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June 3rd, 2021 21:00

R810 Memory Upgrade Nightmare

Greetings

We have a Dell R810.

  • 4 x 8 core 2.6Ghz (E7-8837) CPU.
  • BIOS: 2.11.0
  • IDRAC: 6 2.90
  • CPLD: 1.5.0
  • 32 x 8GB DIMMs

We wanted to upgrade the RAM so we purchased a 512GB (16 x 32GB) DDR3-1066 MHz PC3-8500R ECC Registered Server Memory Upgrade Kit

Then the fun started.

We pulled out all of the old 8GB sticks and inserted the new 16 x 32GB thus:

A1,A3,A2,A4
B1,B3,B2,B4
C1,C3,C2,C4
D1,D3,D2,D4

Node Interleaving and Redundant Memory are both disabled.




Powered on and we get: "No configurable memory detected". "System Halted"

So first thing we do is remove all the new DIMMs and replace them with the old ones. Boots perfectly.

Reinsert the new ones and still the same error.

Then I found this chart:

Prosmart_0-1622779413644.png

which tells me (if I am not mistaken) that 16 x 32GB is not a supported configuration.

So then I go for the configuration on line 17 above with 32GB sticks in A1, A2, A3, A4 and the the old 8GB in A5, A6, A7, and A8 - same pattern across all the slots. The result was exactly the same - No configurable memory found.

For clarity, here is a shot of the old and new DIMMs. Old is (obviously) the top one.

OldNewDIMMs.jpg

and this is the sticker from the other side of the old DIMM.

OldDIMMObverse.jpg

The RAM vendor assures us that it "should all just work". They have even involved their Dell rep who advised us to update to Dell 11G CPLD, v.1.5.0, A03 and Dell iDRAC Monolithic Release 2.90 which we did (although in truth we were already at iDRAC 2.90.

Can anyone make any suggestions about this please? This has been going on for the last couple of weeks (we're in Australia and the Vendor is in the USA) and I'm about to take a fire-axe to the server cabinet with sheer frustration.

Regards

Nigel.

Moderator

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2.2K Posts

June 4th, 2021 02:00

Hello,
Sorry to hear that. I did some research and I would like to share what I found outside the memory matrix table you found. Frankly, I suspect these DIMMs "M393B2K70DM0-YF8". I couldn't see the DIMM on the spare parts page for this model under R810. Also, I couldn't see 32GB of memory. I was able to view 16GB of memories. I suggest you take a look at the memory guideline here, page 100-107

A 16x32GB configuration does not appear.  https://dell.to/3vQbwBX

Apart from that, I found some info like this;

DIMMs Supported

R810 supports RDIMMs only, running at 1067 MHz. DIMM capacities of 1 GB, 2 GB, 4 GB, 8 GB, 16 GB, and 32 GB are supported.

Single, dual, and quad rank DIMMS are supported.

LV DIMMs are not supported with the Nehalem EX / Boxboro chipset.

Key features of the PowerEdge R810 (4S/2S 2U) memory system include:

Registered (RDIMM) ECC DDR3 technology

  • Each channel carries 64 data and 8 ECC bits
  • Support for up to 1 TB of memory (with 32 GB RDIMMs)
  • Support for 1066 MHz single, dual, and quad rank DIMMs
  • Support ODT (On Die Termination)
  • Clock gating (CKE) to conserve power when DIMMs are not accessed
    • DIMMs enter a low power self-refresh mode
  • I2C access to SPD EEPROM for access to RDIMM thermal sensors
  • Single-Bit Error Correction
  • SDDC (Single Device Data Correction – x4 or x8 devices)
  • Support for Closed Loop Thermal Management on RDIMMs
  • Multi-Bit Error Detection
  • Support for Memory Mirroring in limited configurations
  • Support for Memory (Rank) Sparing in limited configurations

Memory Speed Limitations

The memory frequency is determined by a variety of inputs:

  • Speed of the DIMMs
  • Speed supported by the CPU (note the DDR3 speed is 1/6 the frequency of the SMI link)
  • BIOS can limit frequency to DDR3 800 based on user power savings configuration in the Setup menu

R810 will support DDR3 1067 DIMMs. Some CPU SKUs will have lower SMI link speeds resulting in slower DDR3 buses. The planned supported frequencies are as follows:

  • SMI link speed at 4.8 GT/sec => DDR3 800
  • SMI link speed of 5.86 GT/sec => DDR3 978
  • SMI link speed of 6.4 GT/sec => DDR3 1067

NOTE: For Quad Rank DIMMs mixed with Single or Dual Rank DIMMs, the QR DIMM needs to be in the slot with the white ejection tabs (the first DIMM slot in each channel). There is no requirement for the order of SR and DR DIMMs.

 

Hope this will helps!

14 Posts

June 3rd, 2021 22:00

One thing I omitted - the machine is a Gen 2.

14 Posts

June 8th, 2021 18:00

Thanks so much for your input. We are now swapping 16 x 32GB for 32 x 16GB.

Your input was most welcome.

Rgds

Nigel.

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