Biostar A785GE - WTH I can't use 1.8v ram??

[g0dM@n]

BIOSTAR A785GE AM2+/AM3 AMD 785G Micro ATX

I built 2 machines with this board. One with an Athlon II X4 630 and one with an Athlon II X2 250. Both went smoothly as I used some 2x2GB DDR2-800 PNY memory. The X2 250 machine I was going to go with 1+1GB DDR2 or 2+1GB DDR2, Kingston value 1.8v 667 or 800mhz.

Well check this... if I pop in 1+1 (2x1) GB Kingston 1.8v 800mhz memory, I get MAJOR memory errors (windows 7 won't boot). If I run a single stick (so far 15 min) I don't get memory errors, but 2 sticks RIGHT AWAY kicks a BOATLOAD of errors immediately.

I check the BIOS and the lowest vdimm is 1.95v. Is this a freaking joke?!?!? I even updated the BIOS... The vdimm option is listed as "Memory Overvoltage" - not sure why they call it overvoltage.... *see attached image**

So do I have to use RAM that supports 1.95 minimum? This is extremely stupid... what's wrong with these mobo companies sometimes... I wonder what's going on in their heads. So many 1.8v sets of RAM out there... why would they only offer a minimum of 1.95v?

I'm looking for a jumper on the board to see if I can drop the voltage, but no luck. I even read the whole manual... =/

Am I out of luck?

 

[g0dM@n]

Okay, so I ran memtest in these configurations with no luck (all at lowest vdimm option of 1.95v):
2x1GB DDR2-800 Kingston (1.8v rated) @ 800mhz and @ 667mhz dual channel
-->FAIL
1x1GB of the sticks above one at a time, so single-channel 800mhz
-->PASS
2+1GB (3GB total) Kingston (1.8v rated) @ 667mhz
-->FAIL
1x2GB (single 2gb stick) Kingston 1.8v 667 stick
-->PASS
2x2GB mis-matched brand 667 rated sticks @ 667mhz
-->PASS

So if any of the 1GB DDR2-800 Kingston (1.8 rated) sticks run dual-channel mode, it kicks back errors.

I guess I have to run a single 2gb stick because (a) this system is not in a 4gb ram budget and (b) 1gb of ram is too little

Any ideas? I have a strong feeling if I could lower vdimm to 1.8v I'd be okay. =/

 

[coonmanx]

Well, I downloaded the manual for that board and to my surprise you were right about 1.95 being the lowest setting for ram voltage. I am surprised. You might want to contact Biostar.

http://www.biostar-usa.com/app/en-us/support/e-support.php

 

[g0dM@n]

Well, I downloaded the manual for that board and to my surprise you were right about 1.95 being the lowest setting for ram voltage. I am surprised. You might want to contact Biostar.

http://www.biostar-usa.com/app/en-us/support/e-support.php

I gave up. I'm deploying the machine tomorrow, so I just said screw it and popped in 2x2GB DDR2. It ends up costing me, but I guess it's my fault for not swapping out the RAM sooner.

I always pop in 4gigs into machines when I'm installing Win 7... at least it'll go faster/smoother than using 2gigs in a machine (unless I already planned on 4gigs). This machine was supposed to be 2-3gb, and I finished installing everything 3 days before deployment. I should have tried the 2gigs I planned on using that same day, but I delayed and so it's my fault for procrastinating. At least I have extra sets so I'll still be sticking to my plan of deployment for tomorrow.

It's probably a waste of time now to contact them, but what the heck are they thinking? I mean... I'd understand 1.5v being defaulted if they confused this AM2+ board with DDR3 standards, but why go backwards and OVERVOLT? At least an undervolt always has options to go UPWARD... =/

 

[trents]

I bought an Athlon II X4 Propus to overclock in an ASrock 780G-based board recently and after install I found out the board would only let me raise the vcore to 1.375. That was the ceiling. Latest bios and all. Funny thing was I was running a Phenom 8750 BE at higher vcore than that on that same board and same bios before so I know the board's hardware would go higher than 1.375. It had to be a bios issue but ASRock tech support wouldn't fess up to it, saying that the vcore info encoded in the CPU was limiting the bios. Well, it wasn't doing any such thing because I dropped it in a 785G board and could raise the CPU vcore all I wanted. I also had a Gigabyte board that wouldn't run ram in dual channel and the GB techs said it was the problem of the CPU ICM. Funny thing is that same board using that same memory would run in dual channel just fine when a later bios came out and was installed. Hastily coded Bioses cause a lot of problems I've decided.

