Asus R4E Memory Issues

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Harmzuay

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Joined
Apr 14, 2012
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Got my new system built and booted just fine. Went to check and make sure everything was good and noticed that there were only 12 out of 16gb of memory detected by Win7 64bit. Went into BIOS settings played around with a few things I've been reading about to no avail. Did the obvious and checked each stick, they all test fine and every DIMM slot works fine, and the BIOS sees all 4 sticks when I view the memory by SPD. I even reseated my CPU and checked for bent pins.

There are several posts about this issue on the ROG forums but the only real solution anyone seems to have is to RMA the board, which I would like to avoid doing since nothing is really broken its just not seeing 4GBs of memory in OS or on the POST screen even after flashing my BIOS to the latest version. The one thing I haven't tried is to move all the memory over to black slots instead of red ones and see if I still get Quad-Channel.

Posted here to see if any [H]er's had any advice, suggestions, or solutions to the issue. Since I'm not finding much of anything through google or other forums.

Setup:
Asus Rampage IV Extreme
Intel 3930K
16gb Corsair Vengaence 1600 DDR3(4x4gb)
XFX 6950 Double-D
ThermalTake ToughPower 1200w
 
Read your manual. There is a specific configureation for how you are suppose to place your Dimms to get quad, tri, or dual channel. If you do not follow the directions in the book you are doomed for failure.

If they just plain arent working here is how you can tell.

Insert only one dimm at a time in one slot and do a power on test. If the system will not post it is either that DIMM is bad or DIMM slot is bad. This way you will know for sure if it is a slot or ram module issue.

Other than that please read the book to get the necessary channels you desire by placing the ram modules in certain slot orders first.
 
This was a real problem in the X58 chipset, after a while the board would just not "see" some of the memory.

I had an EVGA Classified board that this happened to after about a year, it was the board. I tried all the stuff you are doing to no avail. Once I received a new board everything was fine, using the exact same components.

One thing you might want to do is re-seat the cpu. There was some remedy of the X58 problem after removing the heatsink, taking the CPU out, putting it back in, and replacing the heatsink.....it's kind of a long shot.

Also, like the other guy just said,look at your manual, make sure you put the DIMMs in the correct positions for a 4-up layout.:D
 
This happened to me when i built my new system with the R4E. I found that i had just not put the amount of pressure needed to properly seat my ram. The Mobo is a bit different from what I'm used to because there's only the clamps at one end so I didn't get all of my ram in properly and it only saw 3 sticks. If that doesn't fix it, check the pins under the cpu to make sure one isn't bent.
 
I put the DIMMs in according to the manual diagram. Slots A1, B1, D1, and C1 (all red slots). Made sure they were seated properly. Tried reseating my CPU already and checked for bent pins. I'm going to try putting the memory in A2, B2, C2, and D2 after work and see if it will run quad-channel that way since no one seems to have tried that in anything I have read so far. Thanks for the suggestions though, if I can't get anything to work I guess I'll live with it until I have time to deal with the RMA process.
 
Harmzuay said:
I put the DIMMs in according to the manual diagram. Slots A1, B1, D1, and C1 (all red slots). Made sure they were seated properly. Tried reseating my CPU already and checked for bent pins. I'm going to try putting the memory in A2, B2, C2, and D2 after work and see if it will run quad-channel that way since no one seems to have tried that in anything I have read so far. Thanks for the suggestions though, if I can't get anything to work I guess I'll live with it until I have time to deal with the RMA process.
Click to expand...

If all of the slots work individually then the issue is down to timings.

If there is only one DIMM per channel then you must use the red slots, the board will not POST if you populate the black slots only.

I would try loading the XMP profile for the DIMMs and see if the channel that is dropping off appears. If that does not work, set the Max MHz profile on the DRAM page, and let's see if all the DIMMs show up with those settings applied. You can also set VCCSA to 1.15V manually if you wish and set DRAM voltage manually as specified by the memory vendor.

-Raja
 
Raja@ASUS said:
If all of the slots work individually then the issue is down to timings.

If there is only one DIMM per channel then you must use the red slots, the board will not POST if you populate the black slots only.

I would try loading the XMP profile for the DIMMs and see if the channel that is dropping off appears. If that does not work, set the Max MHz profile on the DRAM page, and let's see if all the DIMMs show up with those settings applied. You can also set VCCSA to 1.15V manually if you wish and set DRAM voltage manually as specified by the memory vendor.

