Frenchman

I'm just apaled by such a demonstration of blindness. I did what the tech support ask for. I got a 500W ATX12V PSU, I plugged all cables and it didn't help. I guess you haven't read this part, have you? I got another mobo and it miraculously solved all the problems. But you keep telling me that has nothing to do with the mobo... For me, I see 2 possibilities: the mobo was defective (the most likely) or the mobo didn't like both PSU (unlikely). For the power requirements, I simply asked how did the engineers came with them. Because I stated that I found them over-the-top (remember, that's the MINIMUM requirements, not for a high end A64FX/X2 system with several HDD/optical drives and a lot of RAM). I've seriously looked up about that because I was doubtfull (you know, like NOT to believe everything you've been told and asking for proof/explanation, being critical, in brief THINK by yourself). Nobody showed me I was wrong. All I've read is close to "they know because they're engineers you n00b!" or sarcasm (like in your last post). Not very constructive. Plus I tend to give even less credibility to people insisting on me believing without seeing. I gave a chart of expected power requirements for the system I have. Are you telling me it's inacurrate? Then how and where? Teach me, I like to learn new things (and I learnt a lot about PSU and power consumption with this). As for whining, well, I would say it's more like arguing. Plus I don't like being told I'm wrong without any real arguments (and "because I say so" is not an argument).

If you consider that not supporting customers and sending them to the competition is a good business practise, then, I've nothing else to say. The stock holders might on the other hand. As for Abit and Asus, I went to their forum and looked for the "480W PSU or nothing" posts. I haven't found any. I dealt with Foxconn tech support, they were courteous and tried to help and answer questions. So don't say all companies are like DFI, because that's not true. By the way, I've checked what was the peak power consumption of my system. The figure I've found is less than 300W: A64 3500+=65W Geforce 7800 GTX=110W MoBo/Heatsink/Keyboard/Mouse/FDD=36W RAM=20W HDD=25W DVD burner=25W Sound card=7W WiFi card=5W (?) 80mm fan=2W Total=295W Some data are from: http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/Po...tor.php?cmd=AMD and the one not available there, I looked them up myself.

For rldolph79: I e-mailed the tech support from DFI's website to ask for help in addition to posting on the forum. The reply I got is: they don't provide support if you don't have a 480W PSU. They didn't even read my e-mail to exclude something else first, just checked my config list and e-mailed me back to deny tech support. And sent me spend another $100 on parts. Read again: they don't provide support. This has nothing to do with the forum rules. This is their tech support policy.

For rldolph79: I think there's a slight difference between "strongly recommend" and 'require". One is a suggestion, the other a mandatory condition. I don't contest the fact that DFI thinks that what you need, even if I disagree on the you "need" part. I contest being denied support I paid for based on not complying with undocumented mandatory requirement largely above the ones of the rest of the industry (and I insist on "mandatory"). For Worm: I think you should check your power figure. No power supply delivers 285W on a single 12V rail. That would be more than 23A. Even a 550W PSU won't have this kind of output. And how could a dual-core SLI setup work? That would be 2x285W+2x65W=700W at the least, just on the 12V. The figures I've read were around 110W for this video card.

Excerpt from DFI's manual: "The system board requires a minimum of 300 Watt power supply to operate. Your system configuration (CPU power, amount of memory, add-in cards, peripherals, etc.) may exceed the minimum power requirement. To ensure that adequate power is provided, we strongly recommend that you use a minimum of 400 Watt (or greater) power supply." And then they provide the exact same chart found on Asus website (see my post earlier). They strongly recommend a 400W PSU, not require a 480W PSU in their own manual So now, why did they refuse customer support already? Because I was not aware of requirements that are different from what their manual states? Is this good or even fair business practises? As for the board, changing the PSU to a 500W didn't help. Changing the board fixed the problem. 'nuf said. And I always used a 24 pins PSU on this board by the way.

I still have to see a doubtful claim being substantiated by facts... Refusing support to a legitimate customer based on the fact that the customer is not complying with lucridious requirements that are not openly stated, I don't see how this is being a good customer support rep, or a good engineer, or a good marketing policy. Anyway, I'm leaving you between yourselves, so you can keep talking about the lack of nuclear power plants to power your 2GW power supplies... Bye and thanks for nothing (except for Addiarmadar, Worm and none other)

Again, where are those requirements stated outside of the forum? It's not on the box, it's not in the manual. I've been told about those requirements after I asked for help... And again, if the engineers said so, how did they come with it? How come no other MB manufacturer is asking for them? Anyway, keep your head stuck in the sand and follow blindly what look like a way to cut customer service cost by fixing over-the-top arbitrary minimum specs. Unless that's part of some l33t culture that I'm missing ("Come on man, be real! You need 600W to run a single core single CPU single HDD single optical drive single GC setup. At least!") Edit: Asus website has a power comsuption table. Their engineers give a required wattage of 350W for an A64 3500+/2x6600GT setup! They must be very irresponsible. All those systems not working or fried.

