Hey gang, I've been having a problem with my PC that I can't figure out. It's reached the point where my pride is less important than figuring out what the hell is going on, so I'm coming to all of you for help.
Recently I've started to experience random crashes where my computer would simply die and need several minutes before being capable of restarting, behavior that led me to believe something had begun overheating. I started to obsess over the temperatures in my PC, but nothing was going over spec.
This had me thinking it was a PSU issue, so I replaced the PSU. Still happened.
So I thought, okay maybe there's something wrong with my motherboard. So I replaced that, which is where I am now. My system has, until now, been running perfectly fine with 32gb of ddr3 ram. I know it's a lot, but I use it. Now, the thing that has me scratching my head is that when I installed the new motherboard and plugged everything back in, I get stuck in a startup loop with any RAM in a dual-channel configuration or slot. IE, I can't have more than 16gb of RAM at a time, and only in a single-channel setup.
I've poked around inside the BIOS to get the DRAM timing and voltage right, but I'm still stuck with a startup loop using a dual-channel configuration or all four sticks of RAM. I've tested the sticks individually and they all work fine, leading me to suspect a faulty DIMM slot or bad memory controller. HOWEVER, out of curiosity I put everything back together on my OLD motherboard and I'm having the same issue. While it's possible that I've got two faulty motherboards, the odds of that are pretty slim, especially when I received and installed a new, previously unopened board yesterday.
So it's got to be something I'm either doing wrong, or not doing. I've looked at the pin connectors for both motherboards and nothing looks out of place, IE bent. I'll check again with a more powerful magnifier, but I'm at a complete loss.
Any thoughts from the TESTie brain trust?
Recently I've started to experience random crashes where my computer would simply die and need several minutes before being capable of restarting, behavior that led me to believe something had begun overheating. I started to obsess over the temperatures in my PC, but nothing was going over spec.
This had me thinking it was a PSU issue, so I replaced the PSU. Still happened.
So I thought, okay maybe there's something wrong with my motherboard. So I replaced that, which is where I am now. My system has, until now, been running perfectly fine with 32gb of ddr3 ram. I know it's a lot, but I use it. Now, the thing that has me scratching my head is that when I installed the new motherboard and plugged everything back in, I get stuck in a startup loop with any RAM in a dual-channel configuration or slot. IE, I can't have more than 16gb of RAM at a time, and only in a single-channel setup.
I've poked around inside the BIOS to get the DRAM timing and voltage right, but I'm still stuck with a startup loop using a dual-channel configuration or all four sticks of RAM. I've tested the sticks individually and they all work fine, leading me to suspect a faulty DIMM slot or bad memory controller. HOWEVER, out of curiosity I put everything back together on my OLD motherboard and I'm having the same issue. While it's possible that I've got two faulty motherboards, the odds of that are pretty slim, especially when I received and installed a new, previously unopened board yesterday.
So it's got to be something I'm either doing wrong, or not doing. I've looked at the pin connectors for both motherboards and nothing looks out of place, IE bent. I'll check again with a more powerful magnifier, but I'm at a complete loss.
Any thoughts from the TESTie brain trust?
