DFI LanParty UT nF4 SLi-DR eXpert troubles

[sniper_spike]

A few days ago I recieved this board in the mail. I was especially eager to recieve this as I had a $350 Opty 165 waiting to be installed on it (my previous Asus A8N SLi-Deluxe could never reach the kind of FSB frequences needed to get a good overclock on this chip, so I went and ordered the board). After I had rebuilt my system, flashed to the latest BIOS, formatted my OS drive and installed all the drivers I needed (and had my stability testing tools in hand [Prime95, SuperPi etc]) I proceeded to begin testing overclocks. Confident with my overclocking experiance I jumped into the BIOS and right away set the settings followed:

 

FSB: 342mhz

FSB multi: 2.5

CPU multi: 9x

CPU V: 1.55V

CPU VID special: 102.4% (~1.589V)

RAM divider: 140mhz (236mhz RAM effective)

RAM timings: 2.5-4-3-8-T1

RAM V: 2.74V

MEMTEST: Enabled

 

The RAM had already been tested at these speeds (by me) and the CPU had also been tested (by the previous owner) at 3055mhz & 1.55V.

 

I saved and exited the BIOS and waited for a reboot. Never happened. No video: fans running, but no video. First I began to panic as I thought I had just experianced the darker side of the motherboard (overvolting CPU's on boot), but then thought this could not be it as the boot had not been a cold one. As a similar thing had happened on my Asus board many-a-time experiamenting on my 3700+ sandy (though the system would at worst times only freeze at the motherboard logo) I knew the basic thing to do: to shut off my PSU and removed the battery & replace it after a few seconds. As I did this I noticed 4 LEDs shining above the title "Debug". Still the same symptoms. So I begin searching online for this same problem (including the search strings of "4 leds," and "4 lights," and other similar things. I stumbled upon

many threads such as this one:

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread...?t=13443&page=2

and this:

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=325031

 

I've tried all of the different cmos clearing methods, I even with extreme precision completed a hot flash (with my Asus board and 3700+): all of which did NOT work.

 

I'm at wit's ends with this mothboard as I've been trying to fix it all day today, and half of yesterday-I'm starting to think the motherboard f*cked my golden opty 165; none of my overclocking settings could have possibly (in the short term) harmed the processor in any way.

 

Specs:

Amd Opteron 64 165

DFI LanParty UT nF4 SLi-DR eXpert

Corsair TwinX1024-3200C2PT

BFG 7800GTX OC

Xion 600W 30A@12V

 

Any ideas? Help me...please.

 

Thanks in advance.

[red930]

First of all, please make s complate sig - you already agreed to the rules so please follow them. The only reason you haven't been temp banned is because I'm in a good mood and you happened to include your system specs in the bulk text.

 

Now then, have you bothered to try booting at stock settings? You should know that no two motherboards (even IDENTICAL motherboards, much less different brands) clock the same, so you ALWAYS need to start fresh.

 

What I would recommend doing is stripping it down to the bare minimum, including only a single hard disk and single stick of ram in an orange slot. Clear the CMOS for at least twenty minutes, or overnight if you can do it. Try booting with that and load optimized defaults in the bios, then manually set stock timings and voltages for your ram and cpu.

 

Don't try anything extreme, we're just rying to get it running first.

 

Also remember that a 24 hours CMOS clear has been known to cure some very serious issues, so if all else fails give it a shot. I don't know about the hot flashing through the ASUS board...you should probably download Tmods Bios CD and reflash it if you can get it to boot...

[SeanDude05]

PBKAC. I highly doubt the mobo fried the 165.

[sniper_spike]

-I did boot with stock settings to install drivers etc.

 

-I attempted the BIOS clear a couple of times with only one stick of ram in the orange slot in DIMM2 and had only that stick (with no hard drives) after I did the hot flash.

 

-Alright I'll try a longer CMOS clear with the bare minimums.

 

-The Asus board had the exact same CMOS chip, so I thought it would be fine.

[red930]

You could also pull the chip and drop it in the Asus to make sure it's fine...I agree with Sean though...it's pretty rare to burn a chip up, they're a lot more durable than you think.

[sniper_spike]

What do you mean... How do I make sure it's fine? The board will boot with it (or, the Asus flashing program will accept it while doing a hot flash)?

[Praz]

What do you mean... How do I make sure it's fine? The board will boot with it (or, the Asus flashing program will accept it while doing a hot flash)?

I think technodanvan means put the 165 in the Asus board. I really doubt the motherboard did anything to the processor. Once you get the board working start with stock settings and work up slowly. The Expert is not plug and play like the Asus. It takes time, patience and experience with it. But that's what makes it such a good overclocker. And for future reference, most 165 processors don't like dividers below 150 with high HTT settings.

[sniper_spike]

I'm going away today for a day or two so I have the perfect chance to try the 24h cmos clear. Still looking for feedback (in case this doesn't work)...

[sniper_spike]

Thanks for are your help so far, but...it still doesn't work. Still gives the 4 LEDs, and no video.

 

Some more help guys?

[sniper_spike]

It's dead. The CPU is dead. Fricken' unbelievable.

I got around to swapping the CPU's... I tested the 3700+ on the DFI, at first I had a RAM Debug LED, but after swapping its slot, it booted. I loaded the Defaults, and tryed the 165. 4 debug lights. Still not convinced, I tryed the 165 on my Asus board, and it didn't boot.

 

So $350+ just went down the fricken' drain.

 

Thanks for the help, but it was no use.

 

Edit: hold on... my BIOS for the Asus A8N SLi Deluxe was rev 1008, the 165 is only supported since 1017.002!

 

IT MIGHT STILL WORK! EEEK!

 

Edit 2: Nope, dead.

 

After some thought... there's almost no way the motherboard had a real part in this. It's pretty much common knowledge around forums (as I've read) that whatever problem was going on with CPU overvolting on cold boots (which this was not, it was a reboot) was fixed pretty swiftly by a BIOS update. Thus flashing the BIOS to the 06/04/06 dated (the latest) BIOS eliminated the chance of this.