can't run at stock speeds

[RGone]

...good deal and I am not overly surprised to hear that report. By nature the DFI sisters resist defaults due to the nature of their intent. To run fast. They best respond to manual setting of all parameters for some reason. In my own case I have found I almost must manually set the board up and to try defaults for extended running is paramount to asking for trouble.

 

You seem to have hit on the settings and as such you need to go thru the bios and write down for you information what is what so that you have a "baseline" to return to if such arises again.

 

Sincerely, RGone... and have a good holiday.

[stevo_125]

Originally posted by RGone

...good deal and I am not overly surprised to hear that report. By nature the DFI sisters resist defaults due to the nature of their intent. To run fast. They best respond to manual setting of all parameters for some reason. In my own case I have found I almost must manually set the board up and to try defaults for extended running is paramount to asking for trouble.

 

You seem to have hit on the settings and as such you need to go thru the bios and write down for you information what is what so that you have a "baseline" to return to if such arises again.

 

Sincerely, RGone... and have a good holiday.

 

now priming at 228x10.5 :eek:

 

only differences from when i was having problems are :

AGP is set to 66 not auto

agp v is set to 1.5 not auto.

bios flash protect is off

 

oh and my fsb has gone up a little 166->228

 

hope my strange findings help the poster to sort their problems.

[folken]

well... I guess I'm just going to RMA this motherboard because it is definatly broken. I have now replaced every other component in the computer and it didn't fix it so it HAS to be the motherboard. The voltages did become more stable when I replaced the powersupply but the machine still wont prime and will crap out when I try to run it over 166mhz fsb.

Do u know what the average turn around time on a mobo RMA is? Even if my machine is a pos I still can't live long w/o it

Thanks,

Folken

[folken]

Well... I got my mobo back today.

I'll try to tone down the language and make my sentances make sense but it will be hard bec I'm so pissed right now I can't think straight.

I got the mobo, installed it, turned on my comp, it posts, thats it.

My sad string of events:

Installed mobo, hooked everything up

Turned on comp

Went into bios, set defaults, didn't touch anything.

Raid bios says invalid stripe

Remade Stripe

still says invalid stripe

turned off comp, turned it back on

remade stripe, seemed to take this time

Put in windows XP CD

booted off cd, hit f6 to load sil 3114 drivers for xp off included floppy

Got to the point of formatting, did full format

got to 5%, froze

reset machine

set all bios settings to manual (fsb, voltages, ram settings, etc)

started windows install again, decided to do quick format this time

started copying files, froze at 51%

reset machine

changed fsb to 166, didn't change anything else

started windows install again

got blue screen of death right after loading the sil3114 driver. the blue screen didn't have anything under technical details.

tried a different disk with the drivers on it

got to 57% file copy then froze

tried again, got blue screen

put bios back to 200mhz

finishes loading drivers then hangs on starting windows screen in the setup

replaced sata cables

Tried tons of other combos and got to 75% file transfer once, that is as far as i have gotten.

Stripped the comp to the bare minimum to load windows, didn't help.

Gave up, needed to cool down. got too pissed

 

I have replaced EVERY single component in the computer. I guess replaceing the mobo increased my problems...

Comp specs can be found on the link on my sig.

 

I'm willing to try anything at this point, I just don't care anymore. I think I'm just goona junk this POS before I spend anymore money on it. This is just to agravating. All I ask is that it boots, that is all. I have spent thousands on this thing and it doesn't even frekin boot now.

[Mott13]

What bios are you using?

 

Btw ever try doing 200 fsb with the stock hsf?

[winston856]

Since you've gotten this new mobo, have you tried replacing the RAM again? Try to get some from another machine and try that. I had a deal with my friends machine, It has a cheap ECS mobo in it with a 2700+ proc and it was doing all those things you describe. Would try to install XP and get BSOD, freezes, and copying errors. Turns out it was the RAM all along.

 

So try some different stuff, get some you've never tried before or RMA yours, but try to borrow some first as RMA's can take a few days

[folken]

I'm using the 6/19/2004 bios.

I took out one module of my OCZ and it let the file copy go to 92%. I then took some pc2700 out of my little brother's machine, one 512mb stick of Corsair XMS PC2700. I clocked my cpu down to 166fsb bec it is only 2700ddr. Then winxp installed in about 5min and boots in around 10sec. Then i put in another module of the same ram and xp locked up on the loading screen. I tried putting it the modules in slot 0,2 and 1,2. It locks up on the loading screen each time.

