Striker Extreme not working with 4GB RAM

OK I have read the posts and I know alot of people have trouble with the 4th slot for memory on these boards not working. This is not the problem with me.

 

What my problem is this, If I have a full load of 4 DIMMs the system is stable for MAYBE a day or so and then will BSOD out randomly with different errors. But if I have 2GB instead of the 4GB in it the system is rock solid. Now I have talked with ASUS about this and they say the memory isnt on the QVL (if thats the right acronym) and therefore will not work with a full load. Personally I find that hard to believe. I cant remember all the settings off the top of my head for the memory but I currently have 4-4-4-12 T2 MEM Voltage 2.00 with two others set I cant remember. Now it would be nice to be able to have 4GB of ram again and yes I know that since im used Windows XP 32-bit I will only see about 3.25GB ram but im not worried about that. All the sticks have been tested one at a time using MemTest and all have passed a 24-hour test so I know that its not bad ram. Has anyone out there had a similar issue and/or is there a word around so that I can use all the memory I purchased?

 

Thanks I will update this later with the settings I have forgotten.

Do you have Automatic Reboot on Errors Enabled or Disabled? If disabled, can you post the actual BSOD information? Are you manually setting your Vdimm in BIOS? What are your custom BIOS settings?

I haven't really tweaked this system out too much mainly because I would like ot get the ram issue solved first before i start making huge changes. Anyway the current settings I have on this board are as follows:

 

4-4-4-12

Command Per Clock 2

tRC 24

TRFC 42

 

Mem Voltage 2.000 volts

NB Voltage 1.400 volts

 

Hope that helps people help me figure this out. :)

Right click on your "My Computer" icon and choose "Properties". Choose the "Advanced" tab and the "Startup and Recovery" section button "Settings". Under the "System Failure" section uncheck "Automatically" restart.

 

Now when you have a BSOD, you will be given information on the BSOD blue screen that will tell you where the issue is arising. Post the BSOD information here if and when it happens.

 

A population of 4 Dimms can be problematic even with the unlinking of the 680i CPU <--> DRAM. If your memory is actually 6400C4D then you might wish to raise your Mem voltage to 2.1v and see how that works.

Oh right forgot to mention thats the first thing to be turned off everytime i reinstall or get a new system. As for the BSOD errors when I have 4GB in the system they are never the same. which is why i tested every stick of RAM by itself using Memtest. thought at first it was bad memory cause of the randomness of the errors but after talking to Asus Techs they said that since the RAM wasnt on the QVL list they couldnt help me....hence why i am here now

I just registered to search for the exact same problem. It was running perfectly with 2gb of ram however when I installed the other 2 the system completely freaked out!

I'm running both ubuntu and windows xp on my system and it will simply crash hard.

Tests I performed were just using 2 sticks, then installing a third one then installing the fourth. After installing 3 the system was still performing solidly. When I installed the fourth one problems arose again. I wanted to also rule out the possibility of the fourth slot being damaged so I moved the 2nd stick to the fourth slot and it still works properly. Right now I'm running using only 3gb of RAM 'till I find out what the problem might be.

 

my mobo is an asus striker extreme with an nVidia GeForce 8800 GTS and an E6420 intel core 2 duo processor. I haven't really gotten to play with the bios settings yet since I wanted to test normal performance before trying any OC.

 

PD

I forgot to mention that when I load the BIOS it'll show the memory as 4096 so it "sees" it just gets really unstable

PD

I forgot to mention that when I load the BIOS it'll show the memory as 4096 so it "sees" it just gets really unstable

 

 

 

I have to agree on that one completely forgot that it does show the 4096 as the installed memory but is totally unstable when in Windows with that much installed. Another odd thing is that if I leave ever option at Auto for the timings and voltages I cannot boot the system with that much or even 2 GB but if i set them manually atleast it boots with the 4GB even though it crashes out hard after a while and with 2GB is stable as a rock.

I just registered to search for the exact same problem.

 

Please post your own thread with your own issue. I can not post settings with people having different CPU/DRAM/Boards etc...

Oh right forgot to mention thats the first thing to be turned off everytime i reinstall or get a new system. As for the BSOD errors when I have 4GB in the system they are never the same. which is why i tested every stick of RAM by itself using Memtest. thought at first it was bad memory cause of the randomness of the errors but after talking to Asus Techs they said that since the RAM wasnt on the QVL list they couldnt help me....hence why i am here now

A population of 4 Dimms can be problematic even with the unlinking of the 680i CPU <--> DRAM. If your memory is actually 6400C4D then you might wish to raise your Mem voltage to 2.1v and see how that works.

 

Did you do this?

Sounds like memory controller overload? Try running your 4-dimms at 667MHz 5-5-5-14 (2T) 2.1v

 

See if that works for ya. Sometimes the controllers cant handle that much at high speed.

 

-TopGunSF

 

Did you do this?

 

Sorry its taken a while to get back to this but my net has been down for a week. In reply to trying that solution with the voltage yes I have and still got the same results.

Sounds like memory controller overload? Try running your 4-dimms at 667MHz 5-5-5-14 (2T) 2.1v

 

See if that works for ya. Sometimes the controllers cant handle that much at high speed.

 

-TopGunSF

 

 

That sound like a good idea but one question, wouldnt that actually cause the computer to be slower overall due to the memory being underclocked?

That sound like a good idea but one question, wouldnt that actually cause the computer to be slower overall due to the memory being underclocked?

 

You are running with 4 Dimm slots populated and because of this will very likely need to drop the bandwidth. The memory is underclocked because the memory controller has twice the DRAM to deal with and has a longer que now.

 

If you want the full speed of the DRAM, remove the two DRAM sticks and you can then run at full bore. If you want the extra capacity of the DRAM, then drop your bandwidth so that the now more heavily taxed motherboard Memory Controller (MCH Northbridge) can keep up to the now increased storage compartments.

 

It's the safest way as stability is what matters.