a8n-sli "premium" edition

[kman79]

Originally posted by: lopri

Originally posted by: kman79
If you install it on the nvidia sata connections, install is like the same with IDE drive. They're the black ones

Thanks kman79. I just finished installing Windows.

lop

No Problem

You could probably boot from a USB Driver. Under boot menu, you can select removable drive in the boot order

 

[kman79]

Alright figured it out thanks to Guitar Daddy.

Running at 2.7GHz at DDR at DDR333.

It seems to run faster even running DDR333. When will I notice the difference in speed by running the mem slower? When will it be seriously noticeable?

I'll be getting some OCZ 2X1GB RAM this friday. I know 2X512 OCs better, but this is mainly a gaming rig, and Battlefield 2 just eats up RAM. So it should do well with 2GB.

Anyone have any reccomendations on 1GB sticks that OC well? I know 1GB sticks don't OC too well but I'm hoping that the OCZs would give me some decent OC.

Thanks guys for the help

 

[abysmal]

Originally posted by: Tip Top
Abysmal,
You asked:
"Is the issue using 4 memory slots vs. 2 memory slots"

Yes it is the issue. And there is also an issue of the stick of memory and its internal
construction (cannot just tell by the chips on the outside of it). To get internal construction
you must contact company that made it. What you ask for is if it is "single ranked" stick of memory
or not.

But onto you specific question. And the answer is according to an amd tech document, "BIOS and Kernel Developer's Guide for AMD Athlon 64 and Opteron Processors" , the fastest you could get 4 sticks of memory to run at 1T is DDR333. And those sticks would all have to be "Single Ranked" sticks. If you use 2T then those 4 single ranked sticks should go at DDR400. Of course you could get even slower rate the memory runs according to the chart with non-single ranked sticks occupying all 4 slots. Actually at 2T setting if you had 4 dual ranked sticks occupying all 4 slots it would only run at DDR333, and at 1T it would run at DDR200.

Also according to the chart if you just have 2 sticks of memory , you better be certain you put them in the correct 2 slots, otherwise you will get the slow max settings! But of course if you follow directions and put them in the correct 2 slots, that is the best and the system will run as fast as it can!

The only way I see from the the chart in that guide to get 2GB of memory to run at the fastest settings is to purchase 2 sticks, each of a 1GB size. And it does not matter that those sticks are each dual ranked sticks (also dual ranked 1 GB sticks is about all you will find for a competive price). The system will run 1T at DDR400 with 2 sticks of memory, each stick being dual ranked. Just make certain you put them in the correct 2 slots!

Let me know it this helps you out Abysmal.

So, if I go to the 4 stick option and try to get to 4GB of Ram I am going to run headlong into the following problems.

1. To maintain a "1T" timing, It will force me down to only DDR333 which is not going to help me much in trying to OC this board, ??

2. If I go to "2T" the best I am going to be able to get is DDR400.


3. The Bios on this motherboard will only read 2.75-3.00GB of that 4GB memory as being available ?


On another forum a different user stated the following....
http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/38623/?o=3500
Page 174-175

Running with.
G.SKILL 1GB (2 x 512MB) Model #: F1-3200DSU2-1GBLA
184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) Samsung TCCD Dual Channel Kit System Memory
with a timing of 2.5-4-4-8 2T

" I have two set of the same memory and they work awesome, I also put some 3m heatspreaders on them and have no trouble with reboots or errors with 1004Bios."

"Right now it's set at 2-2-2-5-1T and runs great, I did try them at 2.5-4-4-8-1T and also ran great, now I used memtest and got the memory as hi as DDR484 with the old power supply and haven't tryed with the new one yet. now from what I have read they say with all 4 slots taken up you can't get over DDR333 but I have with this memory and had no trouble at all with anything, As far as now I'm working on trying to get them to run at DDR 500 with the new powersupply. I will post when it works"

 

[nippyjun]

I have a A8N SLI premium. I'm trying to iron out some bugs that i belive are related to the memory i'm using (although i'm not sure). I'm using 2 sticks of Geil PC3500 512 megs and 2 sticks of Geil PC3500 256 megs for 1.5 megs total in dual channel mode. I'm not overclocking the memory and i'm letting the mobo autodetect the settings for it.

