RAM 6 banks filled, one bank not showing in CMOS

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DougWD

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 4, 2005
Messages
502
Problem: I have 3 4GB kits installed. In BIOS, two banks show, and the last one only gives the my custom settings, but the SPD timings are all lined out, except CAS, like this:

CAS 7
tRCD -
tRP -
etc

The CAS shows, but the rest are just not there.

I just switched the RAM and the same bank is blank.

Any ideas?

All the custom timings are the same. Rig is in Sig.
 
have you checked each stick individually to see if one isn't dead? I'd also check the slots on the board and the pins on the cpu socket.
 
I swapped the kits into different banks and it was the same bank showing up with nothing in it.
 
check the dimm slots and the pins on the cpu socket, it seems to be a common problem with x58. some how the pins on the socket get bent (seems most are saying it's from applying too much pressure on the socket) and end up failing to make good contact with the cpu, common end result is that some of the dimms fail to get recognized. only course of action, if this is the case, is to get the manufacturer to replace the board and from what I've read they normally do it free of charge.
 
This certainly does seem to be a widespread problem the more I read up on it. In my case it was the memory itself that was bad, more or less the same behavior you mentioned with the timing settings when one or sometimes two modules didn't show up. I have a couple posts on the confusion it caused me.

Otherwise it could be CPU socket pins, memory slot pins, cold solder on motherboard or just plain bad memory. I would only think about that route if you couldn't ever get memory to work in that certain slot. I was convinced I had a bad motherboard too till I really started moving the memory modules around and trying different things, just turned out to be generally random with a minimum of repeatability.
 
This is probably not the case here, but I'm gona write it anyway, I was using one of the powersave features (if I remember correctly it was the C3/C6/C7 State support) which basically made me only detect 2 gb of my 6, when I turned that feature off, pulled the power to my computer for a bit and restarted the ram was back to normal.

This is one of the stranges things I've had happen to me but just thought I would mention it, I kinda doubt this is your issue but might as well put my two cents in :)
 
It's not really that "out there." I've been reading at benchmark Reviews and Olin Coles has a good article and comments about this problem. Seems it's pretty common on the X58 boards. I'll try it. Thanks.
 
I looked in my BIOS tonight and I could swear I say the C states. But I couldn't find them tonight. Where do I look?
 
I pulled the CPU. Everything looked tits. Tonight I tested all my RAM and it's fine. If I load all three channels, channel 3 won't show in the BIOS, except latency.

If I fill channels 1 and 2 I get 8GB installed, 4GB usable. If I take all of the RAM out of banks 2-4-6, I get 6GB installed and 4 usable.

Does this point to the CPU memory controller?
 
Not likely. Definitely pick up some more memory to test with and eliminate that first.

My memory tested good too, tested overnight with memtest86 and it worked, intel burn test said it was ok, everything was fine except it just wouldn't always detect the full amount on cold boot. Warm boot usually worked.
 
Well, mine doesn't matter warm or cold. I switched all the ram up again and now I have 12GB available and 8 Usable, from Win 7 (BIOS has dropped the 3rd channel again. This means that the BIOS and MB are reading the RAM installed and passing that information to Win7, but Win can't use it.
 
DougWD said:
I looked in my BIOS tonight and I could swear I say the C states. But I couldn't find them tonight. Where do I look?
Click to expand...

States.jpg
 
Yeah I found that but if you enable it, your processor stays wide open all the time.
 
I have C3/C5/C7 off, C1E on (that works for me) and it downclocks my CPU just fine :) Removed my ram issues as well. C1E still handles CPU downclocking I believe.

Remember that I had to actually power down my computer completely for it to clear the bug caused by C3/C5/C7 and get back to the "normal" state. It's basically like it shut down something it shouldn't have to save power and didn't start it up again.
 
I turned off C1E and the others and it didn't work. Also tried just the others and didn't work. However, my system runs the RAM at a higher freq w/o the c2 etc enabled, and windows boots really fast. CPU clock down works fine. Thanks for the tip. System runs better with those off in any event. I think Gigabyte is going to RMA me here tomorrow.
 
Thanks Bill. I've done the exact things talked about on that thread. Very frustrating.
 
Have you considered or are already using F12 BIOS? I have used the F10 BIOS and it worked fine with my 12GB of RAM before, but noticed better memory compatibility and tighter timings for me in F12 and have loved it ever since. Prior to F12 I had random POST problems with my RAM and VGA detection. Not that it bothered me that much since I leave my system on 24/7, but F12 has solved all my issues and have not seen a POST problem since. I have been able to overclock the memory further since moving to F12 as well.

Interesting problem and that would be very frustrating. Good luck and keep us posted if you find out what works.
 
Giagbyte wants me to send the board in for repair. So I'll be down for a month while they fuck with it, then send me out a used board that has the same problem.
 
There is no agreement you could come to with them to advance replace the board for you and call it a day when they receive the board from you? It is not likely you will have the same issue with a different board. Maybe if you pushed the issue enough they would cave?
 
It says right on the warranty page/RMA page that "under no circumstances will we cross ship anything." What good is a warranty if you have to buy another board to keep working? The idea is to NOT have to buy another board.

"No cross shipping or advanced replacements under any circumstances"
(http://rma.gigabyte.us/DirectRMA/EndUser_Main.asp)

The reason is because they state right underneath that they may repair the board with "refurbished" parts. Since it's not economically lucrative to desolder the motherboard in order to fix a bad RAM slot, they want to send you back a board that was returned to them for a non tech reason (30 return from vendor) and then give it to you, which saves them money.
 
Last edited:
Problem Is Solved:

I bought a new UD5 rev 2 Motherboard and everything works great. Two of the pins on the old mother board look burned. RMA'ed the old. Hope they give me another one. Bastards are expensive.
 
Glad you solved it, and yes they should definitely give you a new one, obviously it was the motherboard that was the problem and as far as I know gigabyte is pretty good when it comes to RMA and such.
 
I hope so. I'm fearful that they will say something like, "It's a burned pin and so you must have done something wrong."
 
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