Need help with troubleshooting a buddies pc. boot issues with new ram

[stoggs1]

Hey guys, I'm troubleshooting a computer for a buddy of mine. the issue his he recently upgraded the ram in his system fro 4 gbs to 8 gbs and its ddr2 ram. here is the issue though with the new ram. his system will only load windows with 1 stick of ram installed, but works fine with his old ram which Kingston hyper-x, not sure of the brand of his new ram.

the thing is there is no bios beeps and I can get into bios and the machine acts like it wants to load, but when it tries to load windows the computer either hangs or reboots itself.

his specs are an asus mvp deluxe am2+ motherboard, amd phenom 9850 cpu quad core, 800 watt psu, radeon 5850 gpu, sound blaster sound card,2 hard drives and 2 optical drives. His old ram which works is Kingston hyper x. I don't know what the new brand is though, im at work and I cant check it is ddr2 though.

any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks.

 

[newtekie1]

I assume he bought 2x4GB sticks? According to the manual the motherboard only supports 256MB, 512MB, 1GB, or 2GB sticks.

In his case it sounds like it works with 1 4GB stick, but not 2, which is probably why ASUS doesn't officially support 4GB sticks.

 

[stoggs1]

opps I should stated its 4x2gb sticks. my bad lol

 

[kn00tcn]

more sticks = more load, are they set properly in bios? you might end up raising voltage (on the ram but more likely on the northbridge/cpu) or loosening timings

 

[Jetster]

Some boards are just picky about ram. DDR2 more than 3.

 

[stoggs1]

odd thing it happens with 2 sticks as well. ive tried multiple ram placements and with 1,2,3 and all 4 sticks in. results are the same. only boots with 1 stick in the primary slot. but with the Kingston hyper x it boots fine with 2 sticks which are both 2gbs.

 

[Norton]

Some boards are just picky about ram. DDR2 more than 3.

^^^ This. Would help a lot if you could find out the brand and part # of the ram he bought. I had similar issues with Crucial brand DDR2 in the past, Kingston was nearly always compatible but YMMV...

 

[stoggs1]

I think it might be crucial. I need to check it when I get home. if its not what else do you think I should try?

 

[Norton]

I think it might be crucial. I need to check it when I get home. if its not what else do you think I should try?

Did you do a CMOS reset and set everything to stock/auto settings before installing the new sticks? If not, the new sticks may be trying to run on whatever the old ones were set for, which could be an issue.

 

[Jetster]

I just had to switch out $100 worth of ram on a board. It would BSOD after sleep a couple times a week. Nothing wrong with the ram at all. Tested it with Memtest for 24 hours. Loosened timing and upped voltage no change. Different memory no problems

 

[stoggs1]

Did you do a CMOS reset and set everything to stock/auto settings before installing the new sticks? If not, the new sticks may be trying to run on whatever the old ones were set for, which could be an issue.

ok I did that earlier today and reset all bios settings. do you think a bios update would fix this issue? also I looked at the ram and it doesn't state who the manufacturer is. my buddy ordered it off ebay and he doesn't remember who the manufacturer is.

 

[Jetster]

the ram and it doesn't state who the manufacturer is.

That could be your issue Take a pic of it

 

[kn00tcn]

the ram still has markings on the chips, also if one stick works, you can try to read the info with cpuz or aida

yes bios updates can fix it, read the changelog

i really want you to try loosened timings, maybe even underclocking, or maybe overvolting the cpu or nb (whichever has the memory controller)

 

[Norton]

ok I did that earlier today and reset all bios settings. do you think a bios update would fix this issue? also I looked at the ram and it doesn't state who the manufacturer is. my buddy ordered it off ebay and he doesn't remember who the manufacturer is.

If it were my rig I would forget about the "mystery" ram and order 2 more 2GB sticks of the HyperX ram you already have.

or you could do as @kn00tcn suggested and boot with 1 stick of ram and get the specs from cpuz- that way we/you know what you're dealing with.

 

[stoggs1]

ok il try that but I cant find the ram settings in the bios. where should I look?

 

[kn00tcn]

ok il try that but I cant find the ram settings in the bios. where should I look?

er, read the manual or just go through every menu?

maybe it hides them unless you enter some 'overclock' or 'manual' mode

EDIT: on a related note, i have 2x2gb OCZ ram, i really wanted to find 2x4gb but dont know if that will be stable on my p5q-e with its overclock, but same goes for 4x2gb putting extra load (if i could even find my sticks used, i could also try some other sticks but then i end up with 2 spares, finally i'm not sure if i want to spend money on an obsolete system that plays bf3 just fine)

 

[stoggs1]

If it were my rig I would forget about the "mystery" ram and order 2 more 2GB sticks of the HyperX ram you already have.

I would do that but my buddy is stubborn as hell lol and it would cost him more money so he wants me to get this ram working instead. luckily hes paying me to fix this for him.