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4 Leds - I hate em.


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Gooday all, Greetings from the far north,

 

I was doing a google search to help solve my problem and came across this forum. It seems others have had this problem and you are well versed in solving it.

 

My system will not boot. When I power up, my dvd and cd power up, my hard drives power up, the 4 red leds light up, but nothing posts. My monitor remains black, I get no beep or beeps and my floppy remains dead. Also my system led on my case will not light up.

 

History - the system is 1.5 years old and has run fairly well. O/c stable to just under 2.7g. I have had the 4 leds of death in the past. Once with a simple ram timing change, like I've always done about 6 months ago everything froze and 4 leds. I hot flashed in my son's DFI NF4 and everything was fine. Then a couple of months later when I switched ram from OCZ pc 3500 plat to OCZ pc3200 rev2 sticks I have now, on some of my first trys at extreme oc with the new ram, my system froze (4 leds) and I ended up hot flashing my bios chip 3 times before it took and my system was able to run again. Several times after that, if I got too aggressive my system would freeze (4 leds) and I would have to jumper the cmos, remove the battery and put my old ram back in to post. I became careful when making changes. I felt the bios chip was starting to fail.

 

Recently my water pump quit and my system shut down with no damage. I ordered a new pump. While I was waiting for the pump, I ran the unit on air at 200 x 11 and everything was fine. When the new pump was installed, (nothing was changed, just remove the air heatsink and installed the water block) I ended up with 4 leds. I have tried everything from switching out the cpu, hot flashing the bios numerous times, switching out the video cards (I have a spare 9800 pro), reinstalling the air cooling on the cpu, and I just purchased a new bios chip complete with DFI latest bios from Badflash.com, but nothing (except 4 leds). I performed the extended bios clear, removed the hardware one item at a time, checked every voltage setting from the power supply at the mobo and numerous molex connectors. 12v, 5v, and 3.3 volt rails all appear to be well. I've removed the mobo and examined it closely especially around the bios chip area because I did notice that there was no voltage on the power led prongs which feed the case power led. Not sure if that is an issue, but nothing appears to be defective.

 

I just hooked up my water block and installed a stick of generic pc 2700 ram after the latest cmos jumper and still nothing.

 

Any suggestions I might have missed? I'm going to try another power supply tomorrow but I feel it is still in the bios area of the board. I can't check to see if the chip I received was flashed properly and I hate to reflash a new chip.

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I can't check to see if the chip I received was flashed properly and I hate to reflash a new chip.

Well it sounds as though you have no choice but to try reflashing that new chip.

 

It is not often that chips go bad though, Actually I have only had one that wouldn't take a flash in all my years programming chips.

 

Tmod

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Well it sounds as though you have no choice but to try reflashing that new chip.

 

It is not often that chips go bad though, Actually I have only had one that wouldn't take a flash in all my years programming chips.

 

Tmod

 

Do you recommend any particular bios version for this board?

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Do you recommend any particular bios version for this board?

A majority of the members here will swear by the 6/19.

 

I use the 11/24 on my Ultra Infinity with no issues at all.

 

Tmod

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Do you recommend any particular bios version for this board?

 

with my ocz i get the highest bandwidth scores out of the dfi 6-19 bios but your chips are different then mine so you might get better bandwidth out of one of the modded bioses.

 

results are different for everybody so the only way to really know is to try them and keep a log of your results. for me, the differences in bandwidth were marginal anyways.

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If you're looking for an Official BIOS for your board, I'd think the newest one would be better, possibly? It looks like you have TCCD or TCC5 chips on your RAM sticks.

(Looks like you might have some nice sticks there! :D)

It might be possible there would be more recent tweaking in such a BIOS for newer memory sticks/chips. Otherwise you might want to look to a modded BIOS, but then that would affect the MB warranty.

 

If you wanted to get more techical concerning BIOSes. Then as benbaked said, you could even try different BIOSes and see if you get better results with one compared to another/others. However, having a IOSS BIOS Savior at least, or maybe even a backup BIOS chip would be a good idea if you're going to be trying different BIOSes and/or BIOS flashing. I've seen more than a few people corrupt their BIOSes just because they go to flash their BIOS and really don't know all they ought to know about doing such, hence, then a dead board is the result. Or even going in and adjusting various settings in the BIOS without knowing what's related to that.

