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My Award BIOS sometimes repeats its "everything's OK" single beep 3

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BritJim

Technical User
Apr 10, 2007
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I have been using the setup described below for a very long time, the only significant recent addition (apart from a nice new Lenovo 2440x 24" widescreen monitor with LCD backlight) is the addition of 2GB to the previous somewhat sparse 1GB of RAM, but sad to say that's the reason behind this new thread...

So, with my original 1GB of DDR-DRAM, the PC booted up and always emitted one single beep during the process.
But now that I've added two more 1GB banks of DDR-SDRAM, the BIOS sometimes emits a second beep 7 or 8 seconds after the first. When this occurs, the boot process then continues as normal and the PC functions as before other than reporting the RAM now as 3GB.

Thinking there might be some mismatch between the old & new RAM banks, I tried fitting just the two new banks and heard always only one beep. Fitting the old bank together with the new, no matter in what order (old-new-new or new-new-old) the BIOS sometimes emits a second beep.

The old 1GB bank is labelled so:
takeMs 1GB DDR 400 CL3 PC3200
The two new 1GB banks are labelled similarly:
Kingston ValueRAM 1GB DDR 400 CL3 PC3200
Both old & new banks carry memory chips on both sides of the PCB

My SiSoftware Sandra reports the RAM as follows:
Total Memory: 3GB DDR-SDRAM
---
Bank0/1 - A0: DIMM 1GB/64 @ 400Mt/s
Bank2/3 - A1: DIMM 1GB/64 @ 400Mt/s
Bank4/5 - A2: DIMM 1GB/64 @ 400Mt/s
---
Bank 0: 512MB DDR-SDRAM 3.0-3-3-7 (tCL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS) CR2
Bank 1: 512MB DDR-SDRAM 3.0-3-3-7 (tCL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS) CR2
Bank 2: 512MB DDR-SDRAM 3.0-3-3-7 (tCL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS) CR2
Bank 3: 512MB DDR-SDRAM 3.0-3-3-7 (tCL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS) CR2
Bank 4: 512MB DDR-SDRAM 3.0-3-3-7 (tCL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS) CR2
Bank 5: 512MB DDR-SDRAM 3.0-3-3-7 (tCL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS) CR2
(note from me: all reported by Sandra as "3.0-3-3-7"
---
Memory Module 1
Manufacturer: Kingston
Type: 1GB DDR-SDRAM
Technology: 16x(64Mx8)
Speed: PC3200U DDR-200
Standard Timings: 3.0-3-3-8 (tCL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS)
Set Timing 200MHz: 3.0-3-3-8 (tCL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS)
(note from me: this time Sandra reports "3.0-3-3-8")
---
Memory Module 2 (same as 1)
---
Memory Module 3
Type: 1GB DDR-SDRAM
Technology: 16x(64Mx8)
Speed: PC3200U DDR-200
Standard Timings: 3.0-4-4-8 (tCL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS)
Set Timing 200MHz: 3.0-4-4-8 (tCL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS)
(note from me: this time Sandra reports "3.0-4-4-8")

I have checked my BIOS settings and see nothing untoward. Speed is shown as 200MHz; I can change this upwards but not downwards.

Anyone any ideas, please?

--------------
Win2K Pro, V5.0.2195 Bld 2195, SP4 + all updates
AMD Athlon 1.8GHz processor with Cool'n'Quiet
Award Modular BIOS V6.00PG
3GB RAM
Mozilla Firefox 3.5.2
Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0.0.23
Kaspersky Internet Security 7 inc. Firewall
MailWasher Pro 6.1
 
set the timings by hand to 3.0-4-4-8, does it still happen?

M. Knorr

MCSE, MCTS, MCSA, CCNA
 
goombawaho:
I'm a bit wary of updating the BIOS because of the conflicting info as described below, added to which I've never done a BIOS update in my life and this is my one & only PC (so I can't afford to kill it)...
- I have a Gigabyte GA-K8VT800 Rev. 2.0 m/b with Socket 754. The Gigabyte website tells me the following BIOS versions are available for download:
V. FG 2006/07/05 Fixed PME wakeup event to control by OS only when S1\S3
V. FD 2005/07/25 Support AMD new revision Sempron CPU
V. FC 2005/04/25 Support AMD new revision CPU Cool'n Quiet Table
V. FB 2005/04/15 Support AMD new revision CPU
V. FA 2005/01/05 First Release
- My PC SiSoftware Sandra reports that my BIOS is Version FA dated 04/21/2005, which doesn't fit into the above Gigabyte info (but Sandra doesn't always get everything right!)
- My PC System Info tells me it has Award Modular BIOS V6.00PG, which once again doesn't tally with the Gigabyte table

Lemon13:
Where can set your 3.0-4-4-8 timing manually, please?
 
