# Half my memory slots suddenly not working right...



## johnspack (Feb 11, 2019)

My system has been running fine with the same settings for a couple of years. All of the sudden my reported ram went to 24gbs,  now only 16.
I checked bios,  linux and windows,  and all report 16gbs.  Weird thing is both bios and apps like aida64 can see all 8 dimms,  but only 4
are reporting as usable.  In bios it shows which dimms are reporting,  and oddly enough they are all on one side of the cpu,  the other side
is not available. Is my mobo suddenly failing?  Or could it be my motherboard?  Nothing new was done or added recently,  this just simply
started to happen.....


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## qubit (Feb 11, 2019)

That does sound really odd. Not sure where the problem is, but it won’t hurt to reseat the dimms on the bad side. Perhaps reseating the CPU itself, but I don’t think it’s that likely so do this as a last resort.


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## FreedomEclipse (Feb 11, 2019)

I had the same problem with the exact same motherboard back in the day. what i did was play a game of musical chairs with the ram. Wipe the contacts down, give the ram slots a bit of a blow or blast with compressed air and a small wiggle when you plug them back in. It should work after that unless your board is starting to go poopoo in which case, I salute you (because every captain goes down with their ship)


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## Regeneration (Feb 11, 2019)

Clean all the dust off your computer, reseat the memory, and make sure your memory controller voltage isn't excessive.


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## johnspack (Feb 11, 2019)

No dust...  fan filters.  I popped most of the dimms out and reseated.  Ran memok a few times. I keep all my voltages under max,  and actually
all 8 were running fine on 1.50v.  System was rock solid for a long time...  still is actually but now I have 16gbs in dual channel which
just doesn't work for me.  Can pop out the last 2 dimms but will have to remove cooler to do that,  so would rather not.  It's just that it's not
seeing any dimms on one side at all....
Could the cpu be failing?  It's not exhibiting any other faults...


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## FreedomEclipse (Feb 11, 2019)

johnspack said:


> No dust...  fan filters.  I popped most of the dimms out and reseated.  Ran memok a few times. I keep all my voltages under max,  and actually
> all 8 were running fine on 1.50v.  System was rock solid for a long time...  still is actually but now I have 16gbs in dual channel which
> just doesn't work for me.  Can pop out the last 2 dimms but will have to remove cooler to do that,  so would rather not.  It's just that it's not
> seeing any dimms on one side at all....
> Could the cpu be failing?  It's not exhibiting any other faults...



Well, if you dont care then just carry on about your business. When it breaks, it breaks and its time to get something new.


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## johnspack (Feb 11, 2019)

This is how aida64 sees my 32gbs ram right now....





And yes if I have to pull the cooler ect..  I will do it,  but jeez why this now?
Oh and its dimms A1-A2 and B1-B2 that show the ram and the other 4 are vacant....


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## xorbe (Feb 11, 2019)

Reseat the CPU.  That's what fixed my PC when one mem channel went AWOL. Reseating the memory had no effect.


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## johnspack (Feb 11, 2019)

I guess tomorrow I'll have to do that.  Nothing else left to try.


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## Regeneration (Feb 11, 2019)

Maybe something is wrong with the integrated memory controller (CPU). Perhaps it was degraded. Try to increase voltage for VCCSA / VCCIO.


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## johnspack (Feb 11, 2019)

I will try that as well.  Perhaps it's time for me to go back to amd.  Prices for new intel are so stupid.  Again,  I kept all voltages much below intel spec...  I'm kind of paranoid about that stuff..  cpu must
be kept below 1.35v ect.   I keep all voltages well below max spec....  anxiety disorder here....  so I never overdo anything...  so dam!
I like keeping those 2 at 1.100,  but I'll try 1.12 or so.  Those can cause damage if too high.


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## Regeneration (Feb 11, 2019)

When a CPU degrade, it requires more voltage to operate.

1.1v is already above Intel's specification.

You should keep VCCSA at stock voltage and increase VCCIO to 1.15v to see if it makes a difference with your memory problem.

If it does, you should torture the chip until it dies, and then grab a cheap replacement on eBay. If it doesn't help, try to reseat the CPU.


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## eidairaman1 (Feb 11, 2019)

Ok power off totally, remove cmos battery, remove cpu hsf, cpu, ram, use CRC QD contact cleaner, spray the LGA and ram slots, clean pins on ram wipe down cpu, reinstall everything, make sure hsf isnt too tight where board warping occurs.


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## phanbuey (Feb 11, 2019)

Dimm slots do die quite often - usually not after years of use though, but it's possible.

Time to upgrade it seems.


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## Assimilator (Feb 11, 2019)

Definitely sounds like an IMC issue, removing and reseating the CPU sounds like your best bet, if that doesn't fix it you should either look at getting a new CPU or upgrading.


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## johnspack (Feb 11, 2019)

Yep Assimilator,  already pricing x99 mobos and cpus.  But oh god..  ddr4 ram,  this will kick my ass.  Have a sale for a block of 8gbs of my old ddr3 already..  100can heh.  I'll sell the rest for obscenely large amounts to help pay for this upgrade....
And tomorrow I will pull the cpu cooler,  the cpu,  blow everything out,  pull all dimms,  blow everything out,  reseat everything...  and cross my dam fingers.


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## kastriot (Feb 11, 2019)

It looks like imc is failing, you  can try to raise voltages for imc and see does it help, if not time for other cpu or rig.


