asus socket 775 problems?

Kotu

Kotu

Kotu

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18 Oct 2002
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I am having a bit of a nightmare trying to get my dads pc to work, just to give a bit of background:

he started with socket A system running at 2GHz, it was getting a bit too slow for what he needed (text reader/voice recognition stuff) and since he didn't have much cash I suggested getting a core2quad type system second hand.

So I got hold of a Q9300 + P5N-e SLI + 4x1GB corsair dominator (from MM).

This ran fine for a while but still seemed quite slow, i noticed the ram was only running at 667MHz (its rated for 1066MHz at 2.2V), so i tried it at 800MHz to see if there was any improvement, but the board died after saving bios settings :( tried different cpu/ram, but i could not get the board to post.

So I then replaced it with a Rampage Formula.

This ran fine for a while too, but started getting graphic corruption and the occasional bsod, eventually it stopped posting too and was stuck at "DET DRAM" according to its display. I tested the RAM on another pc and its fine, but I can not get the Rampage Formula to even pass POST, it does however post if i use some unknown make 667Mhz 256MB stick I had kicking around. If I swap back to the dominators after using the unknown ram then it posts+boots, but only once. If I shut the pc down and then fire it back up, it ends up stuck at DET DRAM (on the rampage forumla LCD display) again.

At this point it feels like I have been quite unlucky and bought 2 motherboards which were on their way out, but if I search online for help it seems Asus socket 775 boards are terrible for memory compatibility.

So were should I go from here? There only seems to be a few options:
- find some magical bios settings which will run the dominators
- find a none asus 775 board cheap and see if its any better
- cut losses, bin the lot and find a none asus x58 system cheap second hand.

Any suggestions and/or help?
 
Does the Rampage boot with just 2 sticks?
I`ve had a couple of Asus 775 boards and never had any problems. But then again, I only ever used 2x2GB.
 
Ive reset CMOS potentially hundreds of times :P, bios battery has even been replaced with new. Problem is the same with 1/2/3/4 sticks installed, I have managed to get it to boot 2-3 extra times when just using one stick, but the same problem always comes back. I have also tried increasing the Northbridge voltage a bit as well as trying the ram settings set to what's written on the ram, but this just stops the single boot after a swap working and requires a cmos reset to make the old stick work again.
 
I think so, the bios it shows everything as being the same settings as whats printed on the ram, 1066MHz with 5-5-5-15 timings.
 
Sorry if I read wrong, but your posts seem to indicate you using the same CPU and memory in both boards and having issues, which has me wonder if it is a memory or CPU issue, memory sounding most likely.

I have had standard Corsair PC-8500 4x2gb not wanting to run at 533Mhz on a Gene II, but fine with 2x2gb GT at 533mhz with 2.1v. Maybe you should run Memtest on each stick individually overnight?

What are the actual specs of your system, PSU, Case, Cooling etc?
 
PSU is a Corsair 400W, I have tried using a Corsair 750W as well but it didn't make any difference to the problems. Case is an oldish Coolermaster Centurion, it still has a front intake fan though. CPU cooler is a tower type with one fan pointing towards the back of the case, so the air is directed through the cpu heatsink and out a space next to the i/o shield. GPU is a geforce 9800gtx+.

If I leave the system sitting in the bios for a while, the temperatures seem to go up to 35C for the CPU and 45C for the northbridge.

I have tested each stick for 2 hours without errors on its own, but rebooting after the passed test is still resulting in the det dram hang.

I don't really fancy spending 4 nights testing the RAM, the way I see it is if it takes 8+ hours to find an error then its unlikely to be an error which causes the system to regularly fail to post, it would more likely cause some stability issues when the system has been in use for a while.

It could be the CPU I guess, but it doesn't make sense that it would fail in one motherboard and then work for a while in another before giving issues again, the reports from the motherboard seem to only mention RAM as the culprit, it would stop at "CPU INIT" if it was having issues with the CPU.
 
I'd run memtest through it. In my experience obviously faulty RAM will flag errors within an hour or so and a few passes.

Unlikely to be the CPU as the memory controller is on the chipset for S775. Exception to this would be faulty cache on the CPU.
 
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