x99 memory issue

[Psittac]

I have an x99 asus sabertooth with 8x4g corsair 2400 32g kit

 

I suspect one of the stick's is bad as sometimes it will only boot up in 3 channel mode instead of 4 channel with one bank not loading into bios.  I am finally getting around to troubleshooting today so thought I would get some advice as to what to look out for.  I have a process for testing ram and narrowing down which stick it is.  My question would be what else is in the equation? CPU memory controller? Motherboard?  If I can't find one specific stick that is the problem what else could it be?

 

I'm going to see if it's the same dim slot's each time, I have it narrowed down to one set of 4 sticks for testing right now.  I know that one specific slot will not boot with just one stick but that could be a quirk of the board so I'm testing one set of 4.  I don't know, just looking for thought's because this is going to require a lot of testing.

 

[Psittac]

I'm going off a hunch, but I think something in the motherboard isn't letting the memory detect properly.  A while ago I ran memtest for several hours with no error's so maybe it's an internal x99 test issue.

[Quaker]

If you have a slot that may not be working, put 3 sticks in the other slots and see if it boots and detects all 3. Then replace one of the sticks with the 4th stick (still only three slots) and if it boots and detects again, then all the RAM sticks are good, you can then put a stick in the 4th slot (with the other 3), and see if it then boots and detects all 4. If not, the slot or the CPU'S RAM controller is bad.

 

Other than that, if you put 3 (or 2) sticks in and it only detects 2 (or 1), replace the sticks one at a time until you find out which one doesn't work.

 

If you find that one slot is bad, check the slot for bent contacts, or dirt, pet hair, etc, that may be causing a bad connection.

[Psittac]

how do I determine if it's a memory controller or the slot?

[Quaker]

1 minute ago, Psittac said:

how do I determine if it's a memory controller or the slot?

By replacing the CPU or the motherboard.

Nobody said it would be easy - try to find someone who can lend you a compatible CPU.

[Psittac]

well now I can't recreate the problem.  I put all 8 stick's in and rebooted into bios numerous times and they registered each time

[Psittac]

if it were a controller issue, wouldn't I get error's from testing? I'm leaning towards mobo not recognizing the sticks properly.  I'll try a different bios

[done12many2]

2 minutes ago, Psittac said:

if it were a controller issue, wouldn't I get error's from testing? I'm leaning towards mobo not recognizing the sticks properly.  I'll try a different bios

 

It could be anything from memory needing to be reseated to a bad stick or IMC.  Definitely upgrade your BIOS as the newer ones from Asus have substantial improvements in the area of memory.

 

Chances are your setup is fine.  It just may need some seasonal adjustments.  

[Psittac]

yeah, probably not seated properly or dust or pet hair or something.  I'll wait and see if it happens again and go from there.  Anyone know off the top of their head how long the warranty is on this cpu mobo and ram? I'll be googling but thought someone might know.

 

I had an issue with micro center because I was waiting on water block's to show up and when they did I realized my r9 fury was not a reference board (told the kid several times I was going to water cool).  Ended up a couple day's out of return policy and the lady wouldn't let me exchange it because apparently I got one of the last two fury's in the store and she wasn't going to eat the cost of the card.  Countless other problems with buying from micro center on this build but over all the customer service was pure crap.  If I can't get quality advice or quality return's......... why would I shop there? Hence why I've boycotted them.  Anyways that was just a rant, I'll go google.

[Sintezza]

If you encounter the same issue again.

Then you might need to play arround with the system agent voltage a litlebit.

[Psittac]

3 minutes ago, Sintezza said:

If you encounter the same issue again.

Then you might need to play arround with some voltages.

 

well when this started I went back to optimized defaults, so 2133 and stock voltages and it didn't help at all.  I'm really thinking it's seated poorly.

 

Side note, I've got hella warranty on all of it. Intel 3 years, Asus TUF 5 years and corsair lifetime.  There's a reason I go with these brands every time lol (corsair RMA is excellent btw)

[Sintezza]

2 minutes ago, Psittac said:

well when this started I went back to optimized defaults, so 2133 and stock voltages and it didn't help at all.  I'm really thinking it's seated poorly.