What was the vdimm rating on the PNY memory?

 

[g0dM@n]

I bought an Athlon II X4 Propus to overclock in an ASrock 780G-based board recently and after install I found out the board would only let me raise the vcore to 1.375. That was the ceiling. Latest bios and all. Funny thing was I was running a Phenom 8750 BE at higher vcore than that on that same board and same bios before so I know the board's hardware would go higher than 1.375. It had to be a bios issue but ASRock tech support wouldn't fess up to it, saying that the vcore info encoded in the CPU was limiting the bios. Well, it wasn't doing any such thing because I dropped it in a 785G board and could raise the CPU vcore all I wanted. I also had a Gigabyte board that wouldn't run ram in dual channel and the GB techs said it was the problem of the CPU ICM. Funny thing is that same board using that same memory would run in dual channel just fine when a later bios came out and was installed. Hastily coded Bioses cause a lot of problems I've decided.

What was the vdimm rating on the PNY memory?

I think the PNY is also 1.8v, but it's got spreaders on them... it all depends on the ICs I guess. Some sets rated 1.8v can go higher and even OC, and some sets just don't like higher voltages (or lower too I'm sure).

 

[larrymoencurly]

1.95V won't hurt 1.80V memoroy. I have a feeling BioStar uses a higher default voltage so marginally junk memory (almost anything with a heatsink on it) is more likely to work. I don't mind 1.95V as the default, but I'd like to see a 1.80V option so I can weed out the worst junk memory better. Even better, I'd like to see BioStar get rid of the choices for 2.45V, 2.55V, and 2.65V, which can destroy memory chips.

 

[g0dM@n]

Well it turns out that 1.95v doesn't run 1.8 value ram correctly... b/c those sticks that weren't working worked on other boards.

 

[coonmanx]

Does Biostar have a BIOS that will fix the problem? Or did you get some other ram to work?

 

[Ghostcustoms]

I have the A785G3 biostar board and also having ram issues. I can't get mine to run the ram at Specs, manual adjustment to the timings just crashes the system. I have spent a good 4-5 hours trying to trouble shoot and even swapped in better ram to no help.

I feel your value ram pain, and your not alone. Can't really help you but fyi anyways.

 

[g0dM@n]

I suggest trying another set of RAM, calling Biostar, or getting a new board. I really dunno what else we can do. I tried updating to the newest BIOS and RAM was still 1.95 as a choice for minimum.

 

[coonmanx]

File a case for tech support on their website and see what they say. They should at least know about the issue. Who knows, maybe they'll be forced to come out with a solution.

 

[Bobnova]

Is "StartUp" an option for ram? Biostar bios's (biosii?) are strange beasts, startup means default, and overvoltage is exactly that. It took me a while to figure out what was going on in my friend's 790gx biostar board. Memory on StartUp makes it happy though.

EDIT:
I think there might be two separate voltage sections, too.

 

[coonmanx]

I have a Biostar TA790GXB3 board and it has no "StartUp" option. Default is 1.6 and you up it from there (DDR3). I actually looked at the BIOS for his board (download the manual from the Biostar site) and voltage starts at 1.95. Check it out...

http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/content.php?S_ID=433

 

[g0dM@n]

The board is out of reach for me now. I already deployed it where I wanted to and it runs smoothly with 2x2GB PNY. I think I looked at every option in the BIOS and found no way to get 1.8v to run...

 

[Ghostcustoms]

The board is out of reach for me now. I already deployed it where I wanted to and it runs smoothly with 2x2GB PNY. I think I looked at every option in the BIOS and found no way to get 1.8v to run...

Well this is my third time around with biostar, and it has always been an issue with memory. With my Tpower I went through 4 different 2x1gb kits before I found one that would allow some serious fsb.

I almost didn't buy the a785g3 but it was to cheap to pass up however I am very happy with it in the end even with off ram timings.

 

[cjctan]

Hi Guys,

I stumbled upon this forum when i google on DDR problems with my newly bought Biostar TA985GE 128M motherboard.

I replaced my faulty MB with this TA985GE and recycled all my 4 1GB DDR2 rams (2x Corsair and 2x Kingston). It was working well for a few days until it suddenly reboots while I was using it yesterday. After it reboots, I got memory error message and i started investigating on the issue. I was surprised that the heatsink on the ram modules are a bit hot to touch.

