RAM issue, going nuts

[Lpfan4ever]

I've been troubleshooting for a while now. My friend updated his rig to a 2600K based on and I'm to install it for him. He was having issues with crashing with his i7 920 rig though. I want to figure out what the issue is before I tear it apart, so I can RMA what I need to. Help me, I can't figure this crap out.

So I've been using Memtest86+ 4.20 for testing. There's one suspected bad stick that he took out of his computer, which will be colour coded red. The other two sticks will be coloured blue, with a number on them using the last digits of the serial number to differentiate. This is on a Gigabyte EX58-UD3R board, which only has the four slots. RAM slots 1, 2 and 4 are the ones required for tri-channel. I still have to test with the RAM in slots 1 and 2, since I just realized I've been trying 1 and 4 mostly (even though Memtest reports that it is in fact running dual channel).

RAM slots go:

1, 3, 2, 4




Three sticks - Near instant Memtest fail




One suspected bad, one good - Memtest hangs before it can load anything




Same as previous




Suspected bad stick alone - Passes Memtest in both tested slots






Just the two seemingly good sticks - Passes Memtest




One suspected bad, one good, but reversed from before - Memtest loads fine and passes

[ZZLEE]

What sticks? Are they trippel channel rated.
Check seating on chip? chip not seated good you can lose tripple but still run duel
warped Moutherboard ? same as above

What ram Sticks are the y tripple rated and in the 3 correct slots. ?

[Lpfan4ever]

This rig (well CPU, RAM and mobo at least) was my old rig, built October 2009. It had worked fine until a month or two ago when he mentioned the crashing. I told him to cycle the RAM and see if running a single stick worked, which he did and ended up with two sticks working fine together. No incompatibilities, pretty much no chance of the CPU not being seating correctly as it's been clamped down by a Hyper 212+ the whole time. The RAM is G.Skill Trident, 3x 2GB, 2000MHz @ 9-9-9-24.

As for testing I've been doing. It wouldn't POST with a single stick of ram in either Slot 2 or Slot 3, so I cleared the CMOS again and now it seems to be ever worse. Won't post with any of the the sticks of RAM in any slot, doesn't beep with all the RAM removed, and reseating the video card didn't help either. Starting to suspect the motherboard. I've gotta yank it all, so I'm gonna test out of case with the stock heatsink after reseating the CPU. anyways.

[_dangtx_]

could be a memory controller or even a board issue, along with the one bad stick(if it is)

i would put my lunch money on the board/bios though if the sticks pass in another(whatever) system

[Lpfan4ever]

I'm planning on sticking the RAM into my rig soon, but I'm kinda busy on it at the moment. Once I saw the "bad stick" pass Memtest, I started thinking mobo or CPU. Figured I'd exhaust all the RAM options first though. This is driving me nuts though.

[_dangtx_]

the first thing you do is you pull it,liek you did. if its still funny after a bios reset you check all the parts elsewhere. they come clean? start the rma process.

[KaptCrunch]

i see 3 versions of this MB

REV: 1.0, 1.6, and 1.7 best get correct current bios

its shows 1 3 2 4 , so use matched pairs by colour slot or odd / even

[Lpfan4ever]

This isn't a new build, it's been a triple channel setup for nearly two years now. This isn't due to something being plugged in wrong. I've tried just about every RAM slot/amount combo I could do on the board, last shot for me is testing the RAM in my rig. If they pass, it's probably either a board or CPU issue. I have the manual open in my browser already.

Trust me when I say I've tried all the things that would normally cause this sort of behaviour. I'll be reseating it tonight when I finish setting up his 2600K. I was just grabbing at straws, seeing if somebody else might have seen this behaviour and had something else completely random cause it I guess.

[_dangtx_]

for some reason i had more luck with 1156 i7's than 1366.

lastly, even though a reseat might sound unproper,do it just in case.

at the same time you could take a look at the pins on the mobo,bent or burnt or funny, just in case ;)

[Lpfan4ever]

Mobo is pristine. I've taken pictures of all over the board after seeing Arinoth's Gigabyte RMA experience. The socket pins are fine as well.

Just got the 2600k rig up, so I guess it's time to scrounge up a bunch of parts and a motherboard box to test this piece o' shite.