**Official Chaintech Zenith VNF4 nForce4 Motherboard Thread**

[MajorPayne]

Originally posted by: Ahill

Originally posted by: MajorPayne


Failing this, go into your BIOS, and go to the PC Health Status section, and look at the temps here. There should be at least 2 listed -- one for Current CPU Temp, and one for Current System Temp (Case). If one (or more) of these 2 temps reads zero, then you really are pooched -- I would RMA the board.

Yup the bios is the one that reads 0C. Man im totaly bummed out. Basically with this sensor being fubar will i end up hurting my cpu in the long run?

As long as the fan is turning fast enough, it will not hurt your CPU... BUT I would not even attemp to overclock a board where I could not get a temp read. This is just me, but I would RMA the board (even though I would have to be without a computer while I awaited the return) because with computer parts, I have noticed a tendency toward "cluster failures" -- basically, if one part of your motherboard is bad, then it is likely that there may be more wrong, and you simply have not found the other problems yet!

 

[Ahill]

Yeah I think your right. Good thing I went with Newegg on this board. As long as it is within 30 days they will cross ship another motherboard. So as soon as I they get some im I will RMA it that way I dont have to be without for more than a few days.

 

[Schwan]

Is anyone else using an xp-90 heatsink with this motherboard?

It seems like the capacitors are blocking the lower left clip from being attached.

 

[MajorPayne]

Nope, I am still on the stock heatsing for my 3000+ winchester.... And since I am OC'd by 360 MHZ, but still run between 22 and 26 degrees C (Depending on load), I am not doing to bad with the stock cooler either! I have heard of others who tried (and failed) to get this head sink to work on this board tho.

 

[Ahill]

Marcus,

Please just a regular ATX 20pin power supply (that also includes the
extra 4 pin 12v black and yellow wire connector) and have the 20 pin
power connector plugged into the top 20 pin socket (closest to the CPU)
leaving the last 4 empty.

Chaintech Tech Support

This is an email I received from Chaintech Support. It took them 3 days to answer.

 

[MajorPayne]

Sweet! Not really well translated tho (maybe speaker is an ELS person). Not quite to the level of belonging on www.engrish.com, though since it actually tells you enough to go by.

 

[Ahill]

OK I received another email from Chaintech, this time with a new bios. ( for my temp issue) So I am going through trying to flash and I get this message "" The program file's part number does not match with your system!".


So I take a look at the file names. The batch file is named VNF3.... Hmmm

Did these guys send me a bios for the NF3 board?



edit: Lol what a bunch of chuckleheads.. at least they got back ot me in a speedy fashion.

Subject: Never mind the bios, (correction) 011305-467


>
>
> Chaintech Tech Support
> Marcus,
>
> Pleaes ignore bios in attachment as this is for the VNF3-250 instead,
> and NOT for the nForce4 Ultra. We will be working on another bios for
> the VNF4-Ultra.
>
> Chaintech Support

 

[gobucks]

guys, what memory is everybody using for their systems? I have some PQI Turbo DDR500, and it worked fine on the A8N-SLI, but it keeps causing memory faults on this new mobo. I plugged in some generic infineon memory from work, and it's working fine now, so i'm gonna have to see if i can return the PQI to newegg and see if i can get something else. I was thinking about Crucial Ballistix or Corsair XMS, anyone using any of these in the board? I've heard Corsair is pretty much universally accepted, so that might be the way to go. On the other hand, muskin 1GB kits for $137 seems pretty damn good, too. Please recommend me something good.

 

[Ahill]

My Mushkin Blueline Cl2 works fine, but you can find cheaper stuff out there.

 

[Trizzay]

I bought a gig of the Corsair Value Select for this board. Still waiting on a few more parts to get in though, so I haven't been able to test it.

I got it last week on Newegg for $137, looks like it is $141 now.

http://www.newegg.com/app/view...=20-145-440&depa=0

 

[MajorPayne]

Originally posted by: gobucks
guys, what memory is everybody using for their systems? I have some PQI Turbo DDR500, and it worked fine on the A8N-SLI, but it keeps causing memory faults on this new mobo. I plugged in some generic infineon memory from work, and it's working fine now, so i'm gonna have to see if i can return the PQI to newegg and see if i can get something else. I was thinking about Crucial Ballistix or Corsair XMS, anyone using any of these in the board? I've heard Corsair is pretty much universally accepted, so that might be the way to go. On the other hand, muskin 1GB kits for $137 seems pretty damn good, too. Please recommend me something good.

