Problem with having 4 GB memory

Orbital Shark · 22 Apr 2009

Problem i have is i've got a lappy & can't change the BIOS. It's 2.5 years old & I thought 'Why not give this old girl a makeover'......

Shame on me LOL

Night Hawk · 22 Apr 2009

Check the present version on now to see the latest or last is newer. It does seem a rippoff when you have to pay for a 3rd party tool and not see one provided at the support site. Those can be more of a problem at times over using one provided by the manufacturer to start with.

The problem with laptops however is the much faster turnover of newer models were some get discontinued faster then desktops. If you can't find the tool or updates at the support site sometimes you can find them at a site that archives some of the older driver and bios updates for the more popular models at no charge.

Orbital Shark · 22 Apr 2009

Thanx, i'll try that

Night Hawk · 22 Apr 2009

One thing to remember as well is to make sure you find a good way to backup the present bios anyways in case of a mismatch for some reason or simply a bad flash. That's being prepared ahead of time for disaster recovery just in case.

marcellusmighty · 22 Apr 2009

I really think this whole issue is absolutely ridiculous. I actually saw a report for memory tested on this board, and my brand was not one tested... so that raises the possibility of being an incompatible brand. But then, why does 32-bit XP detect both at 3.25 GBs? The voltage is 1.85. Now that I'm thinking more about it, when I got the board off Newegg, it was stressed that "timings of (at least?) 5-5-5-15 are to be used". So the voltage and timings are A-Okay, it seems like. The only other thing is the BIOS, I'm pretty sure. And that makes me seething mad!!! Why would Biostar be so lax with their support? They are the ONLY company that I have checked (among I think 5 others) that did not offer an update for this particular chipset (the 965). I'm not getting another board anytime in the foreseeable future, which is why I'm so persistent in trying to find a solution. Props to John Galt for his efforts! This seems so trivial. Orbital, I think that from now on, I would say to avoid third party BIOS vendors (which probably seems obvious at this point) :) The solution is out there, somewhere!

Night Hawk · 22 Apr 2009

I would check out the Biostar forum if they have one there since others have likely run into similar problems with the same chipset as well as compatibility issues with that brand of memory as well as others.

Well that idea got shot out of the water fast while the e-support option for making an inquiry is seen at BIOSTAR

marcellusmighty · 29 Apr 2009

Well I guess my next question should not be about how to make this work (since it obviously won't, thank you very much Biostar!) but about who wants the extra 2 GB stick!

ikilledkenny · 29 Apr 2009

I would take it, but my craptop uses laptop RAM. And my old desktop uses DDR.

Night Hawk · 29 Apr 2009

One thing I found for selecting a working pair of dimms for any board was looking at the recommended brands list for those brands of memory seen there before ordering any for a new case or for an increase on an existing system. Unfortunately when running a search with their own engine all you see is "no data"!

You know it supports upto 8gb by one look at the board's own specifications seen at BIOSTAR

Apparently the over 2gb factor for 64bit Vista is still being seen with 7 there whether it's the brand or type since DDR2 800 is supported.

marcellusmighty · 29 Apr 2009

Well even if it actually is the brand that's the culprit, I'd lose money by buying new sticks, and it'd be pointless. Why not just get a DDR3 board and RAM if I'm going to have to buy new stuff anyway? Maybe I could file a suit and claim "misleading information" or something.