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Starting to loose my patience with this DFI board


Pntgrd

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I changed out my Meo2 Ultra for the baove motherboard last week. I kept the same cpu and ram at the initial build with the DFI, a 3200+Winchester and 2x512 of PC4200 Adata Hyperram. These did well on the MSI board, cpu maxed out at about [email protected] and the ram would do low 290's if wanted at 3.4.4.8.2T. I ran them at 2550 1:1 24/7. I expected the same if not better from the DFI board. Unfortunatley I was disappointed to only get 2300 stable at the same voltage levels. :confused: To top it off, I spent the most of a day just trying to get Windows to even see an overclock. I could get it set in the bios but when I got to Windows, everything reverted back to stock speeds. :confused: :confused: The problem just misteriously cured itself for some reason.

But since I was also changing cpu and ram in this upgrade, I just let it ride until I got my 165 Opteron and a 2gig kit of PC 4000 G.Skill Extreem, which was last night. I have spent the time since then trying to get things stable. I would have thought I could run the Opteron at 9x250 1:1 since the ram is now only at it's rated speed, but it was not stable. I then changed the multi to 8x and ran the ram up to 275 and it passed.

Now tried the cpu at 9x275 with the ram speed cut in half. When the board posted it tried to load the Raid controller, which is disabled in bios. I then spent the next 30 minutes trying to get any stable speed, only fixed by a pull the power clear of the bios, load failsafe and boot.

Next tried setting both User controlled memory settings to manual instead of Auto, 3.4.4.8.2T timings at 250mhz and passed Memtest. Changed cpu multi to 9x and booted into Windows and ran Prime95 for 90 minutes without an error. I thought maybe changing the 2nd (lower) instance of User control to Manual may have done the trick. Now I am getting somewhere. But just to make sure I had set the bus to 250 like I thought, I looked in GPUID and CPU-z and both now say the cpu is at 1809, default. WTF?

I restatrt and check the bios and it still says cpu speed of 2250, 9x250, just like I had set it. Back into windows and it is now back to 1809, another WTF?

Needless to say, I am starting to get a bit frustrated with this DFI board and I am really starting to think I have made a bad purchasing decision. But before I go off on somebody and start screeming for my $$$ back I thought I would ask for any suggestions as to what can be my problem. Any suggestions???

 

Bios is v8/31

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So what exactly happens when everything is set to *stock* speeds? From your post, it sounds like you jumped right into overclocking and didn't spend much time checking to be sure your system was rock stable at default speeds first. Have you spent much time with your system @ default, and what are its behaviors then? An unstable or low-ceiling overclock is a somewhat weak complaint when you are purchasing the "value" series of a manufacturer's mobo, unless your system won't run at its stock speeds rock stable. And I know your ram is rated to be DDR500, but please remember that is this a spec that doesn't really exist, and afaik, there isn't much warranty from RAM manufactures that guarantee will be able to reach stated speeds, if they are above the DDR400 spec. Let us know a bit more and I'm sure some Infinity owners will be able to help more...GL...

 

PS The flaky BIOS saved settings is worrisome, but it's hard to pinpoint unless it can be reproduced when machine is running stock speeds...OC'ing can produce all types of nasty and random phenomenon.

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Flakey bios is an understatement. Woke up to a BSOD this am. Wouldn't post after that. Cleared CMOS again and it wouldn't get past ide scan unless you unplug the lone usb cable from the board, and original build problem I thought had gona away. It then loaded Windows and I tried to reply to this but it BSOD again. I didn't have time then to gho any further with it.

You say it is a "Value" board. It is sure not advertised that way. It is advertised and reviewed as basically the same as a LanParty without some of the Bells and Whistles. Maybe DFI needs to change their description.

I just hope I am able to save my XP install when I get home to get some data off the HDD before another reinstall of the o/s, the 3rd in the week I have had this board.

And why should I not jsuts jump into an o/c. I know the stable settings of both the ram and the cpu. Only difference is a supposedly HHigh Performance motherboard. And it wasn't immediatley anyway, it was 2 days later.

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And why should I not jsuts jump into an o/c. I know the stable settings of both the ram and the cpu. Only difference is a supposedly HHigh Performance motherboard. And it wasn't immediatley anyway, it was 2 days later.

 

No, you don't. You know the stable settings for your ram and CPU in one particular motherboard, apparently from another manufacturer. It has been repeated over-and-over that one cannot expect a "universal" overclock across hardware and brands. So if you're not willing to even work at it, then fail. You've already got a useless machine, so it can stay that way.

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PntGrd,

 

Please reset your BIOS following the proper BIOS reset procedure.

1. Turn off PC, turn off power supply, unplug power supply.

2. Remove m/b battery.

3. Move CMOS jumper to clear position.

4. Leave system in this state for 10 minutes minimum.

5. Move CMOS jumper back to save position.

6. Reinstall m/b battery.

7. Plug power supply back in and turn on.

8. Restart computer, enter BIOS and load optimized defaults.

9. Save and exit.

 

Run memtest a total of two loops for all tests and an additional five loops for test #5. If memtest passes proceed to Windows boot.