The problem is freezing in windows. The biggest problem is with internet explorer. If i open up a web page and scroll up and down really fast the system freezes up. If i remove the 2 256 meg sticks the problem seems to goes away. The timings are sligtly different on the 4 sticks but the default bios settings are looser than the sticks should be able to tolerate. I figured though that i'd up the CAS to 3 from 2.5. The system won't boot if i do that and the reporter keeps saying that there is a memory problem. I have to clear the CMOS to be able to boot. It seems strange that loosening the CAS would cause a memory problem doesn't it? It's 3 looser than 2.5?

I'm going to try to up the memory voltage to see if that helps.

Is there a way to let it boot even if it detects a memory problem. It's a hastle to clear the cmos.

I'm also getting some freezing in Doom3, but i'm not sure if that is memory related or not.

Keep in mind that i did a hard drive transplant on this system. I had the drive in my old Nforce3 system, i uninstalled all mobo and video drivers and uninstalled most of the devices in the device manager. Then i put it in my new nforce4 system and installed all the drivers. So could the freezing be related to not installing a fresh windows?

Is there a way to see what is causing the freezing problem in an event viewer somewhere?



Thanks for any ideas.

 

[anotherbrianm]

Hi all... just wanted to say that I am up and running with my setup. I still have not OCed yet but I plan to see where I can go with my setup soon. I did have a cooling problem on my 7800gtx that scared the crap out of me. I had my new p160 case all buttoned up and put HL2 on pause and walked away for a while. I cannot remember exactly but when I got back I think the temp soared up to the low 90s and I don't think I was in Farenheight mode. So I will be playing with the door off for a while I did so last night and only hit the mid/high 50s or so. I have been monitoring the temps with a temp probe from the Antec p160 stuck in the back of the video card right under the GPU. I think the card is ok as there is thermal protection that is supposed to kick in around 110C (crazy hot). Needless to say I will be getting a highspeed panaflow 120mm intake very soon. (The 92 panaflow on the xp90c is nice and quiet thanks Ron for the advice!) The card pretty much cuts the airflow in half as it spans much of the width of the case so if I use the intake fan it would blow fresh air below the video card and in the direction of the heatsinks this should provide plenty of cooling in that area. I will let you know how it works out.

Thanks again!

B

 

[nippyjun]

I'm pretty sure the problems i've had are with using my GEIL memory.

So i've decided to get 2 gigs (2 1-gig sticks) of memory.

Can anyone here who has the a8nsli premium and 2 1-gig sticks of memory post which memory they have.

There aren't too many 1 gig sticks listed in the manual for the qualified vendor list.

 

[7pants]

I have 2x1GB Crucial Ballistix sticks. They're pretty pricey at $380 for the set direct from crucial.com, but they're the best you can get as far as I know.

That said, I haven't been able to run them at 1T even at 200fsb, and they're supposed to work at 250fsb. This is on an A8N-SLI prem with an X2 4400 and I'm running bios 1005, so I'll try updating the bios and see if it helps. If not, something's gonna be RMA'd pretty soon. But I'm not going to say it's the RAM's fault just yet, it runs at 3-3-3-8 2T just fine at 260fsb.

 

[solofly]

Im having stability issues here and I'm pissed.

A8NSLI-Premium
4400+ x2
2 x 7800GTX
4 x 1GB
Enermax 600watt (had no problem with two 6800GTs)

CPU tested and stable with Sandra's 'Burn-in Test'. RAM tested and also stable. But whenever I run a 3D app such as 3dmark03 or BF2 for example, my system crashes. Sometimes in freezes or blue screens or reboots on its own. It happens within seconds most of the time. I tried both Win64 and Win32 and have the same results. I'm beginning to think one of the VGA cards came defective. I've been going at it for a couple of days now and today I'll be testing them one at at time. I'm no newbee to SLI so that's not the cause hopefully. I can't wait to get this thing going...grrrrrr

 

[milleron]

Originally posted by: 7pants
I have 2x1GB Crucial Ballistix sticks. They're pretty pricey at $380 for the set direct from crucial.com, but they're the best you can get as far as I know.

That said, I haven't been able to run them at 1T even at 200fsb, and they're supposed to work at 250fsb. This is on an A8N-SLI prem with an X2 4400 and I'm running bios 1005, so I'll try updating the bios and see if it helps. If not, something's gonna be RMA'd pretty soon. But I'm not going to say it's the RAM's fault just yet, it runs at 3-3-3-8 2T just fine at 260fsb.

