tho@tricnet.de writes:
Hi,
TL;DR - Has anybody either successfully used 16GB DDR3 modules on SandyBridge, can rule it out, or has ideas about how to dig deeper?
I recently bought 2 crucial 16GB DDR3 SODIMM modules to upgrade my T520 (2630QM CPU) to 32 GB. As it didn't work I did some research and found a couple of postings blaming the problem on Intel not providing proper memory reference code (e.g. http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/upgrading-ram.756463/page-2) preventing the BIOS from initializing the RAM.
When I looked for alternative BIOSes I came across coreboot. Compiled and installed it - works fine with 2*8GB modules. With one or two 16GB modules I still saw the SeaBIOS info but then it crashed. Adding memtest as a secondary payload and starting it worked, but memtest crashes instantly when it starts testing.
According to Sandy bridge datasheets only up to 4GB DDR3 technology is supported, which makes it possibly to use dimms with 2 ranks, with each rank having a capacity of 4GB, hence max 8GB per DIMM. This is a hardware limitation. <#secure method=pgpmime mode=sign>
Kind regards