Windows 7 Trying to go from 4gigs of ram to 6 and windows 7 is like - oh no you don't

[ThePinkLadyJ]

Hello, my boyfriend and I both have windows 7, he has home premium and I have professional and we are trying to upgrade our ram from 4 gigs's to 6 (and beyond), but windows wont start up if we try to put in more than 4 gigs of ram. Onder bios both our motherboards can see the ram just fine but windows wont start.

Here's what my computer is running on

Motherboard
ASRock M3A785GMH/128M AM3 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
Processor
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor
RAM
(2 of these for a total of 4 gigs - so far)Crucial Ballistix Tracer 2GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model BL25664TG1608

(We both have 1tb hard drives as our main drives and other smalerl hard drives (sorry I forget the models)

My boyfriends system is exactly the same except his motherboard is a slighlty different asrock model but almost identical to mine (I opted for a few less slots). Both of our motherboards are capable of using up to 16gigs of ram and our operating systems should support more ram. Home Premium should take up to 16 and my profesional should be even more. Does anyone know how i can fix this and get windows 7 to let us use more ram?

 

[Digerati]

...and our operating systems should support more ram.

IF you are running the 64-bit versions of the OSs. If only 32-bit, then you are limited to 4Gb but see Caution 4 in your manual on page 8.

 

[Krypto]

do you get any errors or anything or does it just not boot up period. also has digerait said if you have a 32 bit OS it will only allow 4GB but should still boot if you have more it just does not use it now if you have a 64 bit OS the chart below show the limits for the different versions you also need to make sure you are inserting them correctly sos you get dual channel support your manaul will explian also you might want to Flash your bios just in case and what memory are you tring to but into it.
Physical Memory Limits: Windows 7

The following table specifies the limits on physical memory for Windows 7.

Physical Memory Limits: Windows 7
32Bit or 64Bit
Windows 7 Ultimate 4GB or 192GB
Windows 7 Enterprise 4GB or 192GB
Windows 7 Professional 4GB or 192GB
Windows 7 Home Premium 4GB or 16GB
Windows 7 Home Basic 4GB or 8GB
Windows 7 Starter 2GB or 2GB

 

[ThePinkLadyJ]

Sorry I forgot to mention yes we're both running the 64bit version. We specifically made sure to get 64 so we could be more upgradeable in the future

 

[ThePinkLadyJ]

do you get any errors or anything or does it just not boot up period. also has digerait said if you have a 32 bit OS it will only allow 4GB but should still boot if you have more it just does not use it now if you have a 64 bit OS the chart below show the limits for the different versions you also need to make sure you are inserting them correctly sos you get dual channel support your manaul will explian also you might want to Flash your bios just in case and what memory are you tring to but into it.
Physical Memory Limits: Windows 7

The following table specifies the limits on physical memory for Windows 7.

Physical Memory Limits: Windows 7
32Bit or 64Bit
Windows 7 Ultimate 4GB or 192GB
Windows 7 Enterprise 4GB or 192GB
Windows 7 Professional 4GB or 192GB
Windows 7 Home Premium 4GB or 16GB
Windows 7 Home Basic 4GB or 8GB
Windows 7 Starter 2GB or 2GB

We both have 64bit I have pro and he has home premium so we should be okay for more ram. Windows just wont boot up. The bios of the motherboard sees the extra ram when we put it in there. We get a blue screen error message when it tries to load the operating system but not the same blue screen as the blue screen of death - at least they look a little different.

Also this may be relevent: both of our windows 7 were upgrades and we were upgrading from 32bit XP. Now when we installed our upgrades we did the custom clean install, otherwise we wouldnt have been able to upgrade from 32 to 64. I was told doing a custom instalation of an upgrade was pretty much like installing the version in full, but maybe this 4gig issue is a throw-back from that? I don't know if thats possible though. The 64bit options and programs seem to run just fine and there's nothing to make me belive there were any other errors.

 

[loathe]

Hi,
Just to be sure you brought the same RAM as in your system, or more importantly, RAM that runs at the same speed?
You may have a bad stick. Take the new sticks out and burn this to a CD and boot to it. It will tell you if you have problems with your RAM. Let it run 2 or 3 cycles with the new sticks put back in.
It could also be a voltage problem and you may need to increase slightly but try memtest first.

EDIT I just saw they have started to charge for this software unless your testing under 4GB. I cant remember how to get to the Windows memory test before Windows boots, maybe F10? Anyways put new sticks in and try that.

 

[ThePinkLadyJ]

All our ram is the exact same as the models mentioned above and we tried putting them in different slots and running the system on just one stick at a time to see if they were all good and they all worked and run on their own and all the slots worked fine too

 

[loathe]

Well if Windows hangs with all the slots populated, Im gonna say that you probably need more voltage to your memory or northbridge. If you havent overclocked before you will need to do some research on your motherboard and RAM, usually it will tell you safe voltages the RAM can run on the box. You need to be careful here and use small increases till you get stable.

Sorry I cant help you further, RAM should be as easy as buying the right RAM, sticking it in and your good to go. A screen shot of your error message may help further.

