RMA it?

[silverpig]

Old system:

A64 3000+
Soltek K8TPro-939
2x512 Geil Golden Dragon PC3500 2-3-3-6-1T
74 GB raptor
120 GB SATA
200 GB PATA
Plextor 16x DVD/RW
9800 AIW
SB Live! 5.1

Friend wanted the A64 and mobo so I sold them to him. Ran perfectly stable for months. Got some new hardware.

A64 3200+ Venice
DFI Ultra-D
Same RAM, HDs, DVD, sound
Connect3D X800XL with ATI Silencer Cooler 4

I can't install windows on it for the life of me. About 1/2 the time on a cold boot it'll freeze up before it displays the cpu info. The other 1/2 time it'll make it through POST but will hang at various stages during the XP install. After a few tries I managed to get to the very first reboot where you boot into a graphical mode, but it hangs at the mouse pointer and that's as far as I've gotten. Reformatting again just set me back. Also, on warm reboots 1/4 of the time I get corrupted graphics on the POST screen.

I know the HDs, DVD, and RAM are all good as they worked perfectly in my old system.

Things I've tried:

1. Removing everything but RAM, CPU, video. This allows me to cold boot perfectly about 9/10 of the time (AFAIK). Still get random hangs on POST, but nowhere near as often.

2. Using only 1 stick of RAM, CPU, video. Allows me to cold boot with even more frequent good results, still a few random hangs though.

3. memtest86. This hangs, but reports no errors in the RAM as far as it gets (57% is the best so far)

4. Plug 1 SATA drive in. As soon as I do this the random hangs get much more frequent.

5. Plug 2 SATA drives in. Hangs get even more frequent still.

6. Upped LDT, PCI, RAM, and CPU voltages slightly. No effect.

7. Tried various memory slot configurations including single channel. No effect.

8. Tried using various SATA connection ports. No effect.

9. Tried a different XP cd. One original XP Pro, one XP Pro with SP2. No effect.

10. Disabled all unnecessary hardware in BIOS. No effect.

11. Tried using old SATA cables from last system that worked for months. No effect.

I'm at wit's end here people. I can load windows setup more frequently when I don't have a hard drive attached, but that doesn't really do me any good. No matter what I do this board hangs. My power supply is good (Antec NeoPower 480 with the dual rails and 24 pin connector as recommended), the voltages are pretty close to bang on in the BIOS.

Is there anything else I can try? I've made sure the 24 pin connector is snug, plugged in the 4 pin square power connector, and tried the other standard 4 pin connector that's reserved for SLI mode both plugged in and not. Anything I'm missing?

 

[pulsedrive]

Have you checked to make sure that particular model of RAM is listed in DFI's approved RAM list? That could be the problem, those boards are VERY picky about what RAM they will use.

 

[MajorPayne]

Considering the fact that you are experiencing lockups in EVERY situation, I think you ARE having power supply issues.... I know you have a good-sounding power supply, but even good PSUs can go bad. Try this, disconnect everything non essential (basically every extra hard drive, take out all add-in cards except for the video, and then try to run memtest again. You said it always locks up around 57%, so if it finishes, you may be having issues with your PSU not having enough juice for this board (which is VERY power hungry) and all of the other goodies you have. Give it a shot, and let us know what you find.

 

[rise]

what bios are you on? you should have the 3.10 minimum.

as mentioned, your ram isn't recommended but my first sticks weren't either. it should still allow you to run, just not oc.

edit- also check this out post 15 for start up and be sure to use the volts, not just the timings. i don't think you need as much on the chipset and 2.8 might do it on the ram, but this has worked for a lot of people.

post 14 is the memory list.

 

[Rustler]

You might look at this link also, I was having random reboots and random cold reboots when I flashed to the 5/10-2 bios I have been stable ever since. I believe it is a memory issue I really think that DFI boards are very picky about the memory you use. My memory is XMS Corsair 3200C2PT and I got the same when I used the low latency memory out my Asus system, checked my rails with a multimeter and all was good.

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showpost.php?p=109132&postcount=1

Try one of these bios, it might cure your problem.

