Can't run 4 sticks. :(

[J9Darkwing]

Salute!

I have an Asus P5n32 sli motherboard, q6600 processer and 4gig (4x 1gig) of Crucial ballistix ram. bl12864AA804
For some reason my computer wants to crash if I put all four sticks in. Runs fine with 2 or three in any slot configuration but anytime I put all four in it wants to give me the bsod.
I've raised the NB voltage and the Mem voltage but it doesn't seem to help. I can switch out 2 for 2 on the ram and it works the same so that's telling me it's not that I have a bad stick.
Any suggestions? Thank you.

 

[J9Darkwing]

I forgot to mention that I have NOTHING overclocked or overvoltaged now. OV didn't seem to make a difference so why run my stuff hot if it wasn't going to help? I would like to OC everything but I'll worry about that after I get this memory thing licked.

 

[Concillian]

Most boards can't run the same latency settings with 4 sticks it can with 2. If you're at 4-4-4 you may need to drop to 5-5-5 or 5-4-4.

 

[J9Darkwing]

Ok, I've learned a few things since my last post and I return to find you've already touched on it.
1 is that my settings on my ram are 5,5,5,18 2T
2 is that the settings on the crucial website for these sticks are 4-4-4-12
3 is that if I go to http://www.crucial.com/systemscanner/index.aspx and run the scanner then no matter how many sticks I have in or what configuration the system will instantly bsod.

As a side note: My ram was advertised as 'sli ready' and my motherboard has a setting to enable 'sli ready memory' but if I enable that the computer won't even post. If I leave it disabled then in post I see the message 'SLI-ready memory detected-disabled'. All this tells me I have the right stuff to enable it, it just doesn't work.

 

[J9Darkwing]

Updated bios, which I hate doing with Asus boards cause of all the hassle, and now all four sticks are working. Running memtest now and so far everything seems fine.
I know updating the bios seems like one of the first things a person would do but when I originally had this problem, before I decided to just run two sticks, I tried updating the bios and ended up having to call Asus and have them send me a new bios chip. This is the third Asus board I've had and everyone has been a total pain to update the bios.
Last night I ran the Asus Update program and downloaded version 1601 and after it finished I rebooted and lo and behold the dang thing wouldn't work. Just beep at me. Due to the problems I've had in the past with bios updating I wasn't surprised but I was frustrated. After about an hour of tinkering with it, getting it from where it wouldn't even post to where the little windows bar would scroll across about fifty times then lock up, I finally decided to try a different bios set.
I got on my laptop and downloaded the 15XX version of the bios to a flash drive, plugged it into my main computer and flashed it through bios. Seems to be working great.

Thanks for your help. I swear this is the LAST Asus board I'll ever buy.

 

[Fallengod]

Yeah man....you should do a little more research first. Its common knowledge that 4 sticks is a bad idea. Thats an issue with many boards, its not Asus. Youre going to have the same issue with *most* mobos you buy.......

Even if you got them to work, dont expect them to overclock at all. Thats why most people look for 4gb kits of 2x2gb.

It doesnt matter how it was advertised, it was advertised as that for 2 sticks, not 4.

Sorry.

Same issue im having right now. I have 2gb of memory and want to upgrade to 4gb. I already have 4 1gb sticks but, that aint gonna work and even if it did I overclock so I wouldnt even want to mess with it. Im planning on buying a 4gb kit of something.


PS: Asus is great. Ive owned many and never had a problem. USER ERROR!

 

[n7]

4 DIMMs is indeed more of a challenge, but the real problem is the nFarce chipset your board has.

Those are even worse for 4 DIMMs than Intel ones are...

On a good board (i went thru two others before my P5Q-D), you can run 4 DIMMs rock solidly, & OC them well too.

 

[rgallant]

Originally posted by: J9Darkwing
Updated bios, which I hate doing with Asus boards cause of all the hassle, and now all four sticks are working. Running memtest now and so far everything seems fine.
I know updating the bios seems like one of the first things a person would do but when I originally had this problem, before I decided to just run two sticks, I tried updating the bios and ended up having to call Asus and have them send me a new bios chip. This is the third Asus board I've had and everyone has been a total pain to update the bios.
Last night I ran the Asus Update program and downloaded version 1601 and after it finished I rebooted and lo and behold the dang thing wouldn't work. Just beep at me. Due to the problems I've had in the past with bios updating I wasn't surprised but I was frustrated. After about an hour of tinkering with it, getting it from where it wouldn't even post to where the little windows bar would scroll across about fifty times then lock up, I finally decided to try a different bios set.
I got on my laptop and downloaded the 15XX version of the bios to a flash drive, plugged it into my main computer and flashed it through bios. Seems to be working great.

Thanks for your help. I swear this is the LAST Asus board I'll ever buy.

-I would never use the updater unless you want to kill the bios there are other ways.
-I keep a floppy just for updating the bios.
-4 sticks of ram need max voltage -.1 ,you said you put it up ,but to what?
-I run four sticks and get better benches @ 970 @4-4-4-12 than at 1066 5-5-5-15, so I don't bother maxing it out .

-and also the new bios on my asus board states in the bios that it has locked out the sli feature because I have four sticks installed so take it from there.

 

[J9Darkwing]

Thanks rgallant. I got it all running. All four sticks at stock voltage including the sli-memory thing as well. I do intend to up the volts on the ram a little but just thought I'd mention that it all works. Bios version1503. 1601 wouldn't work right regardless of whether I used the asus update or did it through the bios.