Bizarre Problem with New Build - Please Help!

hp01jpc

hp01jpc

hp01jpc

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Joined
21 Apr 2004
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1,068
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Southampton
Hiya,

Just put together the following:

DFI UT SLI-DR
Opteron 146
2x1Gb Geil Value 3200
XFX 7800GT (just one at the moment, but I have a second to use in SLi... if and when I get this machine working)
Enermax Liberty 620W
BenQ DVD Writer
Seagate SATA HDD

All in a Lian Li PC7+ case.

Now, I couldn't boot the machine up at first. When I pressed the power button, the fans would spin up for a split second, and then they would all stop moving. I therefore thought that something was shorting out the motherboard. So I rebuilt the machine outside the case, but I got the same problem. I fiddled around with it all for a while, and lo and behold I got the machine to actually stay on for more than half a second, only to be greeted by a BIOS beep error. It transpired that the beep codes indicated a memory issue, so I changed some of the DIMMS around and the machine booted.

Now I have random power-downs. When the machine first booted, I started the Windows XP installation and during text mode setup it shut down. Once it had shut down it would not start up again, I got the same power on for a split second problem. After extensive investigation, it seems that changing the DIMMS (either removing one, adding one, or moving one to a different slot) makes the machine boot again, but alas I still get these random power downs. I eventually got Windows installed, and was installing the nForce4 drivers, when it bloody happened again and this time when I managed to get the machine running again I was told that there was a corrupt Windows file called 'HAL' or something and Windows wouldn't start up. I can't run the PC at the moment, the frequent and random power downs are doing my head in and it's un-useable.

I tried the RAM I'm using in my old PC in the new build, and after a lengthy spell of it working, it powered down again. I'm now using the Geil Value (the new stuff) in my old PC and there's not a problem with it. So, I don't think the problem is the RAM itself, but maybe a BIOS setting or a jumper on the motherboard.

I cleared the CMOS data and again, after a spell of the machine working, it shut down.

I booted without the HDD and DVD Drive and I got the same problem.

I don't think think the problem is heat related, as I've watched the temps in BIOS stay around the 35C mark.

So... can anyone help me? Is there any known issues that I'm not aware of? Because my old system is Socket A and this new one is Socket 939, I can only test the RAM in my old PC and as I said that seems fine.

Thanks if you can help, I'm gutted about it! :(
 
all 4 power connectors fitted ? try just 1 stick of ram in orange slot furthest from cpu, run memtest from bios 2 check ram c if ok. g/l
 
Ok thanks for these suggestions.

I will do the full clean of the CMOS, removing the battery and leaving the jumper on for a whole hour or something and try booting with just one DIMM and see how I get on.

I'll let you know, fingers crossed :)
 
I was thinking about the possibility of flashing the BIOS, however the person I bought this motherboard from said he ran this memory in it with no problems :confused:

It can't hurt to try this though, if all else fails.

When I was contemplating flashing the BIOS of the Socket A DFI board, I remember most people said that you should use a BIOS saviour in case everything goes **** up, is this still the case or can you now do it with 'relative' safety?

Thanks
 
Hi mate

sorry to hear about the problems you been having..this is weird coz the board and ram ran 24 /7 for me with no issues ever..although the bios is pretty old, thers been 4 new ones released with some opeteron fix i noticed so it mayas well be to flash the bios mate..u can do via windows useing winflash its all on the DFI site u sure ** psu is up to the job? and you have all 4 power connectors plugged in yes 4...not *** normal 2?
 
forget flashing it with dfi winflash, loads have had probs with that, go to the dfi forum & check out the bios section & d/l tmods cd, it has all the bios u need & so simple 2 use :)
 
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