General Bios and RAM question, need some help..

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Shafra

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Hi All, let me try to keep this post simple.

If you make changes to the BIOS and your PC refuses to POST, are you always safe by just reseting the Cmos? On my current motherboard it has a little button to reset it and knowing I can get myself out of trouble will make me more prone to experiment and learn how the features work.

Also, I recently purchased some Ram and I couldn't get it to POST no matter what I tried. Today, while reading the pamphlet that came with my motherboard I realized it recommended loading the "Optimized Defaults" once I got into the BIOS. I did this, and rebooted and noticed windows detected some things and all was well. After this I decided to pop in one of the ram sticks I couldn't get to POST with and this time it DID post, but after the XP splash screen I got a BSOD with a memory based error. Upon rebooting, I couldn't post. I popped in my previous Ram chip that worked and couldn't post, I reset the CMOS by pushing the button on my motherboard, and was able to POST using the the original crummy 512MB stick of Ram.

So my second question, is the Ram I have probably ok but I need to get into the BIOS and manually adjust the voltage and timing? I'm not very experienced so just taking a shot from things I've read on this board. I made some other posts about this Ram:
Newegg.com - G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

It's listed as 1.8v-2.0v. My motherboard is MSI P6N Sli-Fi. I've never adjusted timing on memory and I am unsure how I would even do it. The memory did not come with any information, just the 2 sticks.


So if anyone could answer my questions and maybe help me figure out how to get this Ram to work I would greatly appreciate it :)

Edit: I also meant to ask a 3rd question, generally speaking, if you have a really bad time getting something to work like I dis with this ram, is it usually best to just switch to another brand?
 
well sounds to me that you might of put the RAM sticks in the Wrong slots in your motherboard i think it has 2 blue slots and 2 green slots im not sure which of those slots are for dual channel and which are for single but in the manual it should say which is which.

you want to put both those sticks in same colored slots (dual channel slots)


BTW not a bad price for those sticks

and changing the timing is just to overclock not usually a solution to problems

3rd question\answer : if you know you did everything right and it doesnt work then exchange to something more reliable
 
Would it make a difference in stability or potentially stop the crasing if I loaded the optimized defaults again, reseated the 2 new G.skil chips and up'd the memory voltage? It defaults to 1.8v. I almost feel like I shouldn't mess with it. I get horrible phobias about breaking something! LOL
 
ya u shouldnt me$$ around with the voltage if you put it to a setting thats not in the recommended area then you can do serious damage to the RAM
 
Thanks, have my RMA # and will mail it back. Already ordered some compatible ram :) (I hope!)
 
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