Hi all,
I`ve had a play around with the new ram sticks that came this morning and no difference.

Not to be defeated I played about and have managed to install a pair in slots 7&8 which actually works giving me 24GB which may be enough but I`m still confused as to why putting the 2 sticks from 7 & 8 (which are obviously matched and working) into slots 5 & 6 causes the thing to not boot, 

I have  verified slots 5 & 6 work by putting a single stick into each on subsequent boots and they definitely show up in the bios set up but are not used as they are not a pair.

I have come to the conclusion that this is a bios fault and will try flashing the older A09 release and post back.

Hi guys

Have you managed to overcome 16Gb limiation ? We are having the same problem. I have 4GBx8 memory modules all the same . BIOS can see all of them but the total memory is 16GB shown.

HELP!

Hi bortek, no sorry I have been too busy to do any more investigation into this but the 24gb is enough for now - see my 2nd post.

I take it you're using the same type of work station?

Please post how you get on

dummy post, read the next one

They are not all the same and you have odd numbers not pairs.

You also cannot mix ranks in banks. The first 4 slots are NOT 1234

[White] DIMM 1
[Black] DIMM 5
[White] DIMM 2
[Black] DIMM 6
[White] DIMM 3
[Black] DIMM 7
[White] DIMM 4
[Black] DIMM 8

8 Modules isn't working due to them not matching in temp range and timing.

6 May work. Or The original 4 1 Gig followed by 4 4gig = 20

Of the 3 modules put one aside and add that ram to the 1st 2 slots

Of the 5 modules put one aside and add that ram to the next 4 slots

Leave the other 2 on the table.

Dell doesn't support 3rd party Ram or Ram not purchased from Dell.

Kingston doesn't support fake Kingston Ram.

http://www.kingston.com/us/support/product_verification

Either way this is not a Dell problem.

http://www.kingston.com/us/support/customer/email_customer_service

Hi

I managed to get 32Gb working. Here is how I did. 

First thanks for a quick reply. I have done as you described in your post #2 to get 24GB or RAM and it indeed worked. More precisely I added 6x4GB  memory modules into all slots except slot 5 and 6. Boot into BIOS, 24GB check!

Then I tested to add 2x1GB modules that I had left into slots 5 and 6. Bootup into BIOS wow 26GB :)

Now lets test another thing. Remove those 1Gb modules from slot 5 and 6 and put in two 4GB modules into slot 5 and 6. Boot into BIOS again see your 32GB.

Before I started I also did a reset of the RTC by connecting a jumper to RTCRST pinout on the motherboard, waited for 5-8 seconds , removed the jumper.

BIOS version I am running is 09.

All this looks like a bug in the BIOS and should be addressed by DELL and be easily fixable! 

It would be interesting to hear if someone else can successfully reproduce this. Please report your experiences!

Cheers

/Bortek

Crucial 8GB Kit (2 X 4GB) PC2-5300 DDR2-667MHz ECC Fully Buffered CL5 240-Pin DIMM Memory for Dell Precision Workstation T5400

This kind of ram is VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY PICKY.

It must be in pairs and it must be matched all from the same vendor or it will blue screen beep beep beep bad not working ever.

It also requires active cooling aka a fan which may be optional on the system.

CT756128 - 4GB DDR2 PC2-5300 Fully Buffered ECC 1.8V 512Meg x 72

Max Ram 32 Gig

8 Memory slots.

http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/precision-workstation-t5400/CT756128

You said you were not working for Dell ;)

I am attaching dmidecode output. Scroll down to memory part or search for KINGSTON , you will see all the details. I think you should stop this flame.

[View:~/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-discussions-components-files/3514/dmidecode.txt:550:0]

This forum is not Dell Support for Sweden.  Your warranty is long since expired and Kingston Ram is not supported here.

BIOS Information
    Vendor: Dell Inc.
    Version: A09

Ram Goes in Pairs in the White Slots 1st then the black slots.

[White] DIMM 1
[Black] DIMM 5
[White] DIMM 2
[Black] DIMM 6
[White] DIMM 3
[Black] DIMM 7
[White] DIMM 4
[Black] DIMM 8

Ram should be installed in matched pairs and if possible all the ram should be the same Rank, Density, Timing, Vendor Etc.

