Please !

[kRocket]

I recently built a new computer to replace my old AGP rig. Following is a configuration for the machine as it exists now:
- 500W PSU Antec Basiq w/ 2 12 volt rails
- 640GB WD Disk Sata 2
- Antec 900 Case w/ LG DVD RW & 3 1/4
- 4GB of 1066 OCZ Reaper DDR2 Memory
- Sapphire Radeon HD 4830
- AMD Phenom X2 7750 Kuma
- Gigabyte MA770-UD3 Motherboard
- Windows XP SP3

Boots fine, runs DXdiag fine, runs most apps I have tried well enough (ie, Thunderbird & Firefox), plays solitaire and hearts, runs Diablo II (but at less than recommended video - Directdraw works fine, direct3D mode hangs on start up). However, It will absolutely will not run World of Warcraft for any length of time without hanging, blue screening, faulting within WOW.exe, or just reloading.

I am beaten after messing with it for a week, I am not a hardware person to begin with, but I have tried everything I know to do. Drivers replaced, of course.

If you can give me any pointers I would appreciate it. Any suggestions would help. Blizzard Tech Support knew less than I did. I had been playing on my old AGP system for over a year.

Thank you.

 

[Schmide]

Did a fresh reinstall of XP? Repair?

Maybe update your directX from MS

DirectX update

Which drivers are you loading? Directly from ATI?

 

[lxskllr]

check your ram

 

[heyheybooboo]

Originally posted by: lxskllr
check your ram

+1

Gigabyte is really quirky with EPP RAMs. There may be a way to disable EPP in the BIOS. Use *Ctrl-F1* for the hidden options

 

[kRocket]

Booboo:

I am not too literate with PC terminology, but I found EPP options in the Tweak screen. I don't normally mess with overclocking. *Ctrl-F1* has no effect but 'Disable' is an regular option. When I disabled EPP funny things happened and I had to go back and restore it to previous settings just to get back here. I am not sure what I am messing with so be very specific when giving me directives, Please.

When you guys say Check ram, what exactly do you mean? Is there a program you recommend (free) to check ram?

 

[imported_Redmist]

Originally posted by: kRocket
Booboo:


When you guys say Check ram, what exactly do you mean? Is there a program you recommend (free) to check ram?

download "CPU-Z", load it up and check under the "memory" tab, that will show you what your frequency and timings your ram is running at currently.
Next, click on the "SPD" tab and that will show what you ram should be running at.




But like Schmide asked, did you do a fresh install of windows with this new hardware?

 

[lxskllr]

Also use burn Memtest86+ to a disc, and boot to it. Test your memory overnight, or until errors occur.

 

[kRocket]

Schmide:

With a new disk, we put on a fresh copy of XP and brought it up thru SP3.

It is already running DirectX 9.0 (highest XP will recognize, I believe)

 

[kRocket]

Okay:

CPU-Z says
DDR2-4096 MB
Dual-Unganged
1804 MHz.
534.5 MHz
FSB DRAM 3.8
CAS# Latency 5.0 clocks
RAS# to CAS# Delay 5 clocks
RAS# Precharge 5 clocks
Cycle Time 15 clock
Bank Cycle Time 26 clocks
Command Rate 2T

I don't know what it means, but I hope you do.

 

[mentalcrisis00]

If you could go into the event logger after a bluescreen that MAY tell you whats going on or at least where to look. I believe in XP it's control panel/administrative tools/Event Viewer. There will be tabs to the left that say system application etc. Look for errors at or near the time of the system failure and write down the error codes. You can google those codes or put them here and perhaps someone will know what might be going on. It's a long shot I know but sometimes the event viewer does tell you a little something, most of the time I can't make much sense of it myself but it has helped me in the past.

If you don't have a program to monitor temps try downloading speedfan, it will give you cpu, ambient case, and gpu temps. If those are running high it could tell you that something is amiss there. Hardware might be bad, cpu heatsink might not be seated correctly, Bios setting that isn't quite right. The thing I hate most about a new build is the initial bugs that need to be ironed out, it almost makes it worth keep that old falling apart system going just to keep the blood pressure down.

Good luck

OH and also look that the timings for the ram you bought, cas latency and voltage. Sometimes gigabyte boards do not recognize the correct timings for ram and this can cause stability issues. My OC settings are under MOBO Intelligent Tweaker, see if the speed (1066) timings (5-5-5-18) and voltage (2.1V) are what they're sposed to be. If your gigabyte board is anything like mine it'll have an option to load optimized settings, try that. My cpu speed was off by .6GHZ when I first started my system I did that and it corrected everything for me. Might want to try a BIOS update too but be warned that it could junk your motherboard so do that as a last resort. Just go to the section in the manuel about "flashing the BIOS" and it will tell you what to do. Just don't shutdown your computer or do ANYTHING while bios updates.