I am running 2GB of Kingston Hyperx 2-3-2 at 2-2-2 with an overclock (HTT at 240, with CPU OC'd to 2160 MHZ from 1800 MHZ). I DO have 4 sticks of 512MB running in dual channel at 400MHZ (406MHZ with a 266 divider actually), which is NOT recommended, since this chipset is not spec'd to fill all 4 dimms with Dual Channel DDR at 400MHZ -- it automatically locks my ram to a 2T command rate, with no option to set it back to 1T -- not a big deal tho, since the 2GB makes up for the hit of dropping to 2T in games/benchmarks.

 

[Jimmystyle]

Hi,

I'm new to the forums here, but I just got this motherboard as well as a Maxtor Diamondmax 300 GB SATA Hard Drive.

I've had no problems with the board with the exception of getting it to recognize my SATA drive.

I've updated to the latest BIOS.
I installed Windows 2000 with it to an IDE drive just to make sure the mobo was working correctly in other aspects no related to the SATA controller.
The drive is not shown in the BIOS regardless of which SATA port I connect the drive to (I've tried all 4).
I also used each of the SATA cables the mobo cable with just incase one was bad.

Is there some special BIOS setting I need in order for it to see the drive? I've tried with RAID both enabled and disabled. Also, when I boot with RAID enabled, it says "Detecting array...", but then dispays an error message too quickly for me to read it.

Does anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks a lot.

 

[gobucks]

is anyone having problems with the LAN? I'm getting weird problems. Most websites come up fine, but for some reason extremetech won't ever come up, and i know the site isn't down. Also, sometimes i have to click on links twice, cause the first time the link will fail. Oh, and I've been having trouble with updating AVG Antivirus Free, too. Has anybody had anything like this?

Also, Jimmystyle, I had the exact same problem with the DM10 drive, both with an A8N-SLI and the current VNF4/Ultra. It seems to be a compatibility issue with the chipset and HDD, maybe it just needs a bios update, but i'm not sure. My recommendation is to send back the HDD, buy yourself a cheap SATA or IDE hard drive, and wait for these issues to clear up. Either a fix will be issued, or faster SATA-II drives will come out, like 16MB 7200.8 drives, maybe better raptors, etc, and either way you'll end up saving yourself a lot of hassle. I spent 3 weeks trying to get the drive to play nice, and it's not worth it.

 

[Jimmystyle]

I finally got to see my Diamondmax detected. I cleared the CMOS and then changed only the BIOS settings related to getting the HDD detected. I enabled the following:
SATA 1 & 2, then RAID, then SATA 1 within the RAID setup.

Restarted and machine and then when it got to the RAID BIOS "Detecting array" screen, I had the option (for the first time) to press F10 and enter RAID setup. Once in there I saw my drive. I didn't change anything, I just exited so that I could plug my DVD-Rom back in so I could attempt to install Windows from the CD. Since that power down and DVD-Rom install, I've never been able to get the RAID detection to let my press F10 again.

I also got the message:
Warning: Have Option ROM can not be invoke (Vendor ID: 10DEh, Device ID: 0057h)
I got that before entering the RAID BIOS setup.

Not sure what I'll try next, but I just wanted to post my findings.

 

[Jimmystyle]

I got a Western Digital 200 GB SATA drive just to determine if the problem is my Maxtor drive or the motherboard. At this point, it's not detecting the WD drive either.

It looks like I'm going to have to replace the motherboard unless I get a good suggestion soon. For those of you that have this board and are using a SATA drive with it, can you please post your working BIOS settings that make a single SATA hard drive in a non-RAID setup work correctly.

Thanks.

 

[Ackbar]

Originally posted by: Jimmystyle
I got a Western Digital 200 GB SATA drive just to determine if the problem is my Maxtor drive or the motherboard. At this point, it's not detecting the WD drive either.

It looks like I'm going to have to replace the motherboard unless I get a good suggestion soon. For those of you that have this board and are using a SATA drive with it, can you please post your working BIOS settings that make a single SATA hard drive in a non-RAID setup work correctly.

Thanks.

I've used all of the available bioses and had no problem using my Raptor 36.7 gig HD in SATA non-raid. That's not to say I don't have any problems with this motherboard, but at least that works. You might very well have a bad mobo. I noticed another problem recently: http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...=1506645&highlight_key=y&keyword1=VNF4

If you have been getting the same problem, please let me know.

 

[Jimmystyle]

Ackbar,
I don't have the problem you have, but I did post the tech support contact info in reply to your question in the other thread:
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...=1506645&highlight_key=y&keyword1=VNF4

Could you please tell me what your BIOS settings are regarding IDE and SATA configuration? Do you run your single SATA drive using the onboard SATA connector? Which connector (1-4)?
Do you see your drive in the initial BIOS post? What Controller does it appear under?

