Unrelenting BSODs

[Nubius]

I absolutely cannot figure this out....the reason I went to the nf4 ultra-D was to get away from the nf3 Ultra-D and it's flakeyness and instability, yet I'm getting WORSE results.

 

I'e tried the 704-2bta BIOS and am now trying the latest official BIOS...both of which just seem to hate any settings I put.

 

For one, it defaults my memory at 2-3-2-5-1T timings, even though both my Abit NF7-S v2 board and the nf3 Ultra-D defaulted it to 2-2-2-5 exactly like it should.

 

I put my ram to 2.7v, timings to 2.5-3-3-7-1T (and even tried 2T) reason for making them so loose was to give me headroom because I planned to get them atleast up to 250MHz which I KNOW they can handle as they did 270 in the nf3 board.

 

I save my settings, LDT and chipset at stock voltages, I put the ram (1:1 btw) to 205Mhz...and boom BSOD after posting and before it even gets to the windows screen with the bar scrolling across the bottom.

 

I can't for the life of me figure out why it should be doing this at 205MHz with EXTREMELY loose timings consider how small of an increment it is and reasonable voltage on top of that (based on experience with these modules)

 

I'm running memtest86+ right now and theres no errors as of yet at stock speeds of 2-2-2-5-1T 2.7v

 

I know the CPU can hit atleast 2.5GHz as I've tested that as well.

 

I've got a fan blowing directly on the RAM as well and water cooling for the rest of the system.

 

Hell at this point I don't even know what I should try as all current efforts to get ANYTHING have been futile.

 

Your help is more than just appreciated, it'd be a godsend at this point.

 

If anyone has any clues whatsoever then please fill me in as I'm just stumped and get frusterated as I had hoped that I would be able to finally overclock backed by stability.

 

I'm in the orange slots BTW if that matters.

[Nubius]

ok I'm obviously fuggin something up...I just right now tried just merely changing the timings to 2.5-3-3-7-1T from 2-2-2-5-1T and it got past the first POST screen, then that 2nd screen of posting where it says Verifying DMI Pool or whatever, but that message doesn't come up, it sits there then restarts.............

 

I'm really hoping this is just the result of some stupid butt mistake that I'm making or something I'm overlooking

[davidhammock200]

560w Thermaltake PSU +12v = 22a

Not recommended :shake: You want a min of +12V@26A.

 

Pick a "proven winner" from the "A" list: http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10854

 

This probably won't help with your current problem,

but it will allow your CPU & 6800GT to operate properly in the future.

[ukdave]

Jesus only 22a on a 560W PSU, i'd expect better from Thermaltake. Sounds more like Qtec figures

[Nubius]

yeah, I was already thinking about that...of course when I got the PSU it was beyond more than I needed.

 

However, the sticker that comes on the DFI motherboards 24pin power connector says with a 3500+ venice, 1gb of RAM and 2x6800GT's running in SLI 20a would be fine...so I figured I'd be cutting it close, but should be fine considering I'm only running one 6800GT and all...but the number of hard drives, plus optical drives, plus the two 130cfm 120mm fans for my heatercore starts to add up.

 

at this point I definitely can't afford a new PSU, but currently theres gotta be something else the matter.....I tried even 202Mhz, not to mention simply LOOSENING the timings but remaining at stock 200MHz suddenyl causes me to not be able to enter windows....theres no way that can be PSU related.

 

Hmm well actually, I just now noticed I was looking at the SLI PSU's....the A list of non-sli isn't too bad as far as price is concerned, but I'd have to wait until next month

 

Jesus only 22a on a 560W PSU, i'd expect better from Thermaltake

yeah once I got a lot more into computers I realized how lame that was....of course it never really mattered up until AMD64s came out and the nf4 is a decent power hog =/

 

Thanks for your suggestions guys.

 

Anyone else that can possibly give some insight?

 

EDIT: Ah! I just saw that Enermax 485W Noisetaker AX Series EG495AX-VE (W)SFMA (V2.01)

PSU at newegg and it's $116! and it's 2.0 not 2.01.....there is one for $86 but it's lacking PFC....I guess that PFC constitutes a $30+ difference.......

