F3-12800CL9Q-16GBRL + P5Q3-Deluxe w/ X3360, No boot

[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 gigs of random assorted DDR3 I found in my shop (1+1+1+2)
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've realized that the memory I have received has black PCBs, should I return my RAM?

Cheers

[supahos]

Can you get into the bios at all? Try just a single stick and see if that will work, i suspect its trying to default to 1600 since the board is okay with it, but the server processor isnt try and flash an older bios if it doesnt woth with a single stick. The ram can run fine @1333, but if the board is trying to force 1333 then you may have issues... another option is put old memory in and set it to 1333 with correct timings manually, then try the gskill, perhaps if the settings arent on auto it will stay at 1333

[Skunch]

Currently, I can't get into the bios with any of the gskill ram installed. Does anyone have any suggestions for tweaking the bios? ai tuner is all on default now.

[supahos]

You dont want it on default, try going into the bios and manually setting everything for the memory with the old memory in and see if those setting stick for the gskill kit. Its probably defaulting to 1600 mhz 11-11-11-30 timings if i had to guess and your cpu wont do it. If you manually set up memory at 1333 it might not try to read the sticks

[Skunch]

how do I go about doing this? I have tried entering as much info related to the RAM as I could, FSB set to 333 to achieve the DRAM clock speed of 1333, CAS speeds (3-12800CL9Q-16GBRL is 9-9-9-24), and I manually set the ram voltage to 1.5v... Possibly unrelated; how am I supposed to install the RAM? does DIMM placement matter? should I do 1234 or 1324?

[Skunch]

are there any techs around? I'm really unsure if I should keep this ram.

[GSKILL TECH]

With the other RAM, configure settings to DRAM Frequency DDR3-1333, DRAM Timings tCL 9 - tRCD 9 - tRP 9 - tRAS 24, DRAM Voltage 1.50V. Swap the G.Skill memory in and see how that works.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[Skunch]

tested the settings, and my computer did the overclock fail power cycle, and did not post video until I installed the other ram.

When I originally put this system together I had to troubleshoot my dram clock speed and eventually learned that it would only operate at 1111Mhz, does that mean anything?

Also, this is a 4x4 16Gb kit, do I need to install all of my dimms every time to test? Would a single 4 gig stick work the same as the whole kit?


thanks

[Cabuca]

Does it boot with just a single stick of Gskill ram?

[Skunch]

no it does not

[Cabuca]

no it does not

What brand are the other sticks of ram you're trying? Were you able to try another CPU?

Edit: I can confirm the system boots with kingston ram.

[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

[Skunch]

What brand are the other sticks of ram you're trying? Were you able to try another CPU?

Three Samsung 1GB sticks, and a kingston 2GB stick, they all say "10600" somewhere on their labels. This ram is pulled from several Mac Pro towers, which I think used Xeons in socket 775, coincidence?!?

So I've done some research about my CPU and found some interesting info about the x3360 and the Q9550. The first thread I found on this forum before joining noted that the xeon lacked FSB parity and that was the issue, but I found something far more obvious. The X3360s supported chipsets are intel Server Chipset 3200 and 3210, where as the Q9550 supports the G33, G35, P35, Q33, Q35, and X38 Express Chipsets. The Q9550 officially supports both DDR2 and DDR3, where the X3360 only supports DDR2!

That being said, computers are weird, and usually end up working outside their intended parameters, for instance; I'm writing this post with the computer I have been troubleshooting in this thread, it's a an x3360, running assorted DDR3 ram at 1111Mhz.

Why does this work? I don't know, so I just ordered a legit Q9550, which hopefully will end this mystery forever. Knowing my luck it will not work for some reason.

[Skunch]

So my Q9550 arrived, and it boots up fine with the 5 gigs currently installed at 1111Mhz, I can run the single Kingston 2GB stick on auto dram speed in the bios, but to use all the ram I need to set it to 1111Mhz. The G.Skill ram does not seem to work, I initially tested it with all four sticks installed in 1324 formation, set the DRAM to 1333Mhz, timings to 9-9-9-24, and I set the DRAM voltage to 1.5. No boot. I then set all dram settings to auto and got the same result. I then individually tested each stick in each slot, with the same results.

I don't know what to do next, I'm not sure if this RAM is defective, I don't have any way to test it. even if it was, newegg had a 30 day return on it and that was months ago.

Please help me G.SKILL TECH, you're my only hope!

[GSKILL TECH]

Contact the RMA dept. to see if you can exchange for F3-10666CL9Q-16GBRL

This model may work better.

http://www.gskill.com/en/rma

Thank you
GSKILL TECH