 

Run prime95 for a minimum of 8 hours at stock settings. If it passes you should be ok to proceed with overclocking attempts. But prior to attempting your o/c, please read the excellent A64 overclocking guides found here;

 

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20823

 

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20823

 

admin note: the A64 overclocking guide in our own forum is superior. please link to it because it is specific to DFI motherboards, not some general oc guide from some other forum

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wevsspot, what's the point? This board has been screwed from the beginning. If you had a usb cable, only one, it would not get past the ide scan. Problem came and went. If you set any o/c in bios it registered there but would not carry over into Windows, I have posted about that here last week. I did do the Memtest and it passed what you asked at 275mhz @ 3.4.4.8. It is not a memory problem.

I will go home and see if I can recover my XP install, again, and try to get some kind of stability untill I can get my hands on another board. I have had my fill.

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I'm only trying to help and keep an objective point of view. I can speak from experience on my first DFI board. I pretty well plunged head first into it (kind of like you). I've built 112 custom PC's now and thought I knew everything I needed to know to get my DFI rig up and running. I pulled a favorite CPU and memory from my beloved K8N Neo2 rig, plopped it on my DFI board, loaded optimized defaults and tried a boot. Guess what, couldn't even get a boot at stock settings. I tried many things on my own started making progress and thought to myself "well it's time to join DFI-Street" Which I did. Followed many of the recommendations here and found out one thing for sure . . . The settings I was using on my Neo2 just weren't gonna work on the DFI board. Now I can happily say that my DFI rig runs at o/c settings that were just wishful thinking on my previous board. And I am very happy that I stuck with it, researched the threads here, followed advice given etc. I'm sorry that you're unhappy with your board.

 

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

 

As a side note, did you disable USB support in the BIOS? In most cases it's not needed for your USB devices to work properly and it is know to cause snags.

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The way I look at it is this. The board not posting with a usb cable plugged in has nothing to do with my overclocking ability or settings. It has done that from Day 1. The inability of any change in speed settings to plainly show in the bios but not carry over to Windows when it loads has nothing to do with my overclocking experience, or even the steps I have taken to get to that point. You change the bus speed, exit and save, it changes the cpu speed, pure and simple. If this does not result in a cpu speed increase how is that my fault. Are DFI's so advanced that there is some other procedure to change the cpu speed? I think not.

I think it is just a matter that I have gotten s screwed up board. I have tried to work my way through the problems here and elsewhere but have been met with the DFI supiority answers that I do not know what I am doing by almost everyone, almost. That alone is enough to turn a DFI newbie off of their products. Add to that the matter of a screwed up board and it is too much. I do thank you though wevsspot for the try to help.

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DFI NF4 Infinity SLI

Opteron 165

 

2 things to keep in mind

 

#1 DFI doesn't support Opteron cpu's at all. They might work, they might give you the kind of problems you are seeing. Before you complain about this statement, keep in mind that it is true and there's not much else to say on this. Try a different cpu that is supported (Venice, Winchester, Clawhammer, San Diego, X2) and see what you come up with

 

#2 make sure you have the latest bios for this motherboard. Keep in mind this is not a Lanparty model and is designed to be an overclocker of any kind (though most will...you cannot expect them to be like you can the Lanparty boards which were designed for it)

 

 

Also, if you have a problem with your board, RMA it and eliminate it from the problem by having it replaced. This is the very first thing you should do if you feel like the board is having too many problems.

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AG, thanks for the response

1. I was having the same problems with a 3200+ Winchester so it is not an Opteron problem

 

2. Since I was having boot problems from the start one of the 1st things I did was flash to the latest bios, v8/31. As to it not being a Lanparty and not being made to be an overclocker. Then the board needs to not be described as being the same board with just a few less bells and whistles. Nowhere is it ever stated that it is NOT made to overclock. And none of the reviews I read stated that either. I guess I just didn't read between the lines enough.

 

3. I have RMA'd the board, at least it will go back when my new one gets here. I should have done that a week ago when it wouldn't pass the ide scan on the 3rd time I started it. Or the 3rd day I ran it when it wouldn't pass bios information on to XP (cpu speed). Or the 4th day when I was getting the sound loop locks in a game (later cured by moving the video card from the top slot to the bottom). I just hope to get the system stable enough to use until the new board gets here.

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I do have one last question. Does which SATA ports and ram slots make that big of difference and should you use certain ones (other than what you need to do for dual channel)? The reason I ask this is because when I got home I still was having issues with stability at all defaults and auto in bios. Just to see I moved the ran to slots 3&4 instead of 1&2. And I also moved my SATA drives from ports 1&2 to ports 3&4. I have now passed 40 minutes of uptime with SuperPi running in the background with out a hiccup. This still would have no bearing on the usb boot problem but I might try the disable usb in bios as suggested and see what that does. But the system seems at least stable and only change was ram slots and SATA ports.

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