DFI specs:

DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D,
A64 3200 Venice @2400 240x10
MSI X800pro, Silent Boost Lapped
Maxtor 6Y120MO and 6Y160MO SATA HDs
Corsair 2x512-3200C2PT
Vantec 520 Stealth PSU

 

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: MajorPayne
Considering the fact that you are experiencing lockups in EVERY situation, I think you ARE having power supply issues.... I know you have a good-sounding power supply, but even good PSUs can go bad. Try this, disconnect everything non essential (basically every extra hard drive, take out all add-in cards except for the video, and then try to run memtest again. You said it always locks up around 57%, so if it finishes, you may be having issues with your PSU not having enough juice for this board (which is VERY power hungry) and all of the other goodies you have. Give it a shot, and let us know what you find.

Well I can try my TrueBlue 480, but it's atx 1.3... The neopower is brand new. I'll give it a shot though.

 

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: rise4310
what bios are you on? you should have the 3.10 minimum.

as mentioned, your ram isn't recommended but my first sticks weren't either. it should still allow you to run, just not oc.

edit- also check this out post 15 for start up and be sure to use the volts, not just the timings. i don't think you need as much on the chipset and 2.8 might do it on the ram, but this has worked for a lot of people.

post 14 is the memory list.

I'm just on the default bios. I've only got a laptop so it's hard to get a new floppy made up... Besides, with these random lock ups I don't think I want to mess around with flashing the bios just yet.

 

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: pulsedrive
Have you checked to make sure that particular model of RAM is listed in DFI's approved RAM list? That could be the problem, those boards are VERY picky about what RAM they will use.

Yes, GEIL PC3500 (DDR433) Dual DDR module work perfect on our motherboard. It will be detected as DDR400 at booting up POST. Upon doing overclock, you can check the actual speed from the POST screen, BIOS or "CPU z" test program. Dual 1GB consists of two pieces of couple matched 512MB modules; and Dual 512, two pieces of couple matched 256MB modules. Single piece of GEIL PC3500 also works on this model.

Seems I'm fine.

 

[rise]

most likely you are on the 1.25 bios then which won't work with the venice, or work well anyway. its from january, before the venice was even released.

you can make a bootable cd and flash that way.

 

[silverpig]

Hmm, it seems as though my cpu is running pretty hot. I'm just using the retail hs/f with some arctic silver. I've remounted the hs a few times and I can tell there's good contact there, but the hs is hot to the touch even during the install.

 

[Rustler]

Silverpig,

If you can boot to windows get DFI's windows flash utility, I have used it and it works great, you dont have to mess with a floppy, after you flash your bios in windows it will reboot go to your bios screen and load the default settings and save and then reenter your bios to change your settings.

 

[silverpig]

I can't even INSTALL windows let alone boot it.

I'm gonna try making a boot cd on my laptop's cd-rw though.

 

[silverpig]

Okay, flashed to newest bios successfullly, re-loaded optimized defaults, tried new power supply. Thing still hangs. It's going back tomorrow.

 

[JJ650]

I had the same problems. Take out one of the sticks of ram and THEN try installing windows. If you don't want to take out the ram, change the cpc setting to 2T.
Also, make sure you have the ram in the orange slots for dual channel setup using the 3.10 bios.
This board is HIGHLY finicky with it's ram as I discovered and Rise can tell ya (thanks for the idea btw!!)

I was having some issues with windows installation and did this and it worked like a breeze. MY issues with ram came later but eventually fixed em.

Give the one stick of ram a go.

**EDIT** make sure the single stick is in one of the top dimm slots. Orange or yellow. With one stick it will not make a difference. If it's in one of the lower slots, you'll get the error code beep.

***EDIT***
Damn, why can't I ever think of all of this stuff at the same time?

Another issue I had was USB mouse support. It froze several times at the "scanning hardware" at the install setup. Turning off USB mouse support stopped that problem.

 

[Dyloot]

Originally posted by: silverpig
Okay, flashed to newest bios successfullly, re-loaded optimized defaults, tried new power supply. Thing still hangs. It's going back tomorrow.

I've learned recently that these DFI boards have some power/bios issues. DFI-Street.com has some good information on fixing these problems, but they're very frustrating. I own a nF3 board, and I probably will try a different brand when switching over to nF4.

Dyloot

 

[GRIdpOOL]

I can't install "XP Pro x64" on my 3000+ Venice system overclocked to ~2.7gHz with my memory settings 1.5-2-2 1T 300mhz synchronous either. It has to be a little relaxed, believe it or not. You should always try to run the install with as few variables as possible. Disable onboard devices and try to only have video, hard disk, and one memory stick during the process. Relax the timings and go from there. It is a good sign that you were able to upgrade the bios. I wouldn't give up so easily, but that is up to you.

