digital³ Posted June 18, 2005 Posted June 18, 2005 Hey I built my PC in Feburary and had it running stable at 2.4GHz with 270MHz (2.5-3-3-8) FSB for three months until one day I opened a PDF in Photoshop that triggered a BSOD and my system has never really recovered since then. The NTFS file system was corrupt so I was forced to repartition and reformat the 74GB Raptor and reinstall windows. But the system continued to BSOD'd even during the presetup file-copy stage and basically after dozens of attempts I was simply unable to get Windows XP to even install again. To cut a long story short, I found the RAM was failing the GoldMemory test (but was passing Memtest) and RMA'd it directly to OCZ who promptly replaced it. However this has not solved all of my problems. My system has now got a successful install of Windows XP (but not without a few more BSODs along the way), and is completely unstable in both Prime95 and Super PI. Windows XP is occasionally BSOD'ing at random points so these aren't really failures I can ignore. Prime95 can run for 10 minutes provided the system/CPU is cold, but once it has been running for a while, it fails, and continues to fail almost instantly (ie. within 2 seconds of starting). Prime95 appears to be stable in the Small FFT tests, but very unstable in the Large FFT and Blend tests. Super PI fails after one or two iterations regardless of the test. My system is at bare bone config with the 74GB drive only, no sound card or external devices installed (though I listed everything in my sig anyway). The CPU and RAM are at stock speeds, and there are no issues with temperatures. I've tried: 1. Running Memtest86 for 108 hours (zero errors), tried both the integrated BIOS version and one off a bootCD. 2. Increasing the voltage on both the CPU and RAM to 1.45V and 2.8V respectively. 3. Flashing my BIOS to the newest (510), and several previous revisions (including 316) and consulting the forums on solutions, but haven't found any. 4. Running the tests with 1 stick. 5. Lowering my RAM timings from 2.5-3-3-8 to 3-4-4-10 which did cause the tests for run for 2 hours, but still failed. 6. Running the FSB with a 166 and 180MHz divider which again let tests run for a few hours before failure. 7. Running mprime outside windows off a stripped down linux bootcd. 8. Underclocking the CPU by 200MHz 9. Setting my Genie BIOS settings to the most relaxed possible. 10. Purchasing a multimeter and checking voltages. No problems on the +12V, 3.3V or the 5V lines and the numbers are +/- 5% of spec at all times. 11. Reseating the CPU and heatsink. Apart from 5 and 6, nothing I've tried has worked or even shown the slighest hint of actually making a difference. I've just taken the CPU and RAM and put them in an Asus A8N SLI board and stress tested with with Prime95, SuperPI and a few other apps and there were no errors. I tested it in this board with both with the OCZ RAM and some much cheaper stuff. It seems to me that neither the CPU or the RAM are the cause here, and I'm running out of variables as to what could be causing this. I'm posting here because I think it's the DFI motherboard. Whatever it is, it ran fine (prime/super PI/windows stable) for 3 months and now it's suddenly bust and my system is pretty much unusable. Can anyone provide suggestions here? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharp Posted June 18, 2005 Posted June 18, 2005 Hello, All 4 power connectors plugged into the board? Floppy/hard drive connectors. Could the DFi board be getting to hot? What is the chipset temp? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
digital³ Posted June 18, 2005 Posted June 18, 2005 Yes the molex and FDD connectors have always been plugged in. My chipset temperature is 34C, and I have seen it as high as 40C in the past. My problem seems to have got worse now. Prime95 and mprime (linux cd) fail instantly, even if the system is cold. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharp Posted June 19, 2005 Posted June 19, 2005 Hello, Can you try bios 310, try this method. HOW TO FLASH THE BIOS Download this run it to make a RAMDRIVE boot disk. http://www.nerdlabs.org/bootdisks/diskimages/wboot98se.exe Then get a 2nd disk - Copy everything in the BIOS zip to it (Extract the files) - eg, copy awdflash.exe and nf4ld310.bin to it. - Boot from the RAMDRIVE DISK - Start computer without cdrom support. - Once it has loaded insert the 2nd disk. Type copy a:*.* c: Press enter Type c: Press enter Type awdflash nf4ld310.bin /f Press enter It should flash the BIOS. - Then you must turn the PC off - Clear the CMOS using the JBAT jumper, leave it there for 10mins. - Then put it back and when you power the PC enter the BIOS. - Load optimised defaults, save and exit. - Enter the BIOS and go to CMOS reloaded. - For each profile, save the current settings. - Then save and exit. - Now you can enter the BIOS and change the settings. See if that helps. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
