Recently bought a p4c800-dx board at a local retailer. Oddly enough, it shipped with 1002 beta 001 bios. I am getting all kind of weird issues in memtest (version 3.0, tried both the floppy and cd image versions, just in case...) using this board with just about any ram I throw in it. I use a P4 2.4C cpu, and currently 2 sticks of OCZ PC3500 Enhanced latency, 256mb each.
Whenever I try using a bios more recent than the 1002 beta 001 that came with it (tried 1004, 1006, and 1007 beta 002), memtest will always freeze right when it starts the second test. (I tried flashing the 1006+ bioses with both afudos and easy-flash, it did not help either way) Also tried swapping in my ram with my old samsung pc2700 (which does 400mhz at 2.7v without a problem, but I did clock it back to both 320 and 266 just to make sure), and it does the same thing.
Also, the board does not seem to like FSB speeds over 258 for some reason. Everything works 100% at 258mhz fsb, (cpu running at 3096mhz, ram at 412mhz with 2-3-3-7 timings) going through 10+ loops of memtest (using the 1002.001 bios, otherwise it still crashes when starting test #2), and hours of prime95 with no issues. All at default voltages for both the cpu and ram. However, merely increasing it to 259 ends up in memtest errors in just about every test, randomly, even with the ram running with a 3:2 ratio, effectively 345mhz. Setting memory timings at a ridiculously slow 3-4-4-8 did not solve anything. Increasing memory voltage to 2.75v and then 2.85v change anything. Increasing the cpu voltage all the way to the 1002 beta 001 bios maximum of 1.7v doesnt help either. Setting the AGP/PCI lock to 66/33 (from auto) doesn't help any more. Neither does increasing the AGP voltage. I also tried flashing to 1006, ignoring the memtest crass on test2, but I was getting all kind of errors in windows. I'm seriously running out of ideas.
The fact that everything works properly with the ram running at 412mhz 2-3-3-7 makes me beleive it just can't be a ram issue as it should also work at 345 3-4-4-8... And the fact that increasing the voltage to 1.7v while increasing the fsb by 1mhz ends up in various crashes leads me to beleive that its not a bad cpu either. I'm also using an Enermax 350W psu, and all the line voltages are withing 2-5% of what they should be, so I doubt thats the issue. If needed, the rest of my hardware is a PNY Geforce4 Ti4400, an Audigy Sound card, (tried removing it just in case, as you never know what to expect out of creative labs sound cards ;p) a Seagate Barracuda ATA V 120gb hd, and a Liteon 48125W cdrw.
Any ideas?
Whenever I try using a bios more recent than the 1002 beta 001 that came with it (tried 1004, 1006, and 1007 beta 002), memtest will always freeze right when it starts the second test. (I tried flashing the 1006+ bioses with both afudos and easy-flash, it did not help either way) Also tried swapping in my ram with my old samsung pc2700 (which does 400mhz at 2.7v without a problem, but I did clock it back to both 320 and 266 just to make sure), and it does the same thing.
Also, the board does not seem to like FSB speeds over 258 for some reason. Everything works 100% at 258mhz fsb, (cpu running at 3096mhz, ram at 412mhz with 2-3-3-7 timings) going through 10+ loops of memtest (using the 1002.001 bios, otherwise it still crashes when starting test #2), and hours of prime95 with no issues. All at default voltages for both the cpu and ram. However, merely increasing it to 259 ends up in memtest errors in just about every test, randomly, even with the ram running with a 3:2 ratio, effectively 345mhz. Setting memory timings at a ridiculously slow 3-4-4-8 did not solve anything. Increasing memory voltage to 2.75v and then 2.85v change anything. Increasing the cpu voltage all the way to the 1002 beta 001 bios maximum of 1.7v doesnt help either. Setting the AGP/PCI lock to 66/33 (from auto) doesn't help any more. Neither does increasing the AGP voltage. I also tried flashing to 1006, ignoring the memtest crass on test2, but I was getting all kind of errors in windows. I'm seriously running out of ideas.
The fact that everything works properly with the ram running at 412mhz 2-3-3-7 makes me beleive it just can't be a ram issue as it should also work at 345 3-4-4-8... And the fact that increasing the voltage to 1.7v while increasing the fsb by 1mhz ends up in various crashes leads me to beleive that its not a bad cpu either. I'm also using an Enermax 350W psu, and all the line voltages are withing 2-5% of what they should be, so I doubt thats the issue. If needed, the rest of my hardware is a PNY Geforce4 Ti4400, an Audigy Sound card, (tried removing it just in case, as you never know what to expect out of creative labs sound cards ;p) a Seagate Barracuda ATA V 120gb hd, and a Liteon 48125W cdrw.
Any ideas?