Hello I am new to this forum so excuse me if this post is in the wrong section.
I have a Gigabyte motherboard model name: GA-EP45-UD3R. I purchased it in 2008. It's been serving me since 8 years without any issues. But recently since 2 years, it has started developing RAM related display issues. When it first happened, I contacted my technician and he suggested that I change my RAM as it may be faulty. I purchased altogether new set of RAM but problem persisted. The problem is that my motherboard boots up into windows with 4 or less GBs of RAM but it doesn't post intermittently when full slots are occupied by 4 modules of RAM totaling 8 GB size. Yes, I have thoroughly checked each module of RAM separately attaching to my mobo one by one (and in each red/yellow slots). System boots up via each of the RAM module attached in either of the mobo slot individually. But problem starts to happen when all RAM modules are attached and then system is booted up. Also, note that this problem doesn't happen every time. Sometimes system does manage to boot up correctly on 8 GB RAM (displaying that memory is running in dual channel interleaved mode). Windows successfully shows up 8 GB in the properties dialog of my computer. (I have 64 bit Windows 10). It runs fine for weeks of numerous shutdown and restarts. But the problem comes back after few weeks and system just refuse to post. No windows boot logo or Bios screen. Monitor seems to be in sleep mode and motherboard lights go on and off in a cyclic manner. I mean, mobo keeps on restarting on it's own. Then when I reduce the RAM from 8 GB to say 4 GB or 2 GB, system boots up next time successfully as if nothing happened! As I said earlier, I've thoroughly checked all my RAM sticks for errors in Windows memory boot test. My RAM sticks are ok. No errors are found by windows. I've even cleaned my mobo RAM slots and RAM sticks for any accumulated dust particles!
I am at my wit's end now trying to figure out where the problem lies. I can only suspect that maybe motherboard has some hardware issues relating to RAM controller as all the slots seems to be fine as well. It does boot up correctly when my RAM sticks are attached individually to any of the red/yellow slots.
Please suggest any other troubleshooting methods that I might be missing here. Should I just replace my mobo with a new one?
Also, one more thing that I've noticed. Whenever my system does take in full 8 GB of RAM and boot up into windows, although everything works correctly thereafter, BUT,
I start having some following problems (till mobo completely refuses to boot up again)
1) Random BSOD errors .(with all error codes changing after every BSOD!)
2) nvidia driver crashes and recovers automatically (it's called TDR error. I've researched a lot to solve this problem like increasing the timing in windows registry, changing the nvida driver altogether, etc. But problem still persists.)
Also, recently I've found out by trial and error that if I disable nvidia driver in device manager, my graphic card off course would continue to work but nvidia driver crashes is somehow prevented! I don't get any error popup. But again, nvidia driver is required for my graphics card to provide full HD resolution for my monitor. So, I can't do away with using my graphics card without nvidia drivers.
3) Screen goes black, all right click menu items and open windows contents turn black too. Only way to correct it is to press alt+ ctrl + del and press "switch user" and relogin into my user account. Black screen goes temporarily for some time but again it comes back. (Guess what? I again have to do that stupid alt+ctrl+del combination or just keep the nvidia driver disabled in device manager to prevent black screen from happening lol)
It's very annoying problem to say the least. I wish I could be able to use my system with 4GB of RAM as that doesn't cause any problems... but I need 8 GB as I am a creative professional and the software that I use requires atleast 8 GB of RAM!!! I feel stuck.
I am forced to use 8 GB of RAM now (and endure all the additional 3 problems that comes with it as I mentioned above! )
Please help me!
This gigabyte motherboard has become a headache!!
Also, please let me know if I need to change a specific setting inside the motherboard BIOS for 8 GB RAM to work correctly. I have never tinkered with advanced settings like memory timings or voltages. I run my system at stock settings as I am not a gamer who require overclocking. (Note that all my 4 RAM modules are of 800 MHz speed).
Hope I've provided enough information about my problems to find the ideal solution.
