Maximus-II Asus Formula instability with 4x2gb (q9650 cpu)

[ArmedMonkey]

I've had a setup with this motherboard and CPU since '08 or '09, and I've never had a single problem. I recently decided to upgrade to 8gb ram from my previous 4 (4x2gb) and I'm getting some serious instability.

For the past 2 years I've been running my CPU overclocked at 3.2ghz (x8 * 400mhz, 333mhz strap).

When I upgrade the ram by adding two additional sticks I started to have problems. The first thing that happened was the computer wouldn't post. Through luck I got it to post, and boot. Then when I rebooted I saw a message saying "Overclocking failed" and asking me to choose between restoring factory defaults or going to bios.

Sometimes it boots fine, with the overclock. Sometimes it gives me that message. Sometimes, even at factory settings it hangs on the windows load screen.

The new ram is different from the old ram, though both are PC2-6400. (couldn't find identical). Running just the new 2x2gb seems to have no problems. So it seems to be an instability with my system and 4 sticks.

One thing I noticed, my DDR-800 ram gets loaded as DDR-667 when I plug all 4 sticks in, and is therefore clocked at 333mhz.

I'm attaching CPU-Z screenshots for the two different configurations. I think they should provide all the necessary info.

Does anyone know what the issue might be or how I could go about correcting it? I noticed that the JEDEC for the new ram does not have a spec for 333 MHz. Though I believe I've tried setting the FSB and base ram speed such that they'd all be running at 400mhz.


Image1: 4x2gb - default bios setup - CPU/Mainboard/Caches/Memory tab
Image2: 4x2gb - default bios setup - SPD tabs
Image3: 2x2gb (new ram only) - default bios setup - Memory/SPD

 

[PolRoger]

Most likely those two kits could be using different memory ic which might be causing some kind of incompatibility when running together? From your post I gather that each kit will run fine at both stock and at overclocked settings when you run in a matched 2x2gb configuration? I guess to confirm you could try and take one stick from each kit and test (unmatched) in a 2x2gb configuration using default/stock settings to see if you can boot to windows or if you experience the same type of 4x2gb instability.

 

[ArmedMonkey]

Interesting point. I will try it, though I don't know if two sticks of a different brand will even run in dual channel. Motherboards tend to be pretty picky about what they will run in matched dual channel mode, no?

Assuming your hypothesis is correct. Is there any setting, or combination of settings I could set that might cause them to be more compatible?


The interesting thing to note, and I don't know if my original post made this clear or not... The system *WILL* run sometimes with all 4 sticks in. It will run fine, no instability, all 8 gigs of ram usable. It's just booting that's a challenge. I haven't had a single freeze or blue screen after logging into windows.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

It's just booting that's a challenge. I haven't had a single freeze or blue screen after logging into windows.

Sounds just like my Conroe on my Asus P5QL Pro board with CPU load line calibration disabled.

My P5QL Pro board is known to require a retry to POST when OC'ing the Conroe without load line calibration.

 

[redduc900]

With the FSB at 333Mhz and the DRAM frequency adjusted to DDR2-800 (5:6 FSB : DRAM ratio), adjust the four primary timings to 6-6-6-18-2T (Command Rate) at 1.80V. You may also need to bump the FSB Termination voltage and / or the NB voltage to compensate for the 8GB of RAM.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

Sounds like possibly VCore Vdroop.