Problem with Gigabte X58 UD5

[brsett]

Hello

Just finished a new build with my Nehalem. It's been a real headache. It appears that I cannot have more than 1 stick of RAM in my MB or the board won't post. I have 6 sticks of RAM, and they all work fine in a single stick config. But when I put a second stick in, its failure during post with CPU errors (the code says fails to find L2 cache -- unlikely is my guess).

Any insight?

[Mentawl]

Just a wee thought, but you're putting them in the correct slots, aye? The UD5 is kinda unusual in that it's the second slot from the CPU that's the first bank (the white one).

[edh]

Whose ram do you have and what speed? (This could be important.)

• Try placing just 3 sticks in the "white" sockets (the 2nd, 4th & 6th away from the cpu socket).
• See if that works.
• Next, remove the 1st three sticks and replace them with the 2nd three sticks in the SAME "white" sockets.
• See if that works, too.
• Next, insert all 6 sticks.
• Go into the BIOS and manually change the memory settings to something a bit slower than the sticks are marked, eg, for 1600, 7,7,7,24 memory, try 1333, 8,8,8,30.
• See if that works.

Let us know what happened (plus the brand & model + specs of your ram).

[brsett]

Sure, obvious suggestions are welcome. Right now I have 1 dimm in the first white slot (slot 1). I test the second dimm in the second white slot (slot 3). And with a dimm there, I can't post. It seems to maybe be an issue with the 1600 ddr3 ram. I'm using corsair xms3 ram, which I assume would just work.

I am now running the f9e beta bios in hopes of fixing the issue. At this point I wish I had just got an ASUS board .

[brsett]

By default, the RAM is getting set to 1066MHz timings. Is this a good or bad thing do you think? I would assume this would be fine, but I'm uncertain since I'm having issues . . .

[Mentawl]

Hrm, I'm using Corsair XMS3 in my UD5 as well (SPD output Corsair XMS3 CM3X2G1600C8). Are you actually setting it to the XMP profile in the bios for full 1600mhz, or are you letting the board auto-detect? My UD5 has never liked running the RAM at 1600mhz, regardless of voltage settings, and will only do it with the Command Rate set to 2 instead of 1.

*Edit - Yeah, it will auto-detect to 1066mhz automatically, and that's what you want it at for troubleshooting. Sounds like something might be up with hardware =/

[brsett]

What bios you running? The f9e bios seems to have perhaps helped -- I'm still having issues (6GB installed, 4GB detected) but since I'm getting past POST this is definite progress. I think I need to use slots 1,3,4 instead of 1,3,5. I don't know, at any rate thigns are looking up. I'll post again if I get it all working or if I run into another road block.

[Mentawl]

I'm running F9E too, updated it not that long ago. Have you tried the board fully populated?

[edh]

I've got 6x2GB sticks of OCZ DDR3 1600 "Platinum" installed. They will run at "posted" speed (1600, 7, 7, 7, 24) with only 3 sticks installed without over-volting. But, when I added the 2nd 3 sticks, I had to loosen the timings a bit to 8, 8, 8, 24. I'm still running at 1600, though -- at stock voltages. All 12GB is recognized -- no problems. I've got the f9e bios, too; but it worked finr with several of the older versions. I bought the board more than 6 months ago.

With 3 sticks, you use the white slots. You can use several combinations of total memory: single (1 stick), dual channel (2 or 4 sticks) or triple channel (3, 4 or 6 sticks), but you have to use the correct slots for it to work. Look on page 16, section 1.4.1 in the manual.

[brsett]

First, thanks for all the help. So I've definitely got a bad stick of RAM. Further, for me the F7 bios did not support 2 stick memory configurations (could not post). OTOH, since I know I've got a bad dimm, its hard to draw too many conclusions with certainty. So, in summary, if you are seeing MB error codes 68 and 6f indicating processor and motherboard failures -- do some more testing, it could just be bad RAM. I'll get a replacement set of RAM moving thru the pipeline next week.