W7 x64 Pro and 32GB RAM

[MN12BIRD]

Okay I've built a system here with a Gigabyte Z68A-D3H-B3 rev 1.3 with the latest BIOS, Core i7 2700K, Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 3GB GDDR5, 128GB Crucial M4 SSD and 32GB of G.Skill DDR3 1600MHz RAM.

Windows 7 x64 Professional is loaded on the SSD. Windows 7 boots up lightning fast with 16GB installed but when I load in all 32GB it takes literally 5 minutes to load into Windows 7. This is at the loading screen where the 4 colors come together to form the Windows logo.

So it's a RAM issues right? Well here's the kicker.

It doesn't always take 5 minutes. Apx 1 out of every 3 or 4 bootups it will load in apx a minute or less. It's about 5 seconds longer than with 16GB but still acceptable and from what I can see Windows is pre-loading more into RAM on startup (2GB with 32GB, 1.25GB with 16GB) so the 5 seconds seems acceptable. But most of the time it takes 5 minutes and that is not!

I ran Memtest86+ overnight with not a single error. This is at the profiled 1,600MHz, 10.10.10 timings and 1.5v as stated on the sticks. I've also tried manually setting the speeds, timings and voltages. I've tried 1,333 (the mobo also defaults to 1,333 if XMP profile is disabled) and I tried upping the voltage. But like I said it passed memtest86+ running all night so I don't think it's a memory issue as much as a Windows issue.

Also when it does take 5 minutes to load up I should mention it's perfectly fast and stable once it does load in. It just seems to hang up on something while loading up Windows.

Like I said the board has the latest BIOS and I can't really try different RAM since I don't have 4x 8GB sticks lying around

Any tips would be great. I did search the issue and everyone else suggested it is a memory issue and suggested manually setting the clock speed, timings and voltage and like I said I did try that and it passed memtest86+ overnight on XMP profile so I don't believe it is a memory issue. Are there any other known software issues with Windows or Drivers and 32GB RAM?

PS it's not my PC it's a customer build. a customer who will never use or need 32GB of RAM but insisted on having it.... yeah. If it was mine I would just stick with 16GB as that would still be more than enough for me and it wouldn't be giving me any issues hahaha.

Thanks in advance guys

 

[LGV]

try rule out the sticks all good and ok.
then try 3 stick maybe...
Did you install win with 32? may better

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Buggy BIOS is all I can think of. If I were you, I'd try older BIOS versions. The one and only Gigabyte board I ever bought was extremely finicky with RAM brands and would only work correctly using one of about 4 BIOS versions (newest was the least stable).


I'm leaning towards the board really doesn't like high density RAM (4x8 GiB sticks?). You could maybe fiddle with the memory voltages/clocks. The IMC might be struggling to push 4 DIMMs at that density.

 

[MN12BIRD]

Yeah I tried one stick at a time and it ran great each time. Like I said I tried different clocks, timings and voltages for RAM also. I didn't try any BIOS other than whatever was on the board when I got it, and the latest on there. But the problem has always been there with 2 different BIOS versions. IIRC the latest BIOS is F13 and the board came with F10 or something only a few rev behind but still.

 

[Athlon2K15]

I would try memory timings or a bump on the VTT.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Try one BIOS version in between. If it doesn't fix it, I'd open a dialog with Gigabyte about return for replacement.

 

[MN12BIRD]

Fixed it. I read this elsewhere and thought it was strange but I gave it a try. This worked for someone else also running 32GB RAM on a similar Gigabyte Z68 mobo. Not the exact same model though so it maybe a problem with many Z68 boards?

Anyway, like I said I'm running a PCI-e video card. But I went into the BIOS and set the Intel graphics to use the most amount of RAM that it could. The default setting is somewhere in the middle but there's a huge list of options, the last being ~420MB+2MB to be dedicated to the Intel graphics.

Once I picked that it's been booting up as fast as ever and so far 5-6 times in a row. Before this BIOS change it took 5 minutes to boot into Windows 7 and this was the last 3 times in a row. So it's safe to say this fixed it for whatever strange reason!

 

[Cotton_Cup]

that's great, but so far never experienced that with 32gb maybe it's with giga boards? btw got any link about where you find it? I'm interested in learning new stuff.

 

[MN12BIRD]

http://superuser.com/questions/402333/computer-slow-after-installing-32gb-ram

4th answer down someone said that fixed the issue for them.