Did my Motherboard just go south on me?

rickoic · Post by **rickoic** » Sun Dec 20, 2009 8:28 am

I have a Foxconn FlamingBlade GTI LGA 1366 Intel x58 ATX motherboard with 6GB of Crucial (3 x 2GB) installed.

Suddenly it started showing I only have 2GB installed, I swapped the stick positions around in various combinations and it still only recognized 2GB.

Everything was fine up until Saturday and then I did a reboot to check bios to check a setting and when I rebooted it had dropped from 6GB to 2GB.

Now the 2GB shows in bios, Win 7 shows 6GB installed but only 2GB usable.

When I do Task Manager it shows that 4GB are reserved by bios/hardware, I checked bios again and didn't find anywhere were bios was cachable/uncachable.

Help
Rick

Sava700 · Post by **Sava700** » Sun Dec 20, 2009 8:40 am

Reset bios settings to default yet? Bios updated fully and your using ram brand/type that your able to based on the specs of the board?

rickoic · Post by **rickoic** » Sun Dec 20, 2009 10:24 am

Yeh, I tried reloading default settings, didn't help.

Tks
Rick

Shinobi · Post by **Shinobi** » Sun Dec 20, 2009 2:28 pm

Hi rickoic,

Might be your memory itself, are your OC'd ?

I would put 2 sticks in at a time.. and run the free version of memtest86
http://www.memtest86.com/

See what you get.. I hope it is minor.. whatever the problem is.. rough going without your main rig for the holiday...

Happy Holidays.
Shinobi

rickoic · Post by **rickoic** » Sun Dec 20, 2009 3:59 pm

Ok, doing memtest86 right now, but it only finds 2039M of mem found to test, which just about confirms that my motherboard just isn't working right.

Tks
Rick

Sava700 · Post by **Sava700** » Sun Dec 20, 2009 4:10 pm

rickoic wrote:Ok, doing memtest86 right now, but it only finds 2039M of mem found to test, which just about confirms that my motherboard just isn't working right.

Tks
Rick

You need to run memtest on (ONE) chip at a time.... not all of them. Test each one by themselves.

rickoic · Post by **rickoic** » Sun Dec 20, 2009 7:51 pm

Ok, ran the following tests and all came out the same. Wether 1, 2, or 3 chips installed it showed Memory as 2039mb with 2039mb cached.

Single chip in slot 2, all 3 chips tried. Had to use middle slot as mb wouldn't boot if only single chip in slot 1 or 3.
Double chips in slot 1 and 2, and also in 2 and 3 (tried all combinations possible including reverse) Chips 1-2, 1-3, 2-3, 2-1, 3-1, 3-2
All chips in slots 1, 2, and 3.

No errors in any combination.

Tks
Rick

rickoic · Post by **rickoic** » Sun Dec 20, 2009 8:16 pm

When I goto the system program it shows 6mb installed but only 1.99 usable. Using Task Manager and looking at the memory usage it show about 4mb as reserved by hardware/bios.

Hardware installed is sata hd, sata dvd, 2 bfg 150 gpu's.

Tks
Rick

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 7:43 am

Strange....
Things I'd try...
*Latest BIOS
*Reset BIOS to defaults..and then if it has a setting for "Optimal"..try that.

Was this RAM purchased from Crucial after running their RAM selection utility? As in, RAM specifically tested on/compatible with this make/model motherboard?

rickoic · Post by **rickoic** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 10:56 am

YeOldeStonecat wrote:Strange....
Things I'd try...
*Latest BIOS
*Reset BIOS to defaults..and then if it has a setting for "Optimal"..try that.

Was this RAM purchased from Crucial after running their RAM selection utility? As in, RAM specifically tested on/compatible with this make/model motherboard?

Don't have latest BIOS, mine are Award 03/19/09 and latest in 08/xx/09, but they didn't say what was corrected so am waiting on reply from Foxcomm on problem.

Did reset BIOS to defalt, Settings were Balanced, Saver, High.

Checked at Crucial and the ram is approved for my motherboard.

Just got an email from Foxcomm that they have received my request for help.

Tks
Rick

rickoic · Post by **rickoic** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 3:10 pm

Well first try by Foxcomm didn't work.

They had me do a force reset on the bios, and then restore Win 7 to a previous restore point.

Still status quo, BIOS only shows 2048 installed, while O/S shows 6144 installed but only 1.99 usable.

Tks
Rick

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 8:06 pm

64 bit Windows right?

What graphics card(s)? How much RAM on each?

When you installed the OS, did you install the chipset/motherboard drivers from Foxconns site?

rickoic · Post by **rickoic** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 7:06 am

Win 7 Pro 64bit
2 x BFG 250 GeForce 1Meg ram
and no I didn't install Foxconn's drivers. Everything worked fine for about a month so didn't think of it. I'll give that a try later today.

Tks
Rick

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 7:13 am

rickoic wrote: 2 x BFG 250 GeForce 1Meg ram

1 meg each or 1 gig?

You've got a puzzler here Ric.....I can't recall ever seeing this..where the BIOS reports less than the OS detects. Win7 will report what it sees, and what is usable..my laptop states 4 gigs (3 usable)...that's normal for my model laptop.

rickoic · Post by **rickoic** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 7:27 am

1 gig, happy fingers got me again.

Did your heart go up in your throat when you saw that the guinness plant in Dublin caught fire?

Tks
Rick

rickoic · Post by **rickoic** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 8:01 am

Yep a worker tried to fix the roof with a blow torch. Luckily it was an extra storage building and not one that they stored any product in.

Guess I reverted back to my childhood when 48K was more ram than you'll ever need. Then why did you get that extra 16K card? A year later, boy that 32K ram card is huge, but you'll never need it. Then a year after that, I'm gonna upgrade my new computer from 2meg to 4meg, but leave room for 8meg just in case. Now it's, gotta get 4Gig and hope I have room for 8Gig in 6 months.

Rick

rickoic · Post by **rickoic** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 4:02 pm

Ok, got the Foxconn drivers loaded, and theres no change. Even d/l'd their utility and flashed the latest bios. Their o/c utility/monitor and tried it, but still only recognizing 1.99GB as usable out of 6GB.

Tks
Rick