New Mobo - Issues with RAM

clayponder · May 12, 2020

I have replaced my old mobo with an intel DH77KC. Everything works great, except that whenever I have all four sticks of ram installed, I get a beep code (three short beeps).

All four sticks of ram are the exact same. [NT4GC64B8HG0NF] They all four work perfectly. they are 4gb ddr3 1600mhz... which is exactly what the mobo calls for.

I've tested out each of the sticks in a two stick config on one channel (the second channel, the black slots), and they all work. but what's weird, is that it will also NOT boot when I have only two sticks in the BLUE slots, which are the "primary" DIMM slots.

I don't understand what the issue is??? it just won't boot with all 4 DIMMS installed, gives 3 short beep error.

however, the system boots perfectly if I remove the stick from the slot furthest from the CPU. So strange to me.

Has anyone else experienced this?

The MOBO manual

https://www.intel.com/content/dam/support/us/en/documents/motherboards/desktop/dh77kc/dh77kc_techprodspec04.pdf

System specs

DH77KC mobo

i7 3770

ssd x2, hdd x1

4x4gb ddr3 1600mhz non-ecc udimm "dual-rank" (does that mean "double-sided"?)

(Nanya 4GB 2Rx8 PC3-12800U DDR3) [NT4GC64B8HG0NF-DI]

nvidia geforce gtx 1650 (about to be RTX 2060 - so hopefully the gpu upgrade won't also suffer the same fate as this upgrade)

thermaltake - 500w psu

Edited May 12, 2020 by clayponder
edit-forgot to mention CPU in specs

May 12, 2020

Pretty sure on Dell 3 beeps is chipset error.

Depending on the generation, the beep codes would resemble 1-3-2 for example.

Can reference that here.

https://www.dell.com/support/article/en-us/sln143065/dell-optiplex-and-vostro-beep-codes-and-error-messages?lang=en#OptiPlex_Beep_Codes

A work in progress thread https://warp9-systems.proboards.com/thread/1240/bios-post-code-beeps with old and newer post codes. Mostly covers the basics here.

DELL INSPIRON

1 Motherboard: BIOS ROM Failure Motherboard, covers BIOS corruption or ROM error Run the Dell Diagnostics
2 Memory No Memory (RAM) detected Troubleshoot the Memory
3 Motherboard: Chipset
Chipset Error (North and South bridge error
Time-Of-Day Clock test failure
Gate A20 failure
Super I/O chip failure
Keyboard controller failure
Run the Dell Diagnostics
4 Memory Memory (RAM) Failure Troubleshoot the Memory
5 Real Time Clock Power Failure CMOS battery failure Try reseating the CMOS Battery and run the Dell Diagnostics if that does not resolve the issue
6 Video BIOS Video card/chip failure Run the Dell Diagnostics
7 Central Processing Unit (CPU) Central Processing Unit (CPU) Failure Run the Dell Diagnostics
Power LED Status Power State
Off Power is off or the system is in an S4 (hibernate) or S5 power state.
LED is blank.
Solid White The computer is in power-on state.
Solid Amber The system board cannot start initialization. There may be an issue with the system board, memory, processor or the power supply.
Blinking Amber The system board cannot start initialization or in an S3 power state. There is a power problem, a device may be malfunctioning or incorrectly installed.

DELL XPS

1 Possible motherboard failure - BIOS ROM checksum failure Run the Dell Diagnostics
2 No RAM detected
Note: If you installed or replaced the memory module, ensure that the memory module is seated properly Troubleshoot the Memory
3 Possible motherboard failure - Chipset error Run the Dell Diagnostics
4 RAM read/write failure. Troubleshoot the Memory
5 Real Time Clock (RTC) power fail Try reseating the CMOS Battery and run the Dell Diagnostics if that does not resolve the issue
6 Real Time Clock failure Run the Dell Diagnostics
7 Video card or chip failure. Run the Dell Diagnostics
8 Processor failure Run the Dell Diagnostics

