CPU or Motherboard Problem

[J1nxy]

I've had for few days now an Asus M4A785TD-M Evo and AMD X2 550 BE which has unlocked to a Quad and is running happily at 3.4 Ghz. Its got 4 GB of GEIL 2133 memory in it and this was happily running at 1600 speed (800Mhz set in bios).

A couple of days ago the PC stops posting, I get a blank screen at power on, which after a couple of reset reverts to defaults and lets me get back into the BIOS. After much testing it appears that the problem is caused by the memory being set at 800Mhz and that if I set it at anything else the system boots fine and works well. This happens with everything at stock, reflashed BIOS defaults loaded, BIOS cleared etc.

I've swapped the memory out for some Rip Jaw stuff and this shows the same problem and I've done the usual test 1 stick, all the slots and various voltages so wondered what its most likely to be? the board or the CPU.

Any pointers would be much appreciated...

 

[theron]

anything else? including higher?

 

[J1nxy]

anything else? including higher?

Sorry? what do you mean?

The thing won't post with everything at stock if the memory is set to 800Mhz (1600) I've tried it with the cpu multiplier down as low as it will go and get the same problem.

 

[theron]

sorry i meant if u increase the ram speed (overclock), becasue u said every other speed.

my gut feeling says that, becasue of the on-die memory controller of the "spare cores". if amd thought that the memory controller of those cores was faulty they would shut down the cores. and since u brought those cores "back to life" they have introduced the same errors as seen by amd Quality control.

 

[DavyBoy]

Are you using the latest BIOS for your mobo?

@theron, I was always under the impression that there is only one IMC on die, and not an IMC for each CPU core...

 

[J1nxy]

Yep 0910 bios and as I said was happily working then stopped. My thoughts are CPU but then had a bit of a play and got it to 3.5 with 1333 memory so not done bad at all.

 

[J1nxy]

sorry i meant if u increase the ram speed (overclock), becasue u said every other speed.

my gut feeling says that, becasue of the on-die memory controller of the "spare cores". if amd thought that the memory controller of those cores was faulty they would shut down the cores. and since u brought those cores "back to life" they have introduced the same errors as seen by amd Quality control.

Sorry one other thing is that it won't post even with everything at stock including the cores being back to dual. The on;y change being the memory being set at 800Mhz (1600).

 

[theron]

@theron, I was always under the impression that there is only one IMC on die, and not an IMC for each CPU core...

yeah, i know what i was trying to say but by that time of night on a saturday i might have found some alcohol...