GA-M68M-S2P 2.3 RAM Issue

[TripleD]

I recently purchased a single 4Gb stick of DDR2-800 for my system, and with it installed in either slot or in any combination of current working RAM sticks, I cannot get the system to even POST. I do not get any beeps or mobo light indications as I cannot find any speaker or notification lights on the mobo.

The new RAM is a F2-6400CL5S-4GBPQ DDRII800 PC2-6400 4096MBX1 CL5-5-5-15 1.8-1.9V

Current system configuration is as follows:
Gigabyte GA-M68M-S2P rev.2.3 BIOS FC
AMD Athlon II X2 245 2.9 Ghz
2X1Mb F2-6400CL5S-1GBNT (2Gb DDR2-800)
ATI HD 4350 512Mb
160Gb Velociraptor
200Gb Seagate
Opticals: LG DVD R/W and HP DVD R/W (Lightscribe)
460W P/S

I have attempted to bump the BIOS RAM voltage to 1.85 and 1.90 V with no effect. The RAM purchased was not on the Gigabyte list of tested ram that worked with the mobo, but other ram of similar characteristics was listed so I wanted to stick with G.Skill as that is what it was currently running on. I have tested the new ram in both slot 1 and 2 (only 2 slots) both solo and with a known good 1Gb in the other slot. With the 4Gb in any slot, I get no POST and no indications other than the CD-ROM drive flashes and the HDD activity light is intermittent. I pulled all RAM from system and got the same indications. Is my new ram bad, is there any other setting I can try in my bios prior to requesting an RMA?

Thank You,
TripleD

[Tradesman]

May need to raise the CPU/NB voltage and will want the Command Rate/Command Timing at 2N

[TripleD]

I raised CPU and NB voltages to +.10V and the RAM voltage to +.10 then +.15 with the Command timing set to 2T (2N is not an option for me) as well as ensuring 5-5-5-15 was set. Results were no different than previous. I verified the machine would start on the older 2X1Gb sticks then attemtped the 4Gb stick with not even a hint of it wanting to go to POST. How high should I even attempt to push the voltages with stock CPU cooler?

TripleD

[Tradesman]

Not sure, maybe GSkill has some info on your mobo, might be in later today or Fri

[TripleD]

Starting to think I have a bad stick to be honest. But any further suggestions will be appreciated.

Triple D

[GSKILL TECH]

Do you have the latest BIOS? If so, it would appear that the one 2GB module is bad..

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[TripleD]

FC is the latest BIOS listed on the Gigabyte website. I will be testing the 4Gb ram stick in a friends computer later next week. If it does not work in his, then I will be RMA'ing this stick with my distibutor.

[Tradesman]

Let us know what happens

[TripleD]

Did not work in 2 more computers, running 2 different mobo's and current BIOS. Contacted seller and am getting an RMA. Should have a new one in a week.

[Tradesman]

Let us know how the new one works out

[TripleD]

Replaced

New one recieved. It worked with auto settings, but did not work well. Tweaked the bios for the NB and Ram and set the timings manually and all was good. Ended up with a small bonus from work and grabbed a second stick and now the machine is screaming at me for a new vid card, Win Experience for memory is 7.1, processor 6.4, Aero 3.7 (hence why it is screaming for a new vid card) with a 3D score of 5.8 and my Primary HDD is at 5.9 with the velociraptor.

Looking for at least a 1Gb ati 6000 or Nvideo GT 500 series and a new quad core upgrade in the near future. But that is not RAM related. TY for all your help, the new tweaks made the one chip stable and adding the second chip it stayed stable.

Ran Memtest for an entire work day while i was away from comp and it had no issues.