ASRock 775Dual-VSTA

[Cheex]

I overclocked my Pentium D 915 from its stock 2.8GHz to 3.0GHz.
My problem is that I'm running 1GB DDR2 (2 x 512MB Dual Channel) 533MHz.
According to CPU-Z, my FSB : DRAM ratio is 3:4.
I don't see anywhere in the BIOS to change this ratio. Now when my CPU is OC'd to 3.0GHz my memory is not at 266MHz, its at 287MHz.
I don't think this is safe. Where in the BIOS can i change the FSB : DRAM ratio??

 

[buffalob]

Nighthawk:
I had some issues loading xp on my Dual VSTA pc as well. I'm running it with a 6300 and 2 gigs of GSkill ram. It kept crashing until I changed the memory speed from "Auto" to "533". I also changed several of the other options in the bios from "Auto" to the settings I knew they should be (Dual channel, etc). Board seems to work great now! I had an issue with my memory not seating properly in the memory slot. Had to pull and reseat a couple of times to get one of the sticks to read. PS - Its running on a 380w Antec Power Supply with no problem.

 

[Cheex]

Can anyone help me with my problem since as you are all knowledgable about the BIOS settings on this board.

 

[Cheex]

I can't seem to find any answers elsewhere people.
Come on...Help me out please.

 

[Mr Vain]

I dont know if its got a manual setting, I think that the bios auto selects FSB Dram ratio according to what it finds in the slots on this motherboard. Not shore as my DDR ram used to be 1.1 sometimes or other different settings at other times when I booted up and had played with ram timings.

Nothing wrong with 287 MHz ram speed in my opinion! If it could not handle it then your system would crash and you would have to lower the overclock a bit to find the sweet spot.
Its not going to blow up and will probably go a lot higher.

Generally if you overclock using the FSB or CPU multiplier it increases the ram speed also. If you want 266 MHz then dont overclock.

 

[cwhiteh2]

Intel Pentium D 805 Smithfield 533MHz FSB LGA 775 Dual Core,EM64T Processor
ASRock 775Dual-VSTA Socket T (LGA 775) VIA PT880 PRO ATX Intel Motherboard
SAPPHIRE 100106L Radeon X850XT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS 320GB
LITE-ON 16X DVD±R DVD Burner W/ LightScribe and 5X DVD-RAM Write Black
Thermaltake Bigwater 745


I bought the listed items from the egg and put them together recently. First I used an old case (and a new power supply (Ultra ULT31845 X-Finity 500W).
Having never used liquid cooling I thought I would assemble it first and test for leaks, so I did. I used a paperclip to get the atx power supply to run the thermaltake for 2 days. NO leaks. So I put the rest of the comps in the case and I booted up the bios. Being this is an Intel 805 I wanted to overclock and test for stability right off. SO I went up to a 195 FSB (asynchronous from the PCI or ram- a setting on the bios).
I then left the system running for 24hrs like that to test stability. I came back 24hrs later and the system had frozen and was sitting where I left it on the hardware temp monitoring page showing 39degrees Celsius for the cpu. I then rebooted and it came back up fine.

I burned a copy of windows xp 64 trial from the iso I got from M$. I then read an article about changing the reg so that it didn?t expire and used nlite to burn an iso. So I booted up the cd and loaded x64 on a fresh HDD. The problems started immediately. It gave me an error during install. Something like Ntkrnlmp.exe Could Not Be Loaded Error Code 4. So I went in the BIOS and backed it down to stock 133 FSB. The OS then loaded up on the 2nd attempt.

The next problem I had was after I did all the updates and got new drivers for my 850xt, (Catalyst 6.7 Windows XP Professional x64 Edition - Driver Download ) during the m$.net framework install the pc rebooted for no reason. I began to think temps might be an issue, so I turned off the p4 thermal monitoring and installed speedfan but the thing never went over 41degrees. After installing Sandra and some other programs for benchmarking I went back to the BIOS and changed the FSB to 150. That wouldn?t boot. SO I went back to stock and then later that day I got a blue screen of death citing some exception.

I then updated the BIOS from 1.0 to 1.5. I noticed in the device manager later that I had a conflict with an unk device (System Inerrupt Controller). I was forced to boot into safe mode after a restart and I fixed that by installing stock driver for M$. After that I noticed the pc would reboot like every 15 ? 30 minutes randomly while I was downloading. So I decided to just use xp 32 thinking 64 was the issue. SO I put in my xp32 disk that I have used 100 times and it locked up during install saying some file could not be found (at the very end of the install with 9 minutes left). I tried another xp disk and it went all the way through the install but wouldn?t boot. I went back and tried the stock m$ trial 64 install and it gave me errors. Each time I?m doing a complete format of the HD.

SO that?s where Im at now. What should I try. Is it Hardware or Software.? Thanks in advance.

Also, I ran memtest and got 7289506 errors after 1 pass...so I changed the flexibility option in the bios to enabled. after 3 hours I got 3 passes and no errors..so I think that may have been a problem..