-Raja
Click to expand...



I don't get it.
why would three slots operate perfectly and one slot not?

If this was a timing issue I would expect the whole lot to malfunction?
 
Don't honestly think it is a voltage or timing problem myself, but it is worth a shot. Everything looked within mfg spec for voltages and timing. And if I only put in one stick it all works fine in every slot on the board with every stick of memory. So all the slots are good and all the memory modules are good.

My thoughts are that the 4-pin DIMM power connector might be causing the problem. I will try unpluging that after work and see. Since all 8 slots aren't populated from what I've been reading I don't need that plugged in.

If nothing works after tweaking voltage and timings again or unplugging that connector then I'll just RMA the board. Which will suck being as its only the second Asus board I have ever owned and I had to scrap the first one I bought for my dual core system years ago because it was DOA even after RMA. Though I couldn't imagine being that unlucky twice. Haha.
 
How old is the MB?

If you have the time left, RMA it to the retailer......especially if newegg.
You'll get a new board back.

There are a ton of stories on here about ASUS RMA for MBs.
Typically the customer gets the same board back and it ain't fixed.

If youhave to RMA with ASUS , call the company, don't email.
Demand a cross-ship. They will do it if asked, that way you'll at least get a different board.

After all you have the R4E, it's the top of the line and you should be treated that way.:D
 
magoo said:
How old is the MB?

If you have the time left, RMA it to the retailer......especially if newegg.
You'll get a new board back.

There are a ton of stories on here about ASUS RMA for MBs.
Typically the customer gets the same board back and it ain't fixed.

If youhave to RMA with ASUS , call the company, don't email.
Demand a cross-ship. They will do it if asked, that way you'll at least get a different board.

After all you have the R4E, it's the top of the line and you should be treated that way.:D
Click to expand...

I've had the board for all of 3 days now. I will RMA it through NewEgg first if that ends up being the case. I'm going to try unplugging the 4-pin DIMM power connector when I get home from work since I don't have all 8 DIMM slots populated and see if that does anything, as well as adjust timing/voltages like Raja suggested. Also going to check again for bent CPU pins etc. I really don't want to have to send this thing back, but I guess if I have to then I have to.

I really like the board and it boots and runs fine off of the 12GB, I just want the full 16GB. Hopefully I'm not just overlooking something but that's why I posted here to see if anyone had suggestions I haven't already read about or thought of myself. I've been sifting through the ROG forums looking for people with similar issues and it seems like the most common is a bent CPU Pin or CPU/DIMMs not being seated properly.
 
Well now that I am at home and have some time I decided to take a screen shot of CPUz, since this little program sees all 16GB of memory and shows that each slot is populated and should possibly answer some questions for those who are offering their assistance.

I did unplug the 4-Pin EZplug connector and no difference. Checked the settings Raja suggested and they are what I already had set in my BIOS.

Thanks for all the ideas and suggestions people. I really do appreciate your help though I may not show it in my posts because this problem is just frustrating. =/

r4ecpuz.jpg
 
magoo said:
I don't get it.
why would three slots operate perfectly and one slot not?

If this was a timing issue I would expect the whole lot to malfunction?
Click to expand...

If each slot works individually, that rules out any physical problems at the board level. A damaged/broken trace or pin would manifest whether the user was running one DIMM or all four.

If the DIMM only drops off when the IMC is capacitively loaded it means the system was unstable during the memory training process. This is usually down to a timing or stability conflict.

-Raja
 
Harmzuay said:
Well now that I am at home and have some time I decided to take a screen shot of CPUz, since this little program sees all 16GB of memory and shows that each slot is populated and should possibly answer some questions for those who are offering their assistance.

I did unplug the 4-Pin EZplug connector and no difference. Checked the settings Raja suggested and they are what I already had set in my BIOS.

Thanks for all the ideas and suggestions people. I really do appreciate your help though I may not show it in my posts because this problem is just frustrating. =/

r4ecpuz.jpg
Click to expand...

Your post implies you only tried either the XMP profile or setting VCCSA manually. Did you also load the Max MHZ profile from the DRAM timing section and try that? Load the MHz profile and set memory frequency manually to DDR3-1333, let's see if all DIMMs map to the OS or not with those settings. If they do then we simply need to relax some timings, if they don't and the slots physically work individually, then this is the first such case I have seen. There are a handful of cases I have seen where users had a completely dead slot (would not work with one module at any frequency, even when used individually). The only other time there was such a problem outside the board, the user had a dying memory module.
 
