Lanparty NF3 Ultra bios problem

[Stef@n]

"Flash new bios

Shut down, disconnect power

Clear CMOS

disconnect the SATA drive

Power up

Boot into bios

Load Optimized Defaults

Save changes

reboot into bios and make necesssary changes a few at a time. With save and reboot between changes. Changes that are "no go" in memory timings will result in head ache...

Shut down, disconnect power (if you like, I usually do nothing but shutdown and hook up sata drive power and I never even unhook the SATA data cables only power.)

Connect SATA drive

power up

Boot into windows"

 

So if I take these steps after a bios flash, I can leave my satadrives connected when making changes in the bios?

 

Can I unhook the datacables instead of the powercables or is this a bad thing to do?

 

What changes are "no go"? I don't understand that line...

 

"At the end it turned out to be my Maxtor Drive who was making that bug. I switched it with a 200GB WD from my secondary system and all ran well. So stay away from Maxtor Serial ATA drives on this motherboard."

 

At first I thought the same thing because I also had sataproblems with my Asus A7N8X deluxe. But in a different thread I noticed that other owners had the exactly the same problem, except they didn't have Maxtor satadrives. So I still think this problem is bios related.

 

BTW I sent an email to DFI about my problem. When I get an answer I'll post here...

[sesdave]

I found that I have to unplug sata power cables before any BIOS change in order for it to save successully. Once saved reconnect and boot up. Leave the data cables in as advised - it is only more work to take them out and it is not mecessary. I also unplug IDE drive for else it will try to boot from that instead of SATA's first. You cannot set boot order when the drives are disconnected so connect sata's then boot up, power off reconnect IDE's and reboot.

I do not know what he means by no go changes. I presume he means there are a lot of settings you can get wrong if you are not an expert on memory. Just stick to the basic ones to start with. eg, CAS,tRCD,tRP,tRAS.

 

As advised by Rgone this way of making changes works every time on this board

 

 

DFI Lanparty S939 NF3 Ultra-D | Opteron 146 CABNE 0545@ 2.7GHz | 2x512K Patriot PC3200 XBL | ATI X800XT PE| 2x120G Maxtor Diamond SATA| | Antec Sonata| Hiper 580w PSU| Arctic Freezer 64 Pro

[Stef@n]

I found that I have to unplug sata power cables before any BIOS change in order for it to save successully. Once saved reconnect and boot up. Leave the data cables in as advised - it is only more work to take them out and it is not mecessary. I also unplug IDE drive for else it will try to boot from that instead of SATA's first. You cannot set boot order when the drives are disconnected so connect sata's then boot up, power off reconnect IDE's and reboot.

I do not know what he means by no go changes. I presume he means there are a lot of settings you can get wrong if you are not an expert on memory. Just stick to the basic ones to start with. eg, CAS,tRCD,tRP,tRAS.

 

As advised by Rgone this way of making changes works every time on this board

 

Aha, so I have to takes these steps everytime I want to make changes to the bios. That's a lot of work. I thought it was a sollution for the problem . I think I'm gonna stick with just unplugging the drive on port 3. This seems to work for me and it's a lot less work.

Still think this sucks like hell :mad: ! This is supposed to be an overclockboard, so you should be able to make changes without disconnecting anything!

[sesdave]

This guide works for me so I use it. Once you have your optimum settings you dont have to change the BIOS again. You could try using clockgen and ntune or equivalant software to establlish your HTT and volt settings before you apply them to BIOS.

 

Remember only SATA port 3&4 are locked - if you have SATA drives on port 1&2 and overclock you can end up with drive corruption.

 

DFI Lanparty S939 NF3 Ultra-D | Opteron 146 CABNE 0545@ 2.7GHz | 2x512K Patriot PC3200 XBL | ATI X800XT PE| 2x120G Maxtor Diamond SATA| | Antec Sonata| Hiper 580w PSU| Arctic Freezer 64 Pro

[chronicfathead]

I find systool very useful for testing different memory settings etc.. It also has HTT adjustment, tells you your true memory speed, temps, voltages (not very accurate, but can be adjusted), has a pi calculation benchmark, memory benchmarking etc...