 

[Athlonite]

I think your not going to get the 6GB working because apparently your mobo only supports either of the 2 dimm sockets filled or all of the sockets filled

dimm1 + dimm2 or dimm3 + dimm4 for 2 dimms or dimm1 + dimm2 + dimm3 + dimm4 for all 4 dimms

but not dimm1 + dimm2 + dimm3 or 4 for 3 dimms

from the PDF manual for your mobo

Dual Channel Memory Configurations
DDR3_A1 DDR3_B1 DDR3_A2 DDR3_B2
(Blue Slot) (Blue Slot)
(1) Populated Populated - -
(White Slot) (White Slot)
(2) Populated Populated
(Blue Slot) (Blue Slot) + (White Slot) (White Slot)
(3)* Populated Populated Populated Populated

 

[fjgold]

Just been looking up the ram you have against the documentation for your motherboard and it looks like
the ram you have isn't compatible with your board.
This from the AS rock website.

Below is tha compatibility list from ASRock

PDF ------->>> Link Removed

As you can see from the list there are only 2 Crucial ram sticks listed, neither are the ram you have in hand.

It's possible that 6 GB of this brand of ram requires power more than your MB can supply.

Below is a link to a ram upgrade Crucial recommends for your MB (per their compatibility tool).

link ------>>> Link Removed due to 404 Error

If you want more than 4 GB you would install 2 sticks for a total of 8 GB.

This stuff ain't cheap.

At the bottom of the above page are several more cheaper options.

link ------->>> Newegg.com - Crucial 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model CT51264BA1339 - Desktop Memory

Below is a link to some 2 GB Kingston ram that is compatible.

You would replace all your existing ram with 3 of these (6 GB total) or better yet 4 of them (total 8 GB).

at $75.00 each, cheaper than Crucial.

Link ------>>> Link Removed

Athlonite may probably be right however about the way you populate the slots.

Maybe by 4) 2GB sticks of compatible ram one for each slot.

Again you ram isn't listed on ASRock's compatibility list.

 

[Athlonite]

You would replace all your existing ram with 3 of these (6 GB total)

as said above 6GB is not possible on this mobo they just need another 2GB each of the G-skill ram they already have to fill al four DIMM sockets

 

[Digerati]

Well if Windows hangs with all the slots populated, Im gonna say that you probably need more voltage to your memory or northbridge.

I don't agree with this. If it hangs with all the slots populated, low motherboard voltage is not at fault - unless there is some problem or component failure causing the low voltage situation. Therefore, overclocking is not the solution. Either the RAM is the wrong type, there is something wrong with the RAM, or the motherboard has a problem - assuming the motherboard is supposed to support fully populated slots. With the same problem happening with two motherboards, I don't suspect both boards have component failures.

I just saw they have started to charge for this software unless your testing under 4GB.

What program are you talking about? MemTest86+ is free, unless you know something different (please provide a link). And Link Removed - Invalid URL from Microsoft is very effective, as is the tester built in to Windows 7.

Frank may have hit the nail on the head about RAM compatibility. While motherboard makers test and list many RAM modules, they cannot list all. So buying off the list does not mean it won't work, but it may not.

Contrary to Athonite's comments, according to your motherboard manual, your motherboard WILL support using only 3 sticks - it just will NOT support running in Dual Channel memory mode with just 1 or 3 sticks. See page 17 of your manual.

The manual also emphasizes to use 4 "identical" sticks - if you want to use 4 sticks.

I also note the following CAUTION! from your manual on page 8

3. Whether 1600MHz memory speed is supported depends on the AM3 CPU
you adopt. If you want to adopt DDR3 1600 memory module on this
motherboard, please refer to the memory support list on our website for
the compatible memory modules.
ASRock website ASRock Inc.

 

[Athlonite]

What program are you talking about? MemTest86+ is free, unless you know something different (please provide a link)

it's for the pre burned cd+ PnP me thinks as the DL is still free for all

that's a fair cop on the 3 sticks but not in dual channel remark

 

[Athlonite]

on page 16 of your manual it shows this

1. If you want to install two memory modules, for optimal compatibility
and reliability, it is recommended to install them in the slots of the
same color. In other words, install them either in the set of blue
slots (DDR3_A1 and DDR3_B1), or in the set of white slots
(DDR3_A2 and DDR3_B2).
2. If only one memory module or three memory modules are installed
in the DDR3 DIMM slots on this motherboard, it is unable to activate
the Dual Channel Memory Technology.
3. If a pair of memory modules is NOT installed in the same Dual
Channel, for example, installing a pair of memory modules in
DDR3_A1 and DDR3_A2, it is unable to activate the Dual Channel
Memory Technology .
4. It is not allowed to install a DDR or DDR2 memory module into
DDR3 slot; otherwise, this motherboard and DIMM may be
damaged.
5. If you adopt DDR3 1600 memory modules on this motherboard, it
is recommended to install them on DDR3_A2 and DDR3_B2 slots.

maybe comment 5 shown in bold is your issue it could be that you need to down clock the memory to 1333MHz

 

[Digerati]

that's a fair cop on the 3 sticks but not in dual channel remark

Right. Dual channel works with pairs of sticks.

 

[Athlonite]

It's also why i'd like the OP to try 4 sticks of ram if it works then problem solved and if it doesn't then further investigation is needed