HP MCP61PM-HM (Nettle2) 5.27 With Unlocked Overclocking Options

[TheWiz]

Have you tried to hard clear the cmos yet? There should be both a blue cmos jumper and a red one that you should try resetting one at a time. Once tou confirm its back to defaults, try just putting one stick of ram in each slot to see if they individually fire

[patrickh74]

I cleared the CMOS during the original BIOS flash. I removed the battery and switched the blue jumper over and then back. All of the info that I've read about the Nettle2 says that the red jumper shouldn't be touched. so are you telling me that switching the red jumper will NOT fry the board?

[TheWiz]

I've done the red jumper on my nettle2 and its been fine. I guess as long as you validate the system clock resets then you know the cmos has cleared. Then go and try the ram test I described

[patrickh74]

So I've done the CMOS reset. Still only 2 ram slots functional no matter what size or speed of ram that I choose. Any other suggestions? And although you responded to my earlier question on the matter, you never gave me an answer 1 way or the other. Do you think it would possible to use 2 4gb sticks instead of 4 2gb sticks to acheive the 8gb of ram the board is supposed to hold?

[TheWiz]

The original support page claims that it only supports 2GB modules, see:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=us&lc=en&docname=c01077676#N155

Whether or not this is actually the case I'm a bit skeptical of. I can test a 4GB RAM module in my nettle2 board today if that would help you.

[patrickh74]

As an update. I now believe that I'm screwed. I decided to try again to reset everything to access the last 2 memory slots. I pulled all the components out (vid card, lan card and all of the ram), then I pulled out the CMOS battery and waited about 5 minutes and reinstalled it. I also used the jumpers to reset CMOS. I then replaced the jumpers, and installed 1 stick of 1gb ram into the 2 slot ( 0, 1, 2, 3) so 1 of the 2 blue memory slots that were non-functional when I updated the BIOS with the custom BIOS from your page. I started the computer and it went to the BIOS start up screen. I then hit the DELETE key to access the BIOS menus. I was going through the BIOS settings (I hadn't had a chance to change any settings yet) and suddenly the screen flickered twice and the monitor went black. It has not turned on since. No sounds, no beeps, no activity at all. I immediately switched out the power supply to see if that was the issue and nothing. Switched ram and ram slots (I have tried all of them) and still nothing. Is there anything else that I could try or should I just have its funeral?

[TheWiz]

That is bizarre. The fact that 2 of your chips weren't working turned into the screen flickering and going off makes me wonder if there was a deeper hardware problem at play here that didn't have to do with the BIOS. Is there any sign of damage to the RAM sockets or other electronics?

You could try an Award BIOS recovery procedure to see if its still alive somewhere - but the issue here does not seem to be the flashed BIOS. When you did CMOS resets, did you play with the red jumper at all?

[patrickh74]

Ok. I reflashed the BIOS. I got all 4 ram slots working. But now I cant get my board to recognize my PCIX video card. It worked fine before. I have also tried another card (both nvidia) that was known to work in this board.

[joe7dust]

TheWiz, do you think you would be able to unlock voltages either by updating this .bin or using another one? Just curious what the specific limitation is.

(I haven't checked out the alternative that has been linked already)

To everyone else, if you're using an Athlon 64 X2 4000+ you should have good luck with 230 FSB, 3x HT, & Limit Max Memory to 800mhz. Me personally I had to limit max memory to 667mhz but that is because I'm using PC-5300 still.

[martintallon]

I'm still running OEM bios and am having same blinking under score curser after post mentioned about 10 pages back. Has anybody found a fix for that lockup and will this flash option fix that or is it a hardware issue? The computer will reboot if I cycle power a few times but the issue always returns which is why I was searching for Bios updates to see if it would fix my problem. After reading about 60-70 pages here I saw 2 others with same problem but no answer and no further posts by them. The comp has been through several major crashes and is on 24/7 for @ 4years now and was hoping its just a bios issue since it only happens if a reboot is required and all HD's test ok.

OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Professional
Version 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601
System Manufacturer HP-Pavilion
System Model GN551AA-ABA m8200n
System Type x64-based PC
Processor AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 6000+, 3000 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 2 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date Phoenix Technologies, LTD 5.12, 6/11/2007
SMBIOS Version 2.4
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 8.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 8.00 GB
Available Physical Memory 5.53 GB
Total Virtual Memory 16.0 GB
Available Virtual Memory 13.2 GB
Page File Space 8.00 GB