 

[mentalcrisis00]

cas latency, RAS to CAS Delay, RAS precharge, and cycle time all refer to the 4 timings of the ram you have, 5-5-5-18 is what newegg says they should be and I believe yours are set at 5-5-5-15 which means the cycle time might be wrong. Newegg might have it wrong though or your ram might not be exactly the same so take out a stick of your ram and look at the sticker on it, it SHOULD list the 4 number that pertain to the ram timings. I confirmed the timings and voltage on OCZ's website but you may just want to double check.

Once you confirm go to the BIOs and into whatever the overclocking or cpu/memory section is and make sure the ram is set to 1066 speed, 5-5-5-18 timings, and DRAM voltage is set to 2.1V. Keep in mind that if the settings aren't properly put in that it could damage the memory or board.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820227289

Your RAM also may just not be compatible with the board you have, gigabytes website has a compatibility chart with ram that is confirmed to work with that board. However it should be noted I'm using Gskill ram on my gigabyte which isn't listed on their memory index.

 

[kRocket]

I am currently running ORTHOS (which stress test both cores at one time). It has run for 37 min with no problem (turned it off to come back here). Later I will let it run while I sleep. I am in general very pleased with the performance of the new components except for this little problem. I don't know if you are familiar with WoW, but it is running +- 60 FPS and about 48 FPS in Dalaran, which is good. Oddly, all my problems happen when I am doing nothing like standing in town chatting or walking down the road, doesn't usually present a problem to engage in combat if I get that far.

My biggest problem is that i converted from AGP to PCI-E and none of the parts are interchangeable so I don't have the luxury of switching out parts I know work to narrow down the variables.

Edit:
CPU-Z Picture identical to mine! Ran across it ! Move about half way down the page.
Link

 

[Schmide]

We still need to know if you have the latest drivers for ATI?

 

[Krynj]

Verify that your timings and speed are set to match their specs. Once they are, try playing WoW with only one stick installed at a time. If it BSODs on one stick, try the other by itself. If you're still crashing, it's probably not the RAM, unless you've got 2 bad modules, which is rare, but possible I suppose.

Make sure you've got the RAM in the proper dual channel slots.

Not sure why you're running 4gb in XP x32, either. What size is the video card? 512mb, 1GB? Windows can only recognize/assign 4gb of memory in XP x32, so if you've got a 1gb card, it could be likely that Windows isn't able to even use more than 2.5GB of your RAM.

I would say make the switch to XP x64, otherwise, you're going to have a lot of system resources left completely unusable in x32. Let's say you had 2 1gb cards in Crossfire or SLI. That right there would take up 2gb of the assignable 4gb in x32, leaving you with less than 2GB for usable RAM, since there are other bits of memory (cache, buffers) that Windows recognizes as well.

And of course by x32, I mean x86. Using x32 to not confuse OP.

 

[kRocket]

Schmide: Yes, that was the first thing I did when it didn't work. Went to the AMD_ATI site annd got the latest driver.

 

[kRocket]

Fetus: Yes, the above link is to a picture of CPU-Z results that are identiical to the ones I got with the same program so they look right.

I ran ORTHOS last night and it didn't take long to have a FATAL error. Here is the text:

Type: Large, in-place FFTs - stress some RAM Min: 128 Max: 1024 InPlace: Yes Mem: 8 Time: 15
CPU: 2705MHz FSB: 200MHz [200MHz x 13.5 est.]
3/14/2009 12:33 PM
Launching 2 threads...
2: Using CPU #1
1: Using CPU #0
2: Beginning a continuous self-test to check your computer.
1: Beginning a continuous self-test to check your computer.
2: Press Stop to end this test.
1: Press Stop to end this test.
2: Test 1, 4000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M19922945 using 1024K FFT length.
1: Test 1, 4000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M19922945 using 1024K FFT length.
2: FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4
2: Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.
2: Torture Test ran 0 minutes 26 seconds - 1 errors, 0 warnings.
2: Execution halted.

THE QUESTION, doses that probably indicate memory or the CPU has a problem? I repeated this test with just 1 stick of memory at a time and both failed???

 

[mentalcrisis00]

I'm not familiar with ORTHOS but as lxskllr suggested I would download memtest and burn it to a disc. Run that and it will give you a result that says without a doubt if the ram is good or not. Let it run over night and if it picks up any errors in the morning it means your ram is dead. Even 1 error in the memory can send the computer into chaos from what I understand. This way you can know whether it's the memory or cpu that is the problem, memtest only tests memory.

 

[Krynj]

Try running that same test with only one stick of RAM in your machine. If you get the same error, try the other stick.

 

[kRocket]

Copied from above:

THE QUESTION, doses that probably indicate memory or the CPU has a problem? I repeated this test with just 1 stick of memory at a time and both failed???

 

[lxskllr]

That's a cpu error. It might be overheating. How are your temps?