issues trying to upgrade RAM

elmer91

Member
I recently decided to upgrade my desktop, which was built 4 years ago, in preparation for fallout 4. Unfortunately, Installing the RAM has been an issue. To start off, I have an Asus P7P55D-E LX motherboard, Intel i5-650 3.20GHz cpu, and my original RAM is 2 sticks of 2gb g.skill DDR3 2200 (F3-17600CL9D-4GBXLD). Couldnt find that exact speed anymore, so I went slower with 1600. got 8gb of g.skill DDR3 1600 (F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL). I am running Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit.

From what I read, that should have worked, but when I installed just the 2 new sticks, it wouldnt even make it to the windows loading screen. Went into the BIOS, turned off the memory remapping thing, and it would load, but would only say I have 3.5gb usable out of 8gb, where the old RAM said 4gb total with no loss. I checked to make sure there was not a max memory set, and updated BIOS. After updating BIOS, with memory remapping on, It would load until the windows startup screen appeared, then BSOD. Turn remapping off, and it would load, but would still only say 3.5gb available. Ran Memtest, and it came back with no issues found. No settings have been tweaked in BIOS, and I dont think it is the RAM itself, because that was my first thought and sent it back and got a replacement.

Thanks for any suggestions on what to try, and if you need more info on my setup let me know and i will provide.
 

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Are you running both old and new together or just the new memory? Go into the bios and set voltage and timings manually may help.
 

elmer91

Member
I tried both ways, running just the new and both. I was hoping to run both (I know they arent the same speed, but ive been told i can run both, but they will run at the slower speed). Tried setting the timings manually and still getting only 3.5 usable memory.
 

elmer91

Member
No one has any ideas on what the issue could be? I have tried a new copy of windows (needed installed on my SSD), tried using the MEMOK! function on the motherboard, and nothing. Also ran another memory test that my buddy brought to me (dont know the name of it) and it came back with no errors.
 

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
So does it work correctly with just old ram in it? But go bad when new ram is added to it? If so then you can assume something is up with the new ram speed with the old ram speed. I would actually buy another set of new ram and sell old ram.
 

elmer91

Member
everything works fine with the old ram. wont load past the bios screen with the new ram. I thought the new ram was the issue, so i had it sent back to newegg and got a different set. same problems. The speed of the new ram (1600) should be compatible with the board. I would have matched the speed of the new ram with the old (2200), but couldnt find anything. Since this is the second set of ram, it makes me think there is a problem with the board itself. Im trying to track down a friend who has some similar ram in their computer that i can swap out to test with.

Ive made sure BIOS is up to date, the driver for the board, and the driver for the video card.
 

jrz

New Member
Try overclocking your new ram to match your old one. If it becomes unstable increase the voltage just a tweak till its stable, start with one notch.
 

elmer91

Member
I brought my ram over to a friends, and his computer intially didnt like the new ram. His board (an Asus of some sort, dont remember exactly), gave a code 50, which is a ram error. Put his ram back in, an it worked, and he was able to mix his ram and my ram together without issue. I also tried looking into buying another set of the same ram that works, but no luck on ebay or anywhere.

I have no idea how to overclock my ram or what I need to change my setting to for XMP. My AI Overclock Tuner in bios was set to auto. Change it to XMP and the settings that come up are (for the old ram, cant even enter bios with the new ram).

CPU Ratio: 15.0
Intel SpeedStep Tech: Disabled
Xtreme Phase Full Power Mode: Auto
BCLK: 220
DRAM: DDR3-2200MHZ
QPI: Auto
 

elmer91

Member
looked more into the Memory Remapping feature in BIOS. that seems to be the issue, and googling that problem brought up a lot of threads on different forums that all seemed to have one thing in common: Asus Motherboards. One guy said this happened with a fresh build, so he sent the asus back and got another brand, and it worked fine, with all the same components. So it looks like the board is the issue, which is bad news because they dont make any new boards with my socket (LGA 1156). so looks like my fix is a new board and processor.
 
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