Trouble with Gskill RAM and ASUS P9X79 PRO

[peter55]

Hi,

Can anyone help?

I have an ASUS P9X79 PRO motherboard. When I put in the Gskill ram (4x4GB) my computer BIOS will only see 12GB when I put the memory in the recommended slots. I did update the BIOS to the latest version (1203). After that I reset the BIOS to the default settings.

The RAM I bought is:
F3-12800CL9Q-16GBXL

When I put in all 4 sticks into the recommended slots (A1, B1, C1, D1), I only see 12GB when I should see 16GB. Annoying. I tried just 2 chips in the first 2 slots and I see 8GB. Tried the other 2 chips in the first 2 slots and I see 8GB (so RAM seems to be ok). I did try to put the 4 sticks in the first 4 slots (A1, B1, A2, B2) and it saw all 16GB. Not sure why, and what that will do since it's not the recommended configuration.

I talked to ASUS and they were no help. We tried to change the DRAM timing settings but that did not help. They suggested I buy a different brand a RAM.

Any thoughts on why the board will only see 12 of the 16GB?

thanks,
Peter

[Tradesman]

Have you tried 2 in C1 and D1, just to see what happens or A1, B1, D1 (or C1) with three sticks, sort of sounds like you may have a dead slot or one that is overly tight and may need to use a little extra force to firmly seat it

[peter55]

Hi,

I did try some of that testing as well. With 1 stick in C1 it will report 4GB. If I have 1 stick in D1, the system will not boot. Just get a black screen, and the DIMM red LED will be on. With 1 stick in C1 and 1 in D1 it will boot but only report 4GB.

Doing the 3 sticks in A1, B1, D1 it will report 8GB. Doing the 3 sticks in A1, B1, C1 it will report 12GB.

So it does seem like D1 is bad. But on my previous board I really thought it was a bad memory slot as well (getting similar results). That is why I went ahead and exchanged the board for another one. 2 boards both with the same problem?

thanks,
Peter

[Tradesman]

I'd say a bad slot, might hit up Asus again and explain, and tell them if the slots not bad why won't it read any sticks and is always coming up missing - ask them to EXPLAIN why only one slot fails to EVER show any DRAM - that it can't be the sticks as they all show up fine in the other slots

[peter55]

Problem solved

Thanks for the email.

So I did test the RAM one by one and it worked fine. I told this to ASUS support but they still told me to try different RAM. So I bought some new RAM and had the same problem.

So ended up exchanging the motherboard again and this one finally worked as it should. So basically I got 2 bad ASUS motherboards. I'm surprised that can happen.. but I guess they don't check their stuff as well as the memory suppliers do.

Thanks again,
Peter

[Tradesman]

It can happen, there was another mobo maker that a number of lines of mobos back after the P67s came out, that had gotten a run of bad DIMM slots, and unless you really used some force to seat the sticks, the system would go into a start up and die loop, over and over, it was like with 7 different models. Glad to hear all is well, keep in touch