After swapping around, I am sure one of the ram has died and worse thing is that I cannot run my remaining rams in dual channel. I can only put in 1 strip in alternate slots (4 in total).

From the previous posts over here, I think the MB is running the DDR are higher voltages than 1.8V. Right now, it is a painful process to send my mb for RMA as it will take weeks.

 

[g0dM@n]

Hi Guys,

I stumbled upon this forum when i google on DDR problems with my newly bought Biostar TA985GE 128M motherboard.

I replaced my faulty MB with this TA985GE and recycled all my 4 1GB DDR2 rams (2x Corsair and 2x Kingston). It was working well for a few days until it suddenly reboots while I was using it yesterday. After it reboots, I got memory error message and i started investigating on the issue. I was surprised that the heatsink on the ram modules are a bit hot to touch.

After swapping around, I am sure one of the ram has died and worse thing is that I cannot run my remaining rams in dual channel. I can only put in 1 strip in alternate slots (4 in total).

From the previous posts over here, I think the MB is running the DDR are higher voltages than 1.8V. Right now, it is a painful process to send my mb for RMA as it will take weeks.

Well with the A785GE, I could only run single-channel as well with the value RAM. I've seen a ton of Biostar deals pop up on their AM2+ lineups of lower-end boards, and I refuse to buy them. They no longer deserve my business for never communicating back with me and for being stupid enough to have their DDR2 voltage have a minimum of 1.95v. It must have been a "cheap way" to build their lower-end boards.

 

[cjctan]

Well with the A785GE, I could only run single-channel as well with the value RAM. I've seen a ton of Biostar deals pop up on their AM2+ lineups of lower-end boards, and I refuse to buy them. They no longer deserve my business for never communicating back with me and for being stupid enough to have their DDR2 voltage have a minimum of 1.95v. It must have been a "cheap way" to build their lower-end boards.

Seems like this is not an isolated case. My Corsair rams are not value rams which also fails to run. In fact this MB is a new replacement as the first one had a bad audio codec chip (cannot detect in windows). Looks like i will not support this brand anymore

 

[g0dM@n]

UPDATE:

I was very upset that I was still getting hits on this thread and found the txt file I saved of the message I sent to Biostar (I knew I had saved it somewhere). It was dated 06/07/10, so to date it was just over a month of not hearing from them.

Today I resent the same message, except at the top I noted that it was my 2nd attempt and I was very upset about their lack of communication.

Here is what I sent to them, and then their response - all today:
I censored personal info

THIS IS MY SECOND TIME CONTACTING BIOSTAR E-SUPPORT! The first time was on 06/07/10 and you never replied back - that is very disappointing. You can reach me at [email protected] and also at [email protected].

I am a Systems Specialist for XXXXXXXXXXXX, LLC. We have a few systems we are building and deploying for a client. Two boards are the Biostar A785GE and the third board is a Biostar MCP6P M2+ (the one with the specs listed above). All 3 boards have a MINIMUM DRAM voltage of 1.95v... why is that?

The majority of VALUE RAM DDR2 is 1.8v. Your board only goes as low as 1.95v. I've tried original and the most recent BIOSes and I cannot get 1.8v value RAM to run dual-channel. The only RAM that works in your boards are aftermarket performance RAM that are rated 1.9v and above.

Please let me know how I can get a value set of 2GB (I've also tried a 4GB set) of DDR2-800 Kingston or Crucial RAM to work on these boards.

The sets of value RAM I've tried in these boards work in other boards. I've explored all possibilities and they all lead to the fact that your boards are stuck at 1.95v minimum. I don't understand why Biostar would do this for DDR2 ram. Please advise or call our office at 123-456-7890 and ask for g0dM@n.

Thank you,
g0d M@n
Systems Engineer
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX LLC
www.XXXXXXXXX.com
123-456-7890

They didn't even greet me... no "Dear John Doe", or "Thank you for contacting us", etc... yes, I easily get turned off by things like this b/c I admire professionalism. Little things like this will put the cherry on top.

You cannot manually set your DRAM voltage to any setting below 1.95v. The lowest voltage for all Biostar motherboards that use DDR2 is 1.9v (if set to auto). This decision was made to increase stability with more types of memory.



[email protected]
626-581-1055 menu select 2

I'd say POOR "DECISION"!!!