Raja thanks for your help. Someone spotted something I missed on my post on the ROG forums. NewEgg happened to be out of stock on the memory I wanted when I ordered so I copy/pasted the part # on Amazon and apparently it came up with a dual-channel kit which is what I'm willing to bet is causing my problems. My bad for not paying attention when I did the search and ordered the wrong set. =/

Thanks everyone for your help, going to order an actual quad-channel kit this time and see what happens. lol
 
I don't want to disappoint you, but dual or qual channel kits, the memory is the same damn stick; it runs at the same timings, same voltage, etc.

2/2 or 4/4 they are still matched sticks and will run the same. If you want to be really particular place one kit in A+C and the other kit in B+D.

you already did the work of testing each stick and DIMM slot and know they are fine.

When my X58 board went out, CPU-z would report the memory, but Windows and the MB would consistanyly short me 2 GB of memory.

I'd simply RMA the board, making sure you get to newegg so you can get a brand new replacement.

Sending their CS this thread will really help your RMA as well.:D
 
magoo said:
I don't want to disappoint you, but dual or qual channel kits, the memory is the same damn stick; it runs at the same timings, same voltage, etc.

2/2 or 4/4 they are still matched sticks and will run the same. If you want to be really particular place one kit in A+C and the other kit in B+D.

you already did the work of testing each stick and DIMM slot and know they are fine.

When my X58 board went out, CPU-z would report the memory, but Windows and the MB would consistanyly short me 2 GB of memory.

I'd simply RMA the board, making sure you get to newegg so you can get a brand new replacement.

Sending their CS this thread will really help your RMA as well.:D
Click to expand...

The SPD and XMP will be for a single kit of two modules not four. Since the conception of X79 I have had many users putting multiple kits together in an attempt to save money. 16GB and higher, depending upon how capacitive the IC used is and the binning of the kit, you ideally want to purchase a single kit rated on the platform otherwise you can be in for a rough ride with manual settings and sometimes have to run a lower speed than the kits are rated for individually.
 
Raja@ASUS said:
The SPD and XMP will be for a single kit of two modules not four. Since the conception of X79 I have had many users putting multiple kits together in an attempt to save money. 16GB and higher, depending upon how capacitive the IC used is and the binning of the kit, you ideally want to purchase a single kit rated on the platform otherwise you can be in for a rough ride with manual settings and sometimes have to run a lower speed than the kits are rated for individually.
Click to expand...

I have 16 GB of memory in my ASUS Rampage IV Formula.

When the board was released there was a shortage of cheap (relatively speaking) RAM in matched sets.....so

I bought two 8 GB kits of Corsair Vengence RAM, not one 16 GB set.
I put the memory in the machine, set the voltage, and left every other setting on "auto", except the memory divider....that I set for it's rated speed.
The machine has been running perfectly at it's rated speed since day one.:eek:

Sure, a "matched set" would be ideal, just like socks.
But in this case, I think this would be the guy's least obvious problem......if the memory "sets" were wrong, he would only register the two DIMMs that worked, not three out of 4.

I think the board he's got has an inherant problem that deserves RMA and a NIB board, not a trip to the shop, only to be sent right back after somebody put a sticker on it that said it was "working".
 
magoo said:
But in this case, I think this would be the guy's least obvious problem......if the memory "sets" were wrong, he would only register the two DIMMs that worked, not three out of 4.
Click to expand...

Seeing as the DIMMs all work individually in al of the primary slot, I don't follow your logic. While I hate to say it, one has to look at the wider pool of information I have at hand due to the amount of users I deal with. Put simply, just because it works for you does not mean it works for the majority - yes even though our socks all smell different. :)

For the record I have no desire to block or not request an RMA (shock horror a company rep admits things may need RMAing). If the user turns out to need one he is welcome to it. I would however exhaust the possibilities before jumping to that conclusion.
 
Raja@ASUS said:
Seeing as the DIMMs all work individually in al of the primary slot, I don't follow your logic. While I hate to say it, one has to look at the wider pool of information I have at hand due to the amount of users I deal with. Put simply, just because it works for you does not mean it works for the majority - yes even though our socks all smell different. :)
Click to expand...

I'm now not following your logic.
If the CPU memory controller sees each DIMM individually , what value does having all 4 DIMMs matched then carry?

who knows what the problem is here.

