my dual channel DDR 400 RAM won't work on any linux distro

Hi,

I have a Gigabyte SINXP1394 motherboard, and 2 Kingston 512 MB DDR 400 (CL 2.5) RAM modules installed. Whenever I try to install any Linux distribution, I always get a black screen after the kernel loads, when I have dual channel enabled; If I take out 1 of the RAM modules (either one), everything works as it should -- it's not a bad module (works perfectly under Windows by the way). I can't disable dual channel without taking out half of my RAM, and I really do not want to run with only half of it. Does anyone have any idea how I can fix this problem, or is it something that needs to be updated in the kernel?

Thanks for any info.

It does seem like something that should be fixed in the kernel. Subscribe the the Linux Kernel Mail List at kernel.org and they might be able to help.

are you SURE it isn't bad? go to memcheck.com and download their ram checker program. Sometimes Windows is more tolerant of bad ram than linux (it will just crash randomly, like linux is doing)

the nForce and granite bay chipsets are relatively new. I would imagine that it would just be a matter of time before someone succesfully builds a kernel with drivers to support it.

I am not positive but believeif you have an unusually large amount of memory you must specify your memory at the initial boot prompt (im not sure though how much ram you have to have to need this option. Check www.redhat.com and click support/docs and look for the
big mem option. It should give detailed instructions.

No, that's just in older motherboards with buggy BIOSes. I also have 512 MBs of RAM, and it's working perfectly.