lalittle Posted March 21, 2009 Share Posted March 21, 2009 I was just curious why it's always better to load setup defaults in the BIOS when changing memory. Does it actually change settings that are not visible in the BIOS settings, or is this more of a "safety" protocol to make sure that you correctly set everything up right, or to make sure that nothing is "corrupt" in the current BIOS settings? I've heard a couple different responses to this question, so I figured the experts here could give me the straight story on this. Thanks, Larry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekT Posted March 21, 2009 Share Posted March 21, 2009 Different memories have different settings that are plug and play. When a system has had a certain memory and the system is simply shut down, with additional or an interchange of new memory, there can easily be a non enumeration of the new memory and concurrent settings of plug and play for the new memory does not replace the other previous settings and instability can be found. As well, when you insert a new BIOS, it is always best to Load Setup Defaults and Save Setup Defaults. Even then, in some cases, this does not work and a hard reset of the system needs to be done. Keep in mind that a new setting may be added to the BIOS and this setting had no place in the previous BIOS. Now, without loading the new settings, you can also have different values in the BIOS tables from the "shift". I was just curious why it's always better to load setup defaults in the BIOS when changing memory. Does it actually change settings that are not visible in the BIOS settings, or is this more of a "safety" protocol to make sure that you correctly set everything up right, or to make sure that nothing is "corrupt" in the current BIOS settings? I've heard a couple different responses to this question, so I figured the experts here could give me the straight story on this. Thanks, Larry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lalittle Posted April 9, 2009 Author Share Posted April 9, 2009 Thanks for the response. To clarify, when you refer to "the shift," are you referring to the shift from one pair of RAM modules to another, or to updating ("shifting") to a new BIOS? Just to make sure I fully understand you (thanks for your patience), you're saying that when you put in new RAM modules, doing a "load setup defaults" can actually add settings to the BIOS that weren't there before, correct? Do I also understand that this can make changes to the BIOS that you can't see on the BIOS screen? Thanks for all the clarification on this, Larry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employee RAM GUY Posted April 13, 2009 Corsair Employee Share Posted April 13, 2009 Yes that is correct and if you check the manual that comes with most if not all MB's this will be covered and or discussed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lalittle Posted April 13, 2009 Author Share Posted April 13, 2009 Yes that is correct and if you check the manual that comes with most if not all MB's this will be covered and or discussed. I actually did search my manual and did not find anything covering these questions, so it's apparently not covered in "all" manuals. Thanks for the response here. Larry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employee RAM GUY Posted April 14, 2009 Corsair Employee Share Posted April 14, 2009 What is the make and model of MB and I will look at the manual. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lalittle Posted April 14, 2009 Author Share Posted April 14, 2009 What is the make and model of MB and I will look at the manual. It's an Asus P5E3 Deluxe WiFi. Just to make sure we're on the same page here, the "information" that I don't see in the manual is the idea that loading setup defaults is necessary when changing RAM due to the fact that this can add "new settings" to the BIOS that weren't previously there. Thanks, Larry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employee RAM GUY Posted April 14, 2009 Corsair Employee Share Posted April 14, 2009 In section 3 3-7 In section 4-2 Both mention this or direct you to these steps in a round about way. However, for me it is a Rule when ever you first build the system or make a hardware/Firmware change, you should always load setup defaults and apply any settings needed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lalittle Posted April 14, 2009 Author Share Posted April 14, 2009 In section 3 3-7 In section 4-2 Both mention this or direct you to these steps in a round about way. However, for me it is a Rule when ever you first build the system or make a hardware/Firmware change, you should always load setup defaults and apply any settings needed I'm not sure what document you're looking at, but I'm looking at the P5E3 manual "E3468 Second Edition V2 October 2007" and there is no such information in section 4-2, or on page 4-2. There is also no page 3-7 or section 3-7 at all, so it sounds like we may be looking at completely different documents. In my manual, the term "load setup defaults" (or just "setup defaults") occurs 3 times in the entire manual -- once as an explanation of what it does, once to simply show where in the BIOS menu it says this, and once as a means to solve "stability" issues. None of these say anything about the concept of adding "new" items to the BIOS if new RAM is installed, or even that installing new RAM requires this step. I agree with you that loading setup defaults is a necessary step when changing RAM -- I'm simply pointing out that this is not covered in the MB manual. On a related note, I found that I had some strange results (Esc key wouldn't work to jump past countdown after post) when I loaded setup defaults and made other changes to the BIOS in one step. I appear to have solved this by loading setup defaults and rebooting without making ANY other changes, THEN going back into the BIOS to make the other necessary changes. I don't know if this is a quirk of the specific BIOS I'm using (1203), or a quirk of the motherboard in general, or some other issue. Thanks again, Larry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employee RAM GUY Posted April 15, 2009 Corsair Employee Share Posted April 15, 2009 NP and the sections I pointed out were from the on line manual that is posted on the Down load section of their site, and yes you are correct it does not specifically say "LOAD SETUP DEFAULTS" but that is what it means. When it is mentioned and I think that is a un-written rule at least it is with me when ever I am building a new system. Or working with a issue on any system. Sometimes the translation from Chinese to English becomes Chinglish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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