Part# QTY Description
01323 10 T5400-INTEL XEON E5420 (2.50GHZ, 1333MHZ)
23503 10 RESOURCE DVD : PRECISION T5400
3K644 10 SHIP ACCESSORY : SWEDISH DOCS
4564U 10 VERTICAL CHASSIS ORIENTATION (MINITOWER)
57154 10 MEMORY : 4096MB (4X1024) 667MHZ DDR2 QUA
58548 10 FLOPPY DISK DRIVE : NOT INCLUDED
5H462 10 HARD DRIVE : 160GB (7200RPM) SERIAL ATA
8564U 10 OPTICAL DRIVE : POWER DVD 8.3 MEDIA AND
DM266 10 OPTICAL DRIVE : 16X DVD-ROM DRIVE
FT150 10 C1 SATA NO RAID FOR 1 HARD DRIVE
GX609 10 SATA UNDER 2TERABYTE CONFIGURATION
GX670 10 DISPLAY : NOT INCLUDED (FOR BUNDLES ONLY
HK406 10 AUDIO : INTEGRATED SOUND CARD
HR628 10 SPEAKERS : INTERNAL SPEAKER
HR683 10 MICE : DELL BLACK 2 BUTTON USB SCROLL OP
HW410 10 KEYBOARD : NOT INCLUDED
JC052 10 OPERATING SYSTEM : SWEDISH GENUINE WINDO
JD210 10 OS MEDIA : SWEDISH GENUINE WINDOWS VISTA
JD509 10 NO SOFTWARE ANTI-VIRUS
MG434 10 CFI SPARE PARTS AVAILABILITY; AVAILABILI
MR122 10 EMEA ORDER READY INSTALLED HARDWARE & SW
MX703 10 MATROX P690+ 256MB DUAL PCIE X16 GRAPHIC
NX046 10 PRECISION ORDER - SWEDEN
WF117 10 BASE WARRANTY
XK738 10 3YR BASIC WARRANTY - NEXT BUSINESS DAY -
XR555 10 NO WARRANTY UPGRADE
Y6982 10 FIXED WORKSTATION - FREE FREIGHT SKU

Great sumup timb138 of what I have missed. I was indeed a bit stressed and was eager to share that your method worked and it is possible to get 32Gb working on this old peace of hardware. Good luck and hope you get it working some day.

Hi Speedstep,

Thank you for your reply but you are mixing postings from 2 different users, me and bortek who both have the same issue.

Originally I was sent 5 of the ab-c  sticks and 3 of the ac-c sticks but this error was corrected and I now have 8 matched ab-c sticks that were originally in a HP server.

Bortek had not listed his part numbers but has stated they are a matched set from Kingston so how can you infer they are `fake kingston ram`.

As I am fully aware of the stress this particular issue causes I can understand his reply being a little `short`.

I understand he has now got all 8 sticks working now so it adds doubt as to your definitive dismissive conclusions does it not?

I will retry the method he had success with and see if I have any luck with my system.

By the way I had tried every possible combination of the original sticks and the now matched sticks and always had the same result, I could get 24gb to work in slots 1234+78 (slot numbers not physical layout) but as soon as I tried the same pairs in slots 1-6 i got the beeps. Surely if it was not a bios issue then slots 5+6 would work identically to 7+8 which they do not.

If as you state in you post you are only a user too and not a dell employee I do not understand your vehement dismissal of this being a dell issue and yes we all know that dell does not support non dell components especially as these systems are over 10 years old now, so why throw in the get out of jail free statement?? This is a site where users can get unofficial help & advice from either other users or dell experts if they so choose to contribute, it is not the dell help line so your comments are dismissive and not helpful.

BTW the motherboard you have shown is not the one fitted to the system as it has 2 banks of 4 slots but I concur with your point of the white and black slots and the slots not being ordered 1234... thanks but I had already realised this.

---------------------------------------------------------

Bortek

Congratulations on your success I had tried the same thing but the 1GB cards wouldn't work in 5 & 6 for me but I will revisit and post  how I got on.

Everyone who posted previously thank you, I too recently upgraded RAM on my T5400 from 16GB to 32GB (8x4GB) and the system recognized all 8 4GB sticks, but only accepted 24GB. Mine was all server grade matched memory, so the fix for me was patching the Bios to A11.

Just in case anyone else is still using this hardware and needs the help.

QM

**EDIT**

system shows 4 GB in all 8 slots, ECC=YES, Rank =2, Type = FBD, Organization = x4 and yet, system is back to only showing 24GB of ram. since this machine is a lab ESX server, I kind of want / need the extra 8GB of RAM. any ideas?

Hey, I know this is a very old post, but I had a similar experience so I will reply in the hopes of helping somebody.

I have a T5400 with A11 BIOS I had updated previously to try to quiet down its fans. I bought it 32 GB of RAM like other people in this thread. I received 7 AB sticks and one AB-C stick. I installed them in the T5400 and sure enough, Linux reported that they were all there with dmidecode, but free and /proc/meminfo showed only 24GB available to the OS. I read this post and was ready to email the vendor that sold me the RAM but decided to do one last thing before I did so.

I took out a can of contact cleaner and liberally sprayed the RAM slots to clean all the contacts. I waited a while for everything to dry, just in case, and then reinstalled the RAM. After booting up, with absolutely no BIOS upgrade or changes, the OS now sees all 32GB.

Moral of the story for me is that dmidecode gets its information from somewhere where there is no context about whether the server decided to turn off the sticks due to bad contact. Hence, while it reports all 8 sticks being installed, the OS may be barred from using one or more of them. Also, in my case, AB sticks worked with the AB-C stick.