Working Socket 939 Configurations

[Nuke Waste]

I have had the worst upgrade experience of my life. I'll not digress with the details but, in summary, it involved 7 weeks (and counting), 4 CPUs, 3 MOBOs, 2 video cards, and ~$450 in RAM. With that said, I want to know what you are using that WORKS with a socket 939 board. Here is what I have that DOESN'T play nice, but hopefully will when my OCZ RAM comes in tomorrow.

[*]MSI K8N Neo 2 Platinum
[*]Asus A8V Deluxe
[*]Antec True430 PS
[*]2 x Hitachi 80Gb SATA Drives
[*]Geil Platinum PC3200 (2-3-3-6)
[*]Jaton GeForce 6800 (not GT or anything)
[*]AMD A64 3200+ (Winchester core, rev. D, 90nm)
[*]AMD A64 3000+ (Winchester core, rev. D, 90nm)

The 3200+ and Asus board were tested together by my local shop with Viking RAM (one stick) and a generic video card and PS. At that time they also flashed the BIOS to the November release (I forget the version). They don't, however, work with my setup. I've RMA'd the MSI board, so it's gone (for the second time!) but the Asus board and 3200+ are awaiting new RAM. If not the RAM, perhaps it's the PS? I bought it about 6 weeks ago so I can definitely RMA it to NewEgg / Antec if I have to.

I have tried:
[*]Varying RAM configurations
[*]Minimal hardware (video, RAM, CPU, hdd)
[*]No hardware (RAM, CPU, video only)
[*]Removing and reseating EVERYTHING
[*]Verifying each jumper (I'm an engineer / nuclear power plant operator, so I'm QUITE thorough)
[*]New MOBO
[*]RMA'd MOBO
[*]Removing from case
[*]Newcastle core 3500+
[*]The two Winchester core CPUs
[*]Resetting CMOS, removing CMOS battery, etc.
[*]Asking nicely
[*]Kicking
[*]Promising to give it an FX-55 for X-mas

If you have any suggestions NOT already listed, please help me out! I'm beyond desperate, so nothing's too silly for me to try.

 

[siberain]

This is my current setup, I've had it for about 4 days now, the only problem i have is with Win-blows XP in device manager not stating its an AMD64 chip,
but it does state it on System Window and when i run Asus probe.

Other then that, the system runs great.

 

[Nuke Waste]

Have you had any stability issues? What kind of Super Pi / PRIME95 benchies are you getting?

 

[beatle]

What types of problems are you having?

What is the one constant in all of your builds?

 

[Nuke Waste]

The PSU, memory, and video were constant through all the muddling. As far as problems, I couldn't get a configuration that would even POST. I was getting CPU errors (according to the diagnostic LEDs) on the MSI board. I couldn't tell what was going on with the Asus board, but I did read on another thread that cheap memory was to blame for a similar setup.

I've been building / upgrading computers since my first box (a Compaq Pentium 75MHz w/ 32MB RAM and a QUAD speed CD-Rom) and NEVER have I seen such picky hardware. It'd better be worth it! :|

 

[beatle]

No beeps or anything on the Asus board? Is the PSU a known good unit? Have you tried one stick of memory in any of the slots?

 

[Nuke Waste]

The fans would spin up and after a few seconds it would give 4 or 5 quick beeps. I couldn't find any beep codes in the manual though. I never got a video signal from either board.

 

[Omega Ohm]

Jaton sucks ass.

Anyway, here's some help...

Beep codes

Oh yea, Soltek 939 board with a 3500+ Wincheter, 2x512 OCZ Plat RAM, Gigabyte 6800GT 256 meg, Ultra X-connect, all worked together beautifully.

 

[Nuke Waste]

About the Jaton... I'm figuring that out. I get some serious artifacts occasionally that makes CS:source or HL2 all but unplayable. As soon as I figure out the rest of the system I see a BFG 6600GT OC in my future!

