Problems with New Build

[230G]

  OK fellas, I got my system together but am having a couple of aggravating problems. Here's the system-

osewill Blackbone - mid tower - ATX Case

 CORSAIR RMx Series RM550X 550W 80 PLUS GOLD Power Supply

 MSI Z370 TOMAHAWK LGA 1151 Motherboard

 Intel Core i5-8500 Quad-Core LGA 1151 Processor

 WD Blue 1TB Desktop Hard Disk Drive - 7200 RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache x 2

 ADATA XPG Gammix D10 2666MHz (PC4 21300) 16G (2 x 8GB) RAM

 NVIDIA GTX 1050Ti 4GB Graphics card- out of my existing system


 First, if I install both sticks of memory, I get no display. I can take out the second and everything works fine. I have them installed in the proper slots, and I've tried both sticks of memory. It happens whether I use a DVI monitor or USB and small television, and whether I use the inboard video or my video card. I've tried piddling with the memory settings, to no avail. And this memory is on the compatibility list for the MB.

 Second, my second hard drive doesn't show up. I can go into the bios set up and see it, but when I boot, it isn't there.

 This MB is more confusing than Chinese arithmetic, not impressed.

 Thoughts?

[Rebel28]

I would start with a BIOs update. The last few updates have fixed
- Improve memory compatibility



 

[230G]

I would start with a BIOs update. The last few updates have fixed
- Improve memory compatibility

 How is that best accomplished?  I've never done that before.

[Rebel28]

If you need to ask I would suggest getting one of your Geek friends to help with this. Done wrong this could wipe your system.

But there are times it will need to be done for newer hardware to work.

Your motherboard has had many updates for the Bios since it was released for fixes and some of them were for memory issues.

On how to do it Google is your friend. There are many Youtube videos showing how to do an update.

I am not saying this will fix your problem it is just where I would start after looking up your motherboard on the MSI website.

One other quick check is to make sure you are placing the memory in the correct slots which will be  DIMMA2  and   DIMMB2  and NOT A1 and A2.

[Spikes]

Is Windows installed on the system already? BIOS updates are pretty easy these days. Just download the latest update and run the .EXE, it will flash it automatically then boot back into Windows.

If Windows is not installed, you can do one of two ways, either put the one stick of RAM in that works and install Windows, then update BIOS (easier way), or download the BIOS update onto a flash drive and do it in the BIOS itself (the new ones are pretty intuitive, but this is the harder way).

In order for the RAM to run in dual channel, you either put the sticks in 1 and 3 slots, or 2 and 4. They *Should* work other ways but who knows, it varies mobo to mobo.

As for the drive, are you using Windows 10? Does it show up in Disk Management (different from just Win Explorer).

[230G]

  The memory sticks themselves and/or the slots they're in are not the problem, I've triple checked that. In fact the system won't boot at all if the memory isn't in the correct slots.

  I have already installed the operating system and it works fine.....though I must say the Windows 10 interface suuuuucks.

  The second drive doesn't show up anywhere. Another odd thing, I partitioned the main drive 650Gb/350Gb but only the 650Gb portion shows up.

[DaddyAce]

MSI should have a specific instructions for updating the BIOS for your motherboard on their web site.

[Bizman]

You most likely have got a CD with the motherboard. It includes both all your motherboard drivers and a bunch of other software. The same is downloadable at https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/Z370-TOMAHAWK I'd rather leave the utilities uninstalled with a few exceptions. One of those might be the Live Update 6 which will check for the latest motherboard drivers and install them. It's a good tool for computer illiterates, although I'd change the settings so it doesn't automatically run.

Right clicking the Start icon brings up a variety of shortcuts, one of which is Disk Management. It should show any hard disks and partitions you have installed. You probably will find your missing 350 GB partition there, all you have to do is to format it.

[TequilaChaser]

Bizman, what if he's got a HardDrive that he has stuff on?

Right clicking the Start icon brings up a variety of shortcuts, one of which is Disk Management. It should show any hard disks and partitions you have installed. You probably will find your missing 350 GB partition there, all you have to do is to format it.

Possibly go into Disk Management and if he can see it check to make it active, then reboot so it is registered in his MBR correctly?

if this is the case and it's not seeing it at boot up, but is visible as inactive in Disk Management and it does have stuff using a different OS version ie: WindowsXP, Windows 7 all versions, Windows 8/8.1 all versions

Windows 10 will / should automatically install KB updates to that HD and work, if I remember correctly after a reboot

Agree on the formatting 2nd partition of the Windows 10 HD with 2 partitions

Edit: should have included that MS has had issues with using a newer OS version and trying to install an old HD with older OS on it... MS preference is to go through this route in chronological order

Been a while since I last messed with all that stuff

Maybe and/or Hope this helps... Best of luck

[230G]

  OK, I've made some progress...

  I piddled around last night and finally found my hard drive in the disc management area and made some adjustments to the partition. For some reason my new 2nd, or "storage" hard drive wouldn't show up. I even put it in my existing system and formatted it, to no avail. I finally went in to the bios and piddled around until I did something (still don't know what) and the second drive appeared. I STILL can't get the second 8 Mb stick of memory to work, but I'll mess with that this weekend.

  I DL'ed AH3 late, late last night, and flew a few sorties. This little systems rocks. I maxed all the sliders out, checked all the enable boxes and turned on anti aliasing and FR's would stay pegged at 60 until I dropped down very close to where there were lots of trees and the tree detail would drop them into the mid-upper '20's. I don't know if the additional 8 Mb of RAM will help that or not.

 I don't have a second monitor so I just grabbed a 26" Sony 720p TV out of the spare bedroom. It works fine, but I'm not sure how TV's compare to monitors and if FR's are affected by TV vs. monitor. Suggestions/ideas?

 Thanks for all the help guys.

[Bizman]

For the memory issue, double check that you have the sticks in DimmA2 and DimmB2 slots as the manual says. That means the second and fourth slots right from the processor. That's some Chinese logic I don't understand: Why start with slot #2, then A2 and B2 instead of starting with #1??? But yeah, it's A2 and B2 you have to populate.

TV's are basically monitors with more or less extra software for enhancing the image. Since that software takes place after the signal has passed your video card, it will cause an issue called input lag. That means your computer is way ahead of what you see.  If that software can be totally bypassed, there should be no issues at all. However, since we live in a less than perfect world, you may have to adjust some settings to get a desired result. The first thing is to use the PC port of the TV. Second, find out if the enhancers affect said PC port and disable all of them in the TV settings. There's several sites in the Net that tell the input lag for many TV's. Try to find if the exact model of your TV has been tested.

[230G]

For the memory issue, double check that you have the sticks in DimmA2 and DimmB2 slots as the manual says. That means the second and fourth slots right from the processor. That's some Chinese logic I don't understand: Why start with slot #2, then A2 and B2 instead of starting with #1??? But yeah, it's A2 and B2 you have to populate.

TV's are basically monitors with more or less extra software for enhancing the image. Since that software takes place after the signal has passed your video card, it will cause an issue called input lag. That means your computer is way ahead of what you see.  If that software can be totally bypassed, there should be no issues at all. However, since we live in a less than perfect world, you may have to adjust some settings to get a desired result. The first thing is to use the PC port of the TV. Second, find out if the enhancers affect said PC port and disable all of them in the TV settings. There's several sites in the Net that tell the input lag for many TV's. Try to find if the exact model of your TV has been tested.

 I've double, triple and quadruple checked the slots I have the memory in, it's correct. In fact there's even a little diagram stamped on the MB that shows which slots to use.

 That's interesting about TV vs. monitors. I'm going to have to dig into that for more information.