So I just updated my BIOS and...

[healimonster]

... well surprisingly I think it worked.

My motherboard is a ECS PT800-CE-A, 3.2ghz P4 processor and 2 512 sticks of mushkin pc3200 memory.


I updated the BIOS because I think it is having a hard time reading the memory properly. Some games crash, and it use to crash all the time but I returned the two sticks of memory for two new ones. I have run memtests on all of them, but and they all produce errors but I am having a hard time beliving that this is the memory fault (after going through 4 sticks of name brand memory) since the motherboard has to read the memory in the first place.

And the update notes on the BIOS may agree with me:
http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWeb/Products/ProductsDetail.aspx?MenuID=16&LanID=0&DetailID=423&DetailName=BIOS

So my question is when I ran WINFLASH I was given the option of BOOTBLOCK (see how to run winflash link within the link above) and that is all I did.

There were other options such as update all, as well as clear CMOS. Did I update the BIOS? What is BOOTBLOCK and why is it defaulted to update just that even in the walk through guide?

Do I want to update all? Sounds good on paper, but updating BIOS is definetly not my strong point and I don't want to fry this already crappy motherboard.

Thanks

[lynx]

It certainly sounds like you had a bios problem.

Can't tell if you've updated it though, that site doesn't work with Firefox and doesn't even work well with IE6. What is it supposed to do when you click on "how to run winflash"? It just goes back to the same page for me.

Since you've managed to read that info you'd better post it here so we can read it, but usually the bootblock is the bit that you don't update, since that controls loading of the rest of the bios.

But in any case, try memtest again. If it passes then I would suggest you've solved the problem.

[fkdup74]

Can't tell if you've updated it though, that site doesn't work with Firefox and doesn't even work well with IE6. What is it supposed to do when you click on "how to run winflash"? It just goes back to the same page for me.


same here, even with popup blockers disabled :blink:

[healimonster]

oh its a pop up page that just shows you how to use winflash, the point was that in the intructions it just showed the example of using the bookblock.

but that is neither here nor there now, I did the whole update and it appeared to work, but it didnt seem to solve my memory problems.

So i purchased some kingston memory that their website claims to support my motherboard and in a few more days we will see.

I built this computer over 2 weeks ago and it is still not working right!

Oh the joy!

[tesco]

i'd just return/rma that motherboard..
sounds like it faulty or something...
and ES isn't the best brand either... (i know, mine is an ecs too).

[healimonster]

The problem is that I got the Mobo as part of a CPU(3.2ghz)/MOBO combo from Fry's outpost.com.

The good news is that the combo only cost 219 dollars so motherboard was essential free.

If I have to I will just buy a better motherboard and sell this bundle of trouble.

But I have faith I can get this peice of crap working.