Bios claims my ram doesn't have heat sinks

[hypothalamuse]

I received this weird message when I was installing fb-ram in a xeon based dell. "Alert! Invalid memory installed. All ram must have heatsinks."

First off, every dimm clearly had a heatsink and was free of major mechanical defects. Some of the ram that did work was visually identical to the stuff the system rejected out of hand. These are all from the same manufacturer same model etc.

The problem is that the system decides it won't boot until I cough up some ram it likes. Predictably, Dell has no idea why this is occuring. I've got 6 dimms here that produce this message (out of 16 total) so I kind of doubt it's just a random bad chip.

Would really appreciate your help with this.

 

[Mondoman]

Assuming that the RAM specs meet Dell's requirements for the system, it sounds like you're using RAM that is marginal, with some above the margin and working, and some below the margin and not working properly. Perhaps you can return the modules and get your money back. If not, assuming your RAM's manufacturer provides a lifetime warranty, it's time to take advantage of that warranty. What model number system and RAM are you using? Are you trying to use some sort of "value" RAM?

 

[Idontcare]

Question - how would the BIOS "know" whether the ram has a heatsink on it or not?

Something about this whole situation seems very odd.

 

[Mondoman]

I'm quite sure the system can't detect heatsinks. I wouldn't focus on the specific wording of the error message, as most likely it's just finding an error in the RAM and popping up a message that's been programmed in as useful to the user. Normally, it's only the lower-quality modules that lack heatsinks, so maybe it's intended as a nudge to avoid lower-quality modules.

PS - Note that the message doesn't actually say that a module is missing a heatsink. Rather it says "Invalid memory installed." It then goes on to provide a requirement that proper RAM must meet. This requirement may or may not be relevant to the problem at hand.

 

[hypothalamuse]

thanks for your input guys.

Some other error triggering the heatspreader message does seem like the best explanation. The stuff is guaranteed to be compatible with the particular dell... so I'll be sending it back. Suprised 1/2 of my order has the issue.