]

Well it is a very likely possibility that the chips are causing the problem. Did you ever try raising the QPI Voltage? If you can post pictures of the BIOS, I can see if anything is set incorrectly.

These sticks are 1.50V. hardwarecanucks may just have one of the first testing version that were 1.50-1.60V. Like I said, different chips are used all the time, so the specifications may change depending on our testing.

Thank you
GSKILL SUPPORT

[Atomic_Sheep]

Well I haven't got any more 10 gig bootups since that one. It was a one off... as I said... disappointing that the problem hasn't totally gone away... just means I'll never have that piece of mind but after resetting the comp maybe 50 times since then as I was overclocking and rebooting the system every 5 mins, I didn't see a 10 gig or 8 gig bootup since then, so all good. I'm currently overclocked and not having any issues there either. I was worried that it was going to happen more frequently than I would have liked but if it happens once a month or something, I can live with that.

I was just interested to see that there was a 1.6v version of my memory. I'm not really planning on overclocking the memory any time soon, so it's not a major issue. I was just asking whether mine was 1.6v rated but simply not stated on the packaging as I was basically expecting my 8-10 gig bootups to occur more frequently than they have been and thereby giving me some headroom to play around with the voltage setting and determine whether they would change anything in terms of stability. But as it stands, I'm running the memory at spec i.e. 1.5v, 1600mhz and not having any issues that are currently bothering me so I'm happy.