Adding memory makes my audio hardware vanish!

[furtive]

Ok, this is odd.

I have an EQS RS690MKM AB1S motherboard in my Media PC which had 2 x 1Gb DDR2 800Mhz Corsair memory sticks in it (CM2X1024-6400C4) and everything worked fine, but I have Windows 7 64-bit installed, so it ran a bit slowly.

So I ordered a pair of 2Gb Ballistix DDR2 800 CL4 from Crucial.

Initially I put them in the spare 2 slots to give me a total of 6Gb or memory, but when I booted into Windows my audio hardware had vanished from Device Manager. So I removed the old Corsair memory thinking maybe there was some sort of conflict between the two types of memory, but my audio hardware was still missing.

If I remove the Ballistix memory and stick the Corsiar memory back in, my audio hardware magically reappears.

Any idea what the hell is going on?

[twister]

So it only happens if you've got 4 or more GB installed... are you sure your hardware supports 4+GB?

[Munter]

twister said:

So it only happens if you've got 4 or more GB installed... are you sure your hardware supports 4+GB?

Well that and Windows in 32bit often seems to do this kind of thing when it's got more memory than it can address.

4GB = Max 32bit windows can address. So 6GB = pointless as far as I'm aware.

[twister]

Munter said:

4GB = Max 32bit windows can address. So 6GB = pointless as far as I'm aware.

Well yes, but the OP mentioned having a 64-bit installation, which is why I'm thinking it may be a hardware issue...

[ThatPhilBrettGuy]

Crap audio driver, which I'm sorry to say there's no fix. Unless the sound driver gets fixed obviously.

Some old drivers don't work over the 4GB boundry. What's happening is the driver is loading above that point, and the numpty/lazy driver coder hasn't taking that into account, most likely as it's mostly a cut and paste job from the 32 bit version....

[The_Jackal]

Are you using the onboard sound or a decent dedicated card (bearing in mind you say this is a media PC).

[furtive]

Onboard sound - no room for a soundcard in the machine as it's a slimline chassis and has got a TV card in it.

Interesting I hadn't considered it could be a driver issue. I'll try removing one of the sticks and see if that fixes the problem, and will look for updated drivers

[TurricanII]

Also look for a BIOS or firmware update for your motherboard which may help

[furtive]

Took one of the memory sticks out and the audio hardware came back. I've emailed Realtek and they have send me a diagnostic tool to run and send the results back to them

[furtive]

Except it won't run because the first thing it does it try and find the audio hardware, which it can't find

[KaraK]

ThatPhilBrettGuy said:

Crap audio driver, which I'm sorry to say there's no fix. Unless the sound driver gets fixed obviously.

Some old drivers don't work over the 4GB boundry. What's happening is the driver is loading above that point, and the numpty/lazy driver coder hasn't taking that into account, most likely as it's mostly a cut and paste job from the 32 bit version....

Sounds about right to me - Realtek had a very similar problem with their network card drivers under Vista x64 so I don't think its a massive leap to suggest the same has happened again here.

[dudleybloke]

i dont like realtec stuff.

if you've no room for an internal round card then get a usb sound card.
you should be able to get a decent one for under 30 squids.

[scorp]

dudleybloke said:

i dont like realtec stuff.

if you've no room for an internal round card then get a usb sound card.
you should be able to get a decent one for under 30 squids.

USB(2) sound cards eat a lot of CPU in my experience, esp if gaming...

[furtive]

Would I still be able to pass the audio to my amp via the HDMI port on my motherboard with a USB sound card?

[KaraK]

furtive said:

Would I still be able to pass the audio to my amp via the HDMI port on my motherboard with a USB sound card?

'fraid not - you'd need an external card that had HDMI. Before you buy any hardware check that 64bit drivers exist, some manufacturers just don't supply 64bit drivers at all.

[furtive]

May as well just replace the motherboard with something that works

[dudleybloke]

furtive said:

May as well just replace the motherboard with something that works

or just buy a normal tower pc.
in my experience all these micro systems are all style over substance.

[furtive]

That would look lovely in my living room

It's not a micro system. It's a proper media PC in a slimline living room friendly chassis. It's just based on an old motherboard now.

[ThatPhilBrettGuy]

furtive said:

It's not a micro system. It's a proper media PC in a slimline living room friendly chassis. It's just based on an old motherboard now.

I've got one of those fanless Hush machines. £2K+ when I got it, but like you found the hardware got old. Problem is getting all the heatpipes to fit new stuff...

..so I sidestepped the problem and put one of those tiny ION Atom 330 based things in. Sure, it's not the fastest thing ever but plays 1080p fine, runs W7 media centre well using a USB dual freeview tuner. Only takes 4GB though so 32bit, but to be honest I can't see why, unless us use it for games etc you'd need more power.

Sits using <10W rather than >100W as well which is nice.