AMD Sempron Processor 3100+ & ECS NFORCE3-A Motherboard for $80 at Outpost.com

[freshspace]

Originally posted by: BigSpenderNOT
Hi Dark Night you probably don't want advice from me with all the problems I have been having, but I just got everything working right installing in the following order...

XP
SP1a
Realtek sound Drivers (Furballi recommendation)
DirectX 9 (February 2006 Ediiton)
Nforce drivers 5.10 (not 5.11 that Furballi recommends - Uncheck IDE & Audio only like he does recommend, though)
Video Drivers (aformentioned)

Of course, I don't exactly know what fixed my problem as I also unplugged the USB connections from the front of the case (I can live without those as long as my computer is running like a champ (knock on wood!)

Thanks to everyone for the help on this one!

I'm glad it is working. Hooray!!!!! No, I don't have Direct 9 installed yet, because I am still running Geforce Ti3. It is not Direct 9 compatible. (Or is it?!) It is still working great.

 

[deadken]

Originally posted by: thetxstang
To those that are experiencing BSOD during the middle of nForce3 drivers install, you might try the following .......

...... install each nForce3 5.11 driver component INDIVIDUALLY, restaring after each install before installing the next component. Maybe you can give this a shot and report back on the results.

Great suggestion! Well guys, how does it work for you?

I was thinking about the problem with the driver installs that you guys have been having. When I was thinking how lucky I was that I didn't have the same problems, I realized that perhaps it was the way I installed the drivers... I had forgot about it until now....

Since I was re-using the O/S from my Sons NF2 motherboard, I just deleted some of the components from the 'Device Manager' and shut down the system. I then installed the new hardware and rebooted the system. As Windows started, it found the new hardware and since I didn't have any internet connectivity at the time, I used the necessary drivers off the ECS CD-Rom. Then after Windows loaded, I re-booted and then connected to the internet and downloaded/installed the 5.11's from NVidias website.

Perhaps that would make all the difference for you guys??? I should mention that I already had DX 9C on the HD from the previous hardware.

Good Luck to you guys, be sure to report back with whatever worked.

PS: I am kinda hoping that the 'next' Outpost combo even better and as cheap as this one was. I have 2 more PC's to upgrade from NF2/AXP's and I really want to start with S939. Quite honestly, as nice as this combo has turned out, I don't think I will upgrade another PC for the $100 pricetag. It's funny how $20 puts this past the 'Tipping Point' on whether or not I would buy it. (Plus, $80 is just WAY better).

-Ken

 

[furballi]

Hmmm...here's my order of installation:

1.WXP SP1 n reboot
2.Realtek sound from ECS website n reboot
3.NF3 5.11 (uncheck IDE and AUDIO, and Firewall prompt) n reboot

Never had to install DX9.

 

[homestarmy]

Originally posted by: deadken
Alright!!! I did it! Now are you guys happy?!?! Jeez, I couldn't take it anymore. All this talk of how well these run was making me crazy. I just dove in and bought a combo and a Coolermaster HS/Fan for another 11.99. Total cost 101.08 Shipped. Oh well... Maybe I have to stop browsing the hot deals section.... I thought I was strong enough to resist, but I guess not.

Now I need some cheap memory to complete this 'budget box'. I have a $20 CrapUSA case, with a free w/MIR 350W PS, and a $10 w/MIR 80GB HD. Add a $100 CPU/Mobo/HSF combo, and I am right around $150 (providing I get my rebates back). I have an old 64mb AGP TNT2 and black CD-Rom. Just add memory and O/S and I should be good to go.

I am very interested in seeing how this MasterPower 350Watt ATX Power Supply does. The box states that it has (2) 12Volt rails, one rated for 6A and one for 12A. 18A on the 12V line sounds too good to be true, but I will have to wait and see. I run Antec PSU's in all four of my personal rigs, but this is a 'budget box' and will have to prove itself. If it passes P95 for over 12 hours, I will be confident that I can sell it with no worries.

I used this exact same PSU for a friend using this combo. It has posed no problems and has been up 24/7 for about a month now.

 

[homestarmy]

Originally posted by: deadken
It might be a 'day-late-and-a-dollar-short', but here is a Genuine AMD Athlon 64 X2 754 939 940 Heatsink/Fan NEW for $18 shipped from Ebay. I just bought one and there are 19 available for now.

