Memory issues on X58 Asus Rampage II Extreme + i7 920

[JettStream]

Hello LTT community.

Recently I was able to score a bargain on an Asus Rampage II Extreme + i7 920 combo, and this gave me the idea of building a secondary gaming PC around it that I could put in the living room (sure this platform is outdated and not power efficient in the slightest but it can still pack a solid punch). Anyway, I found a 4x4GB 1333MHz DDR3 kit, but there seems to be what I assume is a memory channel issue: by installing the 4 modules in the recommended configuration (so slots A2, A1, B1, C1), the BIOS would only pick up 8GB, while in Windows it would state 16GB with 8GB usable.

After this I tried multiple different memory configurations while also swapping the modules around and these were the results:

• A1, B1, C1 --> still 8GB detected
• A1, B1 --> 4GB detected
• A2, A1, B2, B1 --> doesn't POST
• B2, B1, C2, C1 --> detectes the full 16GB and everything works as it should

I could just use it in the last configuration, but then it wouldn't take advantage of triple channel, and I probably wouldn't be able to upgrade to 24GB in the future if I wanted to.

So now I'm asking you for help: is there something I can try to do or do I just have to rule this off as a dead memory channel? I've already updated the BIOS to the latest version, reseated the CPU and checked the socket but found no bent or broken pins. I've heard some people say that excessive CPU cooler mounting pressure could cause memory issues: while I don't think I overtightened the cooler's screws, is it worth it to look into this potential solution or is it unlikely? And if it ends up being an actual dead memory channel, in your experience, is it most likely to be the CPU or motherboard's fault? I'd hope for the former since I was thinking of selling it and swapping it for a 6 core down the line anyway.

Tell me what you think about this, I'm open to suggestions.

[flibberdipper]

My experience with X58 is extremely limited (even though I have an X58 Sabertooth and a P6T Deluxe I just haven't been bothered to mess with yet), but here is what I've come up with so far.

 

Make sure your BIOS is up to date. Obviously earlier BIOSes can have some kinks that aren't worked out yet so we can't rule that out as an issue. Being an early DDR3 platform of course we can't rule that out.

 

This is from the EVGA forums and a help article so it might be slightly different for our ASUS boards, but the suggestion there was making sure that the Memory Low Gap setting is at AUTO instead of 3G or whatever else there is. Unfortunately I don't have a spare PSU to pull either of my boards out to take a look, but hopefully ASUS did things in a similar manner.

 

My only final suggestion is to just repeatedly fuck with it and see what happens. I know my X79 Sabertooth was being kind of a bitch with RAM and I just ended up repeatedly moving sticks around and eventually it decided to work.

[jaslion]

To play what?

 

A x5650 at 4.4 ghz was the living room pc here till a couple years ago as it just did not for the life of it was capable of holding 60fps in modern games.

 

You may wanna remount the cpu as there seems to be a connection issue

[JettStream]

3 hours ago, jaslion said:

To play what?

Well, most of my Steam library is made up of either games from around the time when this platform was still pretty new or indie games, so it shouldn't have any trouble running those, provided they don't require full DX12 feature set (GTX 770) or AVS instruction set.

[JettStream]

I did some further testing:

• I could not find anything in the BIOS that could affect RAM functionality like that, and I doubt that's what causing the issue because even by putting a single slot in B1 or C1 it works without issues, while with a single slot in A1 it doesn't POST at all.
• I think I can rule out any physical issues related to the socket: I reseated the CPU multiple times, I cleaned the pads on the back with isopropyl alcohol, straightened a pin that looked just slightly bent, but no luck.
• Mounting pressure also doesn't seem to be the issue, as I tested the system with the cooler both loosely screwed in and completely unscrewed just resting on the CPU (for a short amount of time of course).

At this point I think the only remaining option is bad memory channel. I think at this point the best thing to do is just to get another CPU anyways and if that fixes the issue then great, while if it doesn't I guess I'll use the known working RAM configuration and get another motherboard later down the road if it really bothers me.

 

Do you agree?

[Pasi123]

16 hours ago, jaslion said:

To play what?

 

A x5650 at 4.4 ghz was the living room pc here till a couple years ago as it just did not for the life of it was capable of holding 60fps in modern games.

 

You may wanna remount the cpu as there seems to be a connection issue

That would only be a problem in newest of the newest games.

My X5670 @ 4.4GHz + GTX 1080 had no problems running older games games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. And newer but lighter games like Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail run great at max settings