I really can't live w/ only 512mb of ram and I see no reason why it would be screwing up by just adding another module. I tried turning up the vdimm from 2.6 to 2.7 with the other module in place but it didn't change anything.

Should I try yet another brand of ram? Both types of ram I have tried are on the compatability list for this motherboard on the dfi website.

I tried all defaults and all manual settings in the bios. The ram settings for this board must not be autoing correctly or something. There are so many crazy ram settings on this board I have no idea what over half of em are. Can someone list what all of their ram settings are for me to compare against or something?

 

I also tried using all air cooling with stock heatsinks and fans, nothing changed except my temps.

[winston856]

I would try somemore ram, just to rule out it isn't that.

 

Have you tried isolating the problem more, i.e. try installing on an IDE HDD instead of RAID array. Disconnect all other unimportant cards etc.. .

[Angry_Games]

specs in your sig? and no, a link to a webpage is not what we ask for in the sticky

[folken]

I tried 2 256mb sticks of Corsair XMS 3200 both together and separate and I got the same result. I also tried an IDE drive and got the same result.

I have tried stripping the machine down to the bare minimum by disabling all unnecissary devices (i.e. onboard lan, audio, firewire, usb, etc.) but it had no effect.

I currently have the machine in a different case and have reattached all stock cooling. I replaced my 9800pro with a Riva TNT2 just incase my 9800 was hogging to much power or something. Changing to the TNT2 didn't help.

After all of this it has decided to revert back to the way it was before I RMAed the old motherboard. I can now run it fine at 166mhz FSB but it becomes very unstable when running at any speeds above 166. I didn't change anything in the bios or hardware when it started doing this, it just decided to run good at 166 this morning. I tried the new ram and IDE drive after it decided to run at 166.

I'm just going to hand out some of my hardware to friends and see if it runs in their comps.

[folken]

Here are my system specs for those who do not like to click links:

My Machine:

Athlon XP 3200+ Barton

1GB OCZ PC3500 EL DDR (2x 512MB Modules)

DFI LANParty Ultra B

ATI Radeon 9800Pro 256MB DDRII

2x Western Digital 36.7GB SATA Raptor 10Krpm 8MB cache (Raid0)

Maxtor 120GB 7200rpm 8mb cache

16x48x Pioneer slot feed DVD

Plextor PX-708A DVD-RW 8x +R, 4x –R, 40x CD-R, 40x CD

Antec TruePower 550watt Power Supply

4” UV Cold Cathode

12” UV Cold Cathode

Chieftec DX01BLD/SPX02BL Case w/ side window and fan

Cooling:

In case:

Innovatek Fan-O-Matik

5x 80mm case fans (controlled by Innovatek Fan-O-Matik)

3x 72mm fans, 2 for cooling graphics ram 1 for cooling system ram

Innovatek InnovaCool rev3 CPU water block

Innovatek Graph-O-Matik northbridge water block

Innovatek Graph-O-Matik VGA water block

Cooling system attached to outside of house:

185 gallon per hour Pond Pump

Plastic Skippy peanut butter jar

10” X 12” Radiator (copper pipe, aluminum fins)

4x 92mm case fans (attached to radiator)

Approximately 30’ of 8mm clear tubing

Approximately ¾ gallon of distilled water

~4 capfuls of WatterWetter

~4 drops of Red UV Dye

Peripherals:

22” Mitsubishi MultiSync FP2141SB

Logitech Cordless Elite Keyboard

Logitech Dual Optical mouse

Klipsch ProMedia 5.1 Surround System

Cambridge Soundworks FPS2000 Digital

Belkin 1200VA UPS

Canon i950 Photo Printer

[RGone]

1GB OCZ PC3500 EL DDR (2x 512MB Modules)

Is that stuff fairly new? Some of it used winbond memory chips on the PCB manufactured just as winbond was leaving the system memory producing business> that did not agree overly well with NF2 chipset mother boards. Got a friend has some and in essence he has had to just leave it in the desk drawer.

 

There have been about 5 cases of the XP3200+ processor being bad in two cases that I know of and in 2 other cases the users got rid to the XP3200+ and got mobile 2600+ processors and went merrily no their way, so in those two cases we did not find out if the processor was actually bad or just some weird incompatiblity.

 

Now I see those two glaring 'red flags' when I reveiw the parts and pieces you listed above.

 

Sincerely, RGone...