Bad motherboard or.... BIOS settings?Follow

Good evening,

I just put together a PC and I am having problems with all of the RAM not showing up.

I have a ASUS P6X58D Premium motherboard and I am using triple channel G.Skill Ripjaws 12GB for ram. RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231356

The BIOS sees only 4GBs, Windows 7 Pro 64bit only sees 4GBs, but CPU-z sees 12GB.

The BIOS is the newest one available.

I have tested each individual DIMM in slot A1 and each DIMM boots the system fine, but when I take one DIMM and try out either B1 or C1 the system will not boot.
According to the motherboard's manual, "You may install one memory module in slot A1, B1, or C1 as a single-channel operation." Does that mean if I take one DIMM and put it in B1 (or C1) the system should still boot? Because it doesn't... If I only put one DIMM in either B1 or C1 the MemOK! light blinks and the system will not boot.

Since I know that each DIMM works (from testing them each in A1), does that mean my board needs to be RMAed?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.
Pent




Edited, Oct 4th 2010 9:04pm by PentUpAnger

OK, did that (BIOS battery removal) and now 8GB out of 12GB is showing in the BIOS. Better, but not what I want. =(

Regarding the underclocking of the RAM... I never overclocked it. Everything in the bios is set to default. I don't even know what to mess with in the bios to underclock/OC the RAM.

I have taken out the RAM so many times already, so I don't think it could be a seating issue.

Anything else to try to get that last 4GBs to show up? Or any other tests I can try?

Thanks.

edit in: I figured out if I set the DRAM Frequency to 1333 the bios would only say 4GBs, and if I set DRAM to 1066 the bios says 8GBs... but still no 12GBs any way I try.


Edited, Oct 4th 2010 10:13pm by PentUpAnger

It seems the errors were coming from either the RAM or the mobo, because once I took out a DIMM it booted into Windows fine, but once I took out ONE stick of RAM the bios only saw 4GBs again and it didn't matter which stick I took out.

I am at a loss... I have tried every possible combination that I can think of and I can not get the 12GBs of RAM to show up, and when the bios saw 8GBs it wouldn't let Windows boot up.

I have tested each stick in slot A1 and they all show up as 4GB.

Before each of the following combinations I removed the RAM, CMOS battery, and the power from the PC.

Each stick will be called a different letter (X, Y, and Z).

X in slot A1 boots 4GBs. (I always left stick X in A1 except for when I tested Y and Z in slot A1 to make sure they work)
X in slot A1 and Y in slot B1 boots to 4GBs.
X in slot A1 and Y in slot C1 boots to 4GBs.
X in slot A1 and Z in slot B1 boots to 4GBs.
X in slot A1 and Z in slot C1 boots to 4GBs.

I could only get the DIMMs to boot up to 8GBs if all three were installed, and set to 1066 (not 1333 like they are)... and then Windows would give BSoDs. And even then booting to 8GBs was a maybe/maybe not situation.

So... do you think it is the motherboard, RAM, or the BIOS settings?

To make matters worse, my Win 7 Professional wants me to activate it but I don't want to until I figure out if I need to return the motherboard.


In the process of reading the thread here: http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&id=20100429194317906&board_id=1&model=P6X58D%20Premium&page=1&count=98

Going to try out reseating the CPU and trying out the stock cooler and voltage tweaks tomorrow after I get some rest.


Edited, Oct 5th 2010 1:18am by PentUpAnger

The thread at the ASUS boards I posted in my last post helped me with it.

Not sure exactly what it was, but the bios and Windows now see all 12GBs.

Here is what I did:

Took the mobo out of the case and removed the aftermarket HSF and the CPU.
Noticed that a pin in the CPU socket looked to be bent a little, so I used a very sharp knife to straighten it out.
Cleaned all of the thermal paste off of the CPU and reinstalled it.
Put the factory Intel HSF on the CPU. Did not remove stock thermal paste, nor did I put extra on. (question on this later)
Noticed the 4-pin ATX plug-in actually had a black rubber cap covering 4 other pins... (WTF?!)
Removed the cover on the pins and used the 8-pin ATX plug instead of the 4-pin I was using before.
Hooked everything back up.
Win.

I never had to change the voltage or anything, although I did set the DRAM frequency to 1333 instead of Auto, because the bios was reading the RAM at 1066.



I do not have my case enclosed yet, nor do I have the new video card (480 GTX) or the 200mm side fan on yet.

I am not OCing or anything and I am going to keep the stock HSF on the CPU for now. The idle temp for CPU is 48-49C... is that OK?

Intel i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz
Bios says the idle CPU temp is 48-49C.
SpeedFan says the idle CPU temp is 33-34C.

Which one should I believe and is that a good idle temp? (Not sure if the stock thermal paste has settled completely yet.)



Edited, Oct 5th 2010 2:00pm by PentUpAnger

I went ahead and took the HS back off and cleaned it and the CPU.

Applied some Artic Silver 5 ("AS5" just looks... bad... ;) ) and stuck everything back together.

After about 20-30min of idling I took a look at the temps. (I know that isn't a long time, but it's about the same as I tested it before)

Bios says 37-38C.
SpeedFan says 30C.
SIW says 30C. (System Information for Windows)