Hiya, how ya doin? Ok well, sorry for the late reply but I've been really busy with the build an all, which I try an get to between work an the usual... Any way, here's my journal entries and photo!
1) I've tried on both the 800 and 1066 settings, both do the same i've left it at 'TEST/1066' as the CPU HTT is 1066 anyway. I'm hoping its not that as I've just paid for the board and it seems to be fine... just this problem with BSOD and Boot problems i.e. Windows failed to boot because winsetup.exe is corrupt or missing... which it AIN'T! I tried booting off a CD version of windows - that is to say windows is installed on the cd itself... loads into memory.... that failed which DEFINATELY points to a memory or memory controller problem - could it be the CPU - it's a Q6600-G0 and the ConRoe865PE is only certified to run with a Q6600-B3... Man alive a hope not!
2) Just thinking on, it has got the standard BIOS P1.70 in there, could it be that I need to install that 1.72 bios upd? Would it work?
3) Hmmm... ok well I'll try cleaning out the DIMM slots, updating the BIOS to 1.72 and I'll slow down the memory timing to 3,3,3,9 - Im goin away for a few days today but should be back on Friday so I'll get back to it then.
4) I'm back now an charged up!
Soooo, I did all things I said I was gonna do, Cleaned up the NB Heatsink - it had all this pink hard crap on it so I cleaned it off both the chip and the cooler with Isopropynol then let it dry, lovely an shiny now, put some thermal compound on the chip then fixed the heatsink back into place. Drop out the battery to reset the bios, put the battery back in then attempted a bootup, it booted and I flashed the BIOS to 1.72 and used 3 3 3 8 timings in the RAM settings. Still the same problem, I searched for a divider for the RAM (1:1/3:2) it wasnt there. So, I rebooted the system once I'd set up the BIOS time, date, etc and still will not boot into windows. I put in W7 DVD in the drive and tried to get it to boot off that but still shows errors... I think I need to slow down the RAM but dunno how... my thinking tells me that the stock FSB is 800 then the RAM is 200 so then if the FSB is 1066 then the RAM must be 266!!! Thats FAR to fast for ordinary RAM (Kingston KTM-M50-1G) that I'm using so more ideas, I know I'm soooo close to getting this done!
5) ROFL!!!
I've just read thru the posts again from top to bottom - it's just sunk in that the RAM divider is set to 3/2 and to get it upto 1/1 im gonna have to speed up the bus to 300 instead of 266... I'll try it and set the RAM to 2.5 2 4 4 8. Here we go...
6) I'm now typing this on the Conroe865PE/C2Q6600 Build!!!!
Yea that's right I've cracked it - it was the RAM... or the speed of it to be precise. I discovered that because of the way the BIOS handles the clock speeds, the RAM as it turns out was getting OC'd to within an inch of it's poor life!!
So, after some calculations, I've sussed out the following, Conroe865PE boards DO NOT like CL3 RAM!!! CL2 or CL2.5 is fine - CL3 you get all sorts of problems, which is why I'm now half bald!!!
7) I'm so much more wiser and informed regarding building now - and to think that I told myself I knew enough - you never stop learning ever! OK well, HALLELUJAH - I've actually nailed it down now to a fine point of what was going wrong with the system all this time - it was an incompatible memory stick. As you can see from the screen shot, I'm now using a couple of 1Gb DIMMS that are both CL/CAS 2.5 and are locked down at 3 3 7. I have 4 DIMMS (4Gb) to use but 1 of them is ONLY CL/CAS 3 and NO LESS! This caused all sorts of errors and instability because ConRoe865 Boards will ONLY USE CL/CAS 2 or 2.5 DIMMS and I was using the CL3 DIMM all the time until I had the idea I was missing something. So... I read the entire thread again and thats when it hit me! Charlib wrote "When installing the q6600, the bios sets automatically the ratio fsb/memory to 3/2. Then the memory works at 177,77mhz only, for the standard fsb of 266mhz." Which straight away triggered my thinking about the RAM being OC'd way too much then Hat wrote "Since you said it doesn't work at all in dual channel and halfass works in single channel I'm thinking it could be a memory controller issue (board) most likely... checking your RAM settings is a longshot, but worth a try." RAM settings absolutely right! Then m1dg3t made me click with the quote "3/3/3/9 is not an actual timing option, 3/3/3/8 is. Most standard ddr400 RAM was specced @ 200Mhz 3/4/4/8." Then I remembered reading in the ASRock ConRoe865PE Manual that the board only likes CL2.5 or CL2 RAM ESPECIALLY WHEN RUNNING AT 1066!!! So, the upshot of all this is now that I know which DIMMS can run at CL2.5 (3 out of 4 DIMMS as it turns out) - I've put 2 - 1Gb DDR400 CL2.5 DIMMS onto the board which are in slots 1 and 3. I've set the FSB at 250 which gives me the the RAM running at DDR333 in DUAL CHANNEL MODE at stock LOW voltage on everything. I've just ordered a matched pair of 'OCZ PC3200 1024MB EL DUAL CHANNEL 2 3 2 5 DIMMS'!
They're CL2 at DDR400, so overclocking is absolutely on the table with these babies!!!