-Ken

Same one $1 less... http://www.heatsinkoutlet.com/

 

[mawg]

cripes, finally got time to work on getting mine up and running last night. have two new SATA 100GB, went into BIOS to set up RAID. many options under the IDE setup, enabled RAID for the SATAs, OK. one CDROM set as master on IDE0. reboot, comes up with the RAID config screen, added the two drives. install XP, feed it the RAID drivers on floppy, OK. get to the graphical portion of setup, right before where it will ask for CD key it complains about not being able to load DISK DRIVE and them CDROM and the install dies. no recovery, just dies. anybody got any ideas on the IDE setup stuff? This is my first time around with IDE RAID, all SCSI before.

 

[homestarmy]

IDE or SATA?

 

[mawg]

>> two new SATA 100GB,

 

[ice2882]

Originally posted by: mawg
>> two new SATA 100GB,

Yes, but then you said "anybody got any ideas on the IDE setup stuff"... and "first time around with IDE RAID"...

So I'm assuming you meant SATA for all of those, rather than IDE?

 

[mawg]

1 IDE CDROM on IDE0, set as master, works ok to install from XP CD. 2 SATA HDD set as striped. No other drives. graphical section of XP install blows up , can't load DISK DRIVE and CDROM (all caps as seen on screen). since it already ran the install from the CD, confusing to me.

 

[DarkTXKnight]

ok so i reloaded windows again and everything works...until i went to load the 5.11 drivers. I unchecked every driver except for the nic and when it loads the screen goes black and the machine seems to hang.
When i reboot, i dont even get the splash screen as is just stays black .Im just kinda lost here..... do i need to use 5.10 or anything ?

 

[MrSpock53]

Originally posted by: homestarmy

Originally posted by: deadken
It might be a 'day-late-and-a-dollar-short', but here is a Genuine AMD Athlon 64 X2 754 939 940 Heatsink/Fan NEW for $18 shipped from Ebay. I just bought one and there are 19 available for now.

-Ken

Same one $1 less... http://www.heatsinkoutlet.com/

So this X2 heatsink also work with this sempron 3100+? The links don't say anything about sempron support.

 

[thetxstang]

Originally posted by: MrSpock53

Originally posted by: homestarmy

Originally posted by: deadken
It might be a 'day-late-and-a-dollar-short', but here is a Genuine AMD Athlon 64 X2 754 939 940 Heatsink/Fan NEW for $18 shipped from Ebay. I just bought one and there are 19 available for now.

-Ken

Same one $1 less... http://www.heatsinkoutlet.com/

So this X2 heatsink also work with this sempron 3100+? The links don't say anything about sempron support.

Trust me, it works, and it works great! A lot of us have been using this very same HSF on this combo.

 

[deadken]

I just got mine today (the HeatPipe Heatsink that is). Perhaps your seller was $1 cheaper, but since I got my HS/Fan today and I only ordered it on Thursday I can't complain!

I am running Super Pi (32M) to run up the temps (it takes about 1/2 hour w/CPU at 2,250Mhz and a few applications running). As soon as I am done with another run of that, I will swap out for the new HS/Fan, and then bench it all over again.

I might just recommend this combo to my friend anyway. Even at $100, it would BLOW AWAY his Dell P4 1.7Ghz. I suggested that we re-install his 'original' Dell memory, Video card, and Hard Drive. Then take the 'new' components we upgraded his Dell with (9700Pro, 120GB/8MB HD, and 2x512mb Corsair VS PC3200) and build him a new rig. I will call him tonight.

-Ken

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: MrSpock53
So this X2 heatsink also work with this sempron 3100+? The links don't say anything about sempron support.

AFAIK all socket 754/939/940 HSFs are interchangeable.

Originally posted by: deadken
I might just recommend this combo to my friend anyway. Even at $100, it would BLOW AWAY his Dell P4 1.7Ghz. I suggested that we re-install his 'original' Dell memory, Video card, and Hard Drive. Then take the 'new' components we upgraded his Dell with (9700Pro, 120GB/8MB HD, and 2x512mb Corsair VS PC3200) and build him a new rig.

