RAM or PSU at fault?

[scarberian]

Hi folks,

My specs are below in my sig. Anyway I recently purchased 2 more sticks of RAM (4GB kit) to boost my total RAM to 8GB. My system has been running great up until I installed the RAM. Whenever I power up the Hacintosh the blue light goes on I hear things starting to start up, but then about 5 seconds into the power up the whole system restarts and it keeps doing this. I can't even get to the Gigabyte splash screen. I took all the RAM out and put the new RAM in slots 1 and 3 as per the manual. The computer powered up just fine. It seems when all four are in at once that's when I get the booting problems. However no problems when the new RAM replaces the old RAM. Could it be a faulty RAM slots 2 and 4? Could it be the PSU (too much load)? I've looked up this problem online, but only a scattering of articles and none really answered my issue. Hope someone here can shed some light. I am using 550W as my PSU, but I also have installed a Radeon 5770HD graphics card. Do you think the combination of the GPU and the extra RAM is causing load issues with the PSU? Thanks in advance!

 

[HoochShepherd]

Hi folks,

My specs are below in my sig. Anyway I recently purchased 2 more sticks of RAM (4GB kit) to boost my total RAM to 8GB. My system has been running great up until I installed the RAM. Whenever I power up the Hacintosh the blue light goes on I hear things starting to start up, but then about 5 seconds into the power up the whole system restarts and it keeps doing this. I can't even get to the Gigabyte splash screen. I took all the RAM out and put the new RAM in slots 1 and 3 as per the manual. The computer powered up just fine. It seems when all four are in at once that's when I get the booting problems. However no problems when the new RAM replaces the old RAM. Could it be a faulty RAM slots 2 and 4? Could it be the PSU (too much load)? I've looked up this problem online, but only a scattering of articles and none really answered my issue. Hope someone here can shed some light. I am using 550W as my PSU, but I also have installed a Radeon 5770HD graphics card. Do you think the combination of the GPU and the extra RAM is causing load issues with the PSU? Thanks in advance!

Honestly, there's better places to ask then here. While most people here can help, with out it being specifically hackintosh related I'm not sure how many will.

First off, have you run memtest on each stick? (remember it needs to run for a good amount of passes) Are the sticks all matching pairs? Maybe you have one faster pair and one slower, but the bios set for the higher? That 550 should be fine for a single gpu unless you've got 12 hard drives in there.

 

[scarberian]

Honestly, there's better places to ask then here. While most people here can help, with out it being specifically hackintosh related I'm not sure how many will.

First off, have you run memtest on each stick? (remember it needs to run for a good amount of passes) Are the sticks all matching pairs? Maybe you have one faster pair and one slower, but the bios set for the higher? That 550 should be fine for a single gpu unless you've got 12 hard drives in there.

I thought this would be hacintosh related. As I said, I've looked around the web for answers, but couldn't find a definite answer. I only ask here because my set up is straight from the tonymac guide for building a hacintosh. All my parts were parts recommended by this site so who better to ask than people on this site. Someone may have the same build as myself. Anyway I did notice that my RAM sticks had different versions (?) on them. The RAM are exactly the same as I used the same model number to purchase them. However when you look at the sticks, one pair says version 7.3 the other says 5.1. Last night, when I put all the pairs back I mixed them and when I booted back up, it did the restart thing, but only once. This morning I booted up and it was stable. However I'm still puzzled by the behaviour from before so my questions still stand from my original post. BTW I did run a memtest using TechTool Pro 6 and all the sticks passed.

 

[HoochShepherd]

Honestly, there's better places to ask then here. While most people here can help, with out it being specifically hackintosh related I'm not sure how many will.

First off, have you run memtest on each stick? (remember it needs to run for a good amount of passes) Are the sticks all matching pairs? Maybe you have one faster pair and one slower, but the bios set for the higher? That 550 should be fine for a single gpu unless you've got 12 hard drives in there.

I thought this would be hacintosh related. As I said, I've looked around the web for answers, but couldn't find a definite answer. I only ask here because my set up is straight from the tonymac guide for building a hacintosh. All my parts were parts recommended by this site so who better to ask than people on this site. Someone may have the same build as myself. Anyway I did notice that my RAM sticks had different versions (?) on them. The RAM are exactly the same as I used the same model number to purchase them. However when you look at the sticks, one pair says version 7.3 the other says 5.1. Last night, when I put all the pairs back I mixed them and when I booted back up, it did the restart thing, but only once. This morning I booted up and it was stable. However I'm still puzzled by the behaviour from before so my questions still stand from my original post. BTW I did run a memtest using TechTool Pro 6 and all the sticks passed.

It not booting at all is gonna be a hardware issue. (unless it's making it past the post and restarting once it makes it to chim. I'm not really sure about tech tool, but thats more cause once you get used to something you stick with it. If it's the same part number i very much doubt the version would be causing problems unless the specific batch had issues of some kind. how many passes did you let it run? This still sounds like a ram issue to me.

 

[WonkeyDonkey]

A long shot but this worked for me on a Gigabyte desktop board when i initially installed more memory.

Quite simply, try a reset on the bios. I know theoretically it shouldnt be needed, but it did work for me on one occasion. It was almost like the board was remembering the memory (and everything else) from before the new stuff was added.

Might be worth a shot for you anyway.

There is also an issue with a particular model of Corsair desktop ram and the Intel 5 Series chipsets too, but you will need to post your exact memory part number for that.

 

[ModBot Jr]

Moved to the correct forum section. index.php

User Builds -> Post Installation / General Tuning

User Builds == Confirmed User Hardware Builds and Methods viewtopic.php?f=54&t=28653

faq.php

 

[scarberian]

Okay it seems it was one of the new RAM sticks. When I booted with just those two new RAM sticks, the system only read one of them (both seated correctly in white slots only). I had booted with one in slot 3 and it booted fine, when I added it's pair, it booted but the Chimera screen only listed 2GB instead of 4GB. I removed the culprit, added the other pair of RAM (known good ones) and now I'm operating with 6GB of RAM. It ain't 8, but it's better than 4.

 

[HoochShepherd]

Okay it seems it was one of the new RAM sticks. When I booted with just those two new RAM sticks, the system only read one of them (both seated correctly in white slots only). I had booted with one in slot 3 and it booted fine, when I added it's pair, it booted but the Chimera screen only listed 2GB instead of 4GB. I removed the culprit, added the other pair of RAM (known good ones) and now I'm operating with 6GB of RAM. It ain't 8, but it's better than 4.

Who made the ram you were using? If it's one of the major companies 3:1 if you give them a call they will just replace it.