The ability to run at 1T was supposed to be included in the Rev-E chips, which the X2 is, but I thought the change applied only to 4-stick setups (which previously had required a 2T command rate). I had not heard that it would allow you to run DIMMs >512MB at 1T. Also, I read in one of the forums that Rev-E CPUs weren't even allowing 4-DIMM configurations to run at 1T -- i.e., that the upgraded capability of the Rev-E is not working as advertised. I'm not sure that it's possible to make 1GB DIMMs run at 1T regardless of how good they are. I was under the impression that if you want to run at 1T, you're limited to 512MB DIMMs.

Have you read something different?

Ron

 

[solofly]

Holy cow. It isn't the video cards but the memory after all. These sitck that I'm using had no problems with a Winchester+A8NSLI-Deluxe combo at 400MHz at 2.6v Where as this mobo won't even be stable at 2.7v using the same RAM and timing. These are 1GB stick btw...

 

[nippyjun]

Originally posted by: solofly
Holy cow. It isn't the video cards but the memory after all. These sitck that I'm using had no problems with a Winchester+A8NSLI-Deluxe combo at 400MHz at 2.6v Where as this mobo won't even be stable at 2.7v using the same RAM and timing. These are 1GB stick btw...

Is that the micron memory in your sig?

I too have had a memory problem. I'm using good quality Geil memory and even at stock speeds i have to crank up the ddr voltage to get a stable system. And if i put 2x512 and 2x256 in the board it boots fine and is operating in dual channel but is very flakey. It seems that this board is finickey about memory.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Originally posted by: milleron

Originally posted by: 7pants
I have 2x1GB Crucial Ballistix sticks. They're pretty pricey at $380 for the set direct from crucial.com, but they're the best you can get as far as I know.

That said, I haven't been able to run them at 1T even at 200fsb, and they're supposed to work at 250fsb. This is on an A8N-SLI prem with an X2 4400 and I'm running bios 1005, so I'll try updating the bios and see if it helps. If not, something's gonna be RMA'd pretty soon. But I'm not going to say it's the RAM's fault just yet, it runs at 3-3-3-8 2T just fine at 260fsb.

The ability to run at 1T was supposed to be included in the Rev-E chips, which the X2 is, but I thought the change applied only to 4-stick setups (which previously had required a 2T command rate). I had not heard that it would allow you to run DIMMs >512MB at 1T. Also, I read in one of the forums that Rev-E CPUs weren't even allowing 4-DIMM configurations to run at 1T -- i.e., that the upgraded capability of the Rev-E is not working as advertised. I'm not sure that it's possible to make 1GB DIMMs run at 1T regardless of how good they are. I was under the impression that if you want to run at 1T, you're limited to 512MB DIMMs.

Have you read something different?

Ron

Rev-E corrected the problem of ram dropping to 333mhz when all four dimms were being used but not the 2T penalty.

In regards to having to run 2T when overclocking 2x1gb dimms, this is an issue with 1gb dimms not having the ability to oc well. I believe the use of memory dividers may be the best way to get around this issue for now.

 

[taxfree]

I would sure like to know how it's going to work...???

During windows Install after It makes is past the verifying upgrade software, I get the blue screen of death. somthime I get to the part to pick a partition then the blue screen of death

I have 2 SATA HD's and 2 SATA plextor drives; I have installed them in both raid 0 mode on both the Nvida raid controller and the Sil314 same results, I have also played with single SATA drives alone on each controller indviually and same results...ugh...i'm not too much of a newbie the next step is to break out an old IDE HD and CRDOM drive and try that.

any help or an install guide would be awesome, I'm at wits end

 

[solofly]

Once again, I was getting better results with Winchester and A8NSLI Deluxe compared to this new dual core 4400+ and A8NSLI Premium. Very disappointing to say the least...

 

[Sem82]

i got my A8N-SLi premium and it cant overclock for ****

i had a DFI NF4 SLI-DR before and i sold it for this because of the better layout

with the DFI i could overclock my 4400+ to 2640Mhz @ 1.5v and it was stable

but with the asus i cant overclock at all
even something like 220x11 will fail a 1MB superpi test

using the 1005bios

 

[solofly]

I don't know WTH they've done to this mobo but so far I like the Deluxe much better. At least I could've used all four sticks of ram at full speed. I mean rev.E is suppose to be new and improved so that shouldn't be the problem. Right now I removed two sticks. Memory benches look very nice with 1T command enabled but again, I would've preferred 4GB at 400Mhz at 2T instead. Grrrrr...

