EpoX 8KHA+ RAM problem??

[LucJoe]

Ok, here's the problem i'm having:

I've had one stick of crucial 256mb pc2100 ddr in it for a long time, and it worked fine, but today i decided to add another one, so i went to best buy, got the crucial 256mb pc2100 ddr that they had and i was surprised to find that the two sticks are very different. The first stick was double sided, and the stick i got today is single-sided.

anyways, when i went to install it, there are 3 dimm sockets (which i will from now on refer to as 1, 2, and 3.) The ORIGINAL stick of ram was in 1, and was working fine. First, i put the NEW one in 3, and when i booted the bios only recognized 256mb. Then I switched the NEW one from 3 to 2, same problem. At this point, i thought i had a dead stick of ram, but just to be sure, i took the ORIGINAL out of 1 and put the NEW in 1, and nothing else. It booted fine showing 256mb! so after this I tried every possible combination of sticks in different slots. Every time I didn't have a stick in 1, it would not even POST, but when there was a stick in 1, it would only see 256mb, as if 1 is the only slot that works. What gives, do i have a bad motherboard?

Anyone else been having this problem with the 8kha?

Thanks for any help.

 

[mcveigh]

I have a 8kha+ and don't have that prob, I have 2 sticks of 256 each in slots 1 and 2.

do you have the latest bios?

 

[Brian48]

Well, not exactly, but my 8kha+ (refurb from newegg) would absolutely not run with Kingston ValueRam no matter what I do. Stick in any other brand, it works just fine. Picked up the memory from BestBuy as well.

 

[LucJoe]

I flashed what i thought was the latest bios today after the problem started, it didn't help.


Is it possible that i can't use one single sided DIMM with one double sided DIMM?

 

[Brian48]

Ahh, now that you've pointed that out again, I just remembered something. Go into the BIOS and make sure that RAM interleave is not set to 4. In fact, turn off interleave altogether for now and see if both DIMMs are recognized. If so, set it 2 and then see what happens.

 

[LucJoe]

RAM interleave eh? Ok, I'll give that a try.

 

[Bovinicus]

Did you try installing the single-sided DIMM by itself? Maybe it's just a faulty stick.

 

[LucJoe]

Ok, I checked out that DRAM interleave thing. I found the option for it, it was under DRAM settings > Bank Interleave. It was currently disabled, but there are two other options, 2 Bank and 4 Bank. I left it alone, should I try one of those other two?

Originally posted by: Bovinicus
Did you try installing the single-sided DIMM by itself? Maybe it's just a faulty stick.

Yes, I've tried everything, basically what it comes down to is that whatever is in the first ram slot (0/1) will be recognized.

 

[Brian48]

Well, you can try the other settings, but generally if you're still having a problem with it set to OFF, enabling it will not help either. I remembered something distinctly about this feature relating to some DIMMs using single or double-sided RAM modules, but I couldn't tell you exactly what that was.

 

[Bovinicus]

Perhaps the board just doesn't like you to mix double-sided and single-sided DIMMs? I have the same motherboard with the same memory (Both double-sided though) and I have been running fine while overclocked for a while now.

 

[LuDaCriS66]

A lot of people including myself have had problems with the RAM slots on this board.... for some people, slots 2 and 3 don't recognize the RAM properly or in my case, they killed the DIMM's that I put in those slots.... only slot 1 ever worked properly for me and I had the board about 5 months.

 

[LucJoe]

Originally posted by: Bovinicus
Perhaps the board just doesn't like you to mix double-sided and single-sided DIMMs? I have the same motherboard with the same memory (Both double-sided though) and I have been running fine while overclocked for a while now.

That's a possibility, however it seems like the motherboard just doesn't like it when I use anything but the first slot. If i put NOTHING in the first slot and one stick in any other slot, it won't boot. But if I put one stick in the first slot and nothing in any other slot, it boots fine.

 

[LucJoe]

Originally posted by: LuDaCriS66
A lot of people including myself have had problems with the RAM slots on this board.... for some people, slots 2 and 3 don't recognize the RAM properly or in my case, they killed the DIMM's that I put in those slots.... only slot 1 ever worked properly for me and I had the board about 5 months.

This is my EXACT problem. I've heard about it on other boards too. Does anyone know of a fix for it?

 

[specktre]

here is what i would do take the double sided ram back and say that it is broken or doesn't work with your system or somethin and of course use your reciept for the new stick and get a new single sided crucial stick. because i think the problem is that your mobo doesn't like double sided sticks. i have a shuttle ak31 kt266 and i got a stick of 256 2100 and it was double sided. then i got a stick of kingston about a month ago and it is single. and i went into sisoft sandra 2001 and it shows that the double sided takes up 2 of 4 my logical memory slots even though it is one stick. so if i were you i would try sisoft sandra and see if the old stick takes up 2 slots and then put the new stick in by itself and see if it takes up 2 slots. i dont know just a thought

 

[LucJoe]

Well, I called crucial tech support and they said that I needed to reseat both of the sticks. So I just got done reseating them about 50 times, booting up between each time to see if it recognizes the ram. I either get an error that there is no RAM or I get 256mb...

I have a call in to EpoX, they should be getting back to me within the next couple hours, I'll let you guys know how that turns out.

Originally posted by: specktre
here is what i would do take the double sided ram back and say that it is broken or doesn't work with your system or somethin and of course use your reciept for the new stick and get a new single sided crucial stick. because i think the problem is that your mobo doesn't like double sided sticks. i have a shuttle ak31 kt266 and i got a stick of 256 2100 and it was double sided. then i got a stick of kingston about a month ago and it is single. and i went into sisoft sandra 2001 and it shows that the double sided takes up 2 of 4 my logical memory slots even though it is one stick. so if i were you i would try sisoft sandra and see if the old stick takes up 2 slots and then put the new stick in by itself and see if it takes up 2 slots. i dont know just a thought

Thanks for the idea, but I'm pretty sure that the double sided one is fine. It's been running in my system by itself for a while now. I'll give it a look in sandra.