 

Side note, I've got hella warranty on all of it. Intel 3 years, Asus TUF 5 years and corsair lifetime.  There's a reason I go with these brands every time lol (corsair RMA is excellent btw)

 

If you have not updated your Bios / UEFI allready, then do that firstly.

If you still get the same issue.

Then try to set the system agent voltage to 1.02V, and see if that does anything with 8 modules populated.

[done12many2]

7 minutes ago, Psittac said:

yeah, probably not seated properly or dust or pet hair or something.  I'll wait and see if it happens again and go from there.  Anyone know off the top of their head how long the warranty is on this cpu mobo and ram? I'll be googling but thought someone might know.

 

I had an issue with micro center because I was waiting on water block's to show up and when they did I realized my r9 fury was not a reference board (told the kid several times I was going to water cool).  Ended up a couple day's out of return policy and the lady wouldn't let me exchange it because apparently I got one of the last two fury's in the store and she wasn't going to eat the cost of the card.  Countless other problems with buying from micro center on this build but over all the customer service was pure crap.  If I can't get quality advice or quality return's......... why would I shop there? Hence why I've boycotted them.  Anyways that was just a rant, I'll go google.

 

Sucks to hear that you had that bad of an experience with them.   The MCs local to me are pretty fantastic.  I've even had luck exchanging a motherboard that was 2 x over the return policy.

 

Every now and then I come across someone on the staff that is a complete idiot that just says anything to get a sale or move you along, but for the most part, they are pretty decent around here.

 

2 minutes ago, Psittac said:

Side note, I've got hella warranty on all of it. Intel 3 years, Asus TUF 5 years and corsair lifetime.  There's a reason I go with these brands every time lol (corsair RMA is excellent btw)

 

Yeah, most upper tier memory will provide a lifetime and Asus has a pretty decent warranty.  However, Asus customer support leave something to be desired so hopefully you don't have to cross that bridge.

 

 

[Psittac]

1 minute ago, Sintezza said:

 

If you have not updated your Bios / UEFI allready, then do that firstly.

If you still get the same issue.

Then try to set the system agent voltage to 1.02V, and see if that does anything with 8 modules populated.

yeah, bios is my next step. I updated when I got the machine but it looks like theres a couple new ones so I'll try a different one.  Maybe I should contact asus technical support if that doesn't fix it, might get someone familiar with issues in the BIOS, but still I got 10-20 reboot's and they all registered each time.  I bet it's cause I took them all out and put them back in

[Psittac]

15 minutes ago, done12many2 said:

 

Sucks to hear that you had that bad of an experience with them.   The MCs local to me are pretty fantastic.  I've even had luck exchanging a motherboard that was 2 x over the return policy.

 

Every now and then I come across someone on the staff that is a complete idiot that just says anything to get a sale or move you along, but for the most part, they are pretty decent around here.

 

 

Yeah, most upper tier memory will provide a lifetime and Asus has a pretty decent warranty.  However, Asus customer support leave something to be desired so hopefully you don't have to cross that bridge.

 

 

as for micro center, there was one excellent employee in the DIY section, I went to him for several builds and was very happy with each one of them, To this day I have no problems with my previous build and still love it.  When I was buying a laptop from MC I actually name dropped him to the manager when he came to thank me for my purchase.  Next time I went in he was a manager in the DIY section.  But this build was different, I chased Brian down and asked him to help me with my new build and waited for him to be free.  But instead of getting right to me he stood off to the side, I think to let his co-workers get some experience.  And on every front they dropped the ball, I asked him for better ram, he said no you want this, no suggestion of higher speed or increased capacity, so I just said I'll do a second kit (kind of regretting that). My original mobo was faulty and I returned it and decided to upgrade, what I realized later is the board I asked for was an old model and the new stuff had just hit the shelves, again no suggestion of a new product..... Went back a separate time for a gpu upgrade, told him I wanted to water cool it, he held up two r9 fury's, I later realized one was reference one was not, I randomly pointed at the non-reference card (he even went and talked to his co-worker who had two r9 fury's water cooled), the lady at the return desk was a manager and a complete bitch.  Prior to this build I had an excellent experience, and I think that's mostly due to my go to guy, I could go in there with a vague idea of what I want and a budget and walk out happy.  This time on three different occasions with three different employee's and a 4th customer service person, I was completely let down.  I'm done with the store, I guess they only have one good employee.