SOLVED Motherboard, Memory or CPU?

Rig in sig but here it is again:

Gigabyte EP45 UD3R
q9400 CPU
2x1GB OCZ PC2 8800 & 2x1GB GSkill PC2 8500

I was running an e5200 with the above MB and memory. Overclocked well and had no issues.

Purchased q9400 and install it. Cannot get into BIOS or past it either. Eventually I figure out is has something to do with the OCZ memory. I cannot get into or past it with the q9400 and OCZ memory installed anywhere on the MB. All equipment is known good but cannot get the quad CPU and OCZ to work together.

I've set the MB to fail-safe settings then installed the memory - no luck
Set MB to optimized settings then installed memory - no luck
Manually set memory and other settings to loose timings (looser than either is rated at), reduced the memory strap so memory is running at ~900mhz which well below either sets memory rating - no luck

Any other ideas? Don't know if this is memory, CPU or motherboard problem. I'm attacking it as a MB issue first.

Could be it needs an BIOS update?

I considered that but the q9400 is supported on all the BIOSes available for the MB. I have the F8 bios (F3 is the earliest).

Since I know all the parts work, I'm even more confused. Why that ram won't work with that CPU on that MB just makes it even more confusing. Change the CPU and it all works...

Huh, thats weird then,.. You said you had the e5200 overclocked? You could try clearing CMOS the battery way? Or else try to reflash your bios?

pigpottomus said:

Huh, thats weird then,.. You said you had the e5200 overclocked? You could try clearing CMOS the battery way? Or else try to reflash your bios?

Click to expand...

One bit of news, I just got it to boot into windows with just the 2 OCZ sticks installed while I still had it OC'd for the q9400 (forgot). I'll save that config in BIOS then back down OC and work on getting the other 2 sticks to work at the same time.

With 4 sticks involved and OC, the NB will need a bit more NB voltage? I haven't worked on overclocking this thing for a few years. I think the NB has a different name. ICH is the name for NB now?


**Update**
Have it working with all 4 sticks installed. They are running at 900mhz currently (they are all rated 1066 or better). Still not sure what I did to make it start working. Also, research seems to indicate MCH is NB, not ICH.

Current settings = 8x375 = 3GHZ on processor with memory at 900mhz.

Glad that its working, but yes, sometimes you just do something random and its fixed without even knowing what you did, haha.

I found the issue. When the CPU is a 1333mhz FSB processor (e8500 or q9400 like I've been trying), the MB is setting the memory to something the OCZ does not like (I think it might need more vdimm) . If I use just the GSkill and manually set the memory speed to something lower, I can then add the OCZ back in with no issues.

Ultimately, I think the mixed memory is causing issues. Since I finally got the q9400 to work at 8x425/3.4GHZ and memory = 850mhz with all 4 sticks installed, I'll just leave it. My son was already liking it when it was at 3ghz / 940mhz so no use overdoing it (I would if I was the one using it!!).

Thanks all for the input!!