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I have 3x DL380 G5 servers that were second hand retired ones. One of the servers, I populated with 4x 4GB DIMMs, and 4x 1GB DIMMs.

Everything was working away merrily, and I decided to purchase some more 4GB DIMMs to increase the memory in one of the servers. I took all 8 of the 4GB DIMMs, and put them into one of the servers, and I got error messages in POST regarding unsupported DIMMs and differing DIMMs in each bank. I removed the new DIMMs to start with and stuck with the 4 known good ones.

I managed to find that the original 4 DIMMs I had, were of 3 different part numbers. The two that are the same part number are showing as unsupported DIMMs in this server, and do not even work in the server they were originally working in. Perhaps it was a fluke they ever worked, however unlikely.

Point is, I have 2x KTD-WS667LPQ DIMMs which are now showing as unsupported. As far as I am aware, these are correct as they are PC2-5300F ECC fully buffered.

The other two models I have are KTM5780 and KTH-XW667, which are also PC2-5300F ECC fully buffered DIMMs - these are working ok. Is there some difference between the models that cause the KTD-WS667LPQ ones to now be unsupported in this server?

The new DIMMs I purchased are Samsung M395T5163QZ4, which again are reported as being PC2-5300F ECC fully buffered, yet these do not work either.

Am I missing something truly obvious, as as far as I can tell, all 8 should work just fine.

Page 5 of this document shows memory compatibility

James Edmonds
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4 Answers4

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If you want to populate RAM for a server like this, I can't see any barriers to you doing the right thing and using the RAM specifically meant for this model; specifically HP part # 397415-B21, which is comprised of 2 x 4GB modules.

enter image description here

The DIMMs are only a few dollars for this very old server model.

ewwhite
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  • Thanks. Being in the UK, it would cost me twice as much to get the HP branded part, as it would for a standard RAM manufacturers part. I can get 16GB as 4x4GB for £19.90, but for the HP stuff, it costs about £17 for only 8GB. The DIMMs share the same specifications, and the ones I had were working. This is only a home lab, so double cost is quite a consideration. – James Edmonds Jan 24 '16 at 22:59
  • @Eds Okay, I think you can [find the parts for less](http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=397415-B21&_sop=2). But best of luck. I don't know why your existing DIMMs did not work. – ewwhite Jan 24 '16 at 23:02
  • Comparing the [HP Part](http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hp-8Gb-2-x-4gb-PC-2-5300-DDR2-ECC-Memory-ML350-ML370-DL360-DL380-397415-B21-/181981870810?hash=item2a5ef6fada:g:1ssAAMXQHDlRcYQn) with the [Micron part](http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/351447427062?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT), are they not essentially identical? – James Edmonds Jan 24 '16 at 23:13
  • I found [this question](http://serverfault.com/questions/570004/why-wont-my-dell-server-use-ibm-ram?rq=1) that I believe you had input on a year or two ago. I hadn't considered the possibility of a BIOS update, as HP now require a support subscription for BIOS downloads. I had a bit of a moan at them, and they provided me with the update, which I will try. Hopefully it will be a similar issue. – James Edmonds Jan 25 '16 at 17:33
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KTD-WS667LPQ is 'Quad' Rank FBDIMMs unsupported by HP ProLiant DL380 G5

Only Single Rank and Dual Rank modules supported.

KTM5780 and KTH-XW667 are Dual Rank FBDIMMs, so it will work.

For complete manual, click here.

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How are you populating your slots? From what i gather on the G5 the memory should be skipping a slot for matching dimms.

EX. KTD-WS667LPQ in slots 1 and 3, KTM5780 in slot 2 and KTH-XW667 in slot 4, Samsung M395T5163QZ4 in slots 5 and 7

Try each of those sets by themselves to see if they work fine, if they do work fine all by themselves then try adding the sets together similar to the example above.

Hope this helps.

Aaron
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  • Thanks Aron. Yes 1 and 3 are bank A, 5 and 7 bank B and so on. I tried each DIMM set seperately, but only the two of them worked, the rest showed unsupported DIMMs. I will try again just in case I was going crazy, but pretty sure I will get the same result. – James Edmonds Jan 24 '16 at 16:59
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Thanks to this question, I decided to get the BIOS on the machines updated, and things seem to now be working as expected.

Quite probably due to different ranking/banking layout on the DIMMs, which the BIOS update introduced added support for.

EDIT: Would also like to thank @ewwhite for his input on the official HP part numbers. Money not being an issue, this should have been the direction to go in the first place.

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James Edmonds
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