Let me paint you a picture...

Winchester + A8N-SLI Deluxe + (4 x 1GB) = fully stable at 400MHz at 2.6v

Toledo + A8n-SLI Premium + (4 x 1GB) = not stable at 400MHZ at 2.7v (when set to 333MHz it runs fine)

I don't like overvolting my RAM beyond 2.7v and that's where I stopped. For the record, timing was left at default in both cases.

 

[Capt Caveman]

My X2 4400+ and A8N-SLI Premium set-up is oc'd to 2.75ghz @ 1.5125v w/out much tweaking. I'll hopefully be able to get it over 2.8ghz when I have some time to play around with it.

What kind of memory are you using? Settings? Memtest'd again?

 

[Sem82]

my memory is corsair XMS 3200XL

ive been runing them at 250FSB 2.5.3.3.10 for over a year on both my P4 and AMD system but with this board it fails memtest at test 8
using 2.85-3.0v

what bios you using

 

[Capt Caveman]

Originally posted by: Sem82
my memory is corsair XMS 3200XL

ive been runing them at 250FSB 2.5.3.3.10 for over a year on both my P4 and AMD system but with this board it fails memtest at test 8
using 2.85-3.0v

what bios you using

bios 1006-2

Note - using 1006-4, I had issues up the wazoo. System lock-ups or system wouldn't shut-down

 

[kman79]

IS the Beta 1006-02 worth flashing to? What are the improvements? Does it OC better?

 

[Tip Top]

Do I have this correct?:
When you run the this board on defaults from the original bios that comes with the board, then you boot up, and load/run windows, and then check the memory voltage by running the AI Boost utility that comes on the CD with the mobo, -- well when you look at the sports car type screen of AI Boost, the memory voltage it reports is 2.7v . Is that really the voltage the memory is running under defaults from bios?

It seems to me that that is what I observed, and then I flashed the bios with the newest beta version (4th beta one) and then once again using the AI Boost utility to observe the memory voltage, it reported 2.6v .

So my conclusion is that the bios that comes with the board defaults memory to 2.7v.
While the newer beta bios, defaults the memory to 2.6v.

I now, manually set the memory voltage to 2.6v in whatever bios as I don't understand what it chooses. Is there a reason I would want to set memory designed at 2.6v to 2.7v if there is no overclocking? If you do not overclock- the cpu, can instabilty happen if you raise the voltage of the memory to 1.7v? Does the cause an occasional mismatch of the timings (like boosting it up to pc3500 memory), or does it make the pc3200 timing just stonger pc3200 timings? Get my point?

Is not most standard pc3200 memory with CAS 3.0 run at 2.6v?
How hot does it get when running at 2.7v? Without major cooling what will happen to it?
Most consumers would never find this out, as I loaded the ntune utility an the pcprobe utility and neither reports the memory voltage setting.
So what I am saying is, that it seems to me that there may be a lot of memory being run at 2.7v without people knowing it. Of course I would like to double check this. Is there another utility that will tell me what the memory is running at.

How do you flash to a previous bios version -- as the auto flash utility prevents it and says you got to use some dos thing. Can someone please help me out with that?
___________________
Also something I noticed in the AI Boost utility with the original bios that comes with the board, well, if you manually set the voltage, it reports the CPU's voltage much lower than what you set. What is up with that? And by the way, when doing the same operation under the beta 4 bios, well, in the AI Boost utility , it will report a voltage very close to the one you manually set, the 2 things track together. So the AI boost utility seems to run much more sensically under the beta 4 bios.

_____________________

Another thing I noticed is that I get a lot of blue screens of death that result in system reboot, when I loaded all the drivers that come on the motherboard disk. Now of course I loaded some drivers for the video card too, but I don't think that is the problem.

Some of the irregular BSOD errors i get (like once every 2 or 3 hours) have messages relating to
kmixer.sys
ALCXWDM.sys
nv_4mini.sys
wins32k.sys

I ran memtest86 for about 6 hours no problem.
I ran a cpuburn type test for a nubmer of hours no problem.
I played a game without problem generally, but it did BSOD when trying to install it during like the 3 or 5 cd loaded into drive. Also I think there was a different BSOD at the start when I switched to the game once (but not many other times).

