[Jigglybootch]

My computer has been exhibiting some strange behavior lately. I pressed the power button this morning, and the machine turned on, but then turned off about a half second later. After a short pause, the machine powered up again and went through it's normal boot cycle, etc. Needless to say that's never happened before.

My only guess is that it's got something to do with my recent RAM upgrade. Upon learning that the QPI and RAM speed multipliers were unlocked for the non-extreme versions of the Core i7 chips, I went ahead and bumped up the QPI speed and bought 6 gigs of DDR3-1600, installed it and bumped up the memory multiplier to match the RAM speed. Now the computer does it's weird little jig whenever I do a cold boot.

There's nothing else wrong and the computer runs completely stable, it just does that thing when cold booting. Strange. Maybe I should've just stuck with the DDR3-1066.

 

[grandenigma1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jigglybootch /img/forum/go_quote.gif My computer has been exhibiting some strange behavior lately. I pressed the power button this morning, and the machine turned on, but then turned off about a half second later. After a short pause, the machine powered up again and went through it's normal boot cycle, etc. Needless to say that's never happened before. My only guess is that it's got something to do with my recent RAM upgrade. Upon learning that the QPI and RAM speed multipliers were unlocked for the non-extreme versions of the Core i7 chips, I went ahead and bumped up the QPI speed and bought 6 gigs of DDR3-1600, installed it and bumped up the memory multiplier to match the RAM speed. Now the computer does it's weird little jig whenever I do a cold boot. There's nothing else wrong and the computer runs completely stable, it just does that thing when cold booting. Strange. Maybe I should've just stuck with the DDR3-1066.

Have you tried running Memtest on the system to make sure one of the sticks of RAM isn't bad? A more manual way would be to remove the new RAM and see if the issue clears up.

 

[Jigglybootch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by grandenigma1 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Have you tried running Memtest on the system to make sure one of the sticks of RAM isn't bad? A more manual way would be to remove the new RAM and see if the issue clears up.

I haven't tried either yet. But if one of the DIMMs was bad, would Windows still show 6 gigs of RAM?

 

[grandenigma1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jigglybootch /img/forum/go_quote.gif I haven't tried either yet. But if one of the DIMMs was bad, would Windows still show 6 gigs of RAM?

Yup. All could appear well but it can rapidly go from boot up issue to more serious issues.

 

[billybob_jcv]

I would put the machine back to the original configuration and see if the problem disappears. Then I would add the memory without changing anything else. Then change the QPI. I've also had just reseating the memory fix odd problems like this...

 

[ziplock]

I would suggest trying just one stick and see if the machine exhibits the same behavior. Then add them back in one by one.

Are you running some sort of enthusiast mobo? Sometimes the auto detect dimm voltage does not work properly. Look up the spec for the memory and make sure the detected value matches up, if not, force a manual voltage setting. I've seen post problems related to this that did not affect overall system stability once up and running.

Curious, what power supply are you using?

Z

 

[Jigglybootch]

The voltage settings are correct, so that's not the issue. Also, I know the QPI setting isn't to blame because I had it set as is for a week before I even installed the new memory. Tomorrow I'm going to put the old RAM back in and set the memory speed back to default (which matches the frequency of my old RAM).

 

[Nestor]

Judging by the fact that you're using an i7 and trying 6gb ram, I suppose you're running 64bit Vista in your fancy thinkin' box? If that's the case, then it probably is the PS. After all, you have 6gb of DDR3, an i7, and I'd assume some sort of sli or crossfire going on. That kind of draw would stop most power supplies dead in their tracks.

 

[Jigglybootch]

I've got a TurboCool 750 W in the box. I can't imagine an extra 3 gigs of RAM over my old configuration would suddenly bring the PSU to its knees. But it's worth looking into nonetheless.

And yesterday I ran Memtest. No errors were reported, so the sticks are fine.

 

[Jigglybootch]

The problem appears to be with the BIOS settings.

I installed the old memory, went into the BIOS and set all of the memory settings back to the defaults. Strange cold boot behavior goes away.

I then reinstalled the new memory. Strange cold boot issues comes back.

I went back into the BIOS and saw that it remembered the settings I used with the new memory, which I customized to fit the specs of those sticks, since they run at a higher frequency (DDR3-1600 vs. DDR3-1066) and also at a higher voltage (1.65 V vs. 1.5 V). Not knowing what else to do, I changed the memory settings back to "Auto" (which is the default setting and the setting I used for the old memory). Sure enough, the cold boot issue goes away.

So it would appear that, for whatever reason, the computer doesn't like when I manually configure the settings in the BIOS to match the specs of the RAM.

I intend to play around with this some more because I can't accept "the system just doesn't like it" line of reasoning. My best guess is that maybe the memory multiplier settings aren't really unlocked for my processor, even though the QPI multiplier is. The only way I could really test that theory would be to buy the Core i7 Extreme Edition, but I'm not about to drop $1000 on a new processor just to test it out.

So long story short, I'm really confused but I fixed the problem.

 

[smrtby123]

See if there is a BIOS update for the board. If its the case that the chip does not like when you manually set the memory speed, it is probably a known issue and will be fixed with an update.

 

[billybob_jcv]

IMHO it is much more likely to be an issue with your bios or with the motherboard's implementation than with the CPU itself.