Thanks for the beep codes. I'll have to try again to see what they were exactly.

 

[ty1er]

You have BOTH power cables hooked up on the motherboard. correct?

I have seen on the forums that the smaller 4pin power input gets overlooked sometimes.

just a guess.....




goodluck
-ty1er

 

[Icepick]

My specs:
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 2200MHz
Motherboard: MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum
Memory: 1000 MB of OCZ PC3200 EL 2-3-2-6 1T (2x512MB)
Video Card: BFG 6800 GT nVidia GeForce
Hard Drive: Samsung 160.0 GB @ 7200 RPMS
Monitor: Sony G220
DVD R/W: NEC 16x DL ND-3500A
Storage Interface: SATA
Operating System: Windows XP Service Pack 2
Other Components: Antec SLK3700-BQE case
Antec TrueBlue 480W power supply
Cooling:
CPU: AMD retail heatsink/fan
Case Exhaust: Antec 120mm

All living happily together.

 

[fishmonger12]

i have a working one, but it isn't the best :

gigabyte k8nsnxp-939
3500+
1 gig of pc3200 corsair value ram. this has to be run at pc2700, or else the computer will suffer from BSOD every 2-3 hours. it's a common thing on this board.
ati 9800 pro
sound blaster live card
WD Raptor 37 gig hd
350 watt PSU, came with coolermaster case.

it's all been working pretty well for me since i clocked down the ram. Gigabyte is supposedly renowned for its overclockability, but my board isn't even stable at stock speeds with this ram. i managed to get it to work, though, and the clocked down ram has a minimal effect on performance (3dmark 01 went from 19,868 to 19,534)

 

[Nuke Waste]

Yeah, both power cables are hooked up. After what you guys are telling me, I've gotta blame the RAM. fishmonger12's experience (and mine too, I gues) are pretty indicative of AMD64's issue with RAM. Maybe it's the onboard memory controller? That would explain why I was getting a CPU error with the MSI board even though the CPU was known to be fine.

 

[aatf510]

Plug your speakers into the green hole (onboard soundcard) on your ASUS A8V. It should give you error messages in English.

 

[Nuke Waste]

Thanks, I'll try that!

 

[slpaulson]

Did you ever try having just one stick of ram in it?
My only guess is to try using just one stick of ram, and try it in all 3 sockets. After that I'd try to get a hold of a new video card from a friend or something. I've also heard of some wierd problems with Antec power supplies booting, but I think it was just with that MSI motherboard.

 

[Nuke Waste]

Hey, a fellow badger. Well cRaz and others, it turns out that the RAM is all good. Super. I really NEEDED another Gb of expensive ram to decorate my desk with. Although I must say, that OCZ heatspreader is SHINY! So pretty.

Anyway, I'm going to try to round up another VGA card somewhere. I plugged in my speaker and it said "VGA test failed" or something like that. Oh well... back to Froogle to find a new card.

 

[aatf510]

That's great. Mine kept saying "CPU test failed" 3 out of 4 times when I boot-up (meaning that I had to retry 4+ times everytime when I try to start-up my pc). Eventually I replace my mobo with an ABIT. Problem solved.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

From reading this thread, It sure sounds like a problem with the video card. From all the research I've done the A8V (and all 939 boards for that matter) seem to be very picky about GPU's and (value)RAM. You shouldn't have any problem with the OCZ(good stuff). On original boot put one stick of RAM in slot 3.
If you are going to use an SATA drive you will also need to create a diskette with the raid drivers from the ASUS disk, and install the drivers before you can format the HD and load windows. If you still have problems try some of the other BIOS, there are several 1006(won't recognize the winchesters)
1007, 1008, 1009.02 beta 1009.03 beta

Good Luck!

