City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

Why can't I upgrade my RAM?

FryGuy

By FryGuy,
Posted on: 2010-12-27 15:07 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs

 

Posted

So, I've been running 4gb of ram and wanted to double up. I bought 4 sticks of 2GB each, and haven't been able to make it work. My mobo has no issue of running with 4GB of the new ram, so I know it's compatible. But whenever I put in 8, the computer stops doing anything after the Windows 7 logo animates.

Specs:

Motherboard: GA-P35C-DS3R

RAM: Corsair XMS2

And the OS is Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

Honestly, I can't see why it's not taking all 4 sticks. The mobo is capable of running 8GB and the OS can take up to 16. Any ideas on what's not clicking?

@Rylas

Kill 'em all. Let XP sort 'em out.

 

Posted

How do I run that when having all 4 sticks in keeps the OS from booting up past the animated logo?

@Rylas

Kill 'em all. Let XP sort 'em out.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rylas View Post
How do I run that when having all 4 sticks in keeps the OS from booting up past the animated logo?
Have you tried booting in Safe Mode?

If that doesn't work then try booting with just a pair of modules in there and testing 2 at a time.

You want to do what you can to determine if there is a bad stick of RAM in the mix somewhere. If all the RAM checks out then it's time to move on to the more complicated possibilities.

Kosmos

Global: @Calorie
MA Arcs in 4-star purgatory: Four in a Row (#2198) - Hostile Takeover (#69714) - Red Harvest (#268305)

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kosmos View Post
Have you tried booting in Safe Mode?

If that doesn't work then try booting with just a pair of modules in there and testing 2 at a time.

You want to do what you can to determine if there is a bad stick of RAM in the mix somewhere. If all the RAM checks out then it's time to move on to the more complicated possibilities.
Hmm... pretty sure I've run both sets of 2 sticks, so I know the RAM sticks are good. I'll try seeing if booting in safe mode does anything...

@Rylas

Kill 'em all. Let XP sort 'em out.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rylas View Post
How do I run that when having all 4 sticks in keeps the OS from booting up past the animated logo?
I'm 99% sure you can burn memtest 86 to a bootable disk. It should load a shell OS using a cache drive to run the test.

 

Posted

According to the Gigabyte site, that motherboard has 6 memory slots. 4 slots for DDR2 memory that supports up to 8GB. And 2 slots for DDR3 memory which supports up to 4 GB. I'm wondering if you're putting your new memory in the wrong slots? I'd check the motherboard manual very carefully to make sure you're putting your new RAM into the proper slots on the motherboard. Avoid the DDR3 slots.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by FryGuy View Post
According to the Gigabyte site, that motherboard has 6 memory slots. 4 slots for DDR2 memory that supports up to 8GB. And 2 slots for DDR3 memory which supports up to 4 GB. I'm wondering if you're putting your new memory in the wrong slots? I'd check the motherboard manual very carefully to make sure you're putting your new RAM into the proper slots on the motherboard. Avoid the DDR3 slots.
DDR2 RAM will not fit a DDR3 slot, or the other way around.

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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rylas View Post
Hmm... pretty sure I've run both sets of 2 sticks, so I know the RAM sticks are good. I'll try seeing if booting in safe mode does anything...
Being able to boot the system isn't a definitive test. Make the memtest boot disk and if it doesn't boot to that with all 4 sticks in then use the boot disk to test 2 at a time to see if you can find the culprit.

Hopefully it is just a bad stick of RAM, because no other good ideas occur to me. The only other things I can think to suggest are:

(1) If the RAM isn't four identical sticks then make sure each pair is in matching colored slots. Sounds like you have four of the same though, from what you've written.

(2) Look in the BIOS to see what that tells you. Does it see all four sticks of RAM and do they all look the same to it?

Kosmos

Global: @Calorie
MA Arcs in 4-star purgatory: Four in a Row (#2198) - Hostile Takeover (#69714) - Red Harvest (#268305)

 

Posted

Okay, so I am able to boot up in safe mode. Also, as said before, I have change out all the ram, in different combonations, and all the sticks are good.

When I was in safe mode, I noticed that looking at computer properties it said that the CPU and RAM were unavailable. But I wouldn't know if this was a result of safe mode, or a result of the CPU being at 100%. For some reason, having all 4 sticks in is driving the processor crazy.

I tried updating my BIOS, and didn't notice any difference. I may need to try updating again, it seems it only changed out 3 files.

Is it possible to run memtest in safe mode. And if so, which one to I download? There's, like, 20 different versions.

@Rylas

Kill 'em all. Let XP sort 'em out.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kosmos View Post
(1) If the RAM isn't four identical sticks then make sure each pair is in matching colored slots. Sounds like you have four of the same though, from what you've written.

(2) Look in the BIOS to see what that tells you. Does it see all four sticks of RAM and do they all look the same to it?
1: The RAM is indeed, four indentical sticks. And I've tried many variations on slotting to make sure everything works fine. The DDR2 slots are 2 sets of yellow and red slots. I've tried all 4 slots, just 2 yellow slots, just 2 red slots, the first red and yellow.... you see where I'm going.

2: All BIOS will say when all 4 sticks are in is that it sees 8192 in RAM. Which sounds about right for 8GB.

@Rylas

Kill 'em all. Let XP sort 'em out.

 

Posted

EUREKA! I updated the bios (correctly) and that did it! Computer properties shows 8 GB for RAM. Thanks for the helps, everyone!

@Rylas

Kill 'em all. Let XP sort 'em out.