 

the one without PFC says +12v1 - 18a, +12v2 - 18a while the one WITH PFC says 15a for +12v2....so isn't the 2nd rail actually weaker....a weaker 2nd +12v rail, but with PFC constitutes a higher price =/

 

Sucks, I gotta really cut down on spending money because I may be heading to a rather expensive school within the next few months

[diehrd]

It should be simple to determin if you are running short of power.

 

Disconnect EVERYTHING except the boot drive video Card ram and processor and see it it posts..Also try one stick of ram you may have a bad stick

[davidhammock200]

new egg is famous for posting incorrect specs!

They give you a link to the manufacture's site, use it.

When ordering reference the manfacture's site, part number & specs.

Make sure they are shipping you the latest version.

Email, fax & telphones are our friends, too! :nod:

 

new egg also seems to be somewhat random when it comes to pricing.

 

GL

[RGone]

I see entirely too much of this sort of reference.

For one, it defaults my memory at 2-3-2-5-1T timings, even though both my Abit NF7-S v2 board and the nf3 Ultra-D defaulted it to 2-2-2-5 exactly like it should.

 

You are NOT on either of those boards anymore and what was with them means just about as much as 'zero'. Not quite means nothing but so close to zero.

 

The DFI NF4 you have is a race horse compared to the NF3 Ultra-D and has the bios and board tweaks to prove it. Most of you guys have no idea whatsoever about how far the DFI NF4 has had added components and tweaking done to it to make it run fast when it is 'right'. No idea at all.

 

One of those tweaks is to have the bios bootup at 2, 3, 2, 5 and not all 2's because the RAS to CAS delay timing is so critical on the board that to run too tight for just normal booting is asking for trouble so it is set by design to a 3 and not a 2. The bios is made that way.

 

Plus I never see you mention the fact that you have or have not qualified or tested each stick singlely in the topmost Orange memory slot for 8 hours each stick in memtest using the memtest built into the later bioses. 8 hours each stick by themselves in topmost orange slot and then both sticks together each in their own separate orange slot for 8 hours and the results noted.

 

Tref and the Memory drive and dim strengths are also critical to how each wildly different type of memory may work in 'x' board. I saw you trying the 704-2BTA last night and if you flashed it correctly and stopped and turned off power supply and cleared cmos according to this >

Here is the 'official' DFI way of clearing the CMOS:

 

1. pull power *A/C Power from wall outlet*.

2. pull battery

3. clear cmos jumper for minimum of 30-60 seconds *For Real troublesome systems use 8 hours*.

4. replace cmos jumper to normal position

5. replace battery

6. replace power *A/C Power from wall outlet*.

7. boot to bios and load optimized defaults

8. save and exit

9. boot back to bios and now you can change settings to your liking. *Is what we are trying to get to*.

 

The above is especially true after some unknown boot failure and after a bios flash.

 

and then set Vcore to 1.375 and added the 113% with LTD at 1.4V and Chipset at 1.7V with the memory set to 2.8V>> AFTER HAVING LOADED OPTIMIZED DEFAULTS FIRST; the system should have been very close to good settings and booted to a good uncorrupted installation of windows without trauma.

 

What bothers me is that you had problems with the ealier NF3 U-D board and likely with most of your gear used except for a PCi-e card now for the video card. If you had problems before and still have them > it makes it a nagging wonder at WHAT was bad previously or perhaps was marginal earlier and the A64 technology just shows it up very clearly now as problematic from the get go with A64 processor.

 

My gut feeling is a stick of memory will not show good when on A64 and it is entirely possible you are power supply bit however not provable conclusively until you make 'checks' of memory. That is about how it goes. There is no one PnP answer for some most especialy when no serious extended testing is presented against the problems.

 

RGone...

[Nubius]

I see entirely too much of this sort of reference.

For one, it defaults my memory at 2-3-2-5-1T timings, even though both my Abit NF7-S v2 board and the nf3 Ultra-D defaulted it to 2-2-2-5 exactly like it should.

