Serious difficulties getting 4*1GB dimms working in ASUS mobo

[Fraz]

I'm having real problems getting four 1GB DIMMs working in my ASUS P5Q Pro Turbo motherboard.

I've got:
Four 1GB PC8500 DDR2 Crucial Ballistix DIMMs
DRAM voltage = 2.2v
DRAM frequency = 1066MHz
Q6600 at stock (auto settings)

I've tried NorthBridge voltages ranging from 1.10V all the way up to 1.40V, and I can't get it stable at all with 4GB in the system. It won't boot at all until the NorthBridge voltage is greater than 1.20V, and it doesn't seem to make any difference to the stability at all past 1.26V (where it was stable for the longest). I'm loathe to go above 1.40V... or is that not that high?

Running with 2GB in works absolutely fine, using either pair of 1GB modules, and is stable under Prime95 torture test. So I'm pretty certain the DIMMs are all fine - I've had them in my old mobo working fine for the last 2 years.

Seriously need help! This is my first ASUS motherboard... so far I'm really not impressed regarding the effort required to set it up.

[Blaineoliver]

You should try more lax timings, or lower frequency, the nb has to try and cope with addressing 4 dimms rather than 2 which its used to. try 800mhz ram also to see, i would say that selling the ram and getting 2x2gb is a wise idea if you cant get it stable.

[piggin23]

You will have to up the north bridge voltage to make 4 gig work.
1.4 volts is not that high but you may have to place a fan over the heat sink to ensure you have no further problems.

[Fraz]

You should try more lax timings, or lower frequency, the nb has to try and cope with addressing 4 dimms rather than 2 which its used to. try 800mhz ram also to see, i would say that selling the ram and getting 2x2gb is a wise idea if you cant get it stable.

Yeah, good idea. I'll try the RAM at 800MHz. Seriously annoyed if I'll have to sell these DIMMs though - they worked fine in my ABit IP35 Pro. Damn I wish they were still making motherboards.

[piggin23]

Having just seen what Blain has suggested, I would also go for 2 x 2gig sticks, if you have the funds.
If not then more voltage or under clock the sticks.

[piggin23]

ASUS is very picky in what it will run with and I have had issue in the past with Crucial.
I have also had the ABIT that you have listed and that worked with no problem with the same ram the Asus would not run with. ie 4 gig of Crucial Ballistix (8500) in 1 gig sticks.

[Fraz]

ASUS is very picky in what it will run with and I have had issue in the past with Crucial.
I have also had the ABIT that you have listed and that worked with no problem with the same ram the Asus would not run with. ie 4 gig of Crucial Ballistix (8500) in 1 gig sticks.

Gah, it's just so annoying. What's the point in bothering to put 4 RAM slots in if they aren't going to bother going to the effort of making them all work properly?

[Biscuit]

Yeah my abit IP35-E worked fine with 4 x 1GB, it really is a shame they went bust as it was a great motherboard (once i changed the northbridge cooler). What makes it worse is ram is expensive atm!

[piggin23]

Yes - I loved my Abit Pro until it went POP and blew a section off from under the PWR heat sink.
Another great board gone for ever.

RIP

[WannaPiEcE]

Some brands of RAM are not compatible with certain motherboards and vice-versa. Hence the QVL

[Fraz]

Seem to have got it stable with four 1GB DIMMs in running at 800MHz. I'm a lot happier now I have got at least that far. Now I'll work my way upwards and see where it keels over again.

Thanks for your help everyone.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Is the Northbridge running very hot BTW??

It maybe worth adding a cooling fan to it since 4 DIMMS of PC2-8500 DDR2 is pushing it to its limit probably!

[Fraz]

Is the Northbridge running very hot BTW??

It maybe worth adding a cooling fan to it since 4 DIMMS of PC2-8500 DDR2 is pushing it to its limit probably!

Hard to say at the moment. I've got the case opened up and on its side, and the room it's in is only at 15 degs C at the moment. Currently the Northbridge isn't even warm to touch, so for now I'm assuming it's not particularly stressed.

[Zak33]

Fraz.. with the right google search, it turns out that you and many other people are having this grief, so if you HAVE solved it, well done.. . but don't keep your fingers TOO crossed as it might keel over again yet

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en...meta=&aq=f&oq=

SO...not what you wanna read, but worth knowing that you're not alone and not doing anything wrong!

[Mutley]

I think this a pretty wide-spread problem, not just on Asus boards.

I have an Abit IP-35 Pro, which has 4x1GB of Corsair DDR2 800 RAM in it. I can't get it to run at 800Mhz with the specified timings (4-4-4-12). I had to slacken the timings (to SPD) for it to work at 800Mhz. No amount of voltage tweaking helped, although I didn't push voltages too high tbh.

I'm going to replace the RAM with 2x2GB of 1066 RAM.

[Fraz]

Bah, this stupid motherboard.

I spent literally ages carefully overclocking this thing so the CPU was at 3.2 GHz and the RAM was at just under 900 MHz with 4-4-4-12 timings. I was feeling pretty happy with it, and it seemed absolutely rock solid, with a 24 hour run of Prime95 on all four cores turning up no errors at all. I've then had it on continuously for the last several days, with the odd quick reboot every now and then. Again, been running games and suchlike absolutely fine.

Of course... I did all that overclocking when the computer was already warm. The damn thing won't start up with anything like those settings when it's turned on from cold - i.e. 12 degrees, which is the current temp of the room it's in.

According to the box, this motherboard is supposed to be "Heart Touching & Rock Solid" Well I'm finding it neither, frankly.

ARRHGHGHGHGGHGH. Why did you have to stop manufacturing motherboards ABIT?