Hey guys

[Petaire]

RAM Issue

Hey guys !

I've got a weird issue with my build :

- GA Z68A-D3H-B3 F10 with last .aml on multibeast

I've put 16Gb of DDR3 of RAM, but only 8Gb appears in "About my mac". I've tested it lot of times, on Lion, SL and now on ML. Never ever appeared as 16Gb. On win7, it's perfectly smooth and the whole 16Gb appears.

Does anybody have any idea what the f-ing crap is going on ?

Thanks a lot !

 

[mike5065]

does it appear as 16gb in "System information"? And does it all pass the diagnostics?

 

[Petaire]

Ram issue

Nope, it appears as 8Gb everywhere. At the bootup of my bios it appears as 16, so I'm really sure that it's working everywhere else :/ What do you mean by all the diagnostics ?

 

[mike5065]

System Information...Diagnostics....PowerOn Self Test.....should be "OK".

System Information...RAM...on the list of modules installed, the rightmost column lists "status". It should be "OK". And the correct sizes should be listed.

fwiw, the "About This Mac" is read from plists, and does not always reflect the truth, and is often is skewed by the model you have chosen to mimic.

 

[potemkin]

also you can check the activity monitor memory tab

 

[Petaire]

Nope… It appears as 8gb everywhere. I've done some screenshots if that can help you (sorry it's in french !) :

http://d.pr/i/eDV4
http://d.pr/i/mAMM
http://d.pr/i/fefX
http://d.pr/i/VhM8

As you can see, mac so seems to identify my second ram bar, but as 4Gb and it's both 8Gb, same corsair model. That's very strange don't you think ?

The model of both of the bar is this one : http://www.corsair.com/cmx8gx3m2a1600c9.html

 

[potemkin]

Whoops I almost posted in French.
That is against the rules.

See what activity monitor says for memory load.
See if you can get it to use more than 8 gigs.

Does your bios have a setting for memory profile ?
Make sure XMP is checked. (extreme memory)

I saw this problem within the last few days on the forum.
I think it was on Z68 also.

Also try just one chip and move it from bank to bank and see what happens.

 

[Petaire]

Well I activated the XMP and tried everything else but nothing seems to work… Strange. I'll seek for the thread you've mentioned !

edit : is it this one ? http://www.tonymacx86.com/general-help/82642-faulty-corsair-ram-module.html

 

[mike5065]

I think the advise from potemkin is sound.... you might want to move the sticks around, or try them one at a time.


One thing that I did notice:

http://d.pr/i/VhM8

This screen shot shows the RAM populated (reading from left to right, then top to bottom)

1 - Populated
2 - Not
3 - Populated
4 - Not

I'm pretty sure one of the new iMacs I saw at the Apple store had:

1 - Populated
2 - Populated
3 - Not
4 - Not

Another thing worth noting is, in order to effectively use dual channel, my ASUS board requires me to pair memory slot 1 with 3 (i.e. fill those 2 first), and slot 2 is paired with 4. Your gigabyte manual will tell you your pairings. I wonder if this has an effect...

Another thing you could try is setting RAM speed and timings manually in the BIOS, i.e. turn off XMP, or any other form of Auto, which effectively instructs the BIOS to read the XMP (or standard) SPD found on the stick, for the speeds and timings.

 

[potemkin]

No that wasn't the thread..

Two sticks only use slot (1 and 2) or (3 and 4)
There should be an empty mem slot between the two sticks.
This is from manual.
recommendation from manual is ( 1 and 2 )
Slots in board are in this order 1324.
You must enable dual channel and it does support XMP.
Best to leave rank and file setting at Auto.