DELL VOSTRO

1 BIOS ROM checksum in progress or failure. BIOS Chip System board failure, covers BIOS corruption or ROM error Run the Dell Diagnostics
2 No RAM Detected No memory detected Troubleshoot the Memory
3 Chipset Error (North and South Bridge Chipset, DMA/IMR/Timer Error for Intel platform); Chipset Error
Time-Of-Day Clock test failure.
Gate A20 failure
Super I/O chip failure.
Keyboard controller test failure.
System board Failure
(Power LED Blinking Amber) Run the Dell Diagnostics
4 RAM Read/Write failure Memory failure Troubleshoot the Memory
5 RTC Power Fail COMS battery failure Try reseating the CMOS Battery and run the Dell Diagnostics if that does not resolve the issue
6 Video BIOS Test Failure Video card failure Run the Dell Diagnostics
7 CPU Failure CPU Run the Dell Diagnostics

DELL OPTIPLEX

1-1-2 Microprocessor register failure Contact Technical Support
1-1-3 NVRAM Run the Dell Diagnostics
1-1-4 ROM BIOS checksum failure Run the Dell Diagnostics
1-2-1 Programmable interval timer Run the Dell Diagnostics
1-2-2 DMA initialization failure Run the Dell Diagnostics
1-2-3 DMA page register read/write failure Run the Dell Diagnostics
1-3-1 through 2-4-4 DIMMs not being properly identified or used Troubleshoot the memory modules and the memory slots.
3-1-1 Slave DMA register failure Run the Dell Diagnostics
3-1-2 Master DMA register failure Run the Dell Diagnostics
3-1-3 Master interrupt mask register failure Contact Technical Support
3-1-4 Slave interrupt mask register failure Contact Technical Support
3-2-2 Interrupt vector loading failure Contact Technical Support
3-2-4 Keyboard Controller test failure Run the Dell Diagnostics
3-3-1 NVRAM power loss Run the Dell Diagnostics
3-3-2 NVRAM configuration Run the Dell Diagnostics
3-3-4 Video Memory Test failure Run the Dell Diagnostics
3-4-1 Screen initialization failure Run the Dell Diagnostics
3-4-2 Screen retrace failure Run the Dell Diagnostics
3-4-3 Search for video ROM failure Run the Dell Diagnostics
4-2-1 No time tick Contact Technical Support
4-2-2 Shutdown failure Contact Technical Support
4-2-3 Gate A20 failure Contact Technical Support
4-2-4 Unexpected interrupt in protected mode Contact Technical Support
4-3-1 Memory failure above address 0FFFFh Run the Dell Diagnostics
4-3-3 Timer-chip counter 2 failure Contact Technical Support
4-3-4 Time-of-day clock stopped Contact Technical Support
4-4-1 Serial or parallel port test failure Run the Dell Diagnostics
4-4-2 Failure to decompress code to shadowed memory Run the Dell Diagnostics
4-4-3 Math coprocessor test failure Run the Dell Diagnostics
4-4-4 Cache test failure Run the Dell Diagnostics