 

[Nebakanezzar]

I just upgraded:

MSI neo plat 1.41bios
AMD64 3200+ 939
OCZ 1g plat rev 2
Fortron PSU
Used old HD's and CD drives

And i have to say it was the upgrade from hell! PSU came DOA and it took me awhile to pin it on the PSU...than the s-vid style mouse connection didnt work...the rest was user error and little things i had to figure out...it was worth it though system screams! git it OC'd to 2.5ghz.

So dont give up!

 

[Nuke Waste]

Thanks for all your help. I'm looking for a new video card and hoping my local shop can hook me up with a couple of cards to try first. They actually have been having some similar problems to mine, so we'll see if we can't help each other out!

 

[beatle]

I'm curious as to whether the video card was indeed the culprit (it sounds like it). If it is bad, I wonder if it works on another mb. I hadn't heard of video card compatibility problems on the A8V.

 

[Bookcase14]

I have been having major problems with my setup, and over christmas break im sending a whole hoopla of crap back. My rig? As follows:

Gigabyte K8NSNXP-939 pin
AMD 64 3800+
1 gig (2x512) pc3200 Mushkin RAM
Saphire Radeon x800 XT PE
2 x 120gb WD SATA hard drives...7200RPM
PCPowercooling true 510 Watt Deluxe PSU

I have no idea what the hell is wrong with my setup, I'm thinking my Mobo is faulty..Get this, when I was trying to install Windows Xp for the first time, it kept crashing while trying to install kernel.dll or something of that sort. It kept crashing at the same spot, so I thought naturally it was a hardware problem with RAM being the major issue. I try memtest and sure enough the RAM was getting errors in dual channel. So i try each stick separately, no problems and no errors. Windows randomly isntalls on the next few tries after trying different CD-ROM drives etc etc. It was a nightmare. So I now still have this setup, and i get BSOD all the friggen time when I am playing games, or sometimes even opening folders in windows when i'm playing an mp3 or something. I used to get machine_check_exception errors all the time (hardware issue) but now it just restarts on me. I can barely play counter-strike source for a few minutes before it crashes, its basically a crap-shoot. I thought it would be a RAM problem so i try mem test again, dual channel shows errors, once again single sticks show nothing, so i try the other dual channel slots and the machine goes to a screen that says "you have changed your hardware set up, how would you like to enter windows." Whatever option i choose, it always restarts me, and I can't get into windows. So essentially I have to revert to my old dual channel in slots 1 and 2. I tried upping my voltage to my RAM, but still no dice. I don't know what to do guys. Judging by the previous post of someone who ahs my board, he said its the pc3200 issue, but I think i might have a defective board. For one of the most expensive boards on the market, i expected better performance out of this sucker. Anyway, I'm going to RMA the board and the RAM. Maybe I just had a bad board, unless anyone thinks i have a compatibility issue. But back to the original topic, I would try another board but mine.

 

[Nuke Waste]

Well, I write to you all from my new, SEMI-working, socket 939 environment. Sure enough, it was the video card... the first component I put in my P4 system nearly two months ago, and the last component that I've checked on this box. I'm using a borrowed 9800xt right now and it's working great except...

My WINXP boot disk gives the "Checking system configuration" line, then the screen goes black. Quite odd. I've tried both of my optical drives to no avail, but I put in this bootable Linux CD I happen to have laying about, and it works. Are there any known incompatibilities?

 

[Nuke Waste]

Well, I'm CLOSE! I've got WinXP-x86-64 installed on an IDE hard drive, and Gentoo Linux (64-bit) on an SATA hard drive. Now, I'll I need to do is get WinXP (32) installed on a SATA hard drive. I'm having the same issue as a lot of other people, though, in that I can't seem to get any of my WinXP setup disks to work (other than the 64-bit one). I've upgraded to the 1009.04 BIOS (no issues so far with that BTW) but that doesn't fix the issue. I'm going to try to install the A8V drivers on my old Intel box and stick it into the new box and see if that works.

I do have both sticks of RAM (OCZ EL Platinum (Rev. 1)) working in dual channel, though.