Help with resetting CMOS

Just a guy

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Sep 26, 2015
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So my problem is my pc will only POST when I have 1 ram inserted, so after looking around for some solutions I found things like:

Boot up with 1 ram stick, go to Bios and enable XMP, save, turn off, insert 2nd ram stick then boot.

I have tried this and it did not work.

(NOTE: I have tested each stick indivually and they both work when on their own.
I am placing them in the correct slots).

Another solution was to reset CMOS. My motherboard manual said there were several ways to reset bios

"Go to BIOS and press F6 to load optimized defaults."
Tried and nothing changed

"Short the clear CMOS Jumper on the motherboard."
How do I do this? Can you link a video that I can use as a guide?



There are also some more instructions/things to read: http://imgur.com/dbT75iI
Here is an image of JBAT1: http://imgur.com/VthjOrN



I'm not quite sure what its trying to tell me.
What does "set the jumpers to clear the CMOS memory." mean?
What do they images mean?

I do understand the 4 instructions, however the motherboard didn't come with jumper caps so...

Should I buy jumper caps and then follow the instructions?
Would taking out the motherboard batteries, waiting then putting them back in reset the CMOS?

or

Is all of this useless because going to BIOS and resetting to optimized defaults the same thing as resetting CMOS?




Are there any other solutions to having a pc that will only boot with 1 ram but not two?


Thanks for reading and sorry that its a lot of text!
 
Hi, to clear the CMOS, turn off the PC at the wall. Remove the cmos battery. Then turn on the pc and try to boot withut the CMOS battery, this will clear it. Then turn it off at the walla agin and reinsert the CMOS battery, this should reset the CMOS. Have you tried also booting with one stick, then shutting down. The put the next stick in a trying to start up? This worked for me when i had the same issue. Hope i helped. :)
 
Read the manual. It probably has a diagram pointing out the CMOS jumper. Change the jumper to cover the pin it wasn't already covering, and the middle one. Then boot, shut down, undo the jumper and reboot. At least that's how it works to my recollection, it might have changed since I last did it.
 


As per manual, Slot 2 is the one to use primarily , with 2 cards slots 2/4 are used( 2nd slot is the 2nd closest to cpu on that board and fourth the furthest )
To reset bios with jbat1, pull power cord from the psu, wait till mobo light goes off or hit power button on pc to discharge any power left over , touch metal(screwdriver) for 10 seconds, connecting those two pins together, this resets bios to factory defaults, (Never do this with power on the pc at all, you will damage it). These settings are different than optimized, more low setting that will be sure to work with most devices. But realize if you reset bios, you will need to redo settings like sata mode AHCI and video mode PCIe etc as you had them before the reset
 


These boards don't come with a jumper and only has two pins, normal is when they remain unconnected, reset is when they are connected , the other thing is a board should never be powered when doing it with the older boards either
 
celtic_warrior99
I have tried what you mentioned about booting with one stick then booting again with the 2nd stick and it didnt work, and are you sure that I should boot the pc without the battery inside?

Computersecurityguy
The image linked shows everything the manual says about the jumpers, when looking on the motherboard all I see are the JBAT1 pins. What is the jumper meant to look like?

Mark_1970
Thanks I'll probably try your method first.
 
Your board also has this feature, stated in the manual.............Some memory may operate at a lower frequency than the marked value when overclocking due to the memory frequency operates dependent on its Serial
Presence Detect (SPD). Go to BIOS and find the Memory Try It! to set the
memory frequency if you want to operate the memory at the marked or at a higher
frequency. Nothing over 1.35v
Keep having trouble with memory, try that
 


In the desc it says

"You might need a standard PS2 keyboard instead of a USB keyboard temporarily. After resettingthe BIOS it is not set to use the USB during the boot up. You need the old style keyboard to plug into the purple port on the motherboard. After you get into the BIOS enable the USB ports."

I don't have an oldstyle keyboard.
 


Yes, there is no harm in starting the PC without the BIOS battery, it wont post but it will reset the CMOS.
 


Disregard that and just use a USB keyboard. It worked for me when I did it.
 


Your board was shipped to you with bios being factory default and the keyboard worked , so i think you would be ok, companies know nobody uses these ps/2 anymore, so why would they make it default anymore? lots don't even bother putting those ps/2 ports on the motherboards at all. The video is from 2012. My method is your manual method, but explained a little clearer
 


1. The mother makers tell you how they like done (crossing the jbat1 effectively is disconnecting the battery power)
2. touching those pins with a screwdriver to connect them for 10 seconds with power pulled from psu is so much easier than fiddling with those batteries and certain boards will have it in a hard place to reach, obstructed by a videocard etc . i know which i would rather do
 


Did you check/try what i said above
As per manual, Slot 2 is the one to use primarily for one card, with 2 cards slots 2/4 are used( 2nd slot is the 2nd closest to cpu on that board and fourth the furthest ) page 28 on your manual
 


Yes I have tried that, I use the 2nd slot when using 1 ram stick and 2nd and 4th when using 2 ramsticks
 
So after resetting CMOS, there are some differences.

2 Ram sticks, the computer looks like its starting normally however there is no signal to the monitor. This time however, on the EZ Debug LED's, the lights flicker between CPU and DRAM. Light stays on DRAM longer then on CPU.

1 Ram stick (tested both - same results), sometimes the computer successful POSTs but other times, the pc boots but there is no signal. (No EZ Debug Led are on). Computer no longer consistently POSTs when I have one ram stick installed.

What now?
 
Summary: I reset CMOS by removing the battery and waiting for 30 mins, although resetting CMOS didn't do anything.

My solution to my computer only reaching BIOS with 1 ram was placing the 2 memory sticks into slots 1 and 2. Reason for this was because my motherboards memory slots 3 and 4 were not working for whatever reason.

If you have a similar problem to me, try using different memory slots and hopefully it will work for you!~