 

Anyway, I'm not trying to hammer on you or anything like that. I'm merely commenting on some things I've run across and on down the line.

 

Best to you.

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I'm trying another run at an extended, extended jumpered cmos etc, etc before I try another power supply.

 

You were asking about the OCZ ram I have. It is TCC5 and performs well. Below are some readings I took last summer when I installed them.

 

- 200 x 12 =2.4ghz 2-2-2-5 1T with 2.7v mem, 1.675v cpu, 1.6v chipset

- 200 x 12.5=2.5ghz 2-2-2-5 1T with 2.7v mem, 1.750v cpu, 1.7v chipset.

- 250 x 10 =2.5ghz 2.5-3-3-10 1T with 2.8v mem, 1.750v cpu, 1.7v chipset.

- 250 x 10.5=2.625 ghz 2.5-3-3-10 1T with 2.8v mem, 1.850v cpu, 1.7v chipset

- 260 x 9.5 =2.470ghz 2.5-4-4-11 1T with 2.8v mem, 1.750v cpu, 1.7 chipset

 

I have had some issues with the ram after I installed it and wonder if it isn't part of the problem. I find the memory to be very finicky. When I first got it if I make a change in the bios to the timings, my system sometimes wouldn't boot. This normally wouldn't be an issue because all I'd do was jumper the cmos. With this ram I've had to perform several hot flashes. I learned to be very careful when making any adjustments. I've found that if my system wouldn't boot, I'd have to remove this ram and insert my old OCZ pc 3500 limited platinum edition ram to get my system to post after jumpering the cmos!!! Is all this being caused by the ram or is it a mobo issue? The old stuff doesn't seem to be as sensitive to timing issues but it sure doesn't run as fast.

 

I have also found that running memtest 86 shows no errors but when I run an alternate memory test program, errors sometimes materialized. I found out the hard way that memtest has to be run after any changes. Also, this ram does run fast at low voltage and is very cool but the timings need to be loosened considerably. I tried a pair of OCZ pc4000 VX stuff at 3.3 volts for a week and was totally amazed at how fast it ran. Try 250 fsb at 2-2-2-5 1T timings but the stuff generated more heat than my gpu. The pc 4000VX stuff gave me much higher benchmarks than the pc3200 platinum rev2. I'd like to own a couple of sticks of the stuff to experiment further if I ever get my system to run.

 

The OCZ people I spoke to were frankly amazed that I was getting such good readings with their ram in an NF2 platform.

 

If there is a modded bios that would help the DFI Lanparty with OCZ PC3200 rev 2 or VX I'd like to hear about it.

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I'm unsure if there would be some BIOSes you could give a try, which might be better for the TCCx RAM. There might be. We'll see if anyone else posts in here on that topic.

 

I think these boards were pretty much finalized before TCCD/5 really became more of a hot item.

 

I haven't used any TCCD/5 with my rig. I've only used TCC4 which is quite a bit older and I used it only for a short while, it ran rather well from what I found using it in my UI board. I've also used Hynix DT-D5 RAM, this board didn't seem to like it no matter what I did, with the exception of 2.0-3-3-3-x timings up to around 216MHz/430DDR. Currently I'm using older BH-5 and this board loves it.

 

One thing I've found (others too), is that just a few tweaks here or there can make or break stability altogether. That may be something to consider with using the TCCD/5 sticks on your board. Do you have access to the Alpha timings and also the DIMM Driving Strengths and Slew Rates with the BIOS you're currently using? If so, you may need to look into those areas.

 

On your Plat Rev2s, are those single sided or double sided RAM sticks? Depending on what you've got there, and if you have access to the CPC (Command Per Clock) option, you could toggle that if desired and see what type of results you get with that alone. From what I've heard that with CPC disabled, with some sticks, that may allow higher overclocks easier and with greater stability. You may also be able to leave CPC enabled, and if you can get some of the finer timings tweaked optimally for your RAM, then you might get the stability you're looking for.

