Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Ram and motherboard issue please pwease help

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Ram and motherboard issue please pwease help

    I may have mentioned before I left stuff in storage and then I had problems with all of it.

    I hate to keep begging for help, but what can I do.

    One of the machines, had 2 1gb sticks of DDR3, booted with a CMOS error no matter how many times I enter and save the date. VP said update the bios but my mobo is discontinued and I somehow have a more recent version installed.

    1- I purchased more ram, ddr3 at the same speed, by a good make. The PC doesn't give me the bios 'ram has changed in size' question, just goes into a repair mode boot loop that win 10 can do. I managed to switch off repair mode but it frankensteins, just happens again.

    I've tried each stick one at a time, both brand new sticks cause the boot loop, made worse by the CMOS errors.

    I tried the Crucial system scan they seem to recommend UDIMM for some reason.

    Should I return the ram, because I've never come across this before. I am an idiot, though, that's a given.

    2. If the bios version available is older, should I flash that seeing as my current one seems corrupt? Replaced with new batteries twice, makes no difference.

    Thanks in advance if anyone tries to help

    #2
    Downgrading the BIOS isn't the worst idea I suppose. Motherboard vendors tend to host all versions of the BIOS so I'm wondering if you've got the right board if you say you have a more recent version installed - or perhaps I'm failing to understand what you mean by that.

    Do you have the board model handy? Might help with diagnosing this a little further. If you did want to test the RAM you could try something like Memtest86 too - could be worth it to see if you can boot to things that aren't your Windows install too.
    Last edited by speedlolita; 02-08-2020, 03:29.

    Comment


      #3
      Thanks for replying, a fellow night owl. It's not a recent board at all and Intel removed a bunch of older versions in 2019. On a third party driver site the one they have is older very weird.

      I've never flashed a bios or recovery. Have done similar but not desktops.

      I have no idea why the ram is failing a bit peed off.

      Comment


        #4
        Tell us the motherboard model, and the ram spec. Make the memtest86 boot stick like speedy said and boot from that and let us know the results after you run the test

        Comment


          #5
          Thanks , sorry I'm a bit mixed up because I have two towers, one I was considering giving to someone.

          The one mentioned above is an Intel mobo DH55C.

          The new ram is 2 4gb DDR3 sticks at 1333MHz. I only purchased that because that's what I thought was in it already.

          The crucial system scan recommended a faster speed and UDIMM.

          Again the bios is now a pain because it reboots usually with. cmos error. Memtest stops after 3 seconds and crashes.

          The older ram functions fine and it works again.

          I'm not a hardware guy as such and this stuff drives me nuts.

          Comment


            #6
            55c? Not a 55tc or 55hc?

            Comment


              #7
              What slots are you putting the ram in?

              Comment


                #8
                Taking a step back, what's the CMOS error you get in detail? Have you tried to replace the mobo battery?

                Comment


                  #9
                  Thanks, I've tried slot 0 for A and B I think. Including one stick at a time.?

                  it is 55hc I thought I corrected that, but I don't know what happened.

                  The CMOS error is 'cmos checksum error'.

                  I have replaced the batteries twice but no luck. It reboots often saying time is not set or just reboots anyway till it loads up windows.

                  Sorry for the bother I would use doctor hammer on it in the past.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    I've tried each stick one at a time, both brand new sticks cause the boot loop, made worse by the CMOS errors.
                    I think that's probably your answer right there, the new sticks cause a problem, your old ones don't - there's an issue with the RAM, either it's duff or incompatible.

                    Just make sure when you're swapping them out, you're putting them in the same slots (single stick must be in a D0A, matched DIMMs must be same speed, same size in D0A/D0B & D1A/D1B). Make sure it's not ECC RAM as that won't work in (most) desktop mobos (if it looks like it's got an extra chip in the middle of the RAM, chances are it's ECC). Slots going from processor to board edge are D1A, D0A, D1B. D0B.

                    As a general rule of thumb (though it's not completely consistent across all mobos), RAM goes in the furthest DIMM slot away from the processor first, matching slot colours when pairing them up.

                    If your mobo is working with the originals and not booting with just the new DIMMs only in the same slots, and the RAM is the same spec, then the RAM is likely DOA.

                    Post pics of the RAM and someone will likely be able to spot if there's a compatibility issue.

                    You should also be able to reset the BIOS to default values in the BIOS screen if you're getting checksum errors, which should put things back to factory settings. So, if you are able to get into the BIOS with the new RAM, do a BIOS reset then reboot. If you can't get into the BIOS with the new RAM, return the RAM.
                    Last edited by MartyG; 03-08-2020, 09:22.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Sorry for the trouble, the bios errors happen with old ram too. But it does boot into windows with the old ram. I've reset to factory and safe settings, put a new branded battery , everything except flash the bios.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Okay, well it maybe that your BIOS mem had gone bad - it can happen, old Samsung phones are notorious for it (S3-5 in particular) as if they used borderline flash memory at the time which just got worse overtime.

                        It might be worth re-flashing it to see if that fixes things, but I'd expect a BIOS reset to help here if it was simply a settings issue. Some boards you can drop in a new BIOS chip, I'd have to look the board up to see if it's possible here.

                        Edit - you can get replacement chips, but it's not a DIL package, so you'd need a bit of repair skill to replace it, which probably isn't worth it on an 1156 board. Try the BIOS reflash, it's worth a go.
                        Last edited by MartyG; 03-08-2020, 22:36.

                        Comment

                        Working...
                        X