Yet another GA-EP45 wont do dual channel thread.

[Skraeling]

So I got this board to replace yet another dead P5E and the board works great, when I only run one stick of ram in it (DDR2-1066 2X1GB Crucial Ballistix).

No matter what slot I try it works just fine with only one. Two is a no go in either yellow yellow or red red. It doesnt even seem to like this pair in single channel.

Im going to try and borrow a pair of ddr2 from elsewhere to see if its a ram or a board issue.

Ive tried setting the voltage higher for the ram up to 2.2v and also manual timings it's reccomended 5.5.5.15 and even way loose 7.7.7.21 No dice on either.

Have the latest bios 8f8 I think it is.

Ideas?

[Nickel020]

Re: Yet another GA-EP45 wont do dual channel thread.

What board is it exactly?
This seems to be something differnt though, since the people having problems with dual channel can actually run their RAM in single channel if they use slot 1&2.

Have you checked both sticks individually? I would also try some completely different RAM.

[Skraeling]

Re: Yet another GA-EP45 wont do dual channel thread.

ep45-ud3p

both sticks work fine singlely. These came out of my last board which dual channeled them just fine.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: Yet another GA-EP45 wont do dual channel thread.

What MCH Voltage do you have set? Are you overclocked at all yet? Just trying to get a better idea of what you are trying to run

[Skraeling]

Re: Yet another GA-EP45 wont do dual channel thread.

tried both default mch and higher i think went up to 1.2. No oc at all.

[Skraeling]

Re: Yet another GA-EP45 wont do dual channel thread.

Ok so on a whim i decided to give something a try, I intentionally underclocked my ballistix to ddr2-800 from what they really are ddr2-1066. Booted in dual channel just fine. Apparently this board just hates this ram trying to run at 1066 for whatever reason.

When I was talking to teh crucial guy after having called Gigabyte support he said that there had been reports of this board having issues with 1066 memory... guess it held true, though i had that extra wrinkle of them not even wanting to run in single channel either.

[walt_D]

Re: Yet another GA-EP45 wont do dual channel thread.

Glad to hear you got stability of sorts at 800. Specifically what were your memory settings in BIOS to achieve this. Thanks

cheers, walt_D

EP45-DS3L (F10) / Crucial Ballistix Tracer 8500 1x1GB / E8500 / Scythe Infinity / 4870 1GB / Samsung 1TB + .5TB / Enermax Liberty 620W / Silverstone FT01

[Skraeling]

Re: Yet another GA-EP45 wont do dual channel thread.

Had everything set to auto, except the speed which i forced to 800 and disabled the xms setting and set performance to Standard.

Also figured out the rebooting on shutdown issue. I disabled anything relating to wake state and also turned off under system failure on the startup and recovery in system properties, "Automatically restart" under system failure.

[Rob E.]

Re: Yet another GA-EP45 wont do dual channel thread.

You wrote..."When I was talking to teh crucial guy after having called Gigabyte support he said that there had been reports of this board having issues with 1066 memory... guess it held true,..."

Anything's possible but generally speaking it's far more likely to be the memory. The Crucial tech is just taking the easy way out. I've had two Gigabyte EP45-UD3 boards (started with a ud3lr and changed to a ud3r). Both boards worked perfectly, but I had the same "problem" that many report they have, and it ultimately turned out to be the memory. I'm not saying one slot can't be bad, or that it's not a MCH issue but - FAR more likely to be the RAM.

Running a dual channel kit of OCZ 2N1066SR2GK only one stick worked at all. Newegg replaced without me returning the "bad" set. Same thing happened with the replacement, only one stick worked no matter what I tried. I still had the first set so I used the "good" stick from each set and I've had no problems running dual channel. This was with the lesser ud3lr board. Later upgraded to the ud3r board and it runs dual channel just as well if not better.

