somewhat OT: new rig in the works, edit: "On FedEx vehicle for delivery"

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

ProviaFan

Lifer
Mar 17, 2001
14,993
1
0
Originally posted by: titanmiller
I was reading a review site on the EP-8RDA+ and they said that throught their testing they had to physicaly remove the bios chip multiple times and let it set so it would reset itself because it was so easy to corrupt. This cant be true can it? They also said that using low latency ram will corrupt the bios. Are they just trying to spread horror stories or is this an acctual problem?
I've had an 8RDA for many months now (overclocked most of that time), and have only corrupted the CMOS (not BIOS) during a few extreme overclocking attempts. Removing the battery for 30 seconds solved the problem very well. There was an issue with high-speed RAM, but I think that was fixed in a later BIOS. In times past, you'd have to borrow a stick of "slow" (PC/2100 or 2400) DDR SDRAM to boot up with, fix the memory timings in the BIOS, swap out borrowed RAM, replace with fast RAM, and then start the system. (it's funny how I can remember the fix, but not exactly what the problem was :eek:)
 

titanmiller

Platinum Member
Jan 5, 2003
2,123
2
81
Originally posted by: jliechty
Originally posted by: titanmiller
I was reading a review site on the EP-8RDA+ and they said that throught their testing they had to physicaly remove the bios chip multiple times and let it set so it would reset itself because it was so easy to corrupt. This cant be true can it? They also said that using low latency ram will corrupt the bios. Are they just trying to spread horror stories or is this an acctual problem?
I've had an 8RDA for many months now (overclocked most of that time), and have only corrupted the CMOS (not BIOS) during a few extreme overclocking attempts. Removing the battery for 30 seconds solved the problem very well. There was an issue with high-speed RAM, but I think that was fixed in a later BIOS. In times past, you'd have to borrow a stick of "slow" (PC/2100 or 2400) DDR SDRAM to boot up with, fix the memory timings in the BIOS, swap out borrowed RAM, replace with fast RAM, and then start the system. (it's funny how I can remember the fix, but not exactly what the problem was :eek:)

A nice confedence booster that the problems have been fixed. That review had me scared.
Thanks for the info. I'm guessing that was an old review with an older bios version. I will make sure I have the most recent bios, you just download and run the .exe and restart nowadays dont you?
I dont plan on doing any "extreme" overclocking yet. I might try to get it up to 2GHz with the retail HSF. I realy should have bought some AS3 with my order though.
 

ProviaFan

Lifer
Mar 17, 2001
14,993
1
0
Originally posted by: titanmiller
A nice confedence booster that the problems have been fixed. That review had me scared.
Thanks for the info. I'm guessing that was an old review with an older bios version. I will make sure I have the most recent bios, you just download and run the .exe and restart nowadays dont you?
I dont plan on doing any "extreme" overclocking yet. I might try to get it up to 2GHz with the retail HSF. I realy should have bought some AS3 with my order though.
Just a word of warning: DO NOT FLASH THE BIOS WHILE THE SYSTEM IS IN AN OVERCLOCKED STATE! Flashing the BIOS is actually quite easy; just take a floppy disk (make sure it's freshly formatted and not corrupt) and save the BIOS image to it (the flashing program is not needed). Write down the filename (including extension), then reboot, and press the key it says to enter the autoflash thing (I think it's ALT+F2 but I haven't rebooted in a while so I'm not sure :eek:). It will prompt you for the filename at some point, and begin flashing. I hope your power is reliable, or you have a good UPS, because otherwise that could be dangerous. :)