That would make for a nice rig. He can sell his Dell and his upgrade would be really cheap.

Originally posted by: deadken
PS: I am kinda hoping that the 'next' Outpost combo even better and as cheap as this one was. I have 2 more PC's to upgrade from NF2/AXP's and I really want to start with S939.

Fry's (not Outpost) has had socket 939 deals for around $180 for a 3500+ with motherboard recently. Alas the motherboard uses a VIA chipset so it won't be very overclockable. What would be ideal is a 3000+ retail box which goes for around $125 these days, bundled with the ECS NFORCE4-A939 for around the cost of the processor. Sheesh, I'd buy one just for the heck of it. That board is based on the Nforce 4 chipset and is overclockable like the NFORCE3-A, except BIOS goes all the way up to 400MHz HTT/FSB!!! I've got one in my system that I'm typing this message on. It may not be a super extreme overclocker but it is capable. There is a known problem with it using USB 2.0 devices such as externa hard drives - likes to BSOD or lock up. My personal solution was to use a PCI USB 2.0 card for my USB 2.0 devices and the onboard USB for other stuff like mouse, scanner, etc. Beyond this one known functional glitch, the board's been great. I do have two other beefs with it. One is lack of Smart Fan control and the second is the chipset cooler location and mounting. It is really close to the PCI-E 16X slot and the mounting has those wire loops in the board like on Intel 865PE chipset boards (and many other Intel chipset boards) instead of push pins like all other AMD platform boards.

Zap's mini review of ECS NFORCE4-A939

 

[MrSpock53]

Thanks thetxstang and Zap for the replies. Just making sure I don't get stuck with the wrong HSF!

 

[DarkTXKnight]

Ok so one more format and reloading of windows, then I loaded the 5.10 nvidia drivers and no crash!! right now Ive got prime running on it for the last 10 hours with one errors that seemed to need more CPU voltage. So far so good. So after Ive run this so far with the OC settings Furbali sugested it's been going for 10 hours on prime and everest says that the CPU is @ 44C. Is that right about normal?

 

[deadken]

I am not sure, because your reply isn't entirely clear, if you are trying to do a driver install with the 'combo' OverClocked. You should never do any installs with a CPU/Motherboard/Memory overclocked. In your case, you see that you are not stable since you failed P95. If you get an error during an install (an O/S or Driver), you'll get a BSOD, lock-up, or errors that have been described here. I am not only responding to DarkXTKnight, but to all people that have been having problems with the driver installs. Overclocking can be great, but speed without stability is USELESS.

I wonder if the people having problems with the driver installs are O/C'd while doing the install?.?.?.?

As for your temps... 44C seems to be normal depending on what HS/Fan and Case you have. Personally, I am running it in an Antec case with a 120mm Exhaust and a side fan that is 'ducted' to blow fresh air right onto the CPU+HS/Fan and I am getting 35C with a EBay AMD X2 S939 Dual Core Heatpipe HS/Fan (there are a few links to them throughout the thread). Before that, my temps were at 44C with the Coolermaster copper core 80mm HS/Fan from Outpost (also linked to several times in this thread). I am VERY pleased at this Stock AMD Heatpipe HS/Fan! For $18, I got at least a huge temperature drop from the $13 one that I had one there to begin with. My PC's all run Folding @ Home 24/7/365, so they are always running at least %85 CPU load. The only time I turn F@H off is when I game or burn a DVD.

 

[BigSpenderNOT]

Hi again, I just wanted to chime in and say that when I was getting my BSOD errors during the install of the 5.11 Nvidia drivers, I was not overclocking. 5.10 seemed to work fine for me. I'm luvin' my combo now! Maybe I'll overclock soon, maybe not.

 

[furballi]

Found a small bug that may affect some boards. If you use Clockgen to overclock above 250MHz FSB, then you may get this warning at the next reboot AFTER you shut down the PC AND allow the system to connect to a LIVE AC outlet for more than 3 minutes. My system is Memtest and Prime95 stable up to 2.46GHz (274MHz FSB).

WARNING! NOW SYSTEM IS IN SAFE MODE. PLEASE RE-SETTING CPU FREQUENCY IN THE CMOS SETUP.

