KillerRabibit Posted September 29, 2006 Posted September 29, 2006 I'm a little new at this, so please excuse me. I have a system that was built circa Oct 2004 with a Asus A8V Deluxe motherboard. No BIOS updates have ever been done and it has always run with no issues. The system was built with CMX512-3200C2PT (XMS3202V1.1) ram in slots A1 & B1. The other bank was empty. I recently got two more sticks of the same memory, but the version is 1.5. If the newer RAM is in any slot, the system will not boot or even start loading anything (BLACK SCREEN). The system boots fine if the original RAM is in either bank pair. Even if the new RAM is the only memory in the system, nothing. I thought that the exact same RAM would work with no problems. Is the newer version of the RAM an issue that requires a BIOS update or is there something else I'm missing?
Corsair Employee RAM GUY Posted September 30, 2006 Corsair Employee Posted September 30, 2006 You cannot mox memory with this MB and or platform, all of the modules would need to be exactly matched. sorry!
KillerRabibit Posted September 30, 2006 Author Posted September 30, 2006 The memory types are the same (type and size). Just the ones made in 2004 are version 1.1 and the new ones are version 1.5. The MOB will not boot if the only RAM installed is version 1.5. Is there are big change between version 1.1 and 1.5 design that would prevent the MOB from seeing the memory or booting?
RJLeong65 Posted September 30, 2006 Posted September 30, 2006 The memory types are the same (type and size). Just the ones made in 2004 are version 1.1 and the new ones are version 1.5. The MOB will not boot if the only RAM installed is version 1.5. Is there are big change between version 1.1 and 1.5 design that would prevent the MOB from seeing the memory or booting? Different PCB's and different SPD chips. Version 1.1 has an older PC2700-spec SPD whose programming tops out at PC2700/DDR333, while version 1.5 likely has an SPD which is programmed for PC3200/DDR400 in addition to PC2700/DDR333. The mixed SPD's are to blame here. In this case, you will need to reset the CMOS through the motherboard jumper, then try booting into the BIOS with just the Version 1.5 modules installed.
KillerRabibit Posted September 30, 2006 Author Posted September 30, 2006 I reset the CMOS, but the system still will not boot with the version 1.5 of CMX512-3200C2PT. I don't even heard the Harddrive spin-up. The keyboard LED indicators flash once, then nothing (No video, no boot up). I removed the Version 1.5 RAM and reinstalled the version 1.1 and the system booted up. I reinstalled the BIOS defaults and the system works fine again. For some reason the system will not do anything if version 1.5 of the RAM is installed. If the chipset of the MOB is causing the problem with version 1.5 RAM, would a BIOS update correct the issue? I'm of the mind that if nothing is going wrong don't update the BIOS, but clearly something is preventing the newer version of my existing RAM from working at all.
KillerRabibit Posted September 30, 2006 Author Posted September 30, 2006 I discided to bite-the-bullet and Flash the BIOS to the lasted release (17 not the Beta of 18). I created a backup of my existing BIOS in case something went south. Anyway, after updating the BIOS, the MOB would POST both version 1.1 and 1.5 of my memory. I now have all banks full with 2Gb indicated installed. Now that things are moving again, any suggestions about the best Memory configuration setting in the BIOS for my RAM? Bank1 (Slots A1 & B1) have CMX512-3200C2PT version 1.5 and Bank2 (Slots A2 & B2) have CMX512-3200C2PT version 1.1. Version 1.5 lists latency of 2-3-3-6. I'm not sure if version 1.1 has the same exact latency. Right now I have everything in the Memory Configurations set to AUTO, except for timing that I set to 200MHz.
Wired Posted October 1, 2006 Posted October 1, 2006 latency specs have nothing to do with the version number of the memory also set the memory voltage to 2.7-2.8 volts
KillerRabibit Posted October 1, 2006 Author Posted October 1, 2006 Thank you for the help. Things are going fine now.
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