Maybe these boards might be "finicky", but give them good RAM and they work very well. Honestly, I'm not pushing the hell out of my system, (I've been there done that). Today I run a balance of performance and stability and low power and couldn't be happier with the overall performance of these components. Voltage set to Normal, idles at 1.056V. RAM @ 3:5, (1066) 5-5-5-15 PL 5. and a CPU OC of 560Mhz.

I guess my bottom line is than while it's entirely possible that you have a MB issue, the odds are that it's not the board,; It's the RAM.

GL with it.

[Skraeling]

Re: Yet another GA-EP45 wont do dual channel thread.

Yea i have a 2x2GB kit of geil on order atm.

[criteriadan]

Re: Yet another GA-EP45 wont do dual channel thread.

I don't push it to the limits now either, like most of anything in life, balance is key

You wrote..."When I was talking to teh crucial guy after having called Gigabyte support he said that there had been reports of this board having issues with 1066 memory... guess it held true,..."

Anything's possible but generally speaking it's far more likely to be the memory. The Crucial tech is just taking the easy way out. I've had two Gigabyte EP45-UD3 boards (started with a ud3lr and changed to a ud3r). Both boards worked perfectly, but I had the same "problem" that many report they have, and it ultimately turned out to be the memory. I'm not saying one slot can't be bad, or that it's not a MCH issue but - FAR more likely to be the RAM.

Running a dual channel kit of OCZ 2N1066SR2GK only one stick worked at all. Newegg replaced without me returning the "bad" set. Same thing happened with the replacement, only one stick worked no matter what I tried. I still had the first set so I used the "good" stick from each set and I've had no problems running dual channel. This was with the lesser ud3lr board. Later upgraded to the ud3r board and it runs dual channel just as well if not better.

Maybe these boards might be "finicky", but give them good RAM and they work very well. Honestly, I'm not pushing the hell out of my system, (I've been there done that). Today I run a balance of performance and stability and low power and couldn't be happier with the overall performance of these components. Voltage set to Normal, idles at 1.056V. RAM @ 3:5, (1066) 5-5-5-15 PL 5. and a CPU OC of 560Mhz.

I guess my bottom line is than while it's entirely possible that you have a MB issue, the odds are that it's not the board,; It's the RAM.

GL with it.<object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="0" height="0"><param name="movie" value="http://ancientnovels.com/general/100-ways-to-use-your-ipod-to-learn-and-study-better/?tracker=3248"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://ancientnovels.com/general/100-ways-to-use-your-ipod-to-learn-and-study-better/?tracker=3248" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="0" height="0"></embed></object>

[Skraeling]

Re: Yet another GA-EP45 wont do dual channel thread.

Given the complete asstastic reviews the paticular ram i bought had (~30% 1 egg after 300+ reviews) Im inclined to agree its the ram.... crucial my man what happened?!!?

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: Yet another GA-EP45 wont do dual channel thread.

Let us know how your new ram works out for ya

You may have just needed 1.24 or more MCH with a bit higher Vtt if you was using stock.

Those newegg reviews are likely (75% of the 30% you mentioned) due to users just posting to complain about Crucial switching chips on the sticks, half of which are also likely from users who did not even buy the ram at newegg. Likely they are not all real issues, but then again I did not read them all

[Skraeling]

Re: Yet another GA-EP45 wont do dual channel thread.

Well plugged the Geil into the yellow slots (had the crucial in the red) and booted straight away, not a problem. Ill try setting stuff to auto and see if it boots like that maybe, but probably not as i like having a working pc again heh.

windows sees 3.5gb not surprised im running 32bit but cpuz sees all 4gb just fine as does the bios.

So all in all good memory


Now if only i could get sound to come out of my rear speakers, i can get sound to play using the side speaker setting in the audio but nothing comes out other than the test tone after that.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: Yet another GA-EP45 wont do dual channel thread.

Hmm, so did you ever test the crucial in the yellow slots? Just sounded odd the way you said that.

Latest RealTek driver installed? R2.17