I hope it works out for the OP.:D
 
magoo said:
I'm now not following your logic.
If the CPU memory controller sees each DIMM individually , what value does having all 4 DIMMs matched then carry?

who knows what the problem is here.

I hope it works out for the OP.:D
Click to expand...

The timing constraints of running a single DIMM have nothing to do with running quad channel. The Read/Write schedule has to be configured to deskew each module. The IO of the system increases four-fold so the stress on the IMC increases. Think that should help you understand a bit better. :)
 
Don't have to RMA my board! YAY! Got the actual quad channel kit in today and POSTed with 16GB, CPUz sees all 16GB and everything is good to go! HOT DAMN! At least the other kit can go into my old system and still get some use so I didn't totally lose out. Thank you very much for the help from everyone! Much love to my fellow techies! :)
 
Hello guys,
I hope someone still reads this thread, because I'm in the same situation as Harmzuay. I bought a new rig (R4E, i7-3930K), but temporarily I was running my old OCZ 4x2GB kit, because of a long lead time of a new sticks. Those are optimized for nForce 790i chipset, so i thought it's just an incompatibility issue. Btw. it was the same kind of "missing stick" as Harmzuay experienced, they were present in BIOS SPD readings, CPU-Z, etc.
Now i got myself Corsair CMT16GX3M4X2133C9, which is a 4x4GB 2133 MHz kit. And the situation is the same, visible in BIOS SPD and some diagnostics tools, but not in the total memory count. But the situation is even more funny, because my friend has the exacly same config as I do (mobo, CPU, RAM) and surprise, surprise... it's running fine for him.
So my question: Is there any progress in this topic, some new findings, discoveries?

Thanks in advance.
 
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UPDATE: Holy sh*t!!! Reseating the CPU really helped! Removed the cooler, removed the CPU, put it all back and that's it! BIOS gave me the "new CPU installed" message and voila, 16 GB present! Can't believe it.
 
If any one of the DRAM pins is not contacting a pad properly the DIMM won't be recognized.
 
I HAVE FOUND THE SOLUTION FOR THE RAMPAGE IV EXTREME MEMORY SLOTS NOT RECOGNIZING OR STOP WORKING AFTER YOU HAD INSTALLED FOR A WHILE.
I HAVE BOUGHT A RAMPAGE IV EXTREME MOTHERBOARD ONLINE NEW AND THE FIRST TIME THE MEMORY WOULDN'T BOOT I TRIED RESETTING THE CMOS
AND RESEATING THE RAM AND I STILL DIDN'T SHOW MY 64GBS OF RAM IT LOOKED LIKE 2 OF THE SLOTS ON THE MOTHERBOARD DIDN'T WORK AFTER
I CHECKED ALL MY RAM INDIVIDUALLY ( THEY CHECKED OUT GOOD!)

NOW IN ORDER TO GET IT TO WORKING AND SHOW ALL MY RAM IN BIOS I SHUT OFF MY MOTHERBOARD TOOK OUT ALL MY RAM.
AND TOOK OUT THE PROCESSOR THEN WHILE THE POWER SUPPLY WAS OFF BUT STILL CONNECTED TO THE MOTHERBOARD CLICK THE POWER SWITCH TO DISCHARGE THE MOTHERBOARD.
(CLICK THE SWITCH AROUND 5-10 SECS)
AFTER THAT I PUT THE MEMORY BACK IN ONLY THE 2 SLOTS THAT DIDN'T WORK IT LOADED UP THEN I PUT ALL THE RAM BACK IN AND IT WAS A SUCCESS.

NOW THE ISSUE WAS PROBABLY BECAUSE YOU WERE PLAYING IN YOUR BIOS OVERCLOCKING AND THE MEMORY TIMING OR VOLTAGE SPIKED AND A POWER SURGE TO THE MEMORY
SLOTS TEMPORARILY RENDERED THEM INOPERABLE OTHERWISE THIS MOTHERBOARD HAS A SOFTWARE OR HARDWARE BUGS THAT CAUSE THE MEMORY TO OCCASIONALLY HAVE VOLTAGE OR TIMING SPIKES.
AT ANY RATE I RECOMMEND YOU READ ONLINE AND YOU GO TO THE SIMPLE TO THE COMPLEX AND RUN SYSTEMIC CHECKS.
DON'T' BE LAZY AND DON'T RUSH TO RMA.
 
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