Windows 7 (64-bit) won't load w/ 8 gigs of RAM?

[doodler85]

Hi guys,

I recently upgraded to Windows 7 (yay), and was inspired to bump up my RAM from from 4 gb to 8 gb since it was finally a possibility. I bought a second, identical pair of G-Skill DDR2-1066 2 gb modules and plugged them in... and the system POST's, starts to load Windows, then does nothing. I left it for 15 minutes on the glowing Loading Windows 7 screen and it just sat there glowing.

So, I thought maybe the RAM was funky, and I replaced my old pair with the new one (running just 4 gb) and everything's peachy. So I can't figure out whether this is some BIOS issue, mobo limitation, or what, because usually when RAM screws up it won't even POST, right?

Anyway, any advice would be greatly appreciated. My system config is below:

Intel Q6600
Gigabyte GA-P35 DS3R (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128050)
G.Skill DDR2-1066 4 GB Pair (x2) (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231166)
Corsair 750-watt PSU

... and I assume the rest of the hardware isn't as relevant (although I'll give you any further info you want).

Thanks a bunch!

 

[WildW]

Gigabyte website seems to think your board should support 8GB so you should be okay.

Is there any overclock on that setup? Sometimes an overclock stable on 2 memory sticks won't be so happy with 4.

The link you gave to the ram shows that the memory needs 2.0 to 2.1V rather than the default 1.8V - have you set your memory voltage accordingly?

 

[doodler85]

Hi WildW,

Thanks for the help -- I haven't manually tweaked voltage settings before... in my BIOS I can boost the voltage 0.1, 0.2, etc. Is the default always 1.8? Or is that mobo specific? I tried boosting it 0.2 and it didn't work. I can try more, but I felt sketchy not being sure what I was doing. I couldn't find where the BIOS listed current voltages, either, so I wanted to be safe.

Thanks!

 

[Gillbot]

1.8v is spec, try 1.9 or 2.0v and see if that helps

 

[VirtualLarry]

Do you have a video-capture or TV card? Some of those have drivers that dont work right when there is more than 4GB of RAM present.

 

[doodler85]

Do you have a video-capture or TV card? Some of those have drivers that dont work right when there is more than 4GB of RAM present.

Nope!

I'll try boost it +0.3v when I get home. I read somewhere that sometimes you have to boost the chipset voltage as well. Sound about right? Or nay?

 

[Engineer]

Will it boot to safe mode? (just curious and no real reason as to why except that sometimes, once it boots to safe mode, a PC will then boot to regular mode).

 

[WildW]

The other thing to try is reducing the memory frequency to 800 or less rather than 1066, see if that makes a difference. If that worked it would suggest it was a memory/northbridge voltage issue to get up to full speed.

 

[zagood]

To try in BIOS (seperately in this order, or all at once)

1. Hit CTRL + F1 (if you're not already doing that)
2. Increase MCH (northbridge) voltage by 0.1v
3. Increase DRAM +.3v
3. See if you can find a setting for tRFC in advanced memory settings. If you can, set to at least 54. Might want to test 72 to be safe.

 

[NesuD]

Hi guys,

I recently upgraded to Windows 7 (yay), and was inspired to bump up my RAM from from 4 gb to 8 gb since it was finally a possibility. I bought a second, identical pair of G-Skill DDR2-1066 2 gb modules and plugged them in... and the system POST's, starts to load Windows, then does nothing. I left it for 15 minutes on the glowing Loading Windows 7 screen and it just sat there glowing.

So, I thought maybe the RAM was funky, and I replaced my old pair with the new one (running just 4 gb) and everything's peachy. So I can't figure out whether this is some BIOS issue, mobo limitation, or what, because usually when RAM screws up it won't even POST, right?

Mine did the exact same thing when I installed win 7. I just left it alone and after 20 or so minutes it suddenly finised the install. It looked like it was doing nothing for around 20 minutes then it finished up in about 5 minutes after that. Almost started over but decided to just wait and see what happened.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Try setting up the RAM so that it is running in single channel mode (ie put the RAM side by side, not alternating slots). Also lower the voltage to 1.8v. See if that works. I had to do that on my wife's RAM because it was PC2-1066 and not PC2-800.

 

[tcsenter]

Rather than mess with timings and voltage, just reduce the frequency from 1066 (533) to 800 (400). No big performance loss once you factor in the advantage of 2x more RAM.