Thanks.

 

[fr0thing]

How I set up single drives on the VNF4/Ultra with no RAID.

One Seagate PATA on IDE0. (Jumper set as Master/Single)
One Plextor DVD burner on IDE1. (Jumper set as Master)
One WD Raptor 740 on SATA connector 1.

On the Standard CMOS Features menu
The Seagate is listed as a Master hard drive on IDE Channel 0.
The Plextor is listed as a Master hard drive on IDE Channel 1.
The Raptor is listed as a Master hard drive on IDE Channel 2.

On the Integrated Peripherals>>IDE Function Setup all of the IDE and SATA controllers and options are Enabled and set to Auto.

On the RAID Config submenu of IDE Function Setup RAID is Disabled on all settings.

In the Advanced BIOS features the boot order is DVD-ROM, Floppy, SATA HD.

 

[Ackbar]

Originally posted by: Jimmystyle
Ackbar,
I don't have the problem you have, but I did post the tech support contact info in reply to your question in the other thread:
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...=1506645&highlight_key=y&keyword1=VNF4

Could you please tell me what your BIOS settings are regarding IDE and SATA configuration? Do you run your single SATA drive using the onboard SATA connector? Which connector (1-4)?
Do you see your drive in the initial BIOS post? What Controller does it appear under?

Thanks.

Sure, my raptor was automatically detected in the bios. I'm using the onboard SATA connector to 3, but I've tried 1 before and that works for me as well. I see the drive detected at all points, it appears under the IDE Channel 2 Master or IDE Channel 4 Master for SATA 1 and 3, respectively. Maybe this link will help you:
http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=372679

Good luck!

 

[Ackbar]

Originally posted by: Jimmystyle
Ackbar,
I don't have the problem you have, but I did post the tech support contact info in reply to your question in the other thread:
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...=1506645&highlight_key=y&keyword1=VNF4

Are you absolutely sure you don't have this problem? Every one else so far that I've talked to has, but I just want to make sure. Have you tried to change your voltage to 1.5 or 1.55 in the bios and saw that it showed up as such in CPU-Z and/or nTune Monitor? I just want to make sure b/c if you don't have this problem it may just be my board in which case I'll RMA.

 

[anthony88guy]

I plan on using the Chaintech VNF4 in a build. The following specs can be found HERE. I would like to know if there are any known compabilty issues such as video cards, ram, ect. For a first real build would this be a good motherboard?

anthony

 

[Ackbar]

Originally posted by: anthony88guy
I plan on using the Chaintech VNF4 in a build. The following specs can be found HERE. I would like to know if there are any known compabilty issues such as video cards, ram, ect. For a first real build would this be a good motherboard?

anthony

No HD? Some people seem to be having problems with certain HDs and detection on many if not all nForce4 Ultra mobos. Make sure you find out more carefully if anyone has had problems with the HDs you choose. Aside from that, those choices look good. :thumbsup:

 

[MajorPayne]

Originally posted by: anthony88guy
I plan on using the Chaintech VNF4 in a build. The following specs can be found HERE. I would like to know if there are any known compabilty issues such as video cards, ram, ect. For a first real build would this be a good motherboard?

anthony

I have not found any compatibility issues with this board (except with certain heatsinks, but that is more of a physical issue than anything else). That, and the board will NOT run on PCI video only -- it seems to require a PCI-E card be used before it will even look for a PCI video card, but this is only an issue if you are trying to run a legacy PCI video card as your ONLY video. There IS a known issue with All Nforce4 boards and certain Maxtor NCQ drives, but I believe that the new Nforce4 drivers on the Nvidia site fix this issue.

Other than the above things, this board is awesome! It has all of the features of the Nforce Ultra chipset (SATA II, NCQ, etc.) while not making you pay extra for "extra" features such as extra Ethernet connections, firewire, etc. It also overclocks great -- I have mine running at 300HTT (which puts my 1.8GHJZ A64 3000+ processor at 2.7GHZ)! It is an awesome value, and it has been rock stable for me since I got it in December.

 

[Silversierra]

I just built my first computer and I used the vnf4 ultra. I like it, but I don't have anything else to compare it to. I used a 6600gt pci-e, kingmax super ram memory, and a 939 a64 3000+. Hope this is helpful.

 

[Silversierra]

Anthony, if your getting the case listed in your wish list, then you will need a power supply as well. The power supply in it
has enough watts(420), but has really low 12v+ amperage (13a). People recommend getting over 20a, with 18a being the minimum
recommended. That psu(power supply unit) won't cut it.
http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage.asp?style=album
I've heard that this http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-101-509&depa=0
is a pretty good power supply.