Vista 64 and 4GB of RAM - Part Two

My new motherboard - Asus's excellent Crosshair - came in today. I hooked it up, wiped my hard drive, and installed Vista 64. Then I plopped in my new sticks of RAM, and it booted flawlessly. I'm now gaming in 64-bit with 4GB of RAM. Yay!

Seems like it was entirely the MSI motherboard that was keeping my from using the extra 2 sticks of RAM. That's OK, though. MSI wiped themselves off my hardware approval list, and Asus is back on. (Had some issues almost a decade ago with their motherboards and cards.)

Vista 64 and 4GB of RAM

So, here's my latest quandary in dealing with PCs: I bought another 2GB of Corsair XMS2 DDR2 RAM to install in my PC. When it arrived, I installed it and tried to boot up the PC. No dice. The BIOS sees it just fine, but Vista 32 Home Premium was not booting. In fact, as soon as the post completes, the screen goes black, and that's all she wrote. Tried to boot Vista in safe mode, it hangs at crccheck loading. Every time.

No problem, I thought. I want Vista 64 anyway. So, I ordered the 64-bit version of Home Premium from MS. It arrived yesterday.

After a gruelling install (Thanks so much for that, Microshaft...) I ran in to the exact. Same. F**king. Issue.

Now, I have done my research, and it seems quite a few people have this issue as well, and people with other motherboards are having similar issues.

I have tried installing the MS patch KB9297777 with no luck. I tried backing down the RAM timings from 4-4-4-12.

I scoured the web today, and tonight I am going to try a few remaining options before I go ballistic. In the BIOS, I am going to attempt to change the RAM voltage to 2.2. (It's already upped to 2.1 per manufacturers specs.) Then I'm going to make sure it's running at 667Mhz as opposed to its 800 rating. (A memory limitation of current chipsets, apparently, is that they can't run 4 sticks at the rated speed.)

I will, of course, post the results here, in the hopes that if I can fix this, I can help others who are having this very irritating issue.

System Specs:
MSI K9N SLI Platinum motherboard (NVidia 570 SLI)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200
4GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2 RAM (4 x 1GB)
EVGA 8800GTS 640 MB
X-FI ExtremeMusic
BFG PhysX card
Killer NIC M1
Hiper 580W PSU


UPDATE:
Nothing has worked. I even tried removing everything from the system but the CPU, RAM, and HDD, but nothing will cause Vista 64 to boot while there are 4 sticks of RAM on this motherboard. I'm sorry folks, I have no fix for this.

Instead, I gave up and ordered an ASUS Crosshair 590 SLI motherboard. Lots of people have great luck with 4GB of RAM and this board, so I am hoping I do too.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131593

Upgrading Vista 32 to Vista 64

Installing a 64-bit version of Windows Vista on computer that is running a 32-bit version of Windows Vista

If you
have purchased an Upgrade license together with a Windows Vista DVD, you must
use one of the following methods.

Method 1

Purchase a full version of the 64-bit version of Windows
Vista.

Method 2

1. Remove the 32-bit version of Windows Vista.
2. Install Windows XP.
3. Install the 64-bit version of Windows Vista by using an installation method that is listed earlier in this article.

Gee, thanks Microsoft. Instead of just letting me install clean or upgrade my Vista 32 installation, I have to remove Vista 32, and reinstall XP 32, just so Vista 64 can look at it and then erase it anyway.

Assholes.

Vista Start Menu: Changing the Power Button Function

This is the quick and dirty way to make the power button on the Vista Start menu actually turn off your PC, instead of putting it to sleep.

1. Click the start button (The little Windows flag on the bottom left of the screen, duh.)
2. In the search bar, type: CMD - hit enter
3. In the command prompt window that opens, type: powercfg.cpl,1 - hit enter
4. A Power Options window will open.
5. Expand the Power buttons and lid section (click the little plus sign, dummy)
6. Expand the Start menu power button section (the little plus, again)
7. Click either On battery or Plugged in and use the dropdown menu to select Shut Down
8. Click OK and you're all set!

Vista Recycle Bin missing from desktop

If you're like me, you've probably deleted the Recycle Bin from your Windows Vista desktop by clicking delete instead of empty recycle bin. Don't panic! It's really easy to get it back.

1. Right click your desktop and select Personalize.
2. On the window that appears, you will see Change desktop icons on the top left. Click it.
3. At the top of the pop-up window, check Recycle Bin, and then click OK.

Tada! Now your pretty little Vista Recycle Bin is back on your desktop, where you can accidentally delete again in the future.