It appears that this is a standard ECS overclock protection message when the FSB exceeds the factory 250MHz BIOS limitation. I believe it's triggered by a timed-circuit.

It is possible to bypass this problem by turning OFF the main power to the PC (PSU switch or surge protector switch) within 2 to 3 minutes AFTER PC shutdown. Raising Vcore and Vdimm appear to be in-effective. This problem only affects some boards. Perhaps those that are OKAY may display the same alert at higher FSB speed.

I'd like to hear inputs from others who may/may not experience the same issue. Also post other work-around-solution(s).

 

[thetxstang]

I find it somewhat fascinating that some of you are getting BSODs during the install of the nVidia 5.11 drivers, but are able to install the nVidia 5.10 drivers just fine. Perhaps this is the reason ECS's download page for this motherboard only offers the 5.10 drivers for download. At any rate, for those of you who finally managed to get the 5.10 drivers installed, I think you should be more than okay without the 5.11 updates (whatever they might entail).

For the record, I was able to install the 5.11 drivers on the three systems that I built, but on one them I did experience the same BSOD when accidentally re-installing the 5.11 drivers on a configuration that already had them. Interestingly enough, the BSOD occurred during the Ethernet portion of the driver install.

 

[mawg]

I'm still having issues with this thing. Since the middle of the install of XP Pro SP2 it complains "Windows could not load the installer for DiskDrive" and "Windows could not load the installer for CDROM" It also complained that the the software for "Bettery" was not MS signed. Also, I"m booting from the SATA RAID, 2 100GB drives, a 105GB partition. Every time I restart Windows it finds the CDROM as new hardware, wants to install it. It doesn't need a driver, it's a standard TDK burner I've had in a couple machines. If I tell it to go ahead it can't find any drivers, even though I told it to look online. I've re-installed SP2 thinking it might help, but no help. Also, every time I start windows it puts up a little notice down by the clock noting that it found the RAID. not real surprising, since it just booted from it.

This thing is fast, but I'm afraid to clock it up any until it's stable. I bought a nice stick of RAM for it and should be able to bump it a little, but not till I get these issues sorted. Even if I plug a thumb drive into a USB port it puts up those errors, but the thumb drives works OK. Nothing intersting in the eventvwr either.


Any help? I've googled the error messages extensively, found reports of it back into early 2003, but never any good solutions. Any of you guys that have background with this combo get this?

 

[DarkTXKnight]

To clarify, I had not Overclocked when setting up the machine until after the 5.10 drivers were installed. I had everything set to normal when I was having all the issues with the 5.11 drivers and yes I too noticed that on ECS's site only 5.10 drivers were present. These went on without any of the issue that I had during my previous installs of 5.11.

It wasn't until after I loaded the working 5.10 drivers that I went ahead and overclocked. I loaded Prime95 after doing so and when it failed so quickly I did remember that the only setting I had not changed according to Furbali's post was the cpu voltage. He had recomended using 1.7% or 3.4% and I kept the setting on default. Moving to 3.4% seems to have worked that kink out since it has now been running P95 for 12 hours. The average temp has still been around 44c and I wanted to compare it since I bought I beleive it was a thermaltake silencer model (have to check when i get home)and I knew I would sacrafice a little heat for the extra quiet so so far so good.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: deadken
You should never do any installs with a CPU/Motherboard/Memory overclocked.

Why not? I do it all the time. If the system is stable at the overclocked speed, then it should work without problems. If you have problems during installs due to the overclock, then it was an unstable overclock.

 

[deadken]

Originally posted by: Zap

Originally posted by: deadken
You should never do any installs with a CPU/Motherboard/Memory overclocked.

Why not? I do it all the time. If the system is stable at the overclocked speed, then it should work without problems. If you have problems during installs due to the overclock, then it was an unstable overclock.

Agreed... Honestly, I should have said: You should never do any installs with a CPU/Motherboard/Memory overclocked UNLESS YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY SURE IT IS COMPLETELY STABLE. I install while overclocked all the time, but I wouldn't do it unless I am sure that I can run P95 for over 13hours.

Zap, I'd think that you'd have to admit that if people are overclocking and there is instability, it certainly wouldn't be a big surprise to have driver install problems. That is what I was trying to point out. I am glad to hear that the 5.10's solve most problems.