Hi Guys n Girls,
Can someone please help me out on this as I'm pulling my hair out.
I am modernising a Dell Precision T5400 workstation for use with Autocad, Photoshop, Office, etc. and it is now running windows 7 Pro 64 bit SP1 on an SSD.
I've just installed a firepro V5900 but the problem predates this addition.
The X5450's are working fine - I just wish they supported hyperthreading which would really make it a flyer.
The T5400 supports 32GB of ICC ram according to the manual, The 'my dell' programme says it supports 64GB and Sandra lite puts the max at 128GB but the 32GB is all I need.
Anyway I am upgrading from 4GB (4 x 1GB) of DDR2 PC2-5300F-555-11 and have purchased 32GB (8*4GB) of used, supposedly matched, HP 466436-061 RAM (made by hynix, part no's below) from ebay: (hp stickers all have same part number).
4GB 2Rx4 PC2-5300F-555-11 /// HYMP151F72CP4N3-Y5 AB-C 8 STICKS
I can install any of the cards in slots 1-4 +7-8 and the system recognises them and passes all prestartup & memory tests.
I can also instal an additional stick in either slot 5 or 6 which bios picks up although it reports a mismatch on start because slot 5 or 6 is not paired so it does not use it. I only tried it to ensure that the slots are recognising the card.
The manual states that the slots should be paired & filled in order but the computer will not boot as soon as there is a matched pair in slots 5 & 6. It doesnt matter if only 1-4 or 1-4 + 7-8 are full it just doesn't like to use slots 5 & 6.
I have checked using 'sandra lite' and the hardware list shows they have identical specs and stepping and they work fine mixed as long as only 2, 4 or 6 sticks are installed and not in slots 5 & 6.
Any 4 of the sticks run fine in slots 1-4 as I have changed them all out. When I put sticks 5 & 6 sticks in (or all 8) the PC wont boot and I get beep code 1-3-2 which I`ve looked up and is just a memory fault so not too descriptive.
with an unpaired sick in 5 or 6 the machine boots but I get the error lights 1 and 3 on the front indicating ram recognised but mismatched as you would expect.
My bios is up to date at A11.
I just cant get it to boot with more than 24GB installed. I have removed the BIOS battery and used the jumper method to reset it but no change.
If one of the cards was defective or not paired then I could understand it but I have even checked all the cards individually in slot 1 with nothing else fitted and run the memory diagnostic on all cards with no defects reported.
If one of the slots 5 or 6 was defective then I wouldn't expect the bios to recognise the unpaired card in either slot.
I have run the dell diagnostic and drivers finder several times and nothing is picked up, I have also tried installing all the relevant past drivers on the dell downloads site to see if that helps, all that is left is to reflash the bios to the older a09 but I have had reports that other identical machines are running 32 or even 64GB on bios A11 without issues.
The following is for additional info if a certain error sparks an idea in anyones head, I`m putting these notes down to an old system spec with a new benchmarking program.
Using Sandra lite's detect and suggest feature the program is reporting the following errors or advice:-
The motherboard channels are running at a lower speed than maximum and suggests that the system may be in power saving mode.
There is a CPU microcode update available for cpu
there is a video bios update available
Lots of unsigned drivers on programs
I have checked the bios and windows power savings modes and everything is on High performance, I`ve looked for a CPU microcode update using google but do not really know where to go but from what I can see its part of the bios and dell have not released a bios after A11
The video bios again is something I do not know where to look apart from ATI and I have the latest software and am even trying their beta version but still no change.
Unsigned drivers I am putting down to this setup no longer being supported.
I am looking into bios mods but know nothing about this apart from if you get a badly modded bios it can be buy buy PC so steering clear unless i get some proven examples for this machine.
Is this looking like a defective mother board?
I could probably get a swap from the recycling place where I got the tower from as he's been very reasonable but I don't want to take the Micky and am also afraid that the replacement might have other faults.
Any ideas or advice from the knowledgable folk on here would be greatly appreciated.