Also...does my baracuda have to be set at 1.5G/s by replacing the jumper or does it matter that its set to 3.0....

Someone needs to do a manual for every bios setting...

 

[Mr Vain]

It was in my opinion a memory issue; I have had the exact same problems before and swapped out the ram and the system become stable straight away.

Systems are supposed to detect the 3Mps and adjust it to 1.5Mps automatically. I put the jumper in mine to make sure that there was not going to be any problems.

Try the new 1.7Bios if you continue to have problems as that might help.

 

[Gary Key]

Originally posted by: Just4Ever
Gary, are you going to be publishing your tests?

Yes, the comparison article will be in the near future. I had to go back and run the numbers again with the 1.7 bios, it has some nice changes in it for further memory compatibility, imrpoved PCI-E peformance (to the extent that it matches AGP in several areas now at 1280x1024 or below), and some CPU tweaks.

I did not have an issue with the A-DATA memory, pm me your bios settings.

Thanks,
Gary

 

[Cheex]

Originally posted by: Mr Vain
I dont know if its got a manual setting, I think that the bios auto selects FSB Dram ratio according to what it finds in the slots on this motherboard. Not shore as my DDR ram used to be 1.1 sometimes or other different settings at other times when I booted up and had played with ram timings.

Nothing wrong with 287 MHz ram speed in my opinion! If it could not handle it then your system would crash and you would have to lower the overclock a bit to find the sweet spot.
Its not going to blow up and will probably go a lot higher.

Generally if you overclock using the FSB or CPU multiplier it increases the ram speed also. If you want 266 MHz then dont overclock.

I want to keep my overclock at least 3GHz (its kind of like a milestone....lol).
Being that they are some 533 sticks...Can they really manage to run at 587 from now on and not get damaged?

 

[Cheex]

sorry about the bump but this is an issue i want resolved as soon as i can get help

 

[Gary Key]

Originally posted by: Cheex

Originally posted by: Mr Vain
I dont know if its got a manual setting, I think that the bios auto selects FSB Dram ratio according to what it finds in the slots on this motherboard. Not shore as my DDR ram used to be 1.1 sometimes or other different settings at other times when I booted up and had played with ram timings.

Nothing wrong with 287 MHz ram speed in my opinion! If it could not handle it then your system would crash and you would have to lower the overclock a bit to find the sweet spot.
Its not going to blow up and will probably go a lot higher.

Generally if you overclock using the FSB or CPU multiplier it increases the ram speed also. If you want 266 MHz then dont overclock.

I want to keep my overclock at least 3GHz (its kind of like a milestone....lol).
Being that they are some 533 sticks...Can they really manage to run at 587 from now on and not get damaged?

Due to the very limited memory voltage increase on this board, it would be near impossible to damage your memory at 587 with the high voltage bios setting. In fact, your memory should run at 587 without any additional voltage.

 

[anandus]

So no one has tried the new bios (1.70) out?
I'm curious if there are any new FSB-frequencies added

 

[Mr Vain]

Originally posted by: anandus
So no one has tried the new bios (1.70) out?
I'm curious if there are any new FSB-frequencies added

340 MHz is still the maximum FSB that I can get with the 1.7 Bios.

 

[Cheex]

Originally posted by: Gary Key

Originally posted by: Cheex

Originally posted by: Mr Vain
I dont know if its got a manual setting, I think that the bios auto selects FSB Dram ratio according to what it finds in the slots on this motherboard. Not shore as my DDR ram used to be 1.1 sometimes or other different settings at other times when I booted up and had played with ram timings.

Nothing wrong with 287 MHz ram speed in my opinion! If it could not handle it then your system would crash and you would have to lower the overclock a bit to find the sweet spot.
Its not going to blow up and will probably go a lot higher.

Generally if you overclock using the FSB or CPU multiplier it increases the ram speed also. If you want 266 MHz then dont overclock.

I want to keep my overclock at least 3GHz (its kind of like a milestone....lol).
Being that they are some 533 sticks...Can they really manage to run at 587 from now on and not get damaged?

Due to the very limited memory voltage increase on this board, it would be near impossible to damage your memory at 587 with the high voltage bios setting. In fact, your memory should run at 587 without any additional voltage.

Glad to know that...I've heard that DDR2 memory has a lot more headroom than other memory types so i should be ok at 587MHz. I think i will leave the voltage on Auto though. What do you think about me doing that.

 

[cwhiteh2]

Well dont buy Corsair XMS2 RAM...

You have to enable flexibility option in the BIOS to get windows x64 to boot..does anybody know what that does...

I can't push my build past 160FSB or windows wont boot, says ntdrl is corrupt..sad...37 degrees with watercooling and due to ram cant do more than 3.2Ghz..oh well for $135 for chip and board not too bad. Any suggestions for a better board under $100?

 

[Just4Ever]

Originally posted by: cwhiteh2
Well dont buy Corsair XMS2 RAM...

You have to enable flexibility option in the BIOS to get windows x64 to boot..does anybody know what that does...