 

Give it a lookup. It should allow you to get to a good position and then make all the adjustments in the bios.

 

http://www.techpowerup.com/systool/

[sesdave]

After your comments I checked BIOS saves agian. . I tested and it would appear that as long as you follow the instructions for a BIOS flash or initial boot , subsequent BIOS changes will be saved from then on without having to disconnect SATA's.. Looks like I was applying overkill re having to disconnect SATA's every time you make a BIOS change - its all a learning curve with this board which can be frustrating or fun!.

[Lukezen27]

Man I'm having the same problem and I've only got SATA drives so i have to use em lol

 

I hope they fit this bug soon coze its sending me mad

 

I can save any settings in the BIOS but the FSB witch always ends up at 216 no matter what I do :shake:

 

Also why are there different BIOS File sizes?

 

Every other boad I've owed had the same size BIOS file

[tea_cooler]

I got same problem too when I first time using SATA drives. The FSB always stays 325MHz and the command rate always 2T.

This problem solved when I pull out sata data cables and power and also the cmos batteries.

[Stef@n]

I just sent an email to DFI about this problem. See email below:

 

Dear Sir,

 

From the moment I installed my DFI Lanparty nf3 Ultra-D mainboard I've had issues when trying to change things in the bios. After saving the bios keeps resetting the HTT to values I didn't select. At first this value was set to 353. With this value my system (of course) didn't boot and I had to clear the cmos to get it to boot again. With the C19 beta bios (which I tried to see if you resolved the problem) the problem still persists. Although the value the HTT is set to is much lower (216).

I found out that the problem has to do with the satadrives being connected when trying to change settings in the bios. When I want to change something in the bios, I disconnect the drive connected to port 4. If I do this the changes are properly saved. I posted this problem on DFI-street.com. Here I discovered that lots of users share this problem with the NF3 ultra-D board. See my post on DFI-street:

 

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread...22&page=1&pp=15

 

Can you release a bios-update to fix this problem as soon as possible?

 

I would like to ask everyone having this problem to post here, so we can stress to DFI that this is a serious issue with the NF3 ultra-D board.

 

Thanks in advance.

[bwlonsdale]

I recently bought the NF3 Ultra-D as well, looking for a [cheap] upgrade for my aging Abit NF2-S.

 

Well...I have all these problems with the setup that you guys are experiencing.

 

The board came with the 711 BIOS installed already so I did the initial build of XP with that on.

 

I set everything up, but never played with any changes to the HTT/RAM settings and left it on auto. I then installed windows and that went fine, made sure it was prime 95 stable.

 

Then I tried some overclocking...at which point when I went into the BIOS I noticed it was setting the HTT to 349. I made some small change to start with, upped it to 210 or something and then it went to pot. Wouldn't reboot, wouldn't hold the change in the BIOS, hard drives and DVD appearing to be accessed, power light flashing on and off. Umpteen CMOS clears later and 1 attached WD Raptor and I'm starting to get somewhere again.

 

I'm currently running with two WD Raptor hard drives attached, but my Maxtor IDE is being left off for now. I don't trust either the motherboard or it not to screw up.

 

So.....please DFI, fix this problem! I will mail the DFI techhies also if this gets this problem sorted out.

[ridikolous]

i had the same problem with my maxtor sata hd... den i unplugged it and just left my wd raptor on sata 3 and did all my bios settings and then i installed windows xp.. did all my overclock settings. after that i powered down plugged my maxtor back in everything works fine now. its just a extra step i have to do to get this board running right. this board is amazings when you get it up and running good.

[adreno]

There is a work around that although some of you may not want to pursue has worked for me since I purchased this board. Instead of using a SATA drive on 3 or 4, I use a standard 7200 rpm IDE drive as my boot drive, and install the OS on this drive. I use the SATA RAID array for storing data, relocating all my documents folders to this drive.

 

I have zero problems with saving setting to BIOS, can overclock until the cows come home, and have somewhat less grey hair. Maybe someday a BIOS update may fix these problems, who knows.