990FX Extreme4 Bios 2.0 issues

[jayhawk261]

Hello all. I'm a newb here to the board. I recently upgraded my 990FX Extreme 4 to Bios 2.0 and had some memory problems. Why did I upgrade? Well, I guess you can say that I like the challenge! I have updated dozens of bios on different boards and even this one with no problems. Unfortunately, this time I had one.

So, here is what happened:

Prior to the ram in my signature, I was running (4) 4GB sticks of Corsair Vengeance CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9B. I installed the new 2.0 bios Thursday, and that is when I had problems. On every start up, the system would hang and not post. Error code on Dr Debug showed 36. After a little searching I found out it was a ram issue. I then started testing the ram in different configurations and in different slots. What I finally found out was that 1 of my 4 sticks would work in any slot. The other 3 would not work in any configuration.

I decided I would try different ram to see what happened. I picked up the Crucial Ballistix BLE2CP8G3D1869DE1TX0 which is a dual channel 16GB pack. I installed these and got the error 36. I pulled one and ran in single channel mode and it did boot and run.

My next step was to revert back to the 1.80 BIOS. I did that, and was able to get everything to work except it only recognizes my crucial ram as 1333 rather than the 1866 that it is.

After a lot of searching, I have not found a good answer to my initial question. What is the issue that I am having with the 2.0 bios that caused it to have problems with my ram. I would like to be able to run the 2.0 BIOS. Is this a solvable problem?

My second question is, why does the BIOS show the DRAM frequency at 1333 rather than 1866? I have changed the frequency manually to 1866 in the OC section of the BIOS. I would just like to see it do that all by itself though.

Anything will help. Thanks!

[- wardog -]

I too had problems updating from 1.80 to 2.00, and the same error code 36. See HERE.

I "solved' it before ASRock TSD - Emily posted a BETA BIOS for me to try. You might try 2.00 using only the only the blue slots(A1 and B1) and if successful follow up by populating the white slots(A2 and B2).

[- wardog -]

My second question is, why does the BIOS show the DRAM frequency at 1333 rather than 1866? I have changed the frequency manually to 1866 in the OC section of the BIOS. I would just like to see it do that all by itself though.

Hello and Welcome BTW.

That your memory is initially picked up as 1333 is solely for compatibility reasons. Well, when the BIOS is set to Auto it works this way. You can force XMP upon it at first boot with newly installed memory but that doesn't always work as planned and can result in a no boot situation. Hence Auto 99% of the time will result in lower speeds and looser timings BUT will allow it to boot so that the user can then enter the BIOS and set them manually or via an XMP profile.

A side note: Check that your BIOS is correctly setting your memory voltage, regardless of manual or XMP.