Memory Testing

[Psittac]

I have an x99 board with 8x4g ddr4, the problem is that windows load's very slowly. Sometimes bios won't recognize all 8 sticks, sometimes only 6 sticks and maybe once it saw 7. This morning I went about a more methodic approach to testing my ram, if not very thorough. I got a system down to where I had uefi defaults loaded, and tested each stick one at a time in slot A1 with the only parameters of whether or not it posted and if windows 10 took a long time to load. Each stick passed this test individually so I decided to go straight to all 8 (with each kit in slot's ABCD 1 and 2 respectively) and windows loads very slowly. So something along the way is not happy. I am guessing either one individual stick is not happy or the memory controller on the cpu can't handle everything. I am going to be more thorough in my testing IE: trying each set of 4 in the 1 slot, test each stick individually multiple times, dual channel, triple channel etc. But I figured during this time I would ask for some advice and thoughts. Memtest hasn't seen a single fault in the 8+hrs total that I have run it on all 8 sticks. Realbench can pass 8 hours no problem considering I don't have the cpu pushing further than it's happy. I know something is wrong and I need to figure it out sooner rather than later so I can return to microcenter and only do it once, if I know exactly what part is flawed I won't have to go back a second time. Ideas?

 

[Psittac]

ok, I found a pattern. It doesn't matter if it's single dual triple or quad channel. Any time I change the configuration, the first boot or two is slow. After the system get's used to it then it boots fast. To me this sounds like a bios or motherboard issue. This would probably explain the fact that it was rarely booting fast but sometimes it would, if I left the settings alone for a while, then it would boot fast, but given it's a new system I want to tweak one setting at a time then test, no sense in wasting the same settings twice when I know it's stable. Would an asus or msi board not have this issue or should I wait on ASrock to make a new bios update?

 

[Psittac]

yeah, it was the motherboard. Brought it in today for an x99 sabertooth and the problem went away, I didn't even have to reinstall but I will be when my win10 disk shows up and I'll put this license back on my old computer

 

[Woomack]

Good that you found out what was causing the issue. I will only add that memory slots issues are pretty common on nearly all X79 and X99 motherboards. Usually are starting after couple of months since motherboard purchase or when you replace memory sticks and cpu really often. I'm not really sure if it's something with slots, cpu socket or other connections but support is often replacing CPU sockets when they get motherboard with memory recognizing issues ( also on 1155/1150/1151 motherboards ). I'm not saying it will happen on every motherboard but I saw that many times so it's not so rare issue.
I also see no issues like that on 4 slot X99 motherboards or 2 slot 1150/1155/1151 motherboards.

 

[Psittac]

Good that you found out what was causing the issue. I will only add that memory slots issues are pretty common on nearly all X79 and X99 motherboards. Usually are starting after couple of months since motherboard purchase or when you replace memory sticks and cpu really often. I'm not really sure if it's something with slots, cpu socket or other connections but support is often replacing CPU sockets when they get motherboard with memory recognizing issues ( also on 1155/1150/1151 motherboards ). I'm not saying it will happen on every motherboard but I saw that many times so it's not so rare issue.
I also see no issues like that on 4 slot X99 motherboards or 2 slot 1150/1155/1151 motherboards.

huh, thanks for the info. In hind sight I wish I had tried to reflash the bios before returning the board. I have a feeling that I threw some settings at it which it didn't like that may have added to the problem.