Hey guys... I want to upgrade the memory on 2 of my machines. Comp11 and Comp12. Windows 7 Ultimate. When I add memory on the computer, I don't need to re-install the operating system, right? This is weird... Comp11 and Comp12 are pretty much the same. Same motherboard: Asus P6T Deluxe. The MoBo has 6 slots for DDR3 DIMM memorys. They are labelled A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2. I realize that there are memory card population rules set by the manufacturer. I follow them. When I first built the 2 boxes about 3 years ago, for each computer I bought a set of 3 x Patriot DDR3 1600 2GB memory. For a total of 6GB RAM on each system. Everything worked fine. The memory cards were inserted in A1, B1, C1. I bought 3 of the PNY DDR3 DIMM 4GB cards. I thought I could put all Patriot memory onto one computer, and use these PNY memory on another, to make them 12GB RAM each. With Comp11, it can take in both sets of memory cards: either 6 x Patriot 2GB filling all 6 slots. Or 3 x PNY 4GB filling A1, B1, C1. 12 GB total. No problem. Windows 7 came right up. But with Comp12, came a headache. With 3 x Patriot 2GB filling A1, B1, C1 (my original configuration), no problem - I have been using it for 3 years. But when I do a 6 x Patriot 2GB filling A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2, the machine just won't boot. I could get into CMOS and check system configuration: 12GB total. I could boot Windows in Safe Mode. And see all 12 GB total memory. But as I do a regular boot, it hung after the Windows logo, screen turned black (forever). On Comp12, tried using the 3 x PNY 4GB cards on A1, B1, C1. Same thing. BIOS/CMOS recognized the memory. Windows Safe Mode okay. But regular boot... hung. At first I thought I ran out of disk space on the hard drive for the added memory. But... no there's plenty of disk space available. 2 almost identical boxes (except the disk drives and CDROMs)... one happy as a clam with the new memory or more memory... one hung forever. Looks like I need to re-install Windows on Comp12? This is my last resort because I did quite a few application installs on it... really didn't want to spend the time doing it again if I don't have to. Any ideas/suggestions?
ask Asus CS. they typically knowledgeable about their stuff. in case of reinstall-there is should be some backup\restore options that should simplify\speed up process of reinstalling applications and settings
What I would try... 1. Take the RAM out of the computer which comes up normally, and try it in the one which does not. 2. Take the RAM out of the computer which does not come up normally and try it in the one which does. Between the two, hopefully you can deduce it down to "something on the mobo which doesn't work right", or a RAM problem. Offhand, my initial thought is a possible bad RAM stick.
Could be a number of things... Bad MB Bad memory slots Debris in the memory slots Older BIOS firmware that needs to be upgraded. Bad memory Are you sure the BIOS settings are exactly the same on both systems? System 11 might have auto config, and System 12 might not. Vista had a DRM where if you changed any hardware components more than twice, you either had to buy a new license or call and pay tech support to get them to unlock your system. Dunno about 7 or 8. Another thing just might be the patch level and configuration differences between the 2 systems. You should test and see if a slot is bad. Rotate sticks in and out of slots. Start with 1 stick only, and test each slot. Then test 2 sticks, and try all the slots. Etc. Depending on the board, you may need a min number of sticks depending on the number of channels. Check your MB manual. There is also a free program to test the memory itself. You'd need to download and burn to disc or USB stick - www.memtest86.com Another idea is to keep the memory in System 12, but swap drives and see if it boots with System 11's drive. Maybe its a bad sector or 2 on System 12's boot drive. Now, on Unix/Linux systems, this is perfectly doable. On Windows, I'm not quite sure you can interchange drives w/o a reinstall. That's just a few ideas..
Thank you for all the ideas, guys! I have kind of eliminated that as a hardware problem. I did individually tested out all the memory cards. All of them worked fine on Comp11. They all worked fine on Comp12 too in Windows Safe Mode. If there is some RAM malfunction, I would expect a blue screen somewhere. But it didn't get to that point. Safe Mode is happy, seeing all 12 GB memory - new and old. But when trying to start the regular mode (full Windows)... hung. I will see if I get the chance to call Asus TS. But it seems all point to a OS software issue at the very low level. Which means I might have to re-install OS to get around it.
I don't think you have eliminated a hardware problem. I DO think you have a memory voltage, or memory settings, issue on Comp12. Download & test ComP11 then Comp12 with memtest86 using 12GB. From your prior description, I suppose you won't find problems on Comp11, but it's good to check that first. When you test Comp12, you'll either get memory errors or not. If you get memory errors on Comp12 only, you'll have to double check the memory voltage in BIOS (check Comp12 against Comp11), and check all of the memory settings individually. Even if they are all identical, you might want to try a couple things: (1 thing at a time) 1) up the memory voltage a bit 2) release the memory timings, starting from the command rate (set it to 3T ) If you don't get memory errors on Comp12, then this is a processor issue. Are your processor overclocked? Windows hanging on boot is actually typical of a bad CPU overclock (in which case, going back to CPU defaults is the place to start).