I have 16GB RAM but it's only showing 8GB.

[pansertjald]

...Cute.

Hardware doesnt magically fix with software updates, the firmware they gave you, all it can do to magically fix your "problems" is undervolting.

Funny you mentioned GTX 580, i had the same, memory problems after 4 years, undervolted it/lowered frequency a bit, fine for ~5 months and died afterwards.

The problem you are talking about, was the volt problem on allmost all of the 500 series cards. I had to up my volt to get it stable and i still had to up the volt after the firmware update. The only thing the firmware did, was to fix some instability with the memory. It did nothing to the volt problem

- - - Updated - - -

Did you install 64 bit version of windows? Maybe you installed 32bit , just my two cents.

Next time please read the thread first or don't post

[Deleted]

The problem you are talking about, was the volt problem on allmost all of the 500 series cards. I had to up my volt to get it stable and i still had to up the volt after the firmware update. The only thing the firmware did, was to fix some instability with the memory. It did nothing to the volt problem

- - - Updated - - -



Next time please read the thread first or don't post

lol sorry bro, i did just see your attachment after i posted. No need to be so snarky with people just trying to help. Lighten up bro.

[Evildeffy]

Well this escalated

Doesnt surprise me the mobo seems to have bricked, all P67-Z68-Z77 mobos are a pile of shit, i know first hand from my P67

Either way, flashing BIOS was both wrong and correct.

The BIOS doesnt suddenly go and bug out or change settings, if it does it means problem with the motherboard itself first from the battery and secondary to the chip itself.

A PC that worked 5 years and suddenly has the issue the OP mentioned wouldnt be fixed by a BIOS update, it worked for 5 years and suddenly happened, was quite obvious its hardware related and mobo was at its last, i wouldnt even blame anyone for the flashing failure.

Either way, kinda weird no one mentioned she should have simply reset cmos first, unless i didnt read correctly, oh well.

Actually this is very possible if the compatibility of the RAM kit wasn't that good to begin with.
CMOS reset has been suggested as well, I even made a very descript guide for it too.

The BIOS flash was literally the only thing left she could do barring removing the CPU etc.
I would rather a user update the BIOS with my instructions, which would've removed anything from chance, to attempt to fix it than not as the RAM has apparently been set incorrectly over the last years, this can also be a cause to it and when she tried enabling XMP it was not co-operating.
Now what is 1 of the main things a BIOS fix often does? (even in ASUS' oh-so-VERY-descriptive changelogs of mobos) RAM speed and timings and compatibility.

So to try and get her RAM to work this was the only way left.
And whilst I do agree that the 6-series chipsets sucked on average, the Z77 was a considerable step above.

[potis]

Actually this is very possible if the compatibility of the RAM kit wasn't that good to begin with.
CMOS reset has been suggested as well, I even made a very descript guide for it too.

The BIOS flash was literally the only thing left she could do barring removing the CPU etc.
I would rather a user update the BIOS with my instructions, which would've removed anything from chance, to attempt to fix it than not as the RAM has apparently been set incorrectly over the last years, this can also be a cause to it and when she tried enabling XMP it was not co-operating.
Now what is 1 of the main things a BIOS fix often does? (even in ASUS' oh-so-VERY-descriptive changelogs of mobos) RAM speed and timings and compatibility.

So to try and get her RAM to work this was the only way left.
And whilst I do agree that the 6-series chipsets sucked on average, the Z77 was a considerable step above.

Oh i never said you did anything wrong, but its one of the cases that the mobo would eventually go bad much sooner than later.

As i said, i accept compatibility issues that appear from the first few days/months of building a PC but a 5-6 year old PC? Unless she had BSODs for that long and didnt care then yes, it can be BIOS related instead of hardware related, but man, the patience required for that.

[Evildeffy]

Oh i never said you did anything wrong, but its one of the cases that the mobo would eventually go bad much sooner than later.

As i said, i accept compatibility issues that appear from the first few days/months of building a PC but a 5-6 year old PC? Unless she had BSODs for that long and didnt care then yes, it can be BIOS related instead of hardware related, but man, the patience required for that.

