A8N-SLI premium lockup problems

[Perryg114]

I just put together a system for work with the new A8N-SLI premium Motherboard with a 4400+ dual core processor. It is locking up when running some analysis code but the code runs fine on other computers. Any suggestions on how to narrow the problem down?

I am running 2 Patriot 1G memory chips PC3200.Cas Latency 3
Timing 3-4-4-8
Voltage 2.6V

ASUS EN6200TC TOP/TD/128M Geforce 6200TC 128MB GDDR2 PCI Express x16 graphics card.

Western Digital Caviar SE WD1200JS 120GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

XP home is what I am running for the OS.

Perry

 

[mcvigo]

ram more voltage, do a memtest before booting to see if the memory is good.

 

[Megatomic]

I agree with mcvigo, give the RAM more juice (2.8V) and run memtest as I described in your other thread.

 

[wanderer27]

Yeah, 2.6v might be a bit low for an X2 System. My Corsair is one of the leaner running and it recommends 2.7v, though I'm running it lower, but I've got a Single Core.

Also, I believe there is an X2 patch for Windows, did you install that. This could cause your problem as well.

 

[Megatomic]

With a clean install of Windows, there is no need for the dual core patch. I put an X2 4800+ on the same mobo with a clean install of WinXP Pro and it works perfectly right out of the box. But I did install the AMD X2 driver even though I don't use CnQ.

 

[Capt Caveman]

I third or fourth the need to up that ram voltage.

 

[Perryg114]

Ok why is it so important to up the RAM voltage. What is the technical reason. By the way, it looks like that worked. Maybe this will cure more of these board problems.

Perry

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Ive seen cheaper RAM such as the patriot need more voltage to be stable on this board

 

[Perryg114]

If I was aware of the RAM issue I would have bought better RAM. I think it was a case of ignorance because uncle sam is paying the bill. I was also in a hurry to spend the money so I did not have the time to do as much research as I would have liked. I bought the board based on the review of this board that was done on this sight and none of these issues came up in the review.

Perry

 

[Perryg114]

Well it is still locking up at 2.8V on the RAM. I sent newegg an email and they said they will make an exception and refund the money on the board but what should I replace it with?

Perry

 

[Perryg114]

Ok I finally got the board stable using 2.9V on the RAM. They are running kinda hot but holding in there on the Soft Sandra burn in test running continous.

Thanks for all the help.

PS I am ordering corsair memory for it.

Perry

 

[Perryg114]

Well this is an old thread but I figured no sense in starting a new one. Well the voltage increase on the patriot RAM improved the situation but did not fix it. I ordered some Corsair memory (TWINX2048-3200C2PRO) and I have the same problem with it. I HATE AMD. This is my first time trying an AMD motherboard and it has been a nightmare. I am not sure what to do next accept trash the Motherboard and CPU and replace them with Intel stuff that may be slow but it ALWAYS works.

Perry

 

[Megatomic]

Why blame AMD? None of this is AMDs fault. You could use a different mobo with a different chipset before you scrap it all... For the record I have a nearly identical system and none of the issues you are experiencing. I did have problems running my Corsair RAM at it's rated speed and timings on my A8N-SLI Premium. So I got myself some OCZ DDR500 and I'm now running at 250MHz HTT 1:1 1T and all the timings at the advertised settings.

I'd try to either get a different motherboard or different RAM if I were you.

 

[Perryg114]

I have already three different brands of memory. I ran memtest it passed. I turned up the voltage. I can't spend forever trying to fix this thing. Ok what motherboard is not so picky with memory if that is even my problem. I would be happy for the RAM to run at any speed.

Perry

 

[Megatomic]

Do you need SLI? Do you have to have an NVidia chipset? If not, then the ATI Crossfire 3200 chipset mobos are looking pretty good. There are other chipset manufacturers also, like ULi, that make decent stable products.

I'd go through Newegg's mobo section and see what you like and ask about specific boards. You might get better feedback that way.

 

[gbohn]

I don't know if you are still interested in finding what part of your current system is causing the problem or not, but you could try using Prime95 and 'underclocking' as a way to try and isolate the weak link.

You could first try and run Prime95's 'torture test' for up to 12-24 hours the way things are now to see if it finds a problem (without hanging the system, or maybe finding it more quickly). That might be helpful if it makes testing any easier.

Either with your application, or Prime95, you could then 'underclock' one aspect of your system at a time to see if that prevents the problem or not (memory speed, CPU speed, HTT speed, etc.).

Just a thought. If needed, you should be able to get Prime95 at Mersenna.