 

[silverpig]

Thanks guys, but it's back at the shop. They took back the cpu, video card, and mobo, and I lent them my ram so they can test it all out for me.

I tried just using a single stick of ram, and tried both slots and both sticks. No go. I relaxed my timings from 2-3-3-6-1T down to 2.5-4-4-7-2T @ 200 MHz with PC3500 stuff and it still wouldn't work. I tried both an Antec Neopower 480 and an Antec TrueBlue 480, still no go. I disabled everything on the board that I wasn't going to use (always do that anyways), still no go. The computer shop guy said the board is really damn finnicky about ram to the point where he had taken two identical sticks of ram and tried each separately in the board. One worked, one didn't, but both sticks would work in other boards.

I thought it might have been a heat issue because if I let the board sit off for a while, it would boot up no problem and get part way through the windows install before it hung. The next time it wouldn't make it as far, and then after that, warm reboots didn't even allow the system to finish a POST. Letting it sit a while helped. I was using AS3 and the retail hs/f on the venice, reseated both the cpu and hs/f more than once and made sure there was good contact between them. My videocard was just a connect3d X800XL and both the stock cooler and the ATI Silencer I tried after that had no effect. The only thing left was the chipset fan, but that was running nicely. I didn't touch it though to see how warm it was.

Guy said I might have a call back today, but probably monday.

 

[Puffnstuff]

What voltage were you running your ram at? I had to up the ram voltage on both of my nf4 mb's to 2.7v for them to be stable.

 

[silverpig]

Well, I got new ram. Mushkin TCCD 2-2-2-6-1T 2x512 MB. Windows screws up when I run 2 sticks, but works fine with just one... up until it hung and would not reboot to windows. God this is pissing me off.

I just upped the voltage to 2.8V on the ram and am trying to reinstall windows yet again.

 

[silverpig]

Okay, at 2.8V the dual channel has gotten past where it hung before...

*crosses fingers*

I just want a working computer

 

[rise]

good deal, i've only had to rma 1 board, a doa asus, but its not a lot of fun.

theres also the new soon to be official beta bios 5.10-2 which might work really well with your ram.

glad its running anyway.

 

[JJ650]

I had the same problem with running my 2 sticks of Mushking CL2 Blue with 1T timings on this board. I had to set the CPC timing to disable (2T) in order to get it to operate in dual channel. I did the same voltage bump to 2.8v and it didn't help. Eventually swapped out the ram for some OCZ3200 vx. It's been happy ever since @ 3.2V.

Make sure you at least have the latest official bios (3.10). It will help.

 

[silverpig]

Okay, I have it up and running stably at stock speeds now, but I'm having problems overclocking.

I know I've got the RAM and LDT and what not set right because I'm running 250 fsb right now, with the ram at 200, and the LDT at 4x. The system POSTs fine all the way up to and including 2.5 GHz (250x10), and will probably POST even higher although I haven't tried. However, I can't get into windows at anything above 2.0 GHz. If I bump the multiplier down to 250x8 I get into windows fine and all is well, but I can't get into windows at anything higher than 2 GHz at all. I get BSODs during the load with mainly IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL errors, although I've gotten a few <file>.sys failed to load errors as well. What's going on?

I mean, if a system POSTs at 2.5 GHz easily every time, and begins to load windows, why would it hang windows startup at 2.1? The CPU is a 3200+ Venice, so I should be able to do better than 2.0 for sure.

Summary:

200x10 (stock) = good
210x10 = bad
250x8 = good
250x10 = bad

where bad = POSTs fine, but fails loading windows.

 

[rise]

does memtest pass? 250 is about the time you want to drop ldt to 3x also but memtest first. and what are your timings and volts?

 

[silverpig]

Okay, I think I may have figured out my problem. I guess the memory controller gets o/cd too as it's on chip, so I have to relax my RAM timings some.

I didn't think I had to because I could run them at 250 fsb with a divider to 200 memory with 2-2-2-5-1T timings (it's good stuff). Now I just tried 2.5-3-3-5-2T and I can o/c fine

Thanks. I'll just play around a bit to get a max and see where I am.