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## johnspack (Feb 11, 2019)

By the way I have both paypal and mastercard..  which I shouldn't use but I can.  Looking for x99 stuff and best price on ddr4 ram.
I think either mobo or cpu is failing..  and only time is ticking now....  I need a new system fast


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## R00kie (Feb 11, 2019)

damn, wish you lived in europe, I've got my old X99 platform up for sale


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## JalleR (Feb 11, 2019)

Maybe hold your horses on the X99 upgrade, i have the same issue on my Asus X99 Deluxe i have 4x4GB DDR-2400 and 2 of the slots (on one side) is Doing exactly the same a your board, so maybe X99 is not the best way to go Luckily I had 2x8gb lying around so now i am using them and has loosened my water cooler a Little (going on for 3 md now, so maybe it is time for a Retest  ) reseating the MEM helped the first time but this time (3 months ago) nothing worked (it happened after i updated the bios to the newest beta, but a downgrade didn’t solve the problem) :/ i have planned to do a case change so haven’t tried reseating the CPU yet, Hope that it Work for you, that will give me some hope


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## johnspack (Feb 11, 2019)

Well thanks for the help guys.  I pulled all sticks,  scrubbed the contacts,  blew out the slots,  put it back together and voila all 32gbs working again.  Bizarre,  but makes me very happy!


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## qubit (Feb 11, 2019)

johnspack said:


> Well thanks for the help guys.  I pulled all sticks,  scrubbed the contacts,  blew out the slots,  put it back together and voila all 32gbs working again.  Bizarre,  but makes me very happy!


haha crap in the connectors strikes again! Glad it's going, buddy.


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## FreedomEclipse (Feb 11, 2019)

johnspack said:


> Well thanks for the help guys.  I pulled all sticks,  scrubbed the contacts,  blew out the slots,  put it back together and voila all 32gbs working again.  Bizarre,  but makes me very happy!



I told you so.


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## John Naylor (Feb 12, 2019)

You will often find RAM having issues when you have a stable OC and then add more RAM ... Each stick presents a tougher load on the memory controller which will often require lowering the OC when adding sticks.  4 x 8GB is easier than 8 x 4GB.  We sometimes see the same effect when a system ages and that ones getting a bit long in the tooth.  And yes ... another symptom of aging is 'fuzz' buildup on the contacts.  Other times, instead of the green fuzz, I have been able to "feel" slime.   The 1st thing that came to mind was when I bought a houseboat ... the vinyl ceiling had an orange tint and slimy feel to it ... turned out the guy was a heavy smoker and ceiling was stained with "smokers grime".

Never was able to determine actual cause ... but I clean the slots with a  foam swab dipped in Indigo Xtreme Cleaner, same for the stick pins.  This "stuff" can affect voltage / current disproportionately and it drives the IMC nutz.

EDIT:  looks like cleaning helped


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## JalleR (Feb 12, 2019)

GRATE to hear, i think i will speed up my move to a new case and hope for the same result


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## eidairaman1 (Feb 12, 2019)

johnspack said:


> Well thanks for the help guys.  I pulled all sticks,  scrubbed the contacts,  blew out the slots,  put it back together and voila all 32gbs working again.  Bizarre,  but makes me very happy!



Contact problems, electron migration too


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## johnspack (Feb 13, 2019)

More than that,  age and degradation.  I looks like my cpu is slowly dying...  realized today I can't go back to 1866 ram speeds,  it just boot loops.  1600 I can still stress test it and it passes.  Was looking at used x99 stuff,  and realized I can barely afford the ram,  the mobos aren't bad used.. but the used desktop cpus are ridiculous.  400+us.  I need cores for vms,  but I would also like to game once in a while.  Intel xeons are too slow for gaming.
I guess the next best thing is a used ryzen 1700 system for a fraction of the price.  But then I have to find friggin samsumg b-die dimms for cheap.  This is going to put me in the poor house either way....

I suspect it must be my cpu,  so I just ordered a 1660 for 100 bucks.  If it doesn't work it can just resell it!


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## Shambles1980 (Feb 13, 2019)

did you re seat the cpu#??


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## johnspack (Feb 13, 2019)

I reseated everything.  Time for a new cpu....
And I guess I'll be reseating it with the new cpu,  4.8 at under 1.35 I hope.
I guess I kind of wanted this since the 1680s just won't come down in price enough.....
And a Captain doesn't let his ship go down...  he does everything in his power to keep it afloat and fighting....


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## Hardcore Games (Feb 24, 2019)

try running 16 sticks of RAM in a box


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## johnspack (Feb 26, 2019)

Got my new/used 1660 today...  so far up to 4.5ghz and all 32gbs ram at 1866 still.  It's looking like a fix.  I did clean the contacts of the new
1660 just to make sure.  It's just behaving much better than my old 1650,  so I guess I fried the imc somehow.  Using much lower voltages this time,
but this cpu doesn't seem to need as much.....

Back up to 4.7ghz now and very stable.  Love this 1660 cpu with it's full 15mb l3 cache,  it's beating my old 1650.  Going to try 4.8 and then 5ghz.
I may have finally got the golden sample I was looking for.....

Never mind...  it just walked up to 4.8ghz and I just bested every bench I've done.  I can see why this cpu cost 1100us at launch....
Nope,  4.9....

https://valid.x86.fr/l082ku


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## FCG (Apr 23, 2019)

That half of the DIMMs were not properly registered and that they were on the same "side" of the CPU was the dead give-away from the OP.

Glad everyone figured it out.

High(er) impedance path(s) can be enough to skew signals sufficient to cause non-operation.
It's why we match impedance, for example termination impedance.
Likely the pin walked to the edge of the pad and was making only marginal contact.
Thermal cycling can do some funky stuff.


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