On Sat, Jan 3, 2009 at 14:45, Mike Coan <mikecoan@woodlawnfoundation.org> wrote:
Getting ready to install opensuse 11.1 on a new machine, or at leat the motherboard, the RAM, and the CPU are new.
M/B: Asrock AMD A780GXE. this is an AM2+ socket M/B, that supports 8GB of DDR2 1066, and Phenom CPU CPU: AMD Phenom quad core 9850 RAM: 4 sticks of 2GB OCZ Platinum DDR@ 1066 RAM. The 4 sticks are actually two pairs of Dual Channel Memory, all the same speed.
The M/B has four DIMM slots. DIMM1 and DIMM2 are dual channel, as are DIMM3
and DIMM4.
Problem: I insert all 4 sticks of memory. CPU fan and all case fans spin as do hard drives. No Post.
I remove 2 sticks, leaving DIMM!1and DIMM2 occupied. All fans and drives spin no post. I put 2 sticks in DIMM3 and DIMM4. all fans and drive spin, no post.
I put one stick in DIMM1 and one stick in DIMM3 so that it runs in single channel mode. Computer boots fine. Thus it posts and boots with 4GB in single channel mode, but not in dual channel mode.
On the AMD 939 and AM2 architecture the memory controller is on the CPU. THat is why e.g. any 939 CPU will always use DDR RAM and an AM2 CPU will always use DDR-II RAM. I actually had the exact problem you describe. I tested with some random RAM I had sitting around (256MB pulls from Dell or HP systems) and the results where the same... It HAS to be the mainboard I figured and ordered a replacement... no go. Turns out the problem was the CPU, caused by poor regards for ESD. As soon as the CPU replaced, it would boot on the original mainboard without a problem. This was on a Gigabyte 780G chipset board. I believe Gigabyte support also suggested to check the CPU.... so if you have a spare AM2 socket CPU sitting around or even in another system, try swapping that. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org