digital³ Posted June 20, 2005 Posted June 20, 2005 I've flashed 310 on there Loaded Defaults and cleared my Reloaded settings. Prime95 fails just as quickly but with an ILLEGAL SUMOUT error this time. Not sure if that's progress, but it is something different. Not sure if this is relevant, but sometimes when my OS crashes, the board abruptly cuts the power to all devices, including the hard drive (which I'm sure isn't doing my Raptor any favours). It doesn't happen all the time, and it doesn't do this on warm reboots normally. It's probably nothing related, but I thought it was odd. I know the hard drive isn't the cause of this because the system still fails mprime when I run it off a bootcd outside Windows. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
oliveryochest Posted June 20, 2005 Posted June 20, 2005 check and make sure there are no loose screws. untighten the screws on the mobo fixed this for me Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
digital³ Posted June 20, 2005 Posted June 20, 2005 I've checked the board screws and for anything underneath the board that might be shorting it out. It all looks good to me. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharp Posted June 20, 2005 Posted June 20, 2005 Hello, Now can you change some settings, Chipset voltage = MAX out LDT voltage = MAX out Memory coltage = 2.8v HTT/FSB = 200Mhz (no overclocking) Ratio = 1:1 Command per clock...............Enabled Cas latency...........................2 RAS to CAS delay..................3 Min RAS active time...............6 Row precharge time..............3 Row cycle time......................11 Row refresh cycle time..........14 Row to Row delay.................3 Write recovery time...............2 Write to read delay...............1 read to write delay...............1 Refresh period.......................AUTO Wrtie CAS latency..................1 DRAM bank interleave.......... .Enabled DQS Skew Control.............................Decrease Skew DQS Skew Value................................0 DRAM Drive Strength..........................AUTO DRAM Data Drive Strength..................AUTO Max Async Latency.............................6ns Read Preamble Time...........................5ns Idle Cycle Limit...................................AUTO Dynamic Counter................................Enable R/W Queue Bypass.............................AUTO Bypass Max.........................................AUTO 32 Byte Granularity.............................Disable(8 Bursts) Save and exit. See what happens, Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smoken Joe Posted June 20, 2005 Posted June 20, 2005 Dont for get that many of the CPU's just are not stable at stock volts even when running at stock speeds. Some people have had good lck reflashing the bios three times in a row also. I would increase vcore and vdim within reason and check things out again. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
digital³ Posted June 21, 2005 Posted June 21, 2005 Awesome sharp, those settings seem to have stabilised my system. Its passed 9 hours of Prime95 Large FFT tests and 10 of Blend. Its definitely better than the 2 seconds it used to be doing before failure, and these settings are at least a base I can use to get my system back together and continue with other tests. I still can't figure out why my system went so badly wrong in the first place after months of normal use and I guess until I can have that figured out, I'm weary of fully trusting it again. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharp Posted June 21, 2005 Posted June 21, 2005 Hello, Its one of those unexplainable things. Did you change anything/tweak anything? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
digital³ Posted June 21, 2005 Posted June 21, 2005 Actually now I have a whole new set of issues. I think I have the dreaded cold boot issue. This happened immediately after 24 hours of stress tests. No BIOS changes -- just a simple cold restart triggered it. I have 3 LEDs at power up and failure to POST. Only when 1 of my OCZ sticks is installed can I get a consistent POST. With the other installed, I can get a POST about once every 50 tries, and even then the system detects it as a 64MB module. It won't go at all (locks at 3 LEDs) with both installed. I'm reading though all the threads here I can to try and find a solution that works for me. I hope this is just a BIOS issue and that my (second) set of OCZ DIMMs isn't actually damaged. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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