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My last hurrah


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Gunna take my last stab at getting my DFI board stable for me before Im forced to try another board of some type. Hopefully you guys can help out and catch something I've missed.

 

First some background. I purchased the components for the system in my sig about 2 months ago now just as the Expert boards became available in the US. I've run for the last two months with random crashes at fairly inopportune times. Im a guild leader in World of Warcraft and crashing in the middle of a boss fight is pretty destructive to the raid and my blood pressure. When I crash my sound turns to static and hisses loudly and I either lockup entirely until I power cycle or I just spontaneously reboot.

 

Here's what I've done over the last few months to make sure my hardware is good. I've run memtest86+ tests 1-8 for 6 passes with no errors. I've run memtest86+ test 5 and test 8 for 200+ passes with no errors. I've run dual Prime95 torture tests on each cpu using 800megs per core as per Angry_games tutorial for 15+ hours. I've run 3dmark1 and 3dmark5 to completion with flying colors. Everything says this machine is rock solid in its current stock configuration which I'll list below shortly.

 

Yet my crashing problem is getting worse. These days I cant log in for more than a few minutes at a time before crashing. Two days ago I rebuilt my machine from scratch as per Angry_games method in this post. Afterwards, I did not apply the "AMD dual core fix" since I read that its a bunch of ACPI hooey and Angry_Games didnt have it in the tutorial. I didnt apply any Microsoft registry hotfixes either for the same reason. I'd like to get a good consensus about whether people think this might be my problem or not.

 

Moving on, here's a list of my current drivers:

nForce 6.70: SMbus/Audio portions only since Im not using RAID and Im using the Marvell NIC. I havent been able to use my nForce NIC since I first loaded optimized defaults in BIOS a week after I got my board. I could probably do without the Audio portions as well since I've disabled AC97 in BIOS because I have an X-Fi platinum.

 

Forceware 81.89: SLI enabled

 

Creative Labs X-Fi Driver Web Update 2 (2.07.0004)

 

Here's a graphic of CPUz, Prime95, 3Dmark1 and ITE Guardian.

 

Here's a graphic of my PC Health Status BIOS screen

 

Here's a graphic of my Advanced Chipset Features BIOS screen

 

Here are the rest of my BIOS settings:

 


Genie BIOS Settings:



FSB Bus Frequency.............................  -  200

LDT/FSB Frequency Ratio.......................  -  Auto

LDT Bus Transfer Width........................  -  16 16

CPU/FSB Frequency Ratio.......................  -  Auto

PCI eXpress Frequency.........................  -  100Mhz

K8 Cool'n'Quiet Support.......................  -  Disable

CPU VID StartUp Value.........................  -  StartUp



CPU VID Control...............................  -  Auto

CPU VID Special Control.......................  -  Auto

LDT Voltage Control...........................  -  1.20v 

Chip Set Voltage Control......................  -  1.52v

DRAM Voltage Control..........................  -  2.71v



PCI eXpress Configuration.....................  -  8-4-NC-8

Dual NV Chip Card Support.....................  -  Disabled

MAC Lan.......................................  -  Auto

MAC Media Interface...........................  -  Pin Strap

Machine MAC(NV) Address.......................  -  Disabled

MAC(NV) Address Input.........................  -  Press Enter

MAC LAN Boot ROM..............................  -  Enabled

Internal Phy SATA 1/2.........................  -  Enabled

Internal Phy SATA 3/4.........................  -  Enabled

SiI3114 S-ATA RAID Control....................  -  Disabled

VIA 1394 Control..............................  -  Disabled

MARVELL Giga LAN Control......................  -  Enabled



Run MemTest86+................................  -  Disabled



DRAM Configuration Settings:



DRAM Frequency Set............................  -  200=RAM/FSB:01/01

Command Per Clock (CPC).......................  -  Enable 

CAS Latency Control (Tcl).....................  -  2.0

RAS# to CAS# delay (Trcd).....................  -  02 Bus Clocks

Min RAS# active time (Tras)...................  -  05 Bus Clocks

Row precharge time (Trp)......................  -  02 Bus Clocks

Row Cycle time (Trc)..........................  -  08 Bus Clocks

Row refresh cyc time (Trfc)...................  -  14 Bus Clocks

Row to Row delay (Trrd).......................  -  03 Bus Clocks

Write recovery time (Twr).....................  -  03 Bus Clocks

Write to Read delay (Twtr)....................  -  02 Bus Clocks

Read to Write delay (Trwt)....................  -  03 Bus Clocks

Refresh Period (Tref).........................  -  3120 Cycles

Write CAS Latency (Twcl)......................  -  Auto

DRAM Bank Interleave..........................  -  Enabled



DQS Skew Control..............................  -  Auto

DQS Skew Value................................  -  0

DRAM Drive Strength...........................  -  Auto

DRAM Data Drive Strength......................  -  Auto

Max Async Latency.............................  -  Auto

DRAM Response Time............................  -  Fast

Read Preamble Time............................  -  Auto

IdleCycle Limit...............................  -  256 Cycles

Dynamic Counter...............................  -  Disable

R/W Queue Bypass..............................  -  16 x

Bypass Max....................................  -  07 x

32 Byte Granularity...........................  -  Disable(4 Bursts)

 