Can someone please help me out on this as I'm pulling my hair out.
I am modernising a Dell Precision T5400 workstation for use with Autocad, Photoshop, Office, etc. and it is now running windows 7 Pro 64 bit SP1 on an SSD.
I've just installed a firepro V5900 but the problem predates this addition.
The X5450's are working fine - I just wish they supported hyperthreading which would really make it a flyer.
The T5400 supports 32GB of ICC ram according to the manual, The 'my dell' programme says it supports 64GB and Sandra lite puts the max at 128GB but the 32GB is all I need.
Anyway I am upgrading from 4GB (4 x 1GB) of DDR2 PC2-5300F-555-11 and have purchased 32GB (8*4GB) of used, supposedly matched, HP 466436-061 RAM (made by hynix, part no's below) from ebay: (hp stickers all have same part number).
4GB 2Rx4 PC2-5300F-555-11 /// HYMP151F72CP4N3-Y5 AB-C 8 STICKS
I can install any of the cards in slots 1-4 +7-8 and the system recognises them and passes all prestartup & memory tests.
I can also instal an additional stick in either slot 5 or 6 which bios picks up although it reports a mismatch on start because slot 5 or 6 is not paired so it does not use it. I only tried it to ensure that the slots are recognising the card.
The manual states that the slots should be paired & filled in order but the computer will not boot as soon as there is a matched pair in slots 5 & 6. It doesnt matter if only 1-4 or 1-4 + 7-8 are full it just doesn't like to use slots 5 & 6.
I have checked using 'sandra lite' and the hardware list shows they have identical specs and stepping and they work fine mixed as long as only 2, 4 or 6 sticks are installed and not in slots 5 & 6.
Any 4 of the sticks run fine in slots 1-4 as I have changed them all out. When I put sticks 5 & 6 sticks in (or all 8) the PC wont boot and I get beep code 1-3-2 which I`ve looked up and is just a memory fault so not too descriptive.
with an unpaired sick in 5 or 6 the machine boots but I get the error lights 1 and 3 on the front indicating ram recognised but mismatched as you would expect.
My bios is up to date at A11.
I just cant get it to boot with more than 24GB installed. I have removed the BIOS battery and used the jumper method to reset it but no change.
If one of the cards was defective or not paired then I could understand it but I have even checked all the cards individually in slot 1 with nothing else fitted and run the memory diagnostic on all cards with no defects reported.
If one of the slots 5 or 6 was defective then I wouldn't expect the bios to recognise the unpaired card in either slot.
I have run the dell diagnostic and drivers finder several times and nothing is picked up, I have also tried installing all the relevant past drivers on the dell downloads site to see if that helps, all that is left is to reflash the bios to the older a09 but I have had reports that other identical machines are running 32 or even 64GB on bios A11 without issues.
The following is for additional info if a certain error sparks an idea in anyones head, I`m putting these notes down to an old system spec with a new benchmarking program.
Using Sandra lite's detect and suggest feature the program is reporting the following errors or advice:-
The motherboard channels are running at a lower speed than maximum and suggests that the system may be in power saving mode.
There is a CPU microcode update available for cpu
there is a video bios update available
Lots of unsigned drivers on programs
I have checked the bios and windows power savings modes and everything is on High performance, I`ve looked for a CPU microcode update using google but do not really know where to go but from what I can see its part of the bios and dell have not released a bios after A11
The video bios again is something I do not know where to look apart from ATI and I have the latest software and am even trying their beta version but still no change.
Unsigned drivers I am putting down to this setup no longer being supported.
I am looking into bios mods but know nothing about this apart from if you get a badly modded bios it can be buy buy PC so steering clear unless i get some proven examples for this machine.
Is this looking like a defective mother board?
I could probably get a swap from the recycling place where I got the tower from as he's been very reasonable but I don't want to take the Micky and am also afraid that the replacement might have other faults.
Any ideas or advice from the knowledgable folk on here would be greatly appreciated.