tooner Posted May 18, 2005 Posted May 18, 2005 I had a few problems with stability when first installing windows etc. relating to the ram I was using but managed to resolve this by using only 1 stick (512mb DDR400 CL3 Kingston.) Obviously this ram doesn't benchmark great but my main concern is the fact that I get stalling with games and anything 3d. At random intervals the game will stop altogether for a few seconds. This is likely to have 4 or 5 times every 5 minutes so as you can imagine it makes games pretty much unplayable. There are no noticeable processes hogging resources and windows has just been installed. Anyone experienced this or know what would cause it? I'm praying it's ram cause I have 2 sticks of crucial ballistix 512mb PC4000 on order. Thanks in advance tooner Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
red930 Posted May 18, 2005 Posted May 18, 2005 tooner, Go to the control panel and get your sig built. Make sure you put all the info in like BIOS version... http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/usercp.php? Once you do that, we can see exactly what we're dealing with. Additionally, make sure you read through this thread... http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6615 It may be in your best interest to start your build over using this thread as a guide. Installing the OS on a system that is not stable is inviting disaster later since you probably didn't get a good install. Good luck Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tooner Posted May 18, 2005 Posted May 18, 2005 Thanks for such a quick reply. In fact you replied while I was updating my sig I build PCs for a living so the guide you pointed me too I had really already followed all the steps. The system seems very stable except for the stalling. It passed a ram test and windows installed fine. I have had no lock ups, blue screens etc. All the benchmarks including 3dmark2003 (8000 points) and 3dmark2005 (3200 points) ran fine and scored well. Sandra scores the ram low but that is to be expected. Any ideas what my problem might be? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
red930 Posted May 18, 2005 Posted May 18, 2005 Have you passed an 8 hour run of prime95. That's usually the final stability test. Oh yeah! Almost forgot. Are you running TeamSpeak? If so change the audio type to WAV format. This has resolved several other fourm users glitches. Let us know. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frallan Posted May 18, 2005 Posted May 18, 2005 Does the stall coincidence with read or write to HDD? do U have an IDE on the MoBo.. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
h_Us3r Posted May 18, 2005 Posted May 18, 2005 get both the sticks up in single channel, run memtest, then fight for dual channel(trust me, check my sig:) h Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tooner Posted May 18, 2005 Posted May 18, 2005 I'm not too concerned with stability right now, it's the stalling that is really worrying me. I heard somewhere that there is a problem with my PSU and these boards. Something to do with the -5v rail. I don't use teamspeak as I can't play games yet Can incompatible RAM cause the problems I'm describing? Alot of people seem to have RAM probs with this board. tooner Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tooner Posted May 18, 2005 Posted May 18, 2005 Hard to keep up with replies lol. I have IDE and also a IDE controller card. 5 IDE hard disks in total. The stalling would be consistent with what you normally see when windows has problems reading from a disk. Could definitely be onto something here. Regarding the Kingston ram, my crucial ballistix arrives today or tomorrow so I'm not worried about getting it running dual channel. tooner Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
red930 Posted May 18, 2005 Posted May 18, 2005 tooner, Stability is paramount when building a rig. Without stability you have no idea what kinds of problems you will encounter. Stability first, then you can worry about any other problems. The MIS board with SoundBlaster onboard is the only rig I know of that uses -5V. This rail has been removed from the ATX spec. I'm not too concerned with stability right now, it's the stalling that is really worrying me. I heard somewhere that there is a problem with my PSU and these boards. Something to do with the -5v rail. I don't use teamspeak as I can't play games yet Can incompatible RAM cause the problems I'm describing? Alot of people seem to have RAM probs with this board. tooner Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tooner Posted May 18, 2005 Posted May 18, 2005 I'm pretty sure stability is good. All the benchmarks I've been running really push it to the limits and I haven't had one crash, lock up or anything else. Also I don't have a spare 8 hours right now First thing I'll do is change ram and if that doesn't help ill disconnect all my IDE drives. Was hoping someone would have had a similar problem at some point. If it's IDE then time to go full sata i guess. thanks tooner Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tooner Posted May 18, 2005 Posted May 18, 2005 Seems the RAM made the difference. 3538 3dmarks Thanks alot everyone tooner Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
red930 Posted May 18, 2005 Posted May 18, 2005 tooner, Just think, if you had run Memtest and prime95, you would have found the problem with the ram and known the source of the system instability. That's the reason you verifiy your RAM with Memtest before you ever install the OS. You run prime95 once the system is setup to see how stable it is in an "operating" condition. There's nothing worse than getting the OS installed and all of the applications setup only to discover that the system is unstable. Now that you know it was a RAM problem it's a good idea to verify the RAM and reinstall the OS to make sure you have a solid install. Good luck. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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