Thanks in advance
I have a Gigabyte motherboard model name: GA-EP45-UD3R. I purchased it in 2008. It's been serving me since 8 years without any issues. But recently since 2 years, it has started developing RAM related display issues. When it first happened, I contacted my technician and he suggested that I change my RAM as it may be faulty. I purchased altogether new set of RAM but problem persisted. The problem is that my motherboard boots up into windows with 4 or less GBs of RAM but it doesn't post intermittently when full slots are occupied by 4 modules of RAM totaling 8 GB size. Yes, I have thoroughly checked each module of RAM separately attaching to my mobo one by one (and in each red/yellow slots). System boots up via each of the RAM module attached in either of the mobo slot individually. But problem starts to happen when all RAM modules are attached and then system is booted up. Also, note that this problem doesn't happen every time. Sometimes system does manage to boot up correctly on 8 GB RAM (displaying that memory is running in dual channel interleaved mode). Windows successfully shows up 8 GB in the properties dialog of my computer. (I have 64 bit Windows 10). It runs fine for weeks of numerous shutdown and restarts. But the problem comes back after few weeks and system just refuse to post. No windows boot logo or Bios screen. Monitor seems to be in sleep mode and motherboard lights go on and off in a cyclic manner. I mean, mobo keeps on restarting on it's own. Then when I reduce the RAM from 8 GB to say 4 GB or 2 GB, system boots up next time successfully as if nothing happened! As I said earlier, I've thoroughly checked all my RAM sticks for errors in Windows memory boot test. My RAM sticks are ok. No errors are found by windows. I've even cleaned my mobo RAM slots and RAM sticks for any accumulated dust particles!
I am at my wit's end now trying to figure out where the problem lies. I can only suspect that maybe motherboard has some hardware issues relating to RAM controller as all the slots seems to be fine as well. It does boot up correctly when my RAM sticks are attached individually to any of the red/yellow slots.
Please suggest any other troubleshooting methods that I might be missing here. Should I just replace my mobo with a new one?
Also, one more thing that I've noticed. Whenever my system does take in full 8 GB of RAM and boot up into windows, although everything works correctly thereafter, BUT,
I start having some following problems (till mobo completely refuses to boot up again)
1) Random BSOD errors .(with all error codes changing after every BSOD!)
2) nvidia driver crashes and recovers automatically (it's called TDR error. I've researched a lot to solve this problem like increasing the timing in windows registry, changing the nvida driver altogether, etc. But problem still persists.)
Also, recently I've found out by trial and error that if I disable nvidia driver in device manager, my graphic card off course would continue to work but nvidia driver crashes is somehow prevented! I don't get any error popup. But again, nvidia driver is required for my graphics card to provide full HD resolution for my monitor. So, I can't do away with using my graphics card without nvidia drivers.
3) Screen goes black, all right click menu items and open windows contents turn black too. Only way to correct it is to press alt+ ctrl + del and press "switch user" and relogin into my user account. Black screen goes temporarily for some time but again it comes back. (Guess what? I again have to do that stupid alt+ctrl+del combination or just keep the nvidia driver disabled in device manager to prevent black screen from happening lol)
It's very annoying problem to say the least. I wish I could be able to use my system with 4GB of RAM as that doesn't cause any problems... but I need 8 GB as I am a creative professional and the software that I use requires atleast 8 GB of RAM!!! I feel stuck.
I am forced to use 8 GB of RAM now (and endure all the additional 3 problems that comes with it as I mentioned above! )
Please help me!
This gigabyte motherboard has become a headache!!
Also, please let me know if I need to change a specific setting inside the motherboard BIOS for 8 GB RAM to work correctly. I have never tinkered with advanced settings like memory timings or voltages. I run my system at stock settings as I am not a gamer who require overclocking. (Note that all my 4 RAM modules are of 800 MHz speed).
Hope I've provided enough information about my problems to find the ideal solution.
Thanks in advance
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