EP45-UD3P MB RAM problems? 8GB, Vista64

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SkaarjMaster

[H]ard|Gawd
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My brother just installed a system with that MB and is having trouble with the video. He says it's extremely slow and the Gigabyte post screen comes up slow and is all messed up. He IS supposed to plug the video card into PCIEX16_1, correct? Any ideas what might be wrong? He specs are somewhat similar to my new system (not in sig yet, but my sig not shown for this thread for now):

CPU: Intel Core2Duo E8600 Wolfdale
MB: Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P
HS: Intel stock sink and fan
RAM: Corsair 4GB(2x2GB) 240-pin DDR2 SDRAM 1066 (PC2 8500) TWIN2X4096-8500C5 (he has 2 sets of these for a total of 8GB he wants to run with Vista64bit)
VIDEO CARD: ATI Radeon X600 Pro
PSU: Enermax Infiniti 720W
HD: One (1) Western Digital Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200rom 32MB cache SATA 3.0GB/s
DVD-ROM: (not sure but it's PATA)

He moved the RAM sticks around (he had 4 sticks of 2GB each in there). I told him to put only two in 1-3 or 2-4 slots for now. It's possible either one of his RAM sticks is bad or one of his MB slots (let's hope neither or at least the former). We set the bios settings for two sticks, 5-5-5-15, 2.1V (actually only 2.08V like mine for now), etc. Anyone know the timings and what the CPU/FSB should show with 4 sticks of 2GB? Anyway, he says the post screen still comes up slow, so I still think his video card does not like his MB. He formatted the HD and installed Vista 64-bit Ultimate yesterday.

He ordered his board after mine and I'm using the same CPU/MB combination and I have F6 and mine is running fine. I'll ask him if he sees F6 on the post screen though to make sure. As an aside, is there somewhere that lists all the things the bios updates do? I heard somewhere that even though Gigabyte lists only one or two things the bios updates do that they might do other important things that might convince someone to flash.

He's having all kinds of fun. It seems his RAM will work in slots 2 and 4 no problem but not 1 and 3 and all 4 slots filled won't work either (for what it's worth, a single stick in slot 2 worked and same for slot 4; single stick did not work in slot 1 or 3). He loads fail-safe defaults (and also changes DRAM voltage to 2.08V) and the same thing. Anyone have a similar system running with all 4 slots filled with Vista 64-bit? He just told me he has the F7 bios, so not sure if that makes a difference. He's trying to load optimized defaults and see what happens also, but it will probably be the same result. I'm guessing he needs to RMA his MB unless there's some bios setting we're missing here.

I wonder if he flashed back to F6 bios if that would do anything (maybe F7 messes with RAM slot access or something on this particular board). Any ideas?
 
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He's getting the new MB in today and will RMA the other one early next week, so anyone have any ideas on the correct bios settings for 4 sticks of 2GB of RAM in Vista64? I already know the settings for 2 sticks of 2GB RAM in XP.
 
I have all 4 slots filled, but with only 1gb sticks. I have no problems, getting Vista x64 to recognize all 4 sticks. In bios, is the computer recognizing all 8 gigs? Not exactly sure what your problem is here since you didn't make it clear. Are you having troubles getting the system to recognize the ram, or are you having problems booting into windows? Assuming it's booting into windows, increase your mch core by .06 or so.

Also there are small bios changes between the versions, but nothing major. F8 is the newest official bios and I never had a problem getting 4 sticks to work with any bios.
 
I don't think he can even get into the bios with all 4 sticks (all slots filled) or with 2 sticks (in slots 1 and 3), but I'll ask him again.
 
My brother's rig is working fine now with new MB! We loaded optimized defaults for CPU/FSB/RAM settings, then just set the RAM voltage to 2.08V and then made sure all the other bios settings (non-CPU,non-FSB,non-RAM) were the way they were supposed to be and it works! It's still running at 333, 10X, and 5-5-5-15, so I guess it's OK to have 8GB and 4 RAM sticks without the timings and FSB changing any different from 4GB and 2 sticks.
 
He's having trouble again. He tried to get into the bios yesterday and got some strange message that said his RAM voltage might be too high or something like that. He said he reset the voltage to 1.80 and the problem went away. It may have also told him the overclock might not be working, but I'm not sure what all that is about because it let us run the 4 sticks with SPD settings at 5-5-5-15. I told him if he continues to have problems, then to clock back to 5-7-7-24 and see what happens. I'm not there to actually see his error messages, so it could be in the bios and/or Vista. Anyone have any ideas what might be going on? Does Vista not like this MB or what? Thank you.
 
