In my last thread I played some games to get an old X58 system up and running near its intended speed. Ironically its been almost a year to the day and it seems some part of this system is acting up. The system failed to POST and gave beeping sounds corresponding to a memory issue as well as an error code corresponding to a memory issue. I took out all the memory and tried each one alone in the slot furthest away from the CPU. Each one passed POST so each stick works fine. Next I tried adding sticks starting from the furthest slot and working closer to the CPU. 2 sticks on the same memory channel (X58 used triple channel memory) was able POST. 3 sticks with 2 sticks on one channel and 1 stick on other failed POST every time. Was dual channel allowed on X58 motherboards? I tried all slots on the same channel using 2 sticks and they all passed POST which suggests the physical slots are fine as well. Trying a triple channel configuration worked fine only if the memory was in one color slot (blue) and not the other color (black). Putting 2 sticks in one channel, the one furthest away from the CPU and 1 stick in other channels also passed POST. Putting 2 sticks in two channels and 1 stick in the remaining channel only passed POST when the center channel black slot was empty. From this behavior I know each memory stick works and all the slots work. I'm left to conclude this is a memory controller problem or some problem with the motherboard aside from the slot. At times I utilize over 20GB of memory for work. I have it running now with 12 GB in triple channel mode but that is not a long term solution. Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do from here? What do you think the cause of the problem is? I tested both default and "OC" settings mentioned in the previous thread.
I take it you've tried the memory at it's stock speeds / settings? When I loaded up my X58 with 3 x 2Gb and 3 x 4Gb (to create 18Gb), it took some trial and error (removing and reseating the RAM) to get it working.
Like oasked, I found X58 to be quite painful when trying to configure more than 12GB of memory. For the last year or so I was using 24GB and it was finnicky to get it running, and when I did get it running I just left it and never had problems with it. The main setting you want to keep an eye on is the uncore voltage (sometimes VTT, depending on what board you have). On X58, the uncore voltage directly affects the CPU's capability to handle the throughput required for large quantities of memory, and my experience with my i7 920 was that the uncore voltage needed bumped very slightly after years of use. I presume the silicon slowly degrades over time and requires a little bit more juice to keep it stable. Some hardware info would help to solve this quicker, e.g. what board are you running, what CPU, what make/spec of memory etc.
All hardware info is in the other thread http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=304130 mentioned in the first post of this thread. Its running below stock speeds, see other thread. EDIT: Adding more info that could be relevant The 12GB I was using earlier was happy at stock uncore voltage (1.22V) and I tested from 1.3 to 1.35V with all 6 sticks and theres no difference. The only thing I have found is that the system is happy as long as the second slot on the second memory channel is empty. It has to be that slot too. Any other triple channel combination works. I have noticed that after exiting bios the system will often enter a power cycling loop where during POST it will shut off. I left the loop to try and sort itself out but after 10 tries I turned it off. This happens almost every time I turn the system on without first turning off the PSU from the switch on it. A couple of times as well (when all 6 slots were filled) the case and cpu fan (both plugged into mobo headers) would shut off but the lights on the mobo showing that the system was on would remain lit. There was no display output at this time. This is starting to seem like an electrical issue on the motherboard.
i had to really wrestle with my RAM to get it stable, i had to drop down the Mhz from 1600, to 1400 if i wanted all 6 sticks in. there was lots of complicated settings that i knew at the time but its been about a year since last messing with it so i couldn't tell you. I know i had to keep changing the QPI and PPL voltage to get things stable in tests. Also double check your timings. Altho i had to underclock my Mhz, i could really tighten up the timings past stock as a trade off. Look into them settings.
