Ask the Doctor: RAM Timing

Posted 04/01/2009 at 5:40pm | by The Maximum PC Staff

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My roommate, with my help, built a brand-new PC worthy of mention in your magazine; it has a Q6600, 4GB of DDR2/1066, an ATI Radeon 4850 GPU, and a DFI P45-T2RS motherboard. After installing his student copy of Windows Vista x64 and some of his favorite programs, I advised him to run CPU-Z to ensure that the motherboard had set everything correctly, as I didn’t really want him to have to dive into the BIOS unnecessarily. CPU-Z reported that his RAM was cruising along at DDR2/800.

He has a 1,066MHz front-side bus, so the RAM timing was unusual, especially since the board is certified for DDR2/1066. We checked the BIOS and found that we cannot set that frequency without overclocking, which causes the machine to become unstable. We decided that the problem is the BIOS and discovered that DDR2/1066 is supported only in the latest BIOS—but DFI’s BIOS update utility doesn’t work with Vista x64! Neither of us owns a floppy drive anymore, so we thought we might try booting from a USB drive, but we can’t find any Vista 64 capable tools for creating that, either.
What should we do to update the BIOS?

You have several options. The first is just to let it be. Your friend will see minimal gains (and possibly even losses in some applications) by running the RAM at DDR2/1066 versus DDR2/800, so he can avoid the headache and just not fiddle with it. Remember, motherboard vendors always recommend that if the board’s working fine, don’t mess with it.

For most enthusiasts, though, this situation is an invitation to immediately update to the latest beta BIOS. An alternative option is to look at the BIOS screen during boot. You should see a prompt or option for some kind of built-in updating tool. Many current motherboards let you update the BIOS using a built-in flash utility. Just store the updated BIOS file on a USB key (the key must be in before booting the machine), boot the PC, start the utility, and point it toward the USB key. A third option is to use Hewlett-Packard’s free utility that lets you create a bootable USB key. The Doctor would provide a link, but HP’s website seems to shuffle the URL around on a regular basis. Instead, go to www.hp.com and search for “cp006049.exe.” A final option is to keep an $8 floppy drive in your tool kit.

SUBMIT YOUR QUESTION Are flames shooting out of the back of your rig? First, grab a fire extinguisher and douse the flames. Once the pyrotechnic display has fizzled, email the doctor at doctor@maximumpc.com for advice on how to solve your technological woes.