DELL PRECISION

1-1-2 CPU register test in progress Contact Technical Support
1-1-3 CMOS read/write test in progress or failure Run the Dell Diagnostics
1-1-4 BIOS ROM checksum in progress or failure Run the Dell Diagnostics
1-2-1 Timer Test in progress or failure Run the Dell Diagnostics
1-2-2 DMA initialization in progress or failure Run the Dell Diagnostics
1-2-3 DMA page register read/write test in progress or failure Run the Dell Diagnostics
1-3-1 RAM refresh verification in progress or failure Troubleshoot the memory and memory slots.
1-3-2 1st 64K RAM test in progress or failure Troubleshoot the memory and memory slots.
1-3-3 1st 64K RAM chip or data line failure (multi bit) Troubleshoot the memory and memory slots.
1-3-4 1st 64K RAM odd/even logic failure Troubleshoot the memory and memory slots.
1-4-1 1st 64K RAM address line failure Troubleshoot the memory and memory slots.
1-4-2 1st 64K RAM parity test in progress or failure Troubleshoot the memory and memory slots.
1-4-3 Fail-safe timer test in progress Troubleshoot the memory and memory slots.
1-4-4 Software NMI port test in progress Troubleshoot the memory and memory slots.
2-1-1 1st 64K RAM chip or data line failure - bit 0 Troubleshoot the memory and memory slots.
2-1-2 1st 64K RAM chip or data line failure - bit 1 Troubleshoot the memory and memory slots.
2-1-3 1st 64K RAM chip or data line failure - bit 2 Troubleshoot the memory and memory slots.
2-1-4 1st 64K RAM chip or data line failure - bit 3 Troubleshoot the memory and memory slots.
2-2-1 1st 64K RAM chip or data line failure - bit 4 Troubleshoot the memory and memory slots.
2-2-2 1st 64K RAM chip or data line failure - bit 5 Troubleshoot the memory and memory slots.
2-2-3 1st 64K RAM chip or data line failure - bit 6 Troubleshoot the memory and memory slots.
2-2-4 1st 64K RAM chip or data line failure - bit 7 Troubleshoot the memory and memory slots.
2-3-1 1st 64K RAM chip or data line failure - bit 8 Troubleshoot the memory and memory slots.
2-3-2 1st 64K RAM chip or data line failure - bit 9 Troubleshoot the memory and memory slots.
2-3-3 1st 64K RAM chip or data line failure - bit A Troubleshoot the memory and memory slots.
2-3-4 1st 64K RAM chip or data line failure - bit B Troubleshoot the memory and memory slots.
2-4-1 1st 64K RAM chip or data line failure - bit C Troubleshoot the memory and memory slots.
2-4-2 1st 64K RAM chip or data line failure - bit D Troubleshoot the memory and memory slots.
2-4-3 1st 64K RAM chip or data line failure - bit E Troubleshoot the memory and memory slots.
2-4-4 1st 64K RAM chip or data line failure - bit F Troubleshoot the memory and memory slots.
3-1-1 Slave DMA register test in progress or failure Run the Dell Diagnostics
3-1-2 Master DMA register test in progress or failure Run the Dell Diagnostics
3-1-3 Master IMR test in progress or failure Contact Technical Support
3-1-4 Slave IMR test in progress or failure Contact Technical Support
3-2-2 Interrupt vector loading in progress Contact Technical Support
3-2-4 Keyboard controller test in progress or failure Run the Dell Diagnostics
3-3-1 CMOS power fail and checksum test in progress Run the Dell Diagnostics
3-3-2 CMOS Config info validation in progress Run the Dell Diagnostics
3-3-3 RTC/Keyboard controller not found Run the Dell Diagnostics
3-3-4 Screen memory test in progress or failure Run the Dell Diagnostics
3-4-1 Screen initialization test in progress or failure Run the Dell Diagnostics
3-4-2 Screen retrace tests test in progress or failure Run the Dell Diagnostics
3-4-3 Search for video ROM in progress Run the Dell Diagnostics
4-2-1 Timer tick interrupt test in progress or failure Contact Technical Support
4-2-2 Shutdown test in progress or failure Contact Technical Support
4-2-3 Gate A20 failure Contact Technical Support
4-2-4 Unexpected interrupt in Protected Mode Contact Technical Support
4-3-1 RAM test in progress or failure above address 0FFFFh Run the Dell Diagnostics
4-3-2 No memory in Bank 0 Run the Dell Diagnostics
4-3-3 Interval Timer Channel 2 test in progress or failure Contact Technical Support
4-3-4 Time-Of-Day Clock test in progress or failure Contact Technical Support
4-4-1 Super I/O chip failure Run the Dell Diagnostics
4-4-4 Cache test failure Run the Dell Diagnostics

clayponder · May 12, 2020

Okay, I'm sorry. I should've been more specific. I don't have a Dell mobo anymore. Idk why I even mentioned that because it was irrelevant. I will edit my post. I started off with a Dell SFF 7010 but I Frankensteined it into what I have now. It is basically no longer the same PC at all.

the motherboard is now a Intel DH77KC.

I appreciate you replying @ShrimpBrime but the dell beep codes won't apply in this case

I currently have my PC set all back up on the old Dell Mobo right now and it works great.

It's my Intel DH77KC mobo that isn't playing nicely with my ram