Old School. DDR2 board won't boot with 16 gigs of RAM

[Texun]

I'm repurposing a Gigabyte-GA-MA78GM-S2H v2 DDR2 board and can't get to POST using 4x4 DDR2-800 sticks of new Micron RAM and I'm hoping someone might have a solution.

It runs fine with all 4 slots filled with 2g sticks but not when using 4g sticks. I've tried other brands with no luck. Most of the time it won't post but when it does it hangs loading W7 with a message about a corrupt file.

Gigabyte says 16g of non ECC is the max and I have a total of 6 sticks of new non ECC memory to work with. The results are the same regardless of how they are installed in 4x4.
This is what I've tried:

4x4 is a no go.
4x2g work fine
2x4g work fine
2x4g + 2x2g are no go

Essentially any configuration above 8 gigs doesn't work regardless of how the slots are populated.

Has anyone had this problem and if so did you find a solution? I upped the voltage from 1.5 to 1.6 with no change but I have not messed with the timings yet.

 

[Billb2]

Brand and model of the memory?

 

[RLGL]

latest bios?

 

[Texun]

Micron DDR2-800 DS NON-ECC
I have F11 which is the latest non Beta release. F12 is the last one but it is a beta from years ago. Nothing newer. I guess it wouldn't hurt to try it. Gigabyte's page says it an update to support newer AMD cpu's.

 

[Ketchup]

What CPU?

 

[PliotronX]

High density ddr2 is so iffy I'd be surprised if it works. Usually 4GB is registered. Id ignore spd and set manually to the loosest possible timing using a set that boots (2x2?) but even if it boots windows you could have problems. I would run memtest #5 and #8 for a day before even attempting windows.

 

[Texun]

Using an Athlon X2-245e (45Watt)

I flashed it today with the latest BIOS which is a beta version. No change in boot behavior at all. I tried every available RAM and slot combination using 2 and 4 gig sticks and the common thread to this problem seems to be an 8 gig barrier. I have 2 gig Kingston and 4 gig Micron sticks, all DDR2 non ECC, and they work fine alone or mixed as long as I don't load it with more than 8 gigs, but when I do the board will either:

- Fails to init the display. (using on board)
- Hang during POST
- Or complete the POST but hang the moment it attempts to boot 64 bit Windows 7 with a message about a corrupt file.

I still need to take a SWAG at the timings. I got pulled away today before I could get to it.

I've had the board running solid on 8 gigs for more than a month, and ran Memtest after the rebuild without a hiccup until I tried to up the memory.

 

[whm1974]

Sounds like you will have to make do with 8GB of memory. Crucial/Micron is a very decent brand of memory, so if that didn't work then probably other brands will not be any better.

 

[Billb2]

Micron DDR2-800 DS NON-ECC
I have F11 which is the latest non Beta release. F12 is the last one but it is a beta from years ago. Nothing newer. I guess it wouldn't hurt to try it. Gigabyte's page says it an update to support newer AMD cpu's.

The exact, complete model numbers are needed.

Micron sold 12 different 2 gig DDR2 modules, and 2 different DDR2 4 gig models.

 

[Ketchup]

I just wonder how well that memory compatibility chart holds up. The memory controller is on the CPU, and through the board "officially" supports the CPU you are using with the latest beta BIOS, think about how many cores and BIOSes that board has gone through from when 16 GB of RAM was "supported" and where it got to by EOL.

In fact, based on the fact that it takes a beta BIOS to support your CPU does make me wonder if Gigabyte know there would be limitations like this.

 

[Texun]

I goofed. It's late and I have a case of cranial rectumitis. I'll check the BIOS and reply when the extraction is complete.

I had to check the BIOS again but my post was correct.
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The beta (latest) is over 4 years old with no follow-up and I wondered the same thing. I don't need the beta to support the 245e though. Support for that CPU was at least 2 updates before the beta. I tried them and they worked fine with the CPU. The reason I went to the beta was because it supposedly had some memory management tweaks, although Gigabyte was not specific about what they were, and since I saw no difference I left it loaded with the beta.

I got it to run today on 16 gigs, I'm on it now, but the only way it will run is with the RAM downclocked from DDR2-800 to 533. I've gone up on the voltage but DDR2-800 or 667 is no-go and there are ino options in the BIOS to adjust CAS timings - just the speed and voltage.

I'm not completely sure I didn't get screwed on the purchase. It's a China Ebay deal but looks totally legit with a Micron sticker and Hynix chips, but maybe someone is selling rejects. I ran Memtest86+ for 4 hours and got 0 errors so it appears stable at 533.

It's possible I got hosed on the purchase but I have other DDR2-800 RAM in various combinations and they won't work either once I install more than 8 gigs which leads me to think it's an issue somewhere in the board and not the ram.

Right now I have all four slots loaded with this running as 533.
Micron
MT36HTF51264FY-800E1
4GB 24x4 PC2-6400U-800-12-E0
4GB DDR2-800

It isn't absolutely necessary to run 16g in this board but it's going to be used as a NVR for security cams on a house I have in the country. The 245e will be limiting enough but I wanted to have plenty of headroom with the RAM.

 

[Ketchup]

Congrats on finding something that works!