MS-7310: No boot with 2x 2gig RAM

[Pim]

Hello,

I' ve bought 2x 2GB of DDR2 at 800mhz for my MS-7310 . The problem is that it will work in any combination with my old 1GB modules running at 667mhz, but both 2 gigabyte modules together won' t work. The bios version is 1.7 (not the latest).

Does anyone know what to do?

Thank you.

[freshfitz]

Had the same problem with dell optiplex 320's we have about 15 at work none will boot with 2x 2gb modules i can only use 1

[jermaghs07]

IT's weird. I just read through the specs and it says to use 4 gigs of ram they have to be 4x 1gig, but the motherboard only has 2 memory slots. I have never seen this before.

Are you running a 64bit OS?

[Pim]

The OS is not of importance, the system simply refuses to boot with the 4gigs inserted. Where did you find that it had to be 4x 1gig?

[jermaghs07]

Actually the OS IS of importance. If you are running a 32bit OS you can't even use 4 Gigs. a 32bit OS will only recognize a little over 3 gigs. so using 4 would be completely pointless.

This was Pulled strait off of MSI's website

Main Memory

•
Supports dual channel DDR2 400/533/667/800, using four 240-pin DDR2 DIMMs.
• Supports the memory size up to 4GB
• Supports 1.8v DDR2 SDRAM DIMM

Here is the link if you don't believe me.

http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=K9N4_Ultra-F&class=mb

My suggestion back it down to one 2gig stick and 1 1gig stick and see if that works. Put the 1 gig stick it the 1st position.

[Pim]

jermaghs07, as I said the memory works perfectly in any combination with my old memory. The OS is not of importance here, since the system won't even boot.

You're right about the OS. (2^32)/(1024)^3 = 4, meaning you can only adress 4 gb of memory with a 32bit OS, minus your video card and other hardware that slobbers up hardware adresses.

I'm actually still looking for a good solution since: I'm now missing 1gig, the memory is running at 667mhz instead of 800mhz, and I'm losing some performance due to different memory sizes in each bank.

Thank You.

[jermaghs07]

Is your original ram 667mhz? you could sell the one 2 gig stick and replace it with a 1 gig 800mhz that will solve your performance issue.

[Pim]

You're right there. I've emailed MSI tech-support, hopefully they can clear it up.

[The New Normal]

lol @ conflicting MSI advice:
2 DIMMs w/ DDR2 800+ up to 4GBusing four 240-pin DDR2 DIMMs.

This bit might be relevant:Due to the High Performance Memory design, motherboards or system configurations may or may not operate smoothly at the JEDEC (Joint Electron Device Engineering Council) standard settings (BIOS Default on the motherboard) such as DDR2 voltage, memory speeds and memory timing. Please confirm and adjust your memory setting in the BIOS accordingly for better system stability.

[Pim]

Well I emailed tech support and I got it working. I've made a tutorial, including the neccesary files. Any suggestions etc are welcome:
===============================================
Making your MS-7310 boot with 2x two Gigabytes of memory inserted.

(The first section is for creating a bootable usb disk.)

===Section 1===
1. Download Unetbootin from http://lubi.sourceforge.net/unetbootin.html
2. Insert a USB drive and run the program. Click "== Select Distribution ==" and select FreeDOS
3. At the bottom select your USB-drive and click OK.

===Section 2===
4. Copy the included files to the USB drive. I suggest you put them in a folder called "bios". (You could also put the files on a floppy disk if you prefer)

===Section 3===
5. With the USB drive inserted, reboot your pc (you could also use a floppy, search the internet for this).
6. At booting press del to enter setup, and make sure that your pc is set to boot from USB first!
I. Advanced BIOS Features
II. Boot sequence
III. Removable Drives
IV. 1st Drive USB
V. 1st Boot device should be USB drive now.

7. Save and exit setup. The pc will now reboot.

===Section 4===
(IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING, THIS IS THE TIME TO STOP)

8. Assuming you have just completed step 6, the pc will now boot from your USB drive.
9. Select "FreeDOS Live CD with HIMEM + EMM386".
10. Once in FreeDOS, go to your USB drive (presumably B:) by typing:
B:

11. Now type: "dir" and you should see the contents of the drive listed. If you don't, try other
drive letters (A: C: D: etc), until you do see the contents.
12. Type: "cd bios"
13. Type: afud412 a7310nms.191
14. Sit and wait until it's done. DO NOT RESET, REBOOT OR INTERRUPT POWER, YOUR SYSTEM WILL NO LONGER FUNCION IF YOU DO!
15. When it's done, reboot your system and press del to go to setup again. Now select load optimized defaults, and
save and exit.
16. Turn of your PC, insert the memory and reboot.
17. Your system should now boot properly with 4GB inserted. (Mind you, you do need a 64-bit OS to use all of it.)

Note: This guide comes with no warrantee whatsoever, you are responsible for any damage to your system.

This guide was written by Pim a.k.a. OmnificienT

v1.0
================================================

The attachment contains this little tutorial and the neccesary files.

[longboards]

@ pim

if i use xp 32 bit, it does not work?
what else i can do?
buy a new mainboard!

[mrk789]

2 gig stick and replace it with a 1 gig 800mhz that will solve your performance issue

[crunchie]

@ pim

if i use xp 32 bit, it does not work? what else i can do? buy a new mainboard!

Cheers. After 2 years he will be happy to hear that :).