V. FA 2005/01/05 First Release
that is the release date to the general public, where as mainboards where already fitted with the same BIOS with a previous date...

in other words, you do have the original BIOS installed, which tallies with the Gigabyte table...




Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"
 
just checked the manual, you cant set the timings, give it a try with fail-safe settings, and do the bios update, since you r using cool & quite

M. Knorr

MCSE, MCTS, MCSA, CCNA
 
BadBigBen:
Thanks for the info & the link

Lemon13:
Do you mean that switching the BIOS to the fail-safe settings will help the update go smoothly?
 
No - he was trying to get your RAM issue solved by chossing fail-safe settings.

The BIOS flash would not be helped/hindered by it's settings (unless one of them was not DISALLOW FLASH).

Flash away, just read all instructions and make sure you have the correct BIOS downloaded.
 
OK, goombawaho, thanks! Just in case I'm even more stupid than you might think possible and the flashing goes wrong, what's the recovery path? Carry PC to a repair shop?
 
Umm - bad flashes are sometimes not recoverable other than by replacing the BIOS chip on your motherboard (IF possible) OR if there is a backup BIOS (2nd BIOS) on your motherboard, which not too many have.

Just hope it goes right or else don't do it if you can live with the RAM problem.

I've flashed maybe 150 BIOSs and I've killed only 2 motherboards - one of my own because I picked the wrong BIOS and one for a customer because something just went wrong.

You have to decide if you want to gamble - odds are with you that everything will go well, but I wouldn't bet my mother's life on any one BIOS flash.
 
Thanks for the info & encouragement. I've decided to give flashing the BIOS a go, but only in a couple of months' time after investing in a laptop as a second PC. Once that's up & running I won't be so concerned about killing the main PC!
I'll post the results here when everything's done & dusted.
 
I finally got around to updating the BIOS, which is now version FG dated 2006/07/05, the latest available according to Gigabyte.
Sadly, this made no difference at all: as soon as I insert 3x 1GB modules, the "second OK beep" returns.
I've spent some time looking at a couple of Gigabyte forums and my problem is apparently not unknown by any means. The only suggestions found there didn't help me, so I've returned to just 2x 1GB modules (the Kingston ones).
FYI the suggestions were to increase the DIMM voltage in BIOS by +0.1V or +0.2V which I tried to no avail. Another was to decrease the clock rate below the default 200MHz, but I couldn't try this because in my BIOS 200MHz is already the minimum: I could increase this (but I didn't!) but not decrease.
 
A fairly long time ago I emailed Gigabyte Taiwan to ask about this problem...
Because no reply had arrived, I searched for and found the Gigabyte forums (one in the UK, one in Germany) mentioned in my last post. There's been no helpful response from these either, so in effect I'd given up on fitting 3x 1GB modules as indicated.
Suddenly an answer has arrived from Taiwan! I was referred to P14 of the GA-K8VT800 manual - and I didn't even know such a thing existed, having not received one with the PC on purchase. This can be found at
Here, the answer is clear: Gigabyte recommend a maximum of 2x double-sided DDR400 RAM modules be installed even though there are three RAM sockets. So I must live with 2GB of RAM unless I fit DDR333 modules, in which case 3x can be installed, but I'm not about to pay out yet more money just to suffer a reduction in speed!
 
Crazy, but at least you know the scoop now. Good job in staying with it and then posting the results for us.
 
On page 42 of the manual, there is a "Auto Detect DIMM/PCI clk" setting. What happens if you disable it? You might then be able to manually set the clock for the memory.
 
Do you mean the "CPU Clock Ratio" or "CPU Clock"?
If you mean lowering 400 to 333 (how?), wouldn't this slow down the whole PC?

On that P42 are these statements:
"K8 CPU Clock Ratio
Default Set CPU clock ratio to default. (Default value)
x4 800MHz~x10 2000MHz Set CPU clock ratio from x4 800MHz to x10 2000MHz"
and
"CPU Clock
200MHz ~ 255MHz Set CPU Host Clock from 200MHz to 255MHz"

I must admit I don't understand "CPU Clock Ratio"...
 
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