The BSOD happen whenever just runing regular programs or tasks in windows, or just leave the computer there idling. No rhym or reason or pattern.

I reinstalled windows xp pro again, and load no supplemental drivers ,and no BSOD for last 3 hours.

Many of the BSOD were of type
0x0000007E
0x000000D1 (nv4_mini.sys , ALCXWDM.SYS)
0x0000000A
0x0000008E (that was the win32k.sys)


So looking up these errors generally, point to drivers trying to access memory they should not be accessing, (conflict), hardware incompatability issues, memory issues).

Can it be hardware compatibility issue, when the system is stable, with just the the basic windows install (by the way, with just the basic windows install, just draggin a window around the screne is really slow, and also I have not audio, as I thin that needs the Realtek driver installed).

So also lookig at these errors, I guess maybe there is a problem with the audio and vidoe drivers? Or could it be something wrong with the motherboard itself, like the Realtek audio on the board, when the driver is installed and enables it? I have no clue whatsoever of what I am talking about.

I am frustrated, does anyone else have BSOD when they get there drivers installed?
Suggestions?
Help please.

PS.
Last question, do you install both the Realtek AC 97 drivers and the nvidia 3d sound drivers, or does teh Realtek handle all the 3d sound stuff , or do they work in conjunction with each other? PS, how do you prevent nvidia 3d sound from being installed when you want the other nforce4 driver stuff loaded from the nvidia driver stuff?

 

[Tip Top]

Originally posted by: nippyjun


Is there a way to see what is causing the freezing problem in an event viewer somewhere?



Thanks for any ideas.

You have to set the windows system, not to automatically reboot, so you can look at the Blue screen errors. Sometimes it shows a driver file it happened in, and an error code which you look up generally. There is alos a error dump file, that you can use debugger from micorsoft to examine. That gives you some garble info that has real precise meaning to someone in the know. This is high level programming stuff . Anyways you can get the driver name sometimes from the BSOD and the basic error code (like 0x0000007d or whatever)

I think if the system just freezes without giving a BSOD then that was a cpu timing issue or something like that. just a guess.

 

[Tip Top]

Well, I spoke too soon.
With no drivers installed, I did manage to get a blue screen crash when running the included game called pinball. I had a bunch of programs running, and had the pinball in the demo mode, and I think I was dragging the window around a whole bunch, or clicking and draggin it, and I got a BSOD
Ox0000008E (0x00000005,...................)
So that means the 0x 5 means that there was a memory access violation.

And I ran the debugger on the dump file and if I understood sort of what I was looking at there was the error occuresed in win32k.sys where I guess the function EngAlphaBlend at 0x199 (maybe that is the line in the function, who knows) crashed the system.

So my guess (and it sure is a guess because this is so cryptic!) is that that either some other program put something in the memory where the EngAlphaBlend function looked, or there is an bug within EngAlphaBlend (and EngAlphaBlend), or there is some sort of hardware problem with the system and the memory that cause the wrong thing to be where the function looked for it. WHo knows, I sure don't. But it is my opinion that a basic game that comes with the os should not cause such a serious crash. And also I was only running other applications that came with the os (like a browser). This is a kernel crash as I understand it.

Thoughts, because I am only guessing here as to how this works.

Should I RMA my board and try another sample? Or is this typical?
Thanks

 

[Capt Caveman]

Tip Top,

Read prior posts, I posted two posts prior to your original post that beta bios 1006-04 causes all sorts of issues and is not usable. You can use the Windows Flash Utility and flash your bios back to either 1005 or beta 1006-02. If you flash back to a prior bios, you won't get the erros you are getting.

AI Booster is not very accurate when it comes to voltages. And I believe you mean 2.6-2.7v as the board does not have setttings as low as 1.6v, plus DDR memory requres more voltage than that to run.

There is no worry when voltages run below 2.8v when it comes to heat. The fluctuations are normal since you have things set to auto where the systems adjusts voltages based on the system load.

And yes, you need either to use the Realtek or Nvidia drivers to get sound, not both. One will replace the other based on what drivers you install last.

To get more accurate voltage readings, download Everest, CPU-Z, Sandra, etc.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Originally posted by: kman79
IS the Beta 1006-02 worth flashing to? What are the improvements? Does it OC better?

Sadly, I never tried 1005 and just flashed to 1006-02 from the beginning. Not sure if it improves anything. I may flashback to 1005 and see how it compares. I'll repost observations later.