Remember it's very much possible because the RAM settings were wrong from the beginning.

Many people argue that because it's "downclocking" RAM it cannot be the case but downclocking can have the exact same issues as overclocking if not set properly.

She has stated that she's "always had BSoDs" but whether that means from the beginning or not, I do not know.

If the mobo did have to crap out then so be it, but rather use a BIOS update trying then have it walking limp.

- - - Updated - - -

Alright, this is going to sound stupid, but did OP try removing the CMOS battery instead of doing a jumper reset? Jumper resets don't always work, battery resets do. Simply take the battery out for 5 minutes and put it back in.

Did not, I'll see if I can get her to try this but it's unlikely as a dead battery wouldn't prevent boot-up in general, it'd just default the BIOS and moan at you with "Time/Date Incorrect!" stuff.

[Thunderball]

ASUS board, memory issues... why am I not surprised? First of all, if you got something wrong with BIOS flashing it's pretty easily repaired: maximum damage would be a dead BIOS chip and a dead clock generator which doesnt even reach up to $25 including work. Usually it's limited to BIOS reflash using a programmer. As this would require unsoldering the chip from the board first let professionals do the work.

On the actual issue: first step is checking using default settings, make sure XMP profile is not active: all ASUS boards using an UEFI BIOS have problem with XMP profiles/memory overclocking. If it's not settings then there are two sources of the problem which are both hardware: 1) Faulty memory module that doesnt manage to run at minimum clock; 2) CPU/CPU socket/motherboard problem that results in one of your memory channels being inoperable. I would honestly pay the professionals to detect those problems if you end up having to reflash your BIOS chip anyway.

[DeltrusDisc]

Well this escalated

Doesnt surprise me the mobo seems to have bricked, all P67-Z68-Z77 mobos are a pile of shit, i know first hand from my P67

Either way, flashing BIOS was both wrong and correct.

The BIOS doesnt suddenly go and bug out or change settings, if it does it means problem with the motherboard itself first from the battery and secondary to the chip itself.

A PC that worked 5 years and suddenly has the issue the OP mentioned wouldnt be fixed by a BIOS update, it worked for 5 years and suddenly happened, was quite obvious its hardware related and mobo was at its last, i wouldnt even blame anyone for the flashing failure.

Either way, kinda weird no one mentioned she should have simply reset cmos first, unless i didnt read correctly, oh well.

All of them are shit? Uh... Not true. There's a LOT of people I know still running these chipsets problem free.

For the record, my p67 system in my signature is folding@home, 100$% load all day every day. 24/7.

So please... Don't go around spreading this shit just to suit your vision.

- - - Updated - - -

Did you install 64 bit version of windows? Maybe you installed 32bit , just my two cents.

32 bit wouldn't even allow Windows access to 8gb sooo...

[Kkarrl]

Updating the bios may have actually taken, but caused further memory instability resulting in the fail to even POST. The next step should not have been to attempt to reset CMOS or flashback the BIOS. Both of those steps should be last resort, not first option. And seems to have exacerbated the issue even further.

The next step should have been to attempt to address the failure to POST by either removing all RAM sans 1 stick which if left in slot 1 could have eliminated suspicion of a bad channel; or pressing MEMOK. Either of which may have granted access to the BIOS. Both options are simple to execute and have zero potential to cause further damage.

[Mythbredor]

Updating the bios may have actually taken, but caused further memory instability resulting in the fail to even POST. The next step should not have been to attempt to reset CMOS or flashback the BIOS. Both of those steps should be last resort, not first option. And seems to have exacerbated the issue even further.

The next step should have been to attempt to address the failure to POST by either removing all RAM sans 1 stick which if left in slot 1 could have eliminated suspicion of a bad channel; or pressing MEMOK. Either of which may have granted access to the BIOS. Both options are simple to execute and have zero potential to cause further damage.

