Just received my 4g4a+ from mwave yesterday and had been playing with it all night last night, turned out to be a nightmare.
This is a new MB for my 1.6a which used to sit in my old MSI 645Ultra.
In my old setup, I used a stick of 256 crucial pc2100 ram, with a generic 400W PS, voltage mod to 1.7v and was able to overclock to 2400mhz (150fsb) with 4:5 settings to get DDR 374 on the crucial ram. I also have an Iwill Raid 100 raiding two 80gb Western Digital 7200rpm HD and a ATI AIW Radeon 32mb ddr.
However, with my 4g4a+, I used all the same components as my previous setup, using the on-board hpt 372 controller, but encountered many problems.
First, I encounter a non XP compliance warning during Windows XP installation. After I chose "continue anyways" and finish the installation process, my computer couldn't load into windows, freezing right at the "welcome" screen. Finally found the problem might be the Video Card, and my ATI AIW Radeon doesn't seem to work with this board. It loads to windows successfully if I just enable the on-board graphics and uninstall the ATI AIW Radeon, so I replaced it with my brother's Gainward G4 4200, and it works fine.
Then, I started OCing. Since my old setup brought my 1.6a to 2.4 and my crucial ddr266 to ddr374, I expected no less. I put my crucial ram in the 2nd slot as suggested by others. I am using the Intel stock fan with AS3 applied, with 1 120mm intake and 1 120mm exhaust fan. Temp seems to be ok at around 35-37 idle for the cpu and low 30s for system. I locked the AGP/PCI, And then...
FSB133, mem 1:1 @ DDR 266, default voltages -- boot, windows, OK
But,
FSB 150, mem 1:1 @ DDR 333, default voltages - boot, freezes before windows finish loading
FSB 150, mem 1:1 @ DDR 333, core 1.6v - boot, freezes before windows finish loading
FSB 150, mem 1:1 @ DDR 333, core 1.7v, mem 2.7v - boot, load to windows, start to get errors, screen starts to get artifacts, freezes
FSB 150, mem 1:1 @ DDR 333, core 1.75v, mem 2.7v - boot, load to windows, start to get errors, screen starts to get artifacts, freezes
Then, i tried to lower my FSB down to 145, but still, no luck.
So now, I am a little concered as to what the problem is. Did I get a defective board since I still can't find out why (and can't find similar problems in this thread and other forums) about my ati aiw radeon not working with the board, I tried the board in another computer, and it was fine.
Does anybody have similar problems?
Or could it be my generic 400 W PS?
Or could it be that the board doesn't like my crucial ram? I just ordered some Corsair xms pc3200, should I try with those ram before I rma it.
Or could it be something else?
Thanks in advance for any help/recommendation