Basically I have no idea what to do from here. I've read hundreds of posts on these boards over the last couple weeks and cant find any explanation for my problem. I love my DFI board but if I cant run the games I need to then it really doesnt matter how much I love it. I have to get stable or move on. Thanks for your time and consideration.

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Sounds like you really have tried everything, but unless you haven't, I would definately try another PSU. If it was GPU, RAM or Sound you would probably get bluescreens with weird messages and mentionings of driver files etc rather than it just freezing up.

 

 

EDIT: Whatever he ^ said aswell :)

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Gunna take my last stab at getting my DFI board stable for me before Im forced to try another board of some type. Hopefully you guys can help out and catch something I've missed.

 

First some background. I purchased the components for the system in my sig about 2 months ago now just as the Expert boards became available in the US. I've run for the last two months with random crashes at fairly inopportune times. Im a guild leader in World of Warcraft and crashing in the middle of a boss fight is pretty destructive to the raid and my blood pressure. When I crash my sound turns to static and hisses loudly and I either lockup entirely until I power cycle or I just spontaneously reboot.

 

Here's what I've done over the last few months to make sure my hardware is good. I've run memtest86+ tests 1-8 for 6 passes with no errors. I've run memtest86+ test 5 and test 8 for 200+ passes with no errors. I've run dual Prime95 torture tests on each cpu using 800megs per core as per Angry_games tutorial for 15+ hours. I've run 3dmark1 and 3dmark5 to completion with flying colors. Everything says this machine is rock solid in its current stock configuration which I'll list below shortly.

 

Yet my crashing problem is getting worse. These days I cant log in for more than a few minutes at a time before crashing. Two days ago I rebuilt my machine from scratch as per Angry_games method in this post. Afterwards, I did not apply the "AMD dual core fix" since I read that its a bunch of ACPI hooey and Angry_Games didnt have it in the tutorial. I didnt apply any Microsoft registry hotfixes either for the same reason. I'd like to get a good consensus about whether people think this might be my problem or not.

 

Moving on, here's a list of my current drivers:

nForce 6.70: SMbus/Audio portions only since Im not using RAID and Im using the Marvell NIC. I havent been able to use my nForce NIC since I first loaded optimized defaults in BIOS a week after I got my board. I could probably do without the Audio portions as well since I've disabled AC97 in BIOS because I have an X-Fi platinum.

 

Forceware 81.89: SLI enabled

 

Creative Labs X-Fi Driver Web Update 2 (2.07.0004)

 

Here's a graphic of CPUz, Prime95, 3Dmark1 and ITE Guardian.

 

Here's a graphic of my PC Health Status BIOS screen

 

Here's a graphic of my Advanced Chipset Features BIOS screen

 

Here are the rest of my BIOS settings:

 


Genie BIOS Settings:



FSB Bus Frequency.............................  -  200

LDT/FSB Frequency Ratio.......................  -  Auto

LDT Bus Transfer Width........................  -  16 16

CPU/FSB Frequency Ratio.......................  -  Auto

PCI eXpress Frequency.........................  -  100Mhz

K8 Cool'n'Quiet Support.......................  -  Disable

CPU VID StartUp Value.........................  -  StartUp



CPU VID Control...............................  -  Auto

CPU VID Special Control.......................  -  Auto

LDT Voltage Control...........................  -  1.20v 

Chip Set Voltage Control......................  -  1.52v

DRAM Voltage Control..........................  -  2.71v



PCI eXpress Configuration.....................  -  8-4-NC-8

Dual NV Chip Card Support.....................  -  Disabled

MAC Lan.......................................  -  Auto

MAC Media Interface...........................  -  Pin Strap

Machine MAC(NV) Address.......................  -  Disabled

MAC(NV) Address Input.........................  -  Press Enter

MAC LAN Boot ROM..............................  -  Enabled

Internal Phy SATA 1/2.........................  -  Enabled

Internal Phy SATA 3/4.........................  -  Enabled

SiI3114 S-ATA RAID Control....................  -  Disabled

VIA 1394 Control..............................  -  Disabled

MARVELL Giga LAN Control......................  -  Enabled



Run MemTest86+................................  -  Disabled



DRAM Configuration Settings:



DRAM Frequency Set............................  -  200=RAM/FSB:01/01

Command Per Clock (CPC).......................  -  Enable 

CAS Latency Control (Tcl).....................  -  2.0

RAS# to CAS# delay (Trcd).....................  -  02 Bus Clocks

Min RAS# active time (Tras)...................  -  05 Bus Clocks

Row precharge time (Trp)......................  -  02 Bus Clocks

Row Cycle time (Trc)..........................  -  08 Bus Clocks

Row refresh cyc time (Trfc)...................  -  14 Bus Clocks

Row to Row delay (Trrd).......................  -  03 Bus Clocks

Write recovery time (Twr).....................  -  03 Bus Clocks

Write to Read delay (Twtr)....................  -  02 Bus Clocks

Read to Write delay (Trwt)....................  -  03 Bus Clocks

Refresh Period (Tref).........................  -  3120 Cycles

DRAM Bank Interleave..........................  -  Enabled



DQS Skew Control..............................  -  Auto

DQS Skew Value................................  -  0

DRAM Drive Strength...........................  -  Auto

DRAM Data Drive Strength......................  -  Auto

Max Async Latency.............................  -  Auto

DRAM Response Time............................  -  Fast

Read Preamble Time............................  -  Auto

IdleCycle Limit...............................  -  256 Cycles

Dynamic Counter...............................  -  Disable

R/W Queue Bypass..............................  -  16 x

Bypass Max....................................  -  07 x

32 Byte Granularity...........................  -  Disable(4 Bursts)

 

Basically I have no idea what to do from here. I've read hundreds of posts on these boards over the last couple weeks and cant find any explanation for my problem. I love my DFI board but if I cant run the games I need to then it really doesnt matter how much I love it. I have to get stable or move on. Thanks for your time and consideration.

am i reading youre memory right? you have 4 sticks of ram and can run(cpc)enabled? try disable for that and set the trrd=2 twrd=2twtr=1tref=2 and the rest of the memory settings are ok.i had memory tests pass with different configs to but games don't like some settings.

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I actually swapped the X-Fi platinum out for a Audigy 2ZS Platinum Pro at one point with no change in my crash length. I will try the onboard sound though.

 

As for the CPC - enable it was the only way I could get the rig to run Memtest86+ without errors. As soon as I disable it I get hundreds of Memtest86+ errors.

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First some background. I purchased the components for the system in my sig about 2 months ago now just as the Expert boards became available in the US.

I haven't read up on this board at all. I understand you (there is) some psu

problems, etc..

 

Just curious, what prompted you to upgrade to thos board?

Was it any better than the "D-DR" series?

 

I don't know, just asking...

-tjaw-

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I actually swapped the X-Fi platinum out for a Audigy 2ZS Platinum Pro at one point with no change in my crash length. I will try the onboard sound though.

 

As for the CPC - enable it was the only way I could get the rig to run Memtest86+ without errors. As soon as I disable it I get hundreds of Memtest86+ errors.

well cpc means you are running 1t and thats very stressful on a memory controller with 4 sticks of ram plus the 4 settings you need to change that i gave you because youre high pitched sqeeling noise and lock ups are memory problems.

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I haven't read up on this board at all. I understand you (there is) some psu

problems, etc..

 

Just curious, what prompted you to upgrade to thos board?

Was it any better than the "D-DR" series?

 

I don't know, just asking...

-tjaw-

 

Its my first DFI board. I was previously running an AGP Intel 3.2EE rig I built 2 years ago and this DFI board came out with the best reviews/features/etc.

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well cpc means you are running 1t and thats very stressful on a memory controller with 4 sticks of ram plus the 4 settings you need to change that i gave you because youre high pitched sqeeling noise and lock ups are memory problems.

 

Turned CPC off and made the changes you suggest assuming you meant twr instead of twrt and you meant trwt instead of tref. I dont have a Twrt and Tref is 3120 cycles so cant be set to 2.

 

After I change those settings the machine posts, shows me IDE drives, PCI device listing and then goes to a black screen and never boots to windows. I'm moving backwards. :) I turned CPC back on and left the other 4 changes you suggested and immediately booted into windows.

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Having gone thru what you explained with crashing in games at first then crashing all the time ...the problem in my system was my psu...it finally failed in another box...what was happening was a slooooow & painful death ...drove me nuts

 

replaced my ocz520w with a ocz600w and all is well now

 

good luck :)

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