 

You are NOT on either of those boards anymore and what was with them means just about as much as 'zero'. Not quite means nothing but so close to zero.

 

The DFI NF4 you have is a race horse compared to the NF3 Ultra-D and has the bios and board tweaks to prove it. Most of you guys have no idea whatsoever about how far the DFI NF4 has had added components and tweaking done to it to make it run fast when it is 'right'. No idea at all.

Ok thats fine, you don't have to take it as if I'm personally attacking you or the board...I simply said that so I could get an explination as to why it does this which you did manage to provide.

 

I didn't follow the 'OFFICIAL DFI WAY OF CLEARING CMOS' like the way you showed, I followed this:

 

after reset, enter bios -> load optimized defaults->y->save->after POST finishes -> shutdown ->switch off PSU -> unplug -> wait for yellow lights to turn off -> press power a few times-> set clear CMOS jumper -> wait for 10 minutes->set jumper back -> plug in ->switch on -> power up -> enter bios -> load optimised defaults -> now configure your bios.

 

which was provided on the xtremesystems page that has a list of a lot of Ultra-D BIOS's

 

and then set Vcore to 1.375 and added the 113% with LTD at 1.4V and Chipset at 1.7V with the memory set to 2.8V>>

This kind of information is good to know, as by default the chipset is 1.5 and the LTD is set to 1.2v so I didn't know what would be a good range for those to be at, however now I know.

 

As for the testing of the RAM, can I ask is this needed simply to make sure the modules work correctly, or that the modules work correctly in those particular slots? Because I had tested these ram sticks under more strenious conditions, however not on this board (please no need to reittirate 'that wasnt this board' because I understand that)

 

 

Tref and the Memory drive and dim strengths

the memory drive and dim strengths are a couple things I have barely read into and don't even fully understand yet so that doesn't help me any (meaning my lack of understanding of those doesn't help me, not you telling me, so dont take it as such)

 

Like I said though, I NEVER once had a boot failure, it simply would either blue screen before even getting to the screen where windows very first starts to load and has the blue scrolling bar, or it'd hanging right where it's supposed to say "Verifying DMI Pool, backing up cmos.....ok!" but before it'd say that it'd hang, then reset.

 

 

What bothers me is that you had problems with the ealier NF3 U-D board and likely with most of your gear used except for a PCi-e card now for the video card. If you had problems before and still have them > it makes it a nagging wonder at WHAT was bad previously or perhaps was marginal earlier and the A64 technology just shows it up very clearly now as problematic from the get go with A64 processor.

With the nf3 board, I got the ram up to 270MHz 2.5-3-3-7-2T 3v and it ran for quite a while, and then all of a sudden it didn't want to do that anymore....I only ever tried the stock BIOS for the nf3 ultra-D however as all the other BIOS's seemed to add to problems, or fix some but create other problems, so I was leary as to whether or not I wanted to even flash it.

 

Either way I'll take your suggestions and need be post back in a couple days as I figure it'll take that long to do the appropriate amount of testing you've suggested as well as implementing some of the settings you've suggested.

 

Thank you all of you for your help, very much appreciated.

[RGone]

"Nubius", no problem man just I answer tech emails likely 45 per day or so and it is the same refrain over and over and until it gets down to brass tacks on the board in question and then get the blanks filled in for the current setup and usually that unearths the answers.

 

Luck to you man...

 

RGone...

[Nubius]

Thanks Rgone....I wasn't trying to bash the board in anyway as I KNOW it's basically the leader in terms of stability, overclockability, and the options it has...I'm sure the way I worded some things made it seem like I was pissed with the board, but it was simply because it was late last night and I was frusterated with the things I had tried thus far.

 

Believe me the first conclusion I came to was that I was doing something wrong from me not being knowledgable enough with this board and the options available...such things like I mentioned the LTD and Chipset voltages...I had no clue what were considered safe options for those so I'm glad you pointed me in the right direction for that.

 

Thanks again

[Nubius]

Oh yeah quick question.

 

As far as the "CPU VID Startup" is concerned....am I supposed to set that relative to how much the Vcore is, or is it ok to leave it at 'Startup' option or what?