AB9 Quad GT - Cannot change BIOS settings

[Skinleech]

Hi folks,

I'm curernly running an e8400 on an AB9 Quad GT (bought from BUFF, in perfect working order as far as I could tell) with 6gb DD2 ram.

The board is on BIOS rev 17 (pre-flashed by BUFF) but I cannot make any changes to it without the PC hanging. I change a setting, or series of settings, and save the changes, which causesd the PC to power down immediately. It will then start up again a few seconds later, but just hangs. I see no POST details on screen.

If I try to shut down and re-start I get the same blank screen, only resetting the CMOS using the switch on the back of the board allows me to use it as normal.

Any ideas on what the issue could be? Would BIOS revision 18 help (if anyone could suopply it to me that is)? I assume not, but I don't really know what the issue is.

Cheers.

[Skinleech]

http://forums.hexus.net/1040476-post11.html

With some Googling of different search word I may have found the answer here on Hexus.

Anyone here care to confirm if they've had the same issue and were able to resovle it? I've been having issues with unreliable network transfers as well, so maybe this will resolve that too.

I'm a bit excited now!

[Agent]

Pull the plug and move the jumper so it resets the CMOS is the first step I'd try.

I also had a very similar issue to this with my QuadGT - it turned out to be a grounding issue. Some of the mobo mounts were plastic. Simply replacing them and it worked fine - worth looking at as I've always found Abit a bit picky with grounding.

Make sure you change the RAM settings from "Auto" (I've had loads of issues with this) to the proper timings. Also if you're using performance RAM, make sure you change the voltage to the correct amount. Also don't be scared to bump up the voltage to the MCH a bit, which is likely needed with 6gb.

What happens with just one stick of RAM in?

[Skinleech]

Thanks for the reply - will try that later on this morning.

99.9% sure all the grounding points are metal, but I'll double check that. Wish I'd know all this before building the machine...

[Skinleech]

No joy with restting the CMOS. I also already had an 8-pin 12v in there, so that's not the issue. Using 1 stick of RAM (in DIMM 1) made no difference - any changes to the BIOS result in a shut down on save, and A CMOS checksum error on boot up, even the likes of the date.

I really don't want to have to take the board out to see if the mounts are all metal - I'm sure they are - so any other suggestions at all? I know fine well I'll be really peeved when I do it and there's no plastic to get rid of! I assume you do mean the lifts from the motherboard tray that the board get screwed into?

Cheers for your help, it's much appreciated.