I can't push my build past 160FSB or windows wont boot, says ntdrl is corrupt..sad...37 degrees with watercooling and due to ram cant do more than 3.2Ghz..oh well for $135 for chip and board not too bad. Any suggestions for a better board under $100?

I noticed that I had to enable the flexibility option in the bios as well.

 

[Cheex]

Originally posted by: cwhiteh2
Well dont buy Corsair XMS2 RAM...

You have to enable flexibility option in the BIOS to get windows x64 to boot..does anybody know what that does...

I can't push my build past 160FSB or windows wont boot, says ntdrl is corrupt..sad...37 degrees with watercooling and due to ram cant do more than 3.2Ghz..oh well for $135 for chip and board not too bad. Any suggestions for a better board under $100?

If I enable the flexability option in the BIOS, will that give me more control of my memory?

 

[YoungGun21]

Does it run DDR 400 and DDR2 667 at the same time? Or does it run one or the other, but not both? I know if it runs both it will run at the slower speed, but just wondering if it will run both at the same time.

Since the FSB only goes to 340 does that mean a E6300 would be limited to 2.38ghz?

Are there any memory brands it doesn't seem to like? I know some of these C2D boards are having compatibility issues with certain sticks kinds of RAM.

 

[skirjonen]

nzimmers,

What's the BIOS version? MY board is "dead" like yours with E6400, but I think you must have at least P1.40 - my board came with P1.30.

I'm now wondering where to find older 775 CPU so that I can try to flash the BIOS...

-----------
Quote:

Well seems my Asrock -VSTA is DOA =(

just got it via fedex - popped in the conroe, and some DDR ram and an AGP video card - when I plugged in the power the CPU fan started but no post beep - strage, so I swapped ot the ram, same thing - no post or display

reseated the CPU twice - nothing

shorted the cmos jumpers and now won't even spin the CPU fan

went to Best Buy - picked up a top of the line Antec - No joy

SHOOOOTTT!!!

there's a few more things I can try - but looks like I will have to RMA

Bios chip sticker has ver 1.1 on it

anyone have suggestions before I RMA it??

 

[Budarow]

Originally posted by: Gary Key

Originally posted by: Just4Ever
Gary, are you going to be publishing your tests?

Yes, the comparison article will be in the near future. I had to go back and run the numbers again with the 1.7 bios, it has some nice changes in it for further memory compatibility, imrpoved PCI-E peformance (to the extent that it matches AGP in several areas now at 1280x1024 or below), and some CPU tweaks.

I did not have an issue with the A-DATA memory, pm me your bios settings.

Thanks,
Gary

This is GOOD to know. Thanks Gary

 

[skirjonen]

Hello all,

I got my VSTA from Newegg and tried it with E6400 and Kingston KVR400X64C3A/512 DDR ram from my old rig, but it was a no go. First go some reaction (case and cpu fans), but no post. I removed everything part by part, cleared CMOS every time and tried to get it post, but no... Last test was just the board and the E6400 -> no post, nothing... :-(

Asrock's web-site says that one must have at least BIOS version P1.40 for Conroes - my board came with P1.30... Am I now out of luck? I don't have another/older 775 cpu to use for BIOS updates... Should P1.30 post with Conroes if the board is OK?

Any thoughts?

Thanks!!!

 

[imported_Nighthawk]

Quick update on my problems with the VSTA: Got the replacement board, which booted with my x800XT and one of my RAM sticks in the shop. But at home it did not. I removed the other RAM stick which is think is faulty and used an old 9800pro. With this config the system is nice and stable again.
But winxp still hangs at the loading screen with the X800XT, which worked at the shop!? The X800 still works fine in my old system. Concering the PSU: i tried a 3rd one, which did not help either. I will order DDR2 RAM, maybe that helps.

Weird problem, but i think it is not the fault of the Asrock board.

 

[Mr Vain]

My ATI XT850PE AGP works fine.

I think that it?s the ram that?s causing you these problems.

 

[Mr Vain]

Originally posted by: Cheex

Originally posted by: cwhiteh2
Well dont buy Corsair XMS2 RAM...

You have to enable flexibility option in the BIOS to get windows x64 to boot..does anybody know what that does...

I can't push my build past 160FSB or windows wont boot, says ntdrl is corrupt..sad...37 degrees with watercooling and due to ram cant do more than 3.2Ghz..oh well for $135 for chip and board not too bad. Any suggestions for a better board under $100?

If I enable the flexability option in the BIOS, will that give me more control of my memory?

No 99% sure that won't give you any more control optians

 

[Mr Vain]

Originally posted by: YoungGun21
Does it run DDR 400 and DDR2 667 at the same time? Or does it run one or the other, but not both? I know if it runs both it will run at the slower speed, but just wondering if it will run both at the same time.

Since the FSB only goes to 340 does that mean a E6300 would be limited to 2.38ghz?

Are there any memory brands it doesn't seem to like? I know some of these C2D boards are having compatibility issues with certain sticks kinds of RAM.

It will not run DDR DDR2 at the same time according to the instruction manual.