HP XW8200 won't boot with more then 8 gigs of RAM (bios, 16GB)

[Van Oliver]

Hello

I recently updated my HP XW8200 to a windows 7 64bit OS and purchased some DDR2 3200 ECC REGISTERD RAM.

The system will boot with 8 gigs installed in the top 4 DIMMs but if any more RAM is added to the bottom 4 DIMMs I get 5 beeps and the system doesn't boot.

All the RAM is identical and the system is supposed to support up to 16gigs.

Any ideas?

[kazyn]

Make sure you're putting the sticks in correctly. Some of the higher-end workstations tend to have a pattern you must use, so make sure you're following the directions on the inside of the case panel.

Edit: if you're using all the slots, you might have one or more slots or RAM sticks that are not functioning properly. You'll have to do manual testing to see which slot or which RAM stick is bad.


You can see here, for the Z400, the RAM configuration is specific, other configurations will not work:
http://h20195.www2.hp.com/v2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA1-1503ENW.pdf (broken link)

[Van Oliver]

The RAM all checks out would a BIOS update help?

[st33lcas3]

What version of Windows 7 are you using? Is it the Home edition or the Professional version.

Home Basic only supports 8GB in the 64bit edition. You need Home Premium, or Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise or Ultimate to see more than 8GB.

[Van Oliver]

The problem was the RAM is 2 Rank and the xw8200 can run 16 gigs of RAM at a maximum of 8 ranks.

So I’ve used up all the rank in the first 4 DIMMs

To run 16 gigs I need 1 rank 2 gig sticks of pc3200

[Van Oliver]

I have windows 7 home premium

Thanks for the help all

[Jesse69]

HP xw8200 Workstation - Worldwide QuickSpecs

I had the same problem with my latest custom built Asrock PC. It would boot normally with 8GB, but in 16 GB of memory I couldn't use custom settings, I had to use default timings that weren't the memory spec in order for it to boot properly.

[Valarin]

I have an xw8200 3.4 ghz dual proc box.
I am running 6 sticks of 512MB RAM.
And recently, I upgraded to win 7 64bit Professional.
I have now gotten some new RAM two 2GB sticks and when I put it in the 7th and 8th slot I got the 5 beeps. So I switched it to the first 2 slots and it worked fine. But when I add the original two 512mb to the 7th and 8th slot I still get the 5 beeps. I updated the BIOS to 2.10 and thought there might be an option to switch BIOS to 64 bit but I didn't see one. The white pages say 32 bit can handle 6GB and 64 bit can handle 16GB, is this the problem or is there something else? I have seen mention on forums about "rank" and that being a factor. How do I find out what rank the original 512 sticks were and what rank the new 2gb sticks are if that is a factor?

Please help. Thanks in adavnce.