Issue was caused by the OP doing a bios flashback first instead of a normal flash through the bios, atleast that's the assumption we're currently under. What I imagine happened is the bios is "stuck" now in a update state. A clear cmos might fix it but it's up in the air currently.

[Evildeffy]

Updating the bios may have actually taken, but caused further memory instability resulting in the fail to even POST. The next step should not have been to attempt to reset CMOS or flashback the BIOS. Both of those steps should be last resort, not first option. And seems to have exacerbated the issue even further.

Actually a CMOS reset is THE first thing you should do after flashing a new BIOS for default values, the FlashBack in this case was an attempt to fix it in order to see if we can breathe life into it again with an older version since something clearly went wrong during the FlashBack.

The next step should have been to attempt to address the failure to POST by either removing all RAM sans 1 stick which if left in slot 1 could have eliminated suspicion of a bad channel; or pressing MEMOK. Either of which may have granted access to the BIOS. Both options are simple to execute and have zero potential to cause further damage.

Attempted, no success.
Flashing a BIOS does not cause hardware damage and should always be reset-able with the jumper or battery removal.

Unless you flash it literally ~5000 times since that's the P/E endurance on such a chip.

- - - Updated - - -

Issue was caused by the OP doing a bios flashback first instead of a normal flash through the bios, atleast that's the assumption we're currently under. What I imagine happened is the bios is "stuck" now in a update state. A clear cmos might fix it but it's up in the air currently.

As far as what I think has occurred due to what she has told me is that her BIOS was erased from the chip with FlashBack but as soon as it needed to write the new BIOS it failed.

Regardless I've spent quite a few hours talking to her and going through what she wanted and after a night's sleep she decided to go for an upgrade regardless.

She will go for an AMD Ryzen 5 1600X along with a Noctua NH-U12S SE-AM4 edition, 16GB of Corsair 3200MHz CL16 RAM (she is aware it will likely run @ 2933 tops, the Flare X was 85 GBP more expensive to run 3200MHz) and an ASUS PRIME B350-Plus motherboard.
She wants to have good gaming performance along with the ability to work with productivity (movie editing) again and have longer, if required, upgrade legs to stand on since AM4 will last at least to 2020, so basically (even though I loathe the term) future proofing it.
She has 2 HDDs, 1 SSD, 1 ODD, GTX 970, Corsair RM850i PSU and a Fractal Design Define R5 case so it will be a transplant with a clean reinstall.

And yes I know the Ryzen 5 1600 would've been more economical and overclock it but she wants nothing to do with overclocking and just go with the best performance for a reasonable price so the 1600X is a good compromise.
She is aware of the side-grade it'd be to the 3770K in pure gaming (there will be a performance upgrade though no matter how small).

As far as her old system goes .. as soon as she had a night's sleep and thought about it she didn't want to put in more effort because of the fact that we're unsure of what the issue is and that if the motherboard is dying she would get this issue again in the future.
So we arranged it that after we get her Ryzen system online, she would send me her old kit, I will attempt to repair it and we'll see from that point on.

I will be guiding her for any questions she may have when she's putting together the Ryzen system live on Skype with a cam, she has built them before but never an AMD and isn't all too familiar with BIOS settings so I'll be helping her through that as well.
As well as teaching her how to update the BIOS properly without fear.

When the old kit reaches me I'll get my hands on it and run it through it's paces and of course keep you updated as to what I could find and if I could fix it.

[Lathais]

When the old kit reaches me I'll get my hands on it and run it through it's paces and of course keep you updated as to what I could find and if I could fix it.

Please do, I am curious now.

[Miyari]

Funnily enough, I'm having the exact same issue. As such, I greatly appreciate all of the input shared in this thread and hope something applies to my situation. Though I followed the instructions (just to be sure), I'm suspecting that I installed the RAM incorrectly, sticks in the wrong slots and all that. I've gotten all new parts and have been having worse performance than before. I'm going to rebuild this weekend, but I suspect I'll be making a thread in here in no time...

