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I decided to upgrade my PC by increasing amount of RAM from 16GB (4 sticks, 4GB each, 1333 MHz) to 32GB (4 sticks, 8GB each, 1866 MHz). However, after replacing RAM with new sticks, the computer failed to load. After launching it, some coolers make several rotations and the system fails to turn on. And several seconds later it makes another try but without any success. Old RAM stick work totally normally.

My motherboard specification says that such amount and type of RAM is supported. Here's a cite:

  • 4 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 32 GB of system memory
  • Dual channel memory architecture
  • Support for DDR3 2133/1866/1600/1333/1066 MHz memory modules
  • Support for non-ECC memory modules
  • Support for Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules

The store where I bought them also confirms their compatibility before I made this order.

I tried the following:

  • Reset CMOS in BIOS by extracting a small battery under the video card;
  • Insert RAM sticks in all slots one by one;
  • Change RAM sticks' location in different DIMM slots, in different combinations;
  • Manually set the memory modules' frequency in BIOS to 1866 MHz.

Technical info:

  • Motherboard: Gigabyte Z68P-DS3 (Socket 1155).
  • New RAM: HyperX DDR3-1866 16384MB PC3-14900 (Kit of 2x8192) FURY Black (HX318C10FBK2/16), 2 pairs.
  • CPU: Intel Core i7 2700K 3.50GHz (Sandy Bridge).
  • OS: Windows 10 (x64).

I'm thinking, should I return the RAM back to the store or there is a way to make it working on my PC.

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  • Your Gigabyte motherboard has 3 flavors GA-Z68P-DS3 (rev. 1.0) rev. 2.1 rev. 2.0 which your's. Try the Support Link at your posted Gigabyte site and check out the BIOS's. Have you updated your BIOS ? You might want to think about that. View the rev. number of the motherboard. (your link = 1.0) (2.1 gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-Z68P-DS3-rev-21) (2.0 gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-Z68P-DS3-rev-20). Good luck Nekto.
    – vssher
    Commented Jul 13, 2020 at 19:44
  • @vssher Thanks for the suggestion! My motherboard is rev. 1.0, so I linked to that version. Well, I never updated BIOS before, so it sounds a bit scary because this may break my PC, hehe :) Anyway, I'll try it. Any suggestions how to do it properly to prevent breaking things? Thanks again!
    – Nekto
    Commented Jul 14, 2020 at 0:17
  • @vssher Just checked BIOS version. It's not so old – F7 (2011/10/11). The most latest version – F9 – is dated 2‎012/03/21 (yeah, I know, this motherboard is definitely pretty old). So I'm not sure if several months could make such a big difference. Anyway, I'll give it a try.
    – Nekto
    Commented Jul 14, 2020 at 0:31

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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Based on this discussion, it may help you to manually set your RAM speed to 1600 MHz in the BIOS and see if the computer boots from there. A more foolproof method would be to do the following:

  1. Install the working RAM that you were using before

  2. Open Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc)

  3. Select "More details"

  4. Navigate to the "Performance" tab

  5. Select "Memory"

  6. Note the "Speed" of the memory in the bottom right corner (I've attached an image of this below)

  7. In the BIOS, set the speed of the new memory to exactly the speed that the old memory was running at:

    Task Manager RAM report

Note that my RAM is running at 3200 MHz, while yours will likely run at 1600 MHz or somewhere around there. While your motherboard may support the RAM speed, another component (like your processor) may be having difficulties with it.

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  • Thanks for the tip! However, as I mentioned I tried to manually set my RAM speed and this didn't help, unfortunately. Switching from 1333 MHz (old RAM) to 1866 MHz (new RAM) in BIOS settings didn't have any effect, though my motherboard's specification says that it supports such speed: DDR3 2133/1866/1600/1333/1066 MHz.
    – Nekto
    Commented Jul 9, 2020 at 16:47
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    @nekto You had mentioned that you manually set your RAM speed to 1866 MHz, but it doesn't look like you specified that that is the speed your "working" RAM runs at. I'd go so far as to say that there's no way that none of the four RAM sticks that you received are faulty and do not work (unless you bought them all used), which means there must be some communication error with your other components.
    – Kraigolas
    Commented Jul 9, 2020 at 16:55
  • Well, both old and new RAMs' speed are in the supported range of speeds by my motherboard, so I didn't think that it's important. Sorry if this caused any confusion. Yes, I agree that it's barely possible that all 4 RAM sticks are faulty since they are brand new. Thanks again!
    – Nekto
    Commented Jul 9, 2020 at 17:47
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    @nekto Just to be clear again, it's not just the motherboard that needs to support the RAM, the CPU must as well. In fact, it may be beneficial to provide what CPU is in your computer at this time, and to ensure it supports the new RAM.
    – Kraigolas
    Commented Jul 9, 2020 at 22:37
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    I tried to manually set the memory's speed from Auto (default value) to 1333 (as my old RAM) – and it worked! Yay, thanks a lot for your help! You just made my day :)
    – Nekto
    Commented Jul 14, 2020 at 11:34

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