geoduck Posted March 16, 2006 Posted March 16, 2006 I am just putting together my system with the components listed in my sig and I'm having trouble getting it to run memtest consistently at start up. Often it stops at the 'PCI device listing' screen, sometimes it stops after the 'Verifying DMI Pool Data' message, and only occasionally will it actually start memtest. When it does, it will often just hang at some random point while it shows no errors in the test. I can reboot using the 'esc' key at this point so it isn't completely locked up but the behavior is completely unpredictable. It doesn't seem to matter if I use the reset button on the motherboard, power it down with the motherboard power button, or shut it off at the PSU. I've tried varying the RAM voltage up to 2.8 v, manually setting the memory timings, loosening the timings to 3-3-3-10 1T, and clearing the CMOS for 30 minutes but nothing seems to help. I've tried four different 512 mb memory sticks from the two kits listed (admittedly not the best memory around but I should be able to get it to at least run memtest) and they all behave the same way. All four were working fine at 2.5-3-3-8 1T in an IBM ThinkCentre 2.6 GHz P4. I have a minimal setup with the board outside the case, one video card installed, one memory stick installed and the 24 and 8 pin connectors as well as the FDD connector connected. So has anyone encountered such a situation? Is it the motherboard? Is it memtest? Is it the memory? I'm really at a loss at this point. Thanks in advance for any help. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
HAV Posted March 16, 2006 Posted March 16, 2006 Try to disable USB Keyboard function in the BIOS settings. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
boatasiaus Posted March 16, 2006 Posted March 16, 2006 RAM in orange slot farthest from CPU? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoduck Posted March 17, 2006 Posted March 17, 2006 Thanks for the quick suggestions. I checked the BIOS and the USB keyboard support is already disabled by default. The memory is in the orange slot furthest from the CPU. For completeness I checked the memory in each of the other slots; for the two slots closest to the CPU the memory isn't recognized and for the yellow slot furthest from the CPU the system continuously reboots before getting to memtest. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpeedFREAK Posted March 17, 2006 Posted March 17, 2006 The orange slot closest to the CPU is usually the recomended slot for first time setup. The CPU you are using is unsupported (but you knew that...) not shure if thats got ant thing to do with memtest not running. try download the memtest iso version for a bootable cd. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
supershanks Posted March 17, 2006 Posted March 17, 2006 The orange slot closest to the CPU is usually the recomended slot for first time setup Wrong. If using a single module use the slots furthest from CPU. Rgone & memory slots Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoduck Posted March 17, 2006 Posted March 17, 2006 The CPU you are using is unsupported (but you knew that...) not shure if thats got ant thing to do with memtest not running. try download the memtest iso version for a bootable cd. Thanks for the suggestion. I tried booting from a bootable memtest cd but most of the time it doesn't get far enough to boot from the CD, stopping right after the 'PCI device listing' displays. So this indicates a more general problem in that the system won't boot at all most of the time. I know the CPU isn't officially supported but plenty of people run them here so I don't think that is the problem, unless it is a combination of the opteron and the less than top shelf memory that is causing this. I haven't examined enough people's sigs to see if anyone else is running an opteron with Corsair Value Select or Patriot Signature Series memory. Does the fact I'm running an opteron mean I can't get any support from DFI, even with this seemingly unrelated problem? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoduck Posted March 19, 2006 Posted March 19, 2006 After hooking up a floppy drive and hearing the system boot from a floppy while the screen was frozen on the 'PCI device listing' I realized the problem is in the video system somewhere. Every time I thought it locked up it was, in fact, running but the video wasn't displaying. It wasn't black, it just wasn't updating the screen. As you see from my sig I have a radeon x550, which doesn't seem to that popular but all I need is an inexpensive PCI-E card so it should work. I noticed this post about the x550 and I was wondering if anyone else has had strange experiences with radeon x550 cards and DFI NF4 motherboards. Is there a list of suggested/compatible video cards out there, like the suggestions for PSUs and memory? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpeedFREAK Posted March 23, 2006 Posted March 23, 2006 Wrong. If using a single module use the slots furthest from CPU. Rgone & memory slots oops... my bad! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoduck Posted April 3, 2006 Posted April 3, 2006 This issue has been resolved with an update to the latest beta BIOS (3/29) for the Expert board. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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