Strange Memory Issue

I7-930
6gb OCZ Gold DDR3-1333 ram
Nvidia 460 GTX 1gb (Gigabyte brand) gpu
Gigabyte X58A-UD3R Rev 2.0
Coolmaster GX 650 psu

Built this system a couple weeks back and at first boot, only 4 gbs ram were seen. Channel A (slot 1) was not detected. Reseated the ram(same slots) and tweaked bios settings to match the ram voltage and timing settings and 6gbs then showed up and I thought things were fine.

Over the past two weeks though when the system is cold and I turn it on, 4gbs only appear and channel A (slot 1) is missing, until the system is ran for about 10mins and if I reboot, all 6gbs are detected.

Decided to put the memory in slot 1 into slot 3...
well, upon testing further, channel C (slot 3) was now missing. So I figured it was a bad dimm, and returned the set to Microcenter today.

Came back with Patriot 1600 set and upon first boot. Channel A(slot 1) is once again missing. Took the dimm in that slot and moved it to Channel B (slot 2) and upon reboot, channel B (slot 2) is now missing. I have not been able to get the system to recognize all 6gbs yet of the new ram.

Also if I run 2 dimms at dual channel in slots 1 and 3..they run fine unless I put the suspected problem dimm in there, then it does report missing.


What are the chances of getting to bad sets of dimms by two different manufacturers? Could this possibly be a motherboard issue? And if so, how is it marking the dimm in slot 1 and then carrying the problem around with it between the other slots?

Remove the CPU and check for bent pins in the socket, then when re-seating the HSF make sure it's perfectly square w/ the socket, and not overtightened such that the heatsink base is bowed.

redduc900 said:

Remove the CPU and check for bent pins in the socket, then when re-seating the HSF make sure it's perfectly square w/ the socket, and not overtightened such that the heatsink base is bowed.

Click to expand...

I'll give that a try and report back, but wouldn't that cause more issues if that was the problem?

Not necessarily.

It could be bent pins in the socket, but it could also just be insufficient voltages or improper RAM settings in BIOS. (I have only had the latter issue, but most have the former)

Lastly it could be the DIMM slots going bad as well (had this problem as well) although since it changes which appears and which does not I would be more inclined to believe manually setting Vdimm, IMC and timings might alleviate the issue.

+1 it could be your CPU socket, also are you overclocking?

wingman99 said:

+1 it could be your CPU socket, also are you overclocking?

Click to expand...

No I'm not overclocking.

I guess I just don't understand if it is the cpu socket, or even improper voltages..How can the issue be exclusively related to the one particular dimm? I mean no matter what slot it's in, that's where the error shows, and if I don't use it, and just run 2 dimms, there is no problem.

It seems to me that if the heatsink was too tight and slot 1 was affected by this, it wouldn't matter what dimm is there, it would always report the issue in that slot? Or even if this was an issue from bent pins..


FYI, I'm using the memory profile with the new patriot ram, which is running the timings and voltage specified on the ram, but still only 4gbs with the problem dimm appearing regardless what slot it's in.

Going to check the socket and pins and carefully reseat the heat sink now. Will report back in a bit.

Ok I took a look at the cpu and socket pins..Everything is fine, no bends, nothing. The heatsink wasn't on too tight that I thought but this time I made sure it wasn't over tightened..

Restarted everything, and no change in the issue. Still only reports 4gb..shows the timings just fine on 2 of the dimms. The 3rd one is rogue..Currently in slot 5 for channel C. Tested it in slots 1 and 3 to see if the issue would follow it, and as before, it does follow.


I purchased everything at Microcenter which is only a mile from me. Should I chance exchanging the ram again for a 3rd set or should I exchange the mobo?
Is there something else I should look at possibly?

http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?product_id=6642
Here's my psu with the amperage which I thought was clearly enough especially with no plans to overclock.

Ok, one last report.
I tried only using 1 dimm at a time with default factory bios settings and booting up with 2gbs.

Two of the sticks posted fine no probs..
Then I tried the suspected bad dimm. No post, no screen, and beep errors.
Put the other 2 sticks back in, and posted find with 4gbs.

So...2 different manufacturers, 2 bad dimms?? Or is there some how a possibility of something else being wrong?

Ok well good thing I live a mile away from Microcenter...
Exchanged the motherboard and memory and everything works fine now..

Glad you have achieved success with exchanging the board and ram, what do you think cased the problem?