 

From what I can see with the timings you've used/tried, you're right on target. It might just be a matter of getting into the Alphas a bit, and/or also possibly a tweak on the DIMM Driving Strengths (DDS) in order to get ultra stable.

 

I noticed you have a Mobile Barton... Have you done the L12 mod? It's socket wire mod that forces the BIOS to see your CPU as a 200MHz/400DDR processor, rather than a 133MHz/266DDR CPU. I've had good results with that myself.

 

There's another mod called the War mod. That one forces the CPU to start a specific voltage, rather than what the BIOS sees for a stock Mobile Barton (which is usually low when compared to OCed voltages). Have you looked into that one at all?

 

These last two paragraphs stand out in my mind, and possibly being of some assistance to you having problems booting/rebooting/starting up and not getting to the post screen. Other than that, it looks like you have a decent PSU. Is that rated at 18A on the 12V rail though? It might not be an issue, but I figured I'd meniton it just in case there's something going on there. Do you have a multimeter or voltmeter you could test your voltages under idle and load, and at various times just to make sure your aren't getting excessive fluctuations in power?

 

Best to you, back later.

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On your Plat Rev2s, are those single sided or double sided RAM sticks? Depending on what you've got there, and if you have access to the CPC (Command Per Clock) option, you could toggle that if desired and see what type of results you get with that alone. From what I've heard that with CPC disabled, with some sticks, that may allow higher overclocks easier and with greater stability.

 

I noticed you have a Mobile Barton... Have you done the L12 mod?

 

There's another mod called the War mod. That one forces the CPU to start a specific voltage, rather than what the BIOS sees for a stock Mobile Barton (which is usually low when compared to OCed voltages). Have you looked into that one at all?

 

Other than that, it looks like you have a decent PSU. Is that rated at 18A on the 12V rail though? It might not be an issue, but I figured I'd meniton it just in case there's something going on there. Do you have a multimeter or voltmeter you could test your voltages under idle and load, and at various times just to make sure your aren't getting excessive fluctuations in power?

 

Best to you, back later.

 

Thx for the quick reply.

 

The plat rev2 dimms i have are double sided. My older OCZ pc3500 plat limited edition dimms are single sided 2 x 256. They are very stable. The fastest I can get them to is 230FSB 2-2-2-11 at 3.3 volts and 2T (I have to keep CPC off with these dimms for some reason no matter what the setting on the FSB). With the Rev2 it is different. I have been able to keep cpc on for these. Haven't tried going to 2T and higher fsb because I'm concerned about the bios problems I have had. Gunshy.

 

Haven't done the L12 mod. Really didn't pay much attention to it, but if it helps....I'll seriously try it.

 

Haven't done the War mod also. That one sounds interesting.

 

The psu is rated for 18A on the 12V rail. I have a large number of fans and lights on my case and suspected a voltage drop on this rail. Both plug ins to the mobo were fine. Checked all my molex connectors and the lowest i saw on my longest run was ll.6 volts. That might seem low but it is still within 5% of rated. Having said that I thought that the installation of my new MCP655 pump which also draws a lot of current on the 12v side might be contributing to the problem so I disconnected all fans, lights and the pump for some testing. Voltage climbed several tenths but no diff on the boot problem. Everything appears to be ok on the 3.3v, 5v, and 12 volt rails under load but that is just performing random checks.

 

Going to give my system another test but this time with the pc3500 dimms. It's been 16 hours since my last run

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18A on your 12v rail and you have a pump connected to it also. That may be a contributing factor there. Something to look at anyway. 11.6v on the 12v is pretty low, and even though it's within the +/- 5% tolerance, what may not be showing up is how much and how often you're getting fluctuations on your 12v rail, as well as how gradual or quick the fluctuations with it might be. If you've got a lot of components and peripherals drawing off it, then you might be hitting the limits of what the rail can put out as far as clean and stable power goes.

 

I do have the L12 mod on my board, it's been in there for a long time now and I have used it ever since I ran across it. When I go to load Optimized Defaults and with the L12 mod, the BIOS sees my CPU as a 200/400 FSB processor, rather than a 133/266 proc. I know I mentioned that before, but I wanted to throw that in there again. I've noticed better stability with the A-XP-M I have with the mod, and the bonus of getting to 200/400 with a simple opti-default load, and not having to start out at 133/266 and then bumping up and etc.