-Greg

 

[Budarow]

Originally posted by: Perryg114
I have already three different brands of memory. I ran memtest it passed. I turned up the voltage. I can't spend forever trying to fix this thing. Ok what motherboard is not so picky with memory if that is even my problem. I would be happy for the RAM to run at any speed.

Perry

Perry,

Wanna sell any of your RAM? I'm considering upgrading an nForce2 based PC to 2GBs, but since my PC won't be around for too much longer I don't want to invest ~$130 or more on "new" RAM.

 

[Perryg114]

Well I have been using soft sandra memory burn in tests. A few days ago I went in and set everything manually to the manufactures spec on memory timing and it is on iteration 600 and something. This is usually where it crashes. It fails by hanging the system so it is hard to tell exactly why it failed. I will take a look at prime 95. Thanks for the ideas.

Perry

Originally posted by: gbohn
I don't know if you are still interested in finding what part of your current system is causing the problem or not, but you could try using Prime95 and 'underclocking' as a way to try and isolate the weak link.

You could first try and run Prime95's 'torture test' for up to 12-24 hours the way things are now to see if it finds a problem (without hanging the system, or maybe finding it more quickly). That might be helpful if it makes testing any easier.

Either with your application, or Prime95, you could then 'underclock' one aspect of your system at a time to see if that prevents the problem or not (memory speed, CPU speed, HTT speed, etc.).

Just a thought. If needed, you should be able to get Prime95 at Mersenna.

-Greg

 

[uOpt]

I just went through two of these boards.

Basically it seems that the chipset with the disk controllers is broken by design on these boards. Heavy disk activity makes them hang.

It might help to switch to active cooling on the chipset, didn't try that.

 

[openwheelformula1]

1. PCI slot 3 will share irq with graphic card. So avoid that.

2. don't install NV firewall

3. don't install NV SW IDE drivers.

4. Test memory with whatever settings, just make sure it's stable for at least 12 hours. Use Memtest86.

5. Make sure you don't use generic power supply. Each voltage rails are important for a stable computer.

This is a very good motherboard, but it's certainly not perfect. What is? The above points are from experience and lots of forum reading.

 

[Perryg114]

Well it is almost up to 1000 iterations on soft sandra memory burn in test. It has been running 4 days straight now without problems. I had to turn up the RAM voltage to get it to run for more than a few iterations. What seemed to fix the problem is going in and setting the memory timing manually. It did not set these up correctly although they were slower than the memory specs. Seems like slower timing would make it more stable not less stable. I may back off on the RAM voltage now and see how it does. I am running at the 3V max that may eventually damage my RAM. I don't know about disk tests yet since that was not the problem area at the time. Can you setup memtest to run continously?

Perry

 

[gbohn]

Originally posted by: openwheelformula1
1. PCI slot 3 will share irq with graphic card. So avoid that.

2. don't install NV firewall

3. don't install NV SW IDE drivers.

4. Test memory with whatever settings, just make sure it's stable for at least 12 hours. Use Memtest86.

5. Make sure you don't use generic power supply. Each voltage rails are important for a stable computer.

This is a very good motherboard, but it's certainly not perfect. What is? The above points are from experience and lots of forum reading.

My system conforms with at least items 2,3 and 5 above.

Also, I use memtest86+ (Available at Memtest86+) since it seems to be a little more up to date then plain old memtest86 (last time I checked).

For those who might not be familiar with these tools, I came across memtest86/memtest86+and Prime95 when I was looking at overclocking a while back. Some overclockiers use these tools as one way to test the stability of their overclocks.

In my experience, I found the 'torture test' of Prime95 to be good at detecting some problems (induced by overclocking) that weren't immediately obvious from just booting and running less stressful programs. Some cpu problems only showed up after the stress of running a while at peak temperature.

 

[Perryg114]

Well the POS is dead now it won't even boot up. Had this computer for 2 months and it never has worked. Said memory checksum error. Put different RAM in it still won't boot. How can they sell this crap. Thought all was good till I stop a several day long memory burn in test. Reduced the voltage a little now it won't boot even after I went in and put the voltage back to 3V.

Perry

 

[subby]

Originally posted by: openwheelformula1
1. PCI slot 3 will share irq with graphic card. So avoid that.

2. don't install NV firewall

3. don't install NV SW IDE drivers.

4. Test memory with whatever settings, just make sure it's stable for at least 12 hours. Use Memtest86.

5. Make sure you don't use generic power supply. Each voltage rails are important for a stable computer.

This is a very good motherboard, but it's certainly not perfect. What is? The above points are from experience and lots of forum reading.

Couldn't agree more with you openwheelformula1.

I have the same MB, and mine works like a charm.

 

[Perryg114]

Well the system tries to boot and as soon as the windows tries to load it shutsdown and reboots and it will do this indefinately.

Perry