What do you know about that? The only thing the tech support said is : get another PS, we're not supporting people without that. Otherwise, get lost. Is that good tech support? My power supply is an Antec Truepower II ATX 2.0 with a real 24 pin connector, with dual 12V rails giving 16A each, max combined is 28A. Above nVidia requirement. One rail is for the CPU, that's 62W or about 5A. The other one feeds the GC, 110W full load or 9A. So you're telling me that ONE HDD and ONE DVD burner will suck 84W? That's what I'm disagreeing about. My system is pretty light, except for the CG, but again, it's not a SLI setup. On top of that, that doesn't allow the tech support to be mean in their reply. They're paid for that, by the money customers spend buying their products. Being courteous is the minimum I expect. Plus, it's not said anywhere outside of this forum that DFI requires a ATX 2.0 480W power supply in order to simply provide tech support (and not garanteeing it will solve your problems). I don't think this model of mobo is bad. I probably had a defective one and I asked for help after 2 weeks of problems. Didn't get any from DFI. Instead, got treated like I'm stupid not to know things they're the only company requiring and sent waste more time and money. I have another mobo, that worked fine out of the box, without tweaking and messing. And again, where are the engineers that came with that? I want explanations, not blunt statements.

I don't believe you need 480W of power to run my system. Period. Can an engineer come and explain me how it would be otherwise? Nobody? That's what I thought. By the way, can anybody point me either on the box or on the manual of the mobo that DFI REQUIRES (not even recommends) a branded ATX 2.0 480W power supply in order to even start to think about providing customer support? For Worm, I don't include you in it. Just from my experience with computers, when you have a freshly installed system, whose all components except one have proven to work and you get unstability in various working conditions with various error messages, it's most likely a hardware problem. And whatever you say now and I know you were genuinely trying to help, changing the mobo solved the problem. Anyway, I'm done with DFI. I don't like the customer service, I'm going elsewhere and everybody is happy.

So, here is the follow-up and end of the story. I went to buy a new power supply on friday evening, an Antec Smartpower 2.0 500W. I installed the thing in the tower, plugged everything and fired up. Checked Prime95, same thing: crash after 1 min (torture test, blend mode). Tried to play WoW during the rest of the evening: got 1 freeze and one BSOD. I said to myself I spent too much time with this P.O.S. The mobo and the new PS went back to the store on saturday morning. I bought another mobo with the refund (I won't tell what brand/model, I'm not here to advertise, but it was in the same price range than the DFI). Built the rig AGAIN. And tried. No problems. At all. Works just fine out of the box. And with my underrated, overcharged Truepower II 380W. Now, it's what I think. The mobo I had was just faulty and needed to be replaced. But I don't like to be taken for an idiot. You (on this forum and the tech support) told me that I needed an ATX 2.0 480W power supply. Not only it didn't work, but I don't believe that it was even necessary. I'd like to see one of the engineers that came with those lucridious requirements come here and explain me how in hell my system can withdraw more than the 360W my PS is rated for under continuous load. Really. Unless DFI nF4 mobo have some huge power requirement compared to the competition. The same exact system worked fine with another nF4 mobo without the super-duper 480W PS, and it's again working fine on a third mobo, still without the super-duper 480W PS.

I'm not using LAN, I'm on WiFi. And I'm staying away from nVidia IDE drivers since my nForce 2 board.

I've checked Microsoft website for the BSOD errors messages. Unfortunately, this is not helpful as it doesn't point to anything specific. For Memtest , the BIOS and the power connectors, it's written in my first post. Memtest doesn't get errors overnight, the BIOS is the latest one from the DFI website (06/23/05) and all the 4 power connectors are plugged in. Edit: I've got an e-mail from tech support that bluntly tells me to upgrade my PSU. Gonna do that and see. Hope this works (and another $100 gone...)

I'm don't really think of a power issue. The system reboots randomly, even when it's quasi-idle (browsing with Firefox). But I guess I can try. And yes, the temperatures are under load, with Prime95 running (when it runs long enough). Idle is 35C for CPU and around 41C for chipset. And the chipset fan gets really loud under load (7500+rpm at 55C).

Hi, I'm new to the DFI brand. I bought a nF4 Ultra-D to replace another board I wasn't satisfied with (not stability related though). I kept the same components, except the case/PSU (which is theoricaly better) and of course, the mainboard. At first, with the BIOS that came with it, the system wouldn't boot with 2 memory modules. After flashing with the latest BIOS (06/23/05), the problem was solved. Nevertheless, I keep having random crashes, freezes and BSOD, this regardless of the application (WoW, Firefox, nothing at all). I read that the Activearmor was buggy and troublesome and uninstalled it, without improvement. I ran Memtest86 overnight, without any error. On the contrary, Prime95 gets errors within minutes under Windows. According to MBM, voltages and temperatures are okay (55-56C for CPU and chipstet and I have a Zalmann 7700CU). The BSOD don't report any specific errors. I've seen BAD_POOL_CALLER, IRQ_LESS_OR_NOT_EQUAL, PAGE_FAULT_IN_NON_PAGED_AREA, etc. I was wondering if the PSU would be too weak, but it's a 380W, 12V dual rails, with 16A on each 12V (max combined is 28A though) and my system is not overcharged (only 1 HDD, 1 optical drive). The CPU should use around 62W full load and the GC about 110W. The PSU should handle that. Plus Prime95 is not really graphic intensive and the Geforce 7800GTX doesn't suck that much in 2D. All connectors are plugged in, even the optional 12V and 5V on the MB. Anyway, I don't really know what to do now. My only visible option is to bring the mainboard back and get another one. But what? Should I get the same model? Is this motherboard faulty? Thanks for any input. I'd like to enjoy my system, not spend more time scratching my head about why a stock non-OCed system is not working.