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dual chip, 4 LED's, freezing and all that jazz


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just upgraded my pc from an Opteron 146 (single core) to an athlon 4200 X2 and found that now it freezes up at random moments (whether i'm doing anything intensive or not) but the most anoying thing is that when i press restart, it shuts down and then sticks at the "4 LED" stage (with all the fans revving like mad) before anything comes on the screen. to get out of this, i hold the power button in till it shuts down and then i can immediately start it again and it powers up fine. The same thing happens if i just shut down and then turn it on again and if there's a freeze up, i have to hold in the off button till it shuts down, power on and watch those 4 LED's dispondently, hold in the button and power down again and then power up, before i can get it to work.

i thought it may be the BIOS so i updated them via http://us.dfi.com.tw/Support/Download/bios..._FLAG=A&SITE=US and used the "winflash v1.84" to insert the new bios (date: 2006/04/06). unfortunately i didn't know how to use the winflash program propperly, just guessed and updated only the main block at first. but then, after finding it didn't work, pressed the "update all" button and that appeared to update the bootblock and DMI block aswell as the main block.

of course it still made no difference and i came here and have just read "The correct way to flash your bios" in one of the sticky's. but i'm wondering if i need to be doing all that clearing CMOS and stuff if i use the winflash program?

 

I've swapped the chips back and forth and the system works fine with the old chip. I've reloaded mobo and graphics drivers. I've tried it with only one graphics card, one HDD and 2 sticks of ram and the new chip; no difference. i've tested the new chip with pcmark 2005, CPU BURN-IN and Orthos Prime 2005: tested fine with no errors.

temperatures and voltages: appear to be fine though there is a difference of oppinion depending whether i use Nvidia Monitor, smart guardian or MBM 5 but they all say things are within opperating perameters.

 

the PSU's brand new.. (not that that means much but i'd rather not cough out for another one)

 

any suggestions?

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WHen you upgraded did you clear the cmos, or did you just drop the new cpu in and go? At the very least you need to clear the cmos when adding new hardware to your mobo.......As the mem controler is on board the cpu, more than likely your old timings are not gonna work with the new cpu, dialing in new timings most likely is needed.

 

Logan

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i don't know anything about CMOS and only heard about it today. Not sure what to do but i'll follow the instructions laid out in the sticky i read earlier. what does "dialing in new timings" mean and how do i do that?

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orrigionally, i had a seasonic 600w. that broke one fine day and as it was still under guarrantee, they sent me the 650w version. this was when i had one graphics card and the old opteron chip. with the new psu, it worked fine. then i got the other graphics card and had a few problems working out how to set it up but it was working fine in the end. then i fit the new chip and that's when it all went to pot.

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  • 1 month later...

I contacted DFI reps and they said that my PSU, though not one that has been known to cause incompatabilities, is not a recomended one and that I have to try it with a recomended one. This is easy, of course: i just need to cough up about £100 for a new PSU just so i can try out their theory that it might be that that's causing a problem so instead i tried taking it to a repair shop -who told me that there was a fault with the mother board but when i told that to DFI they just said that they are not interested in what 3rd parties (ie repair shops)have to say about it and that i should carry out their instructions of testing it with a recomended psu (prosumptious of them to assume i know how to fit it myself). Well, it makes sence -viewed from a millionare's perspective- but i don't like that attitude. why do the customers have to do the work of testing their product against power supplies? there was no mention of my psu being the wrong one when i bought it so it's not right that they can then decide later that i'm at fault for getting the wrong one. Bit of responsibility should be taken, me thinks.

anyway, enough complaining, this sight has oviously dealt with a lot of simptoms of incompatable power supplies so has anyone ever come accross a simptom such as mine?

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This board get's real cranky when you change hardware Ihave used PSU's that aren't on the recommended list and have on problem's. This is what work's for me. Unplug the PSU take out graphic's card take out memory reinsert only one stick in slot closest to CPU also take out any other add on card's you might have. Take CMOS jumper from pin 1&2 and put it on 2&3 and leave it tthat way for about 1 to 2 hour's after that put jumper back on pin's 1 & 2 renstall video card plug in PSU and turn on PSU let sit with power on board for a couple of hour's. ( Don't try to start comp. at this time ) Once the board has sit with standby power on it should boot. The next thing you should do before it boot's into window's is go into the bios and set time and date then hit load optimized default's and then save and exit then when it start's to post again go back into bios and set the correct voltage for the memory you are using. then hit save and exit. This time let it boot into your desktop. If everything work's all right shut machine down put in your second stick of memory using the orange slot's after all that you can make any change's in the bios you want. This is a real pain in the butt but it work's for me.

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Your windows restarting/shutting down issue, does it do the same thing if you reinstall windows + quick format with the X2 in there?

 

Reason I ask is because when you swap from a single core to a dual core it can cause conflicts with the ACPI HAL.

 

The random freezes, how hot does the PWM and chipset get?

 

I assume that your memory can run at 2.5-3-3-6 @200Mhz?

GENIE BIOS Setting >DRAM Configuration

DRAM Frequency Set (MHZ).............200 (DRAM/FSB:1/01)

Command per clock (CPC)..............Enabled

Cas latency (tCL)....................2.5

RAS to CAS delay (tRCD)..............3

Min RAS active time (tRAS)...........6

Row precharge time (tRP).............3

Row cycle time (tRC).................11

Row refresh cycle time(tRFC).........14

Row to Row delay (tRRD)..............2

Write recovery time (tWR)............3

Write to read delay (tWTR)...........AUTO

Read to write delay (tRWT)...........AUTO

Refresh period (tREF)................AUTO

Write CAS latency (tWCL).............N/A or 1

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

 

DQS Skew Control.....................AUTO

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

DRAM Drive Strength..................AUTO

DRAM Data Drive Strength.............AUTO

Max Async Latency....................6ns

Dram Response........................Normal

Read Preamble Time...................5ns

Idle Cycle Limit.....................AUTO

Dynamic Counter......................AUTO

R/W Queue Bypass.....................AUTO

Bypass Max...........................AUTO

32 Byte Granularity..................AUTO

 

Go for the reinstall first as this may be the cure to the windows shutdown issue.

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