[DeltrusDisc]

Funnily enough, I'm having the exact same issue. As such, I greatly appreciate all of the input shared in this thread and hope something applies to my situation. Though I followed the instructions (just to be sure), I'm suspecting that I installed the RAM incorrectly, sticks in the wrong slots and all that. I've gotten all new parts and have been having worse performance than before. I'm going to rebuild this weekend, but I suspect I'll be making a thread in here in no time...

Hmm. What were your build specs before and what are they now?

[Miyari]

Hmm. What were your build specs before and what are they now?

I changed out the motherboard, processor, video card and RAM.

The new hardware:
Intel Core i5-6600K SkyLake 3.5 GHz 1151 Boxed Processor
Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming 5 LGA 1151 ATX Intel Motherboard
Zotac GeForce GTX 1060 Mini 6GB GDDR5 Super Compact Video Card
Crucial 16GB 8 x 2GB DDR4-2400 PC4-19200 Desktop Memory Kit

The old hardware:
Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge Quad-Core 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W BX80623I72600K Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000
ASUS P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
ASUS GeForce GTX 770 Overclocked 2048MB GDDR5 PCIe 3.0 Video Card
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9Q-16GBRL

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Evildeffy]

I changed out the motherboard, processor, video card and RAM.

The new hardware:
Intel Core i5-6600K SkyLake 3.5 GHz 1151 Boxed Processor
Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming 5 LGA 1151 ATX Intel Motherboard
Zotac GeForce GTX 1060 Mini 6GB GDDR5 Super Compact Video Card
Crucial 16GB 8 x 2GB DDR4-2400 PC4-19200 Desktop Memory Kit

The old hardware:
Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge Quad-Core 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W BX80623I72600K Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000
ASUS P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
ASUS GeForce GTX 770 Overclocked 2048MB GDDR5 PCIe 3.0 Video Card
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9Q-16GBRL

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So I'm going to assume that your new kit works fine but your old kit is the kit that shows 8GB and nothing more in the BIOS and switching around sticks and BIOS updates did nothing?
And you'd like to /pray I find the issue in the 3770K that is possibly fixable so you can apply it to your 2600K, is that the correct train of thought?

[Blueobelisk]

May be someone stole half of your RAM

Yeah, Chrome at it while he wasn't looking.

[Nakotsu]

Hi
have you tryed reseating the memory sticks? Maybe even switching there spot move one to the other ram slot.
Could be a faulty ram slot on ur motherboard or not fully pushed in. (ive had this happen before when cleaning.)
Could be faulty ram if you try them one alone.
were they a matching set of ram sticks? Are they different?
Did you upgrade your bios on your mb sometimes they need a upgrade.....

[Miyari]

So I'm going to assume that your new kit works fine but your old kit is the kit that shows 8GB and nothing more in the BIOS and switching around sticks and BIOS updates did nothing?
And you'd like to /pray I find the issue in the 3770K that is possibly fixable so you can apply it to your 2600K, is that the correct train of thought?

Newp, the new hardware is what isn't working. The old hardware was replaced because I was experiencing frequent, unsolvable BSODs (and I hadn't upgraded in a while anyway). Going to try rebuilding tomorrow maybe. I'd like to think it's something so simple as the RAM being in the wrong slots, but I'm not so sure.

[pansertjald]

Hi
have you tryed reseating the memory sticks? Maybe even switching there spot move one to the other ram slot.
Could be a faulty ram slot on ur motherboard or not fully pushed in. (ive had this happen before when cleaning.)
Could be faulty ram if you try them one alone.
were they a matching set of ram sticks? Are they different?
Did you upgrade your bios on your mb sometimes they need a upgrade.....

Maybe next time read the thread first?????

[Markatron]

Newp, the new hardware is what isn't working. The old hardware was replaced because I was experiencing frequent, unsolvable BSODs (and I hadn't upgraded in a while anyway). Going to try rebuilding tomorrow maybe. I'd like to think it's something so simple as the RAM being in the wrong slots, but I'm not so sure.

Check if your ram is in single or dual channel.