Issues Upgrading R710 Memory

Hi

Thanks for the response, the bios is 6.6.0 and the comms are as follows;

Samsung M393B2G701H0-YK0 - 16gb 2rx4 pc3l- 12800r

Hynix HMT42GR7MFR4C - 16gb 2rx4 pc3 - 12800r

I did not take note of which module was in each dimm slot as I thought they could all be mixed.

Thanks

Ok! For the BIOS you are up to date so you should not have any compatibility issue with the CPU. This also includes support for 16GB DIMMs.

In fact, Dual-rank RDIMMs of size 16 GB are supported for a total of up to 288 GB. Which is the amount you want to have. 

As you have 18 modules of 16GB you should populate all DIMM slots: A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6, A7, A8, A9 and B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B6, B7, B8, B9

You also sleected the optimizer mode in the BIOS. There fore, I have no reasons to believe you are setting anything in a incorrect way. I can only think on a hardware failure.

Can you try a smaller configuration with a dual processor and escalate it from them step by step. Like for example: A1, A2 and A3 and B3, B2 and B1 populated with 16GB DIMMs (make sure to check the DIMM ids and populate the correct DIMMs as they are not physical one next to the other).

Let me know if this configuration works.
Regards.

Hi

I also attempted populating the first two slots In each channel with the 16s, the same config as the 4rx4 sticks and A3 and 7 were disabled again

I would have agreed with hardware failure, but why do the quad rank dimms work in that slot?

Thanks

Mirroring is definitely not enabled.. if it were a compatibility thing, shouldn't it have not worked at all?

As it is disabling channel 3 I would verify if mirroring is enabled in the BIOS, also I am not showing the specific dimms as supported in the server as well. So it may be a question of compatibility. 

Let us know.

Hi,

The issue seems familiar to me, I have seen upgrades with 4Gb DRAMs on Nehalem-based Xeon microprocessors wouldn't work. Based on your 16gb 2rx4 memory, the calculation for DRAM is 4Gb. You might have issues on compatibility with memory and processor. 

So the server supports 288gb of memory, what is the supported combination of memory and CPU then?

Hi,

For Nehalems, best to have 2Gb DRAM. 2RX4 has 4Gb DRAM and 4RX4 has 2GBb DRAM.

Is that documented anywhere? Surely people have working 2rx4 setups?

Sure! You have all documentation for the PowerEdge R710 here: Documentation

More specifically, you have the General Memory Module Installation from July 2013 

And the Information Update - System Memory from October 2012 

You also have the Hardware Owner's Manual where you can find all memory related information (Page 129)

The mayor problem I see here is the modules not being shown as compatible for the server. When @DELL-Chris H mentioned about it possibly being a compatibility issue. You replied "if it were a compatibility thing, shouldn't it have not worked at all?" and I would like you to understand that this is the problem about compatibility issues. It does not mean it won't work, it means it is not compatible / not supported. It can work, but not as you expect.

As you mention in your last comment: "Surely people have working 2rx4 setups?" I agree on that. Maybe in the Community there is somebody who has tested this configuration and was able to make it work. The post is open and we will be happy to read further comments about this.

Regards.

Thank you for the links, I have been through them and have not been able to find anything around your comments regarding the CPU and quad rank memory.  Can you please be more specific?

Up to 1033MHz (8500) memory is supported for 4R memory (this matches what you have that works).
Up to 1333MHz (10600) memory is supported for 2R memory.

I may have missed something somewhere, but in none of the docs did I see that 12800 (1600MHz) is a supported speed. Yes, RAM will *usually* clock down, but I wonder if it is unable to in this case OR if your timings are too fast for this server (or in combination, it can't properly negotiate with them.

Take a look at the specifications listed here to compare with your setup:

https://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pedge/en/server-poweredge-r710-tech-guidebook.pdf

(Most of the docs previously posted reference memory population rules, but the above link was not included and is generally easier to understand and more complete (even if more often out of date), including info about quad-rank memory, but that appears to be irrelevant to this thread as you are trying to get the 2R modules working ... right?)

Thanks for the link and yes correct trying to get dual rank 16gb 12800s working !