The Dreaded BSOD (Ultra-D, memory failing in dual-channel mode)

[Guest Whisper]

Ok, so I'll try to make this as brief and to-the-point as possible.

 

I bought my components a few days back, and have since had a chance to put them all together. Everything booted fine, but when I tried installing windows, I ran into the dreaded BSOD right after installing the NF4 drivers for my SATA harddrive. The particular BSOD I received was the one saying something about "if you have never seen this error screen before...etc etc etc"

 

Since I bought the combo from Monarch, they had already updated me to the "latest" BIOS, which included memtest. I ran the program, and promptly failed.

 

I then tested each stick separately, and they both passed. Stuck them both in again, and again they failed during the 8th test.

 

I've since tried messing with the settings to see if I can get anything to work, but nothing has thus far. The sticks are rated at 3-3-3-8, but when I attempt to change the CAS to 3 from the BIOS optimized default of 2.5, the system won't even post...it just keeps rebooting.

 

I've lowered the settings to 2-2-2-7 and upped the voltage to either 2.7 or 2.8, but the memory still fails during the 8th (and I believe 9th) memtest tests.

 

I haven't changed any other BIOS settings from the optimized defaults other than disabling "other boot devices" (did that while I was thinking something might've been fishy with the harddrive/windows install rather than memory).

 

Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated. If I've left out any necessary info from my sig, let me know and I'll gladly provide it. Thanks in advance for the help.

[StephenC]

Welcome. First you need to verify which bios ver you are flashed to. To find out you can disable show logo screen in bios. s/b under advanced bios feature. When you start posting the bios date will display in the lower left of your screen. Try setting your ram timing to 3-3-3-8, and dram voltage to 2.6 Leave all other dram settings to default. Also you will need at least bios ver 510-x for processor support. I would first suggest you run with the latest official bios, 623-3. If still having issues might want to give beta bios 510-2 a try. This bios seems to work best with your ram

 

edit: changed timing.

[StephenC]

Also try with just 1 stick in dimm slot two. Run memtest. Do the same with the other stick. If all is good, try with both in dimm slot 2 and 4 and run memtest.

[Guest Whisper]

Alright, I'll give all that a try and come back to let you know how things go. Thanks for the suggestions.

[Guest Whisper]

Oh, and as to your last comment: that's actually the first thing I did. I ran both DIMMs separately in slot 2, and they both passed memtest fine...which is why I haven't RMA'd the memory yet. So now I'm just trying to tweak things to get this dual channel mode to work.

 

The problem only arises when I'm running them both in slots 2 and 4.

[StephenC]

Ok, what bios ver are you flashed to? Also may want to disable bank interleave. As well if nothing else seems to work set cpc to disable (T2).

[Guest Whisper]

Ok, just checked the BIOS, and the date is 3/10/05. I tried changing the timings to 3-3-3-8, but the computer won't boot...it stops right after verifying all the IRQs, and then just reboots. I disabled interleave with the timings at 2.5-3-3-8, but memtest still failed. Tried running at 2-2-2-5 and 2-2-2-6 just for the heck of it, but no luck.

 

Upped the voltage to as high as 2.9, and lowered it to 2.6, but again, no luck.

 

I'm wondering if maybe there's some setting I'm missing to where I'm not fully changing the timings...?

 

Either that, or I still haven't yet found what the problem is. About to try flashing to the 623-3 BIOS right now.

[StephenC]

just an fyi...order in genie bios will be 3-3-8-3

[Guest Whisper]

Oh yeah, I figured out the slight change in order right away, heh. I almost fainted when I saw the wrong settings the first time I tried to tweak the timings a bit, and realized I'd set the wrong variable to the wrong speed.

 

It looks like a simple BIOS flash did the trick. Loaded the optimized defaults on the 623-3, and everything seems to be working fine.

 

My only problem now is getting the onboard NIC to work. I've tried disabling the second gigabit port, since I think I remember reading that as a possible solution, but no dice yet.

 

Thanks again for the help with the memory issues, though. Now on to my internet connection...

[Guest Whisper]

Ok, I just had a VERY large brain fart; please ignore my last post. Let me actually try putting the motherboard's cd in my drive and installing a few drivers from that before I complain about the NIC not working.

 

Yeah, it's been a long day, and it's only 2pm. Pretty sad, really.

[StephenC]

No worries, everyone is intitled to a brain fart from time to time.

I would suggest you follow these steps for the rest of your install.

 

1. Install LAN drivers - reboot.

2. Install all OS SP's updates, and patches - reboot

3. Install chipset drivers* - reboot

4. Install video drivers - reboot

5. Install AV and or s/w firewall - reboot.

6 Install the rest

*This site does not recommend installation of ntune or nvidia firewall. You will only need to install nvidia IDE drivers if you are using raid.

[Guest Whisper]

Doh, read that last message a little too late...after installing the firewall and ntune...I suppose there's no way of getting rid of these programs shy of a format?

 

And if so, is the format worth it (i.e. are the programs really that bad)? I'd rather format now as opposed to later, since I haven't gotten much on here beyond the video card drivers.