Thorgal

I'm very glad it helped you out, makes my day a little better too I would advise you to save the current settings, with the setting of level 10, in the bios "reloaded" menu, so you can revert to it in time of need. Also, when you have to use the reset switch, keep it pressed for a second or two. This sometimes (not always unfortunately) can make the pc startup in cold boot. Grtz, Thorgal

Speed gains differ somewhat according to the source of information. I guess you can aspect about a 5% increase in performance by enabling dual channel. Is this worth it : you tell me For me : I buy a DFI to get the best performance, and dual channel is part of it.

If you should down AND switch of the PSU or unplug the power cord, I see no reason why there should be any more risk than when you first start up the computer when you just built it. Then again : I am not gonna tell you there is NO risk : we build our own computers, and we take the risk of static electricity, stupid errors (with all respect, no offence at anyone intended), and so forth... If you want no risk : buy a Dell Edit : in regard to the bios issue : one poster above pointed to a risk of corrupting your bios by doing this. That is actually the first time I heard this, and have no negative experiences to share. I can also say that it was a tech from OCZ that first pointed me in this direction...

Search the forum for "cold boot problem" on the expert. Much has been written about it, not so many solutions found until now I'm afraid. My approach (post n°36) works for me and some others, but clearly not for everybody. Also, I found in my experience that the problem solving on the older boards (Ultra-D, SLI-D® non expert) is a litlle different from that of the expert, especially on "non booting" issues.

Sorry to hear that :shake: I guess an RMA or a CPU change is required to get it to work...

I've also had (and have to some account) serious dual channel problems with my Expert board. Try the following if you haven't already : First try : - Install only 1 stick - boot into bios : set optimised defaults - reboot - boot into bios again : set memory to 200Mhz, command per clock to disabled - reboot and shut down on post - add second stick - see if it boots Second try : - same as first - boot into bios : set memory to 200Mhz, command per clock to disabled AND set drive strength to level 10 - reboot and shut down on post - add second stick - hope that it works The last one is the ONLY one that works for me with my PC4000EB 2Gb kit. After I get it to post, I can set timings whatever I like (sort of ), I back down the drive strength to auto and the CPC to enabled and all is well. On cold boot however there is no way to get the dual channel to work immediately. Hope this helps. Good luck.

This is probably a bios issue or a failed ram issue. Try a full bios reset according to the rules and then booting with only 1 ram stick in the orange slot furthest from the cpu. Try some other ram stick as well if the original 2 don't work (by themselves that is). I've killed a VX ram stick some time ago on my expert, by coincidence also when I reseated my water cooling, but other then that it has always been a cold boot problem related to ram/bios settings. If you get it to boot you could also consider a bios flash (to the same version if you like, doesn't matter, but biosses sometimes get corrupt).

I've been running an Ultra-D with X2 4400+ and OCZ VX on a Mach IIGT for about 4 months (september to december 2005) ; non stop 24/7 double f@h @ 100% so full cpu load. Highest stable clock was 285x11, but I was running it @ 275x11 for 24/7 use (3025 Mhz). CPU memory controller is/was also seriously cold bugged from 290FSB upwards. Now I'm back to watercooling because of noise

Hi Andy, I'm still having trouble to find the right settings for my new Expert board in combination with the TCCD memory. I have been testing my early OCZ Pt rev. 2 (with TCCD 431 memory chips) on an SLI-D and Ultra-D and both boards had no problems with the sticks to say the least : 2.5-3-3-7-1T up to 302Mhz and 2.5-4-3-7-1T up to 317Mhz (both prime 95stable), running 2.82V in Smartguardian. Both my processors (Opteron and X2) have the same results. Now onto the Expert : no way to get the ram above 265Mhz 2-3-3-7-1T, or 295Mhz 2.5-4-3-7-1T. When I lower to 2T I can get up to 305Mhz, but the performance penalty is big. Because the differences in performance between the "old" Ultra-D and the newer Expert are so big, I guess I must be doing something wrong. I tried different combinations of drive strength : 1 and 7 seem to be the best but with the same results. Latencies are 7 and 9 at the moment. Is there anything else I can try ? Thanks a million

Can you elaborate a little Tony ? I've also had a lot of issues with my PT rev. 2 sticks which were good for DDR620 2.5-4-3-8-1T on my Ultra-D (TCCD431 ). My Expert board really struggles with 300Mhz with both kits of rev. 2. It all boils down to drive strength. The wrong drive strength was unstable for the TCCD even at 250Mhz. Right now I'm on Data drive strength of 1 (reduce 50%) and DRAM drive strength of 7. Latency's are at 7 and 9ns. This will give me 295Mhz 2.5-4-3-7 prime stable, but that's the best I can get out of the Expert. 300Mhz is in some benchmarks stable, but not prime95 stable. RGone at least keeps saying this board clocks higher than any previous DFI NF4 board

For clear understanding : yes I mean reflashing it, but a friend of mine did this by removing the bioschip, erasing it completely first and then program the bios on it. Unfortunately it didn't fix the problem. I had to RMA the board, because frankly, I didn't see any other way. I really wonder what went wrong, as the problem started occuring slowly. At first : no video once in a while, after a while half of the times, and now no video at all. Also : at first I could use the bottom slot as backup. In the end that refused too... To be honest, and on a sidenote : my DFI expert board also has lots of inexplicable little problems. It works fine at stock, but OC'ing with it is imho a real nightmare. I've spent countless hours already trying to figure the board out, and frankly I'm sick of it. I've ordered a backup SLI-D that should arrive any day now, so I can get going again. I pray my Ultra-D comes out of RMA soon, then my Expert goes out of the door. ASAP. PS : Sorry for the late reply.

Thank you for your reply. Indeed, your problem does sound a lot like mine. I have also been able to use the bottom slot for a while, but unfortunately, this started to develop the same problems and now nothing's possible any more. I'll try to RMA the board as you suggested, however, as I've been using it under phase change, I'm not sure whether I'll get it covered by warranty (for clear understanding : the problems had nothing to do with the phase change cooling : it has been running on water cooling for the last couple of months).

Very nicely put : spot on ! It does make the poll rather useless in my opinion, because it is the result of a mix of people thinking their cooling acts like a vapo, and others who are more aware of "normal" temperatures.

Bump : anyone ? Should I RMA the board ?

Make sure indeed to test the system out of you're case with only cpu-ram-video installed and all psu connectors attached. You might also want to look into issues with the xifi card : I seem to remember some problems with those (search the forum for xifi problems).