1) Turn off "shadow bios memory" or similar option in BIOS
2) If that doesn't work, I'd start thinking the possibility of a typo error in gigabyte's specs. You did try all the modules one by one and 384MB, if I remember correctly, is the official limit of 440BX. Although many companies went beyond it, I believe it still should be considered a possibility since you're matching it exactly.

konc wrote:

1) Turn off "shadow bios memory" or similar option in BIOS
2) If that doesn't work, I'd start thinking the possibility of a typo error in gigabyte's specs. You did try all the modules one by one and 384MB, if I remember correctly, is the official limit of 440BX. Although many companies went beyond it, I believe it still should be considered a possibility since you're matching it exactly.

No shadow memory bios option in the bios or anything similar. From memory, turning this off would decrease performance by a fair bit so I wouldn't really want to turn it off even if the option was available.

I have several 440BX boards which work fine with 512mb+ of ram but I have to admit, those PC's have double sided ram installed.

I should also add, I've tried using the ram individually in each slot as well to test the slots themselves and all appears ok in that regard.

I think this kind of abnormal behavior is to be expected. After all, it is not compatible with single-sided sticks. I don't think it's just a case of merely recognizing half the capacity. I've tried to use single sided sticks before on 440BX boards and I've had instabilities.

So, in your case, it looks like the motherboard's taking a stand 🤣 . Is it that hard to find double sided chips in Australia? Perhaps Phil can tell you where to get some?

F2bnp wrote:

I think this kind of abnormal behavior is to be expected. After all, it is not compatible with single-sided sticks. I don't think it's just a case of merely recognizing half the capacity. I've tried to use single sided sticks before on 440BX boards and I've had instabilities.

So, in your case, it looks like the motherboard's taking a stand 🤣 . Is it that hard to find double sided chips in Australia? Perhaps Phil can tell you where to get some?

It's not that hard to find double sided ram if you're happy with cheap no brand ram. When it comes to quality ram it becomes a little difficult. I've had several ram sticks fail over the years so these days I only ever buy new quality ram. These sticks in particular, just like in my other builds, all came with their original retail packetging. Haven't had a kingston stick die on me yet.

On a positive note, I just fiddled around with the bios and changed the Cas Latency to "Auto" as opposed to what I originally had it set at being "2" and it's now detecting all 4 sticks at 512mb. Takes a little longer to boot now for some reason but at least it's working.

Any reason why this ram which has a cas latency of 2 won't work at its rated latency? Checked with CPUZ and its detecting it at 3.

Yeah, that's a good point. I generally go for whatever works in regards to RAM, but I can see where you're coming from!

I've just done a few tests and it appears to be the serial port causing the issue. If I disable the serial port, 512mb is detected. If I enable it, 384mb is detected. Rebooted around 8 times with it enabled and disabled and everytime I get the said results for each setting. Anyone know what the serial port has to do with the ram being detected incorrectly? Never encountered this before.

Sorry if I'm stating the obvious borgie83, but you might as well give up and source some low density, double sided sdram for the Gigabyte board, otherwise you're just fighting a losing battle - the GA-6BX7+ simply doesn't like single sided sdram and is acting up because of it (the weirdness with the serial port and memory detection being a part of that dislike).

JayCeeBee64 wrote:

Sorry if I'm stating the obvious borgie83, but you might as well give up and source some low density, double sided sdram for the Gigabyte board, otherwise you're just fighting a losing battle - the GA-6BX7+ simply doesn't like single sided sdram and is acting up because of it (the weirdness with the serial port and memory detection being a part of that dislike).

All good, you're right. Just wanted to make do with this ram as I paid $50 US for all 4 sticks. It's working for now with the serial port disabled but if it happens again then I'll move on to double sided ram. It's probably the most picky motherboard I've ever worked with.

Hmm. I remember that I used Infineon PC133 CL3 RAM as well as Micron PC133 CL2 RAM without issues. I think I also tried a Kingston stick but don't remember the exact specs. But all modules were double sided ones. I also didn't go up to 1GB, I usually use 512MB on boards like this and only have one BX board as my 3Dfx test center that has 3x 256MB sticks. In general the BX7+ isn't picky about the RAM. I guess 95% of period correct sticks will work. Good you found out that single sided RAM is the problem. RAM can cause lots of trouble in lots of configurations.

FGB wrote:

Hmm. I remember that I used Infineon PC133 CL3 RAM as well as Micron PC133 CL2 RAM without issues. I think I also tried a Kingston stick but don't remember the exact specs. But all modules were double sided ones. I also didn't go up to 1GB, I usually use 512MB on boards like this and only have one BX board as my 3Dfx test center that has 3x 256MB sticks. In general the BX7+ isn't picky about the RAM. I guess 95% of period correct sticks will work. Good you found out that single sided RAM is the problem. RAM can cause lots of trouble in lots of configurations.

Yeah, I'm glad it's all worked out for now. Just found it strange how the serial port being enabled in the bios causes the ram to not be detected correctly.

Hehe I could now say that's why I always disable serial and parallel ports in the BIOS, but that would be a lie 🤣

Well done for solving this one!

JayCeeBee64 wrote:

Sorry if I'm stating the obvious borgie83, but you might as well give up and source some low density, double sided sdram for the Gigabyte board, otherwise you're just fighting a losing battle - the GA-6BX7+ simply doesn't like single sided sdram and is acting up because of it (the weirdness with the serial port and memory detection being a part of that dislike).

I'd think that single sided 64meg and 128meg stick would work fine though, provided the 128meg stick has 8 and no less chips on one side.
256meg single sided sticks (and 512meg double or single sided sticks) would only be recognized partially, at least that's my understanding of how memory and BX work.

philscomputerlab wrote:

Hehe I could now say that's why I always disable serial and parallel ports in the BIOS, but that would be a lie 🤣

Well done for solving this one!

Thanks mate! I normally disable them as well. Just glad I don't have to source out more ram.

@borgie83: You said earlier that you also have other BX440 boards with double sided ram. Would it be possible for you to remove that ram and try them out on the GA-6BX7+ motherboard? This is just to see if the issues do go away with double sided ram.

woah i had some old POS systems that wouldn't read the full 512 maybe i should try disabling the ports.... but, the preihrals need them maybe usb to serials would better. or maybe a pci expansion card.

maybe the bios can be modded or is it a chipset limitation?

@JayCeeBee64 and cdoublejj, unfortunately it's starting to play funny buggers with me again. First boot recognises 512mb, 2nd boot 384mb and then back again. Just depends on how she's feeling at the time. Have just put in an eBay offer for some new Micron double sided ram so hopefully the seller accepts it so I can get the ball rolling again.

Question; why does this 133mhz ram which is CL2 recognise as CL3? Bios limitation or is it because of the issue with single sided ram?

EDIT: don't know about the Bios mod but I do know the 440BX chipset never officially supported 133mhz FSB although certain manufacturers pushed the 440BX chipset to its limits.

caps going bad?

cdoublejj wrote:

caps going bad?

Caps look good to me. The board is brand new although I have a brand new in box Asus P4P800-SE Socket 478 board that had leaking caps out of the box so new doesn't necessarily guarantee good caps when it comes to these old boards. Especially with Socket 370 Gigabyte boards.