F3-12800CL9Q-16GBRL + P5Q3-Deluxe + Intel X3360

[Skunch]

hey guys, I consulted this thread before buying some G.Skill RAM (F3-12800CL9Q-16GBRL) for my Asus P5Q3-Deluxe. Unfortunately, it is not a simple plug and play matter; trying to boot with the ram installed gives a me a black screen, and it will not post. I am not looking to overclock, my CPU's FSB is 1333 Mhz, so I am more than willing to run my RAM at 1333Mhz (I was pretty much expecting to do so).

here is my current set up:
Asus P5Q3-Deluxe (latest bios 2105, all defaults)
Intel Xeon X3360
5 (1+1+1+2) gigs of random assorted DDR3 I found in my shop running at 1111 Mhz
Sapphire Radeon 7850 2GB
1TB Western Digital HD

I read this post from GSKILL TECH:

I had issues with the black PCBs, which is what I'm trying to figure out. The green PCBs should not have a problem.

I can only make changes to the bios with the old ram installed, configure, save and shutdown, then install the ripjaws to test. I have copied every relevant setting, and after doing so and attempting a boot, the fans start, stop, then start again, which continues to post no video, or as I've noticed from testing, no keyboard power either; no numlock or capslock lights.
I have tried leaving everything on auto (I have not touched XMP yet) setting the dram frequency to 1333 Mhz, and the CAS timings to 8-8-8-24, and get the previous result.
I've realized that the memory I have received has black PCBs, should I return my RAM, or should I buy a proper Q9550?

Cheers

[Cabuca]

Did you try another CPU? my P5Q3 Deluxe wifi is having a similar issue, and im trying to figure out if the motherboard is bad or the RAM settings are causing it not to boot. To simplify, the motherboard is only booting with my E5400, but when I place a Q9550 the system doesn't do anything, except the fans fully spin. The motherboard is updated to the latest bios and seems to work just fine with the dual core, but installing the q9550 gives no boot. I should also mention that the quad works in a ddr2 MSI motherboard, and the ram is a single 4 GB stick Gskill ripjaws 1600MHZ (It also has a black pcb)

Full Specs:

Q9550 E0 revision stock settings
Single 4 GB ram stick Gskill Ripjaws DDR3 1600MHZ
Asus P5Q3 Deluxe Wifi
HDD Western Digital 500GB Caviar Blue
Thermaltake PurePower 550W
Thermaltake Overseer RX-I
Sapphire HD7870 GHZ Edition
Sound Blaster Audigy 2

Will be trying different ram during the weekend. If the system boots, I would like to know the proper settings in which the Gskill ram could work.

[Skunch]

I guess the only thing I haven't done is test a different CPU, I have a few spare 775 CPUs lying around somewhere, I'll have to test that today.

[Cabuca]

So, were you able to try another CPU? did the system boot with the Gskill ram? I recommend you to try a CPU with a FSB of 800MHZ like my E5400. I will be trying different ram tomorrow to confirm if the motherboard has a problem or there's a bios conflict regarding it's stock settings with the Q9550 and the Gskill ram stick.

[Skunch]

Okay, so it took me a really long time, but I finally broke things down and did some testing in the past week.

I looked through my junk and found 5 processors:

- 1 Xeon 3060 (equivalent to E6600)
- 1 Pentium 4 520J
- 3 Celeron 336
here's a comparison

I tested all but the X3060, because it is a xeon like my current processor and seems to be having issues with the ripjaws DDR3 ram.

all 3 Celerons failed to boot, despite being 64 bit processors. their FSB is 533mhz, so it may be too low for my P5Q3D to boot. The pentium posts, but is a 32bit processor and cannot load my copy of windows 7, it would not boot with ripjaws installed.

So I caved and bought a legitimate desktop Q9550, fingers are crossed that it works without a hitch