 

I have also used the War mod as well, but I don't have it in currently. I may throw it in again, after awhile, and if I end up going for higher FSBs and CPU overclocks down the road again. The initial start-up voltage on my CPU looks to be around 1.575v. With the War mod I used before I had it set at 1.775v. Depending on how much you are overvolting your CPU, and if there's a fair amount of differential between the initial start-up voltage and the voltage the BIOS is attempting to apply to the CPU (as in an OCed state), then there may be some issue there as well. Right now I'm going from 1.575v to 1.675v, OCed. So, and in theory, if I were to want to overvolt more, then having an initial start-up voltage set at 1.775v and then the BIOS setting it to 1.8v (for example) would be less of a jump, than from 1.575v to 1.8v. Anyway, that's what I've run across concerning that.

 

With the PSU I have now I've noticed that stability is much better than before, and I don't have the no boot or cold boot issues which I ran across previously, and with the PSU I was using before. It was also rated at 18A on the 12V rail, but you may have a bit better PSU than the one I did. Although, it looks like you have more power draw on your 12v rail than I did too.

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Well still no luck getting this board to post. Took the board out of the case and went over it with a magnifying glass to look for any obvious imperfections. None. Disconnected all non critical lights and fans and tried again. Nothing. Hot flashed my new bios chip with 11-24 bios, shorted out the cmos, removed battery, removed power cord, disconnected every non essential device, waited for 2 days pressing the mb on off switch several times. Nothing

 

Well, I'm at my witts end. The board is 1.5 years old. Would it still be under warranty? Where could I send it for repair?

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I myself use an older rev stick of oem tcc5, mixxed it with some adat thinking my adata was that samsung :, oops lol.

Ohwell, I do fine though.

 

I cannot use cas2.x anything with this stick at decent fsb's, nor cpc(cmd1).

But with the adata I can.

 

The adata is on the supported memory list but my tcc5 is'nt.

 

I've seen someone else around with 2 sticks of tccd though in dc with cas2.5, so it's probably my poor old rev.

 

My timings are as 3-3-2-3 cas 3 cmd 2(cpc off) 9-13, 0-0-2-2-0-6-3.

Some of the itmings you may need a bit higher like trc, and trfc, also the alphas, I did quite a bit of burn in from time to time that's why I say that.

 

I make a bios hat does very well with my setup, you may want to try it.

It's a bit aggressive, but does very well.

I still need to do a bit of work on it to get 263x9.5 working a bit better but hey, 266x9 worked after a tiny bit of breakin on this bios.

100% s&m stable, also prime stable(easy).

 

Also it's a decent fast bios I think, nothign like I made before, ie I made slack bioses before.

I'm allways looking for some feedback on my progress with it so if possible try it out sometime.

 

That is if you can get the board to post.

Have you tried flashing twice in a row?

Ie:

awdflash bios.bin /py /sn /wb /cd /cp /cc

When it says press f1 to reset, don't, press f10 instead and it'll bring you back up to the dos prompt.

Type in again:

awdflash bios.bin /py /sn /wb /cd /cp /cc

 

Then reset or don't, if you're in a diffrent board, press f1 again and then power off.

Oh, and if you're doing this from another board you'll need /f at the end of that command there to force the flash.

I've never had any luck with /f on a dead bios chip, allways left it dead, but when my bios is working, /f works, so I dn lol, you'll probably need it though.

 

One thing to note, because of my tcc5, I cannot post when I have a fresh cmos...

What I need to do is either remove the tcc5, or do this:

Clear the cmos using the jumper, only need a sec here of removal(I got a swicth so I just click and click again).

Then I hold insert before I press power, and I continue to hold it until it posts.

This works very well for me, and it's something I have to do 98% of the time.

 

Try it.

 

Edit:

You'll need a ps2 keyboard to hold insert with, my usb keyboard never work in that instance, works with a working cmos, but not a fresh one...

Then again my older $50-60 keyboard(usb) allways worked...

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