I decided to do some searches last night and with this search in google "P45 mothreboards Vista 8GB RAM" I found some interesting links that suggested some P45 motherboards have trouble with all 4 slots filled in Vista64 and that some Gigabyte boards may just not like Corsair RAM with all 4 slots filled. He's running the F7 bios, so I'm not sure what a bios flash will do, especially since Gigabyte doesn't explain if the bios versions do anything else besides the quick fixes listed; I suppose a bios flash could be an option though. His problem is getting it to post and the screen will start to come up and then reboot and sometimes he'll get into Vista, but then he'll start having problems again and especially if he has to reboot for some reason. Anyone have anymore ideas for us to try? Thank you.
 
OK, guys, he's finally testing his memory using memtest86+ and so far he's tried one memory stick in slots 1, 2 and 3 (possibly slots 0, 1, 2 on board; but let's call them 1-4 for this thread; he hasn't tested that same stick in slot 4 yet). The test results are fine for slots 1 and 2, but he gets errors in slot 3. Does this mean slot 3 is toast on this MB or just that this stick doesn't like slot 3? I told him to try same stick in slot 4 and then the other 3 sticks in slot 3 and then finish the tests with the other 3 sticks in slot 1. He'll be doing that tomorrow.

I'm guessing if the first stick in fine in slot 4, then it just doesn't like slot 3 or the MB slot 3 is bad. If the other 3 sticks test fine in slot 3, then slot 3 might be fine but that one stick is bad. If the other 3 sticks test fine in slot 1 also, then maybe all sticks are fine. Any thought on this so far? Thank you.
 
1st memory stick: slots 1,2,4 work; errors in slot 3
2nd memory stick: slot 3 works, errors in slot 1

- I know this doesn't mean much for memtest, but he tried these two sticks in the working slots in dual mode (slots 1 and 3) and got errors based on the RAM GB position showing in slot 3.
- before this he tried just putting the other two sticks in slots 2 and 4 and hoping for a miracle posting to Vista64 and it posted OK, but he got hardware errors with Vista's memory testing thing. So, even though the 1st stick works individually in slot 1 and the 2nd stick works individually in slot 3, they don't play well together.
- he's now trying the 2nd stick individually in slot 2 and then slot 4 to complete the memtest tests for these two sticks and will continue with the 3rd and 4th sticks tomorrow.

My guess is if all sticks test fine in slots 2 and 4, then the memory is fine and his MB is screwed up (slot 3 a lot and slot 1 a little). I'm still wondering if flashing the bios to F6 or F9 would do anything though. Any other ideas? Thank you.

One more thing: is there any way to get another MB without paying more $ that likes to run with Corsair, Vista64 with all 4 slots filled?
 
OK, it's just not working for him. He was told by Gigabyte that he should underclock the RAM. It's running at 1066 now, so he'll have to bring it down to 800. Should he leave the CPU at the same speed or bring all those setting down to 800 also?
 
Here's what I think his bios settings should be set at and some I'm not sure about:

Robust Graphics Booster: Auto
CPU Clock Ratio: not sure if this has to be adjusted or other setting changes change it upon underclock
Fine CPU Clock Ratio: as above
CPU Frrequency: should change based on other settings

CPU Host Clock Control: Enabled
CPU Host Frequency (Mhz): 200
PCI Express Frequency (Mhz): Auto
C.I.A. 2: Disabled

Advanced Clock Control: leave all at default

Performance Enhance: Turbo (this is the setting I have but maybe he should set to Standard)
Extreme Memory Profile (X.M.P.): Disabled
(G)MCH Frequency Latch: 200 MHz
System Memory Multiplier: Manual
Memory Frequency (Mhz) : 800
DRAM Timing Schedule: (try auto first, then manual if timings don't look right)

- everything else would be default, except 2.100V for DRAM voltage.

How does that look? I'm still not sure about some of those settings for this underclock. Can someone let me know exactly what to do here? Thank you.

Also, once the CPU Host Freq. is set to 200, should I change the multiplier (CPU Clock Ratio) to something like 13.3 so the CPU frequency is running at least at 2.66GHz?
 
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