Like Joe C said: Don't worry about a BIOS update just yet. Get everything working first. @Joe C: I wonder if any of those pads are ground pads. That could create a weird ground loop which would be difficult to find.
Ram sticks can need a good squeeze so i usually support the board with my thumbs underneath the slot and press down with my fingers, easy if there is a big cutout for cpu cooler. If the board is out i place it on a flat surface with a bit of cardboard undernath the slots where the solder points are sso the points go into the cradboard and cushion them.
yup... can't tell you how many times I've seen noobs do a first install and the pc won't post because of the standoffs not located properly. Luckily, 99% of the time no damage is done to the motherboard after those standoffs are removed. Edit; I'm not trying to imply that the OP is a noob by any means. Personally I've experienced that those darn tabs on the I/O shield get caught up in the usb ports on the board, and I don't see it until I attempt to plug in a usb keyboard/mouse. Back to pulling the board and fixing that I/O shield
Are you using the correct case for the correct motherboard? It sounds like you're reusing an older case and if it is old enough it may not be fitting to the standard ATX layout. Cardboard is not a suitable way to support your motherboard in its case (especially since it is easily combustible). edit: Nevermind. -- I see you were referring to using it as a tech bench (I'd still advise not using cardboard). I also got you confused with the OP. lol -- Time for an avatar @lewcass
I would not recommend it, just the same. I have never experienced positive results when mixing ram sticks (ever), regardless if I was using Intel (consumer), Intel Xeon, or AMD. If you visit most hardware forums (Tom's Hardware forum or Linus Tech Tips for example), you'll discover that is usually the culprit for many new folks building their computer (it's an easy fix too). But I digress, as I do believe the ram on the right does not look "OK". If you look closer, not only is the sticker looking as if it is slowly burning a bit (suggesting high heat), the board itself looks a bit off too. I would suggest ram with heat spacers (heatsinks) and if he's going to replace the ram, he may as well get a matching set. edit: I would also still suggest for this reason she/he look into their cooling too.
Aww cmon GOD gimme a break for crying out loud . Case is a corsair obsidian with a dirty great cutout on the motherboard mount panel. THe board is one of the smaller matx ones, 2 holes wide, 2 ram slots. If i need to unplug/plug ram in there is room i can support the board as describbed, same with the 24 pin power plug, i take care not to flex the board at all. Cardboard is used when the board is out of the case and and NO power leads are connected.
They also have a different timing. Both have the same clock speed 1600 MHz (DDR3-1600). One can mix sticks but auto timings or timing read from SPD might fail then, since one has to use timings of the slowest stick. The right one has a brown board whereas the left one has a green (boreholes). Both are green-coated, though. Both are fine (from my perspective, might be due to different white balance of the photo).
I had good results, with later Asus socket 775 motherboards with DDR2 at 333 Mhz and standard latencies, if I first manually set the DRAM voltage to 1.90V in the BIOS, then insert the other 2 DDR2 SDRAM modules. It appeared that mixing SDRAM modules and filling all 4 slots without raising the DRAM voltage first, resulted in freezing at the motherboard logo. After the DRAM voltage was raised to 1.90V, everything passed! That's how I had 8 GB of DDR2!
The sheer amount of folks (other than myself) who commonly run into issues when mixing ram sticks is enough to never recommended it for me. I have never known it to be otherwise (minus the occasional random person online). I amount it equal to the random lucky person (on a car forum) who will claim they safely drove their car 100 miles with a flat tire. Sure, you've heard the store, but realistically, the vast majority wouldn't know what to make of your unicorn. I'm sure it can be done. They taught us in school that you "could" (at least on paper). But realistically, I wouldn't try and even if successful, I would not want to buy into it long term.
rebooting is usually HW related PSU,MOBO,MEM or GPU but make sure your not shorting anything out usually a short will give u a burn smell and thats bad news...if no burn smell is one of the other four.
Usually you buy RAM sticks pair-wise (dual channel) or even triple channel (for instance for the old Socket 1366). They are sold pair-wise (and as triple) for that purpose having same batch number But later then you might upgrade to more physical memory and those aren't available anymore...you either can mix or replace totally. I did the former when I upgraded from 6 to 16 GiB....no issues with manual timing. There is still some incompatibility though. Although there are clear specifications. There are still RAM stick/board combinations which simply do not work together
Well, it works like this: You must first have a dual channel kit, then you can install 2 more sticks, as long as they can at least handle the same frequency and latencies that the dual channel kit is operating at.
if the standoff is 1 or 2 mm away and board heats up after 5 mins it warps and touches the standoff. or the memory timing mixup.
1)Remove new RAM, if you get a few days without a issue, then reinstall that RAM and monitor it. 2)Reseat GPU. 3)Note the time on the PC that the reboots happen and check them against the Event Viewer > Windows Logs > Applications , aswell as Windows Logs > System. Look for errors within the minute of the crash IE between 13:59:00 and 13:59:59.