ram problem

[mungyun]

I've been scratching my head on this for a week with no solution so far. I need some advice...again.

Ok, I got this ASUS A8V mother board which can handle up to 4 gigs of memory. It has 4 slots and there is a blue primary slot for each pair. Currently I have 2 1 gigabyte sticks in it. I also have a third gig that I wanted to put in there with the other 2.

I Installed all three when I got the motherboard and the monitor wouldn't kick on when I powered it up. I stripped the hardware down to bare minimum (i.e. only 1 stick of ram) and the monitor kicked on on boot. I then installed the second gig stick into the second blue slot and the monitor still worked. I then tried the third and no monitor again. I suspected that the ram was bad and installed it on another computer but it worked just fine. I've tried googling this but come up with tons of non-useful tips.

The motherboard book says that the sticks need to be identical. By that, do they mean all one gig (which they alread are) or do they mean even the same brand too? The two that work are completely the same brand and all but the third is a different brand but the exact same ram.

Is my motherboard bad? I don't think that there are any jumpers that I need to switch and BIOS doesn't have anything on memory like what I'm needing. Thanks for any help.

-Munny

[.:front2back:.]

Id say that maybe the computer isn't liking the third stick, have you tried takin the 2 out that work leaving just the 1 that isn't co-operating?
Try that and if it won't boot with that stick in then you know that's the culprit..

just go out and purchase another stick that is the exact same as the 2 that work..

[!mitationRust]

Are there codes....numbers...stickers.... on the sides of the sticks? Is there anyway to get the spec values from those sticks? Everest: can you run this with the RAM?

[muert0]

What version is your bios?
http://support.asus.com/download/dow...n-us&model=A8V


Edit: Did you also try switching the third stick to the other empty slot?

[nihil]

Well, I generally try to use RAM from the same manufacturer if possible, although I will say that it generally does not matter.

What I will insist upon is that it is of the same speed and clock latency (CL2, CL2.5, CL3 etc.)

A point you might like to look into?.....................some boards will support a larger amount of slower RAM than they will faster RAM That might be your problem?

Errrrrrrrrrrr......................and another thing, what are you doing that requires 3Gb of RAM?

Remember that a RAM strip in your machine that never gets used might as well be in your desk drawer

[.:front2back:.]

Remember that a RAM strip in your machine that never gets used might as well be in your desk drawer

Or put into my computer

[mungyun]

Well, the computer is actually a buddy of mine that paid me to build it for him. Your question nihil:

Errrrrrrrrrrr......................and another thing, what are you doing that requires 3Gb of RAM?

was the exact same thing I asked him. His response, "Cause it's gotta help somehow" I began to explain how he will never in his entire life, need to use 3 gigs of ram. Alas, the man is stubborn and a little naive and even asked me if the ram will speed up his internet. I gave up trying to learn him something and just did what he said. To explain this person a little better...He spent 1,200 on a tower, mobo, ram, and a graphics card. The tower is 22 inches tall and has five fans on it. He is a mechanic and a car detailer, he only uses his computer to watch movies, play some games, and the occational download. This guy has no rhyme to his reason but still he paid me to get his computer working. Enough rambling.

Edit: Did you also try switching the third stick to the other empty slot?

I will see him tonight and try putting the different ram in by itself. I have also tried swapping that 1 gig with a 512 with no change. I am fairly confident that it will work because he bought all three at the same time but they had only two left of the same brand and they said it would be fine with the other. I will also find out what version of bios it is.

What I will insist upon is that it is of the same speed and clock latency (CL2, CL2.5, CL3 etc.)

Do I find that out by the sticker on it?

I will see him tonight and get post some more info

[|3lack|ce]

nihil is pretty much spot-on. Mobo's like to have the same manufacturer on ram sticks - it's size that's sometimes interchangable. I'm running 2 * 1Gig plus 2* 1/2 Gig on my box and it's doing quite nicely barring the occasional Windows glitch.

Clock latency - Important Uber Alles - you can find out more about what kind/size/manufacturer/clock latency is on an unknown stick by googling what's printed on the chips, but if all else fails, the old 'car parts' trick works best... Go back to where you got the new stick. Take one of the old sticks with you. Tell the guy at the counter you want a new stick to match the old one, and that you want to return the stick you already bought... It's now HIS problem to find the match instead of your own...

[mungyun]

Finally, I got it. Apparently this motherboard doesn't like an odd number of sticks. If you want to use more than one or two slots, you have to use all four, you can't use three. I don't quite understand why that is, but oh well. What I had to do was get 2 512 sticks and put those in the remaining slots. I was kinda wondering if it is like using RIMM's where you have to have a "dummy" stick if your not using a slot. Anyone know what I'm talking about? I would be curious to try it but I don't quite know where to get one.