Updating drivers....

[Brian C. Miller]

Brian,

The motherboard BIOS is not a "custom" BIOS.

They're done by companies that have been in that business for many years, like Award. They know what they're doing.

They have direct access to the manufacturers during the design phase for the micro, and know everything there is to know about it.

It's a profit thing. One major error can cost them a lot of money.

This is not like the garbage consumer s/w that floods the market, with more errors than you can count.

I've written quite a few "custom" BIOS packages, and they're quite a bit different than what comes on a commercial MB.

- Leigh

Back in the early 90's I went with two of our software guys and one of the hardware engineers to a four-day course at the Phoenix headquarters in California. The course was standard when a company bought a source code license from Phoenix. IIRC, we were switching away from Award, and AMI wasn't a consideration. Our new hardware required better BIOS source, and Phoenix had the best package for customization. Yes, I do have some direct knowledge in this area. The additional chipsets on a MB can require BIOS customization, and the guys I worked with wrote FPGA code without a second thought. The systems were used primarily for medical and industrial control in VME and VXI chassis, and there were some government contracts as well.

Anyways, none of this helps poor Kirk with his MB problems.

[Kirk Gittings]

Now I'm really screwed. I decided to put my old memory back in and return the new. But now my computer won't power up at all. It just starts to and then shuts off over and over again! HHEEEELLLPP.

[Peter De Smidt]

What did you change just before removing the new memory? When the computer starts to re-boot, can you get into bios? It sounds like you changed a setting in the bios that doesn't allow stable operation.

[Kirk Gittings]

I didn't do anything in the bios as far as I know. I just updated some drivers.

[Peter De Smidt]

Ok. What drivers? When your computer starts up, there's a key to press that will send you to the bios. Are you able to do that?

[Kirk Gittings]

I switched the memory back to the new-same shit. I then switched it back to the old again and it just now started up. WHEW!

i updated the graphics card and the CPU drivers

[Peter De Smidt]

That's good news!

[Kirk Gittings]

Man I was sweating bullets!

As per the memory, I am in dialogue with the MB manufacturer to get their POV.

[Kirk Gittings]

Thanks Peter and everyone. I'll update this when I actually know something.

[Daniel Moore]

RAM is notoriously finicky and some things need to be established to isolate the variables. If you've bought the sets at different times they ideally should be exactly the same, from a retail packaging standpoint. If you pull them out and mix them up you may be mixing up the batches they were manufactured in, yes, that finicky. You would benefit from knowing which are meant to be pairs and label them in a way that won't void their warranty. A free program called CPU-Z can tell you the week they were manufactured, two will match, they are a set and should be kept that way. Your motherboard has a standard pairing, you'll need to know this. It could be either adjacent or alternating slots are paired. It's not conclusive simply to guess as things may actually work in the 'wrong' installation, it's in the manual and needs to be adhered to. You need to know the manufacturers voltage rating for that RAM and go into the BIOS and find out if you are running it, if not, change it VERY CAREFULLY, too much by even a little bit can smoke it. Do not refer to CPU-Z voltage readings, only the BIOS can be trusted.

I like to live on the edge and do every BIOS update that is NOT BETA. Bios flashing utilites have come a long way from the time when bricking a board was a very real concern. Gigabyte has a good set of instructions on their website where you'll find the BIOS. Print it out for sanity's sake. Take it real slow, triple check yourself as you go as it's new to you. In all likelihood their tech support will instruct you to do this anyway before proceeding. Do verify your RAM is on their compatiblity list IN THE CONFIGURATION you're using, don't assume because 8 works that 16 will too of the same make type, it needs to be listed there. If it's not, that's actually not the end of the world as they don't test all possible configurations, it's just something you need to be aware of as a potential problem. RAM arrives DOA all the time. All the time. I suggest you simply get another set and try it out. That fixes most such problems right there.

Lastly, check CPU-Z values for actual RAM timings, comparing the BIOS set timings (boards tend to pick their own defaults (AUTO) if you don't override them) against the manufacturers spec'd timings. If AUTO, then set them manually to the specs provided by the RAM manufacturer. If you're running bleeding edge low latency RAM, sometimes just loosening the timings will improve your chances of stability as you add more capacity.

Oh, ditch the driver helper. Win 7 does a very good job of that itself and quite often these little innocent helper programs are spyware anyway. Let windows advise you but make your own call. They aren't often necessary unless you have specific problems.

RAM should always be the first thing you suspect when a computer goes haywire, Mac or PC, nothing is faster or easier to switch out and it's so common it pays to start there. It's incredibly cheap now so a spare known working set is literally cheap insurance.

One more important tip, simply removing RAM and putting it back in, commonly referred to as reseating, can solve some problems all by itself. Of course if you're not wearing an antistatic wrist strap but sure to sit still, touch bare metal on the back and wait a good 30 seconds after the power has been switched off.