 

[MalVeauX]

Heya,

Typically on some older DDR2 boards, you couldn't have all 4 channels with DDR2 1066 memory sticks. Only if you used DDR2 800's. If you manually set the memory to be DDR2 800, all 4 sticks will probably work and show up just fine. Give it a shot.

Very best,

 

[doodler85]

Hey dudes,

I set it to 800 and still no good. Tried 800 and boosted the voltage +0.1, no good. Only thing left is the +0.3v and northbridge + 0.1v...

Any other ideas? Thanks so much for the responses so far. I hope I don't have to return these modules

 

[zagood]

My Google-fu is strong tonight...

Check settings against page 10 in this PDF:
http://www.gskill.us/166.pdf

 

[Texun]

Are you installing Windows with 8 gigs, or is it already installed but not working with the 8 gigs? My ASUS won't install Vista 64 with more than 4 gigs of RAM, but once Vista is installed I can then add the additional (and identical) 4 gigs and it runs fine.

Not all memory is used during POST, and the test during the boot process is limited, so it is very possible to have a good POST and crap out elsewhere. I've had the OS report corrupted files before due to a bad stick of memory, but after identifying and removing the offending stick it booted and ran fine - the files were never an issue. Do you have access to memtest? If W7 is already installed but not booting I would try memtest and see if it tells you anything.

If you get an error in memtest start pulling the sticks until you get a clean pass with no errors. Hope this helps.

 

[RebateMonger]

The POST memory tests are very minimal. RAM has to be REALLY bad to fail a POST test.

Run Memtest86+ overnight and see what it says.

Running with four memory modules is always a bit harder on things than with fewer modules. That's why motherboards with six or more memory slots often use buffered memory.

 

[SanDiegoPC]

Running with four memory modules is always a bit harder on things than with fewer modules. That's why motherboards with six or more memory slots often use buffered memory.

Yes and that's something that many overclockers don't ever find out until there's an error. Seems it's a lot harder to get many sticks of RAM together in agreeing to overclock!

 

[Fox5]

Heya,

Typically on some older DDR2 boards, you couldn't have all 4 channels with DDR2 1066 memory sticks. Only if you used DDR2 800's. If you manually set the memory to be DDR2 800, all 4 sticks will probably work and show up just fine. Give it a shot.

Very best,

My 965p motherboard has to downgrade speed to dd2 533 . It'll try to run ddr2 800 with 8GB of ram, but fail miserably.

 

[GP_Pacer_Blue]

Hey it your voltage on the northbridge on the chipset. Rise your voltage to no higher than 1.4 Volts and your system will boot. Also you may have to lower the memory speed down from 1066FSB to 800FSB. However, only if your system continues bsod either booting into windows or after it has booted into OS.

 

[doodler85]

Well, for starters, I tried the G.SKILL PDF settings and it doesn't work for 4 sticks. Gah

Windows 7 is already installed, and it POST's just fine. It's in the glowing Windows loading logo that it gets stuck. And by "getting stuck" the animation is still going, it just never loads Windows.

Downgrading to 533 sounds depressing. I'm starting to think I should just wait for my next PC before trying to upgrade the RAM, since my mobo seems to hate me. Any other ideas?

And thanks again for everyone's time... hopefully something will work at the last minute

 

[doodler85]

Soooo... figured it out. It was a firmware issue. Yay?

 

[Engineer]

Soooo... figured it out. It was a firmware issue. Yay?

So you upgraded your board BIOS? You changed a BIOS setting? Post your solution so that the next person that has this issue can fix it too! :biggrin:

 

[doodler85]

Yeah, I had to update my BIOS.

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/BIOS_Model.aspx?ProductID=2543#anchor_os

"1. Fix Vista boot lag with 8GB memory issue"

Sigh

 

[kage69]

Hmmm, weird. I did the exact same thing when I changed to Win7, even have the same mem modules. I'm using a Gigabyte board as well, although different model. The mobo dropped my mem clock to 400 automatically (boo hiss) but 7 installed licketysplit-like and has been great so far. More RAM is better than faster RAM though, so I'm pretty happy.

Still, I'm curious as to if it's possible to bump it all back up to 533 with a voltage boost, but with everything running wonderfully I'm reluctant.