Help and Advice Needed - BSOD's

[Gwhizzle]

Hi Folks,

I'm new here, so first of all...hi Bit of an essay here, apologies!

My friend has recently built me a customised pc with the following parts from OC,

Intel Core2 Quad Pro q6600 “energy efficient SLACR 95w edition” 2.40GHZ
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 pro CPU Cooler
MSI P45 Platnium Intel P45 PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Corsair TX 750W ATX2.2 SLI Compliant PSU
Akasa AK-ZEN-01-BK Rev 4 Zen Black Case
OCZ 2GB (2X1GB) PC2-9200CS 1150 MHZ Reaper HPC Edition Dual Channel DDR2
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4780 X2 2048MB GDDR5 TV-OUT/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express)
Samsung Spinpoint F1 750GB Sata-II 32MB Cache OFM

Operating System: XP Pro SP3 32X

Initially I was having BSOD issues regardless of being in a game or at the desktop. This generated a mini dmp file which is detailed further down this post. I updated my graphics drivers to the latest version but still had the same problems. After that I installed the latest Bios version for my motherboard (version 1.4) and now don't suffer from BSOD's when at the desktop.

However....when playing Crysis (fully updated and patched) the game consistantly crashes my pc within 10-15mins of play time. Results of Mini Dmp below,

Unable to load image ati3duag.dll, Win32 error 0n2
*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for ati3duag.dll
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for ati3duag.dll
CUSTOMER_CRASH_COUNT: 1
DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: DRIVER_FAULT
BUGCHECK_STR: 0x8E
PROCESS_NAME: Crysis.exe

I've had issues when running Memtest to test my RAM, basically it fails when both sticks of ram are seated. When I try one stick at a time Memtest intermittantly flags an error but has worked for the majority. When playing Crysis with one stick of ram inserted, my pc crashes to the desktop but doesn't crash entirely.

Obviously I should be trying different RAM as a test but I don't have any that will fit this motherboard (but working on that).

Temps appear to be fine, GPU runs at 84c full load and my CPU hits 75c with Crysis (but 45c at all other times).

1) Can someone advise me of good gaming RAM that is more than likely compatible with the motherboard I have chosen?
2) Do the mini dmp files indicate any other problems besides memory?
3) I have installed XP Pro again, can someone advise me on the best way forward to rule out a user error (basically me being a plank )

Thats about as much as I know about PC's, but any advice given will be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

G

 

[Gwhizzle]

Hi... claimed!

I'd check the memory is running at the correct voltage and that the timings are manually set in the Bios

DDR2 defaults to 1.8V and high clocked DDR requires more. Reaper seems to need at least 2.1V assuming this has the fancy cooling.

Also the CPU temp seems a little high at load unless it's heavily overclocked! Though it should stand it. Have you got any additional case fans installed


Are all settings at defaults

Not sure about the voltage and timings being set to manual ill have a look though.

I agree with the CPU temps, the PC isn't overclocked and the only fans I have installed is the standard case fan and the CPU fan.

The ram sticks have a black casing and little handles above them :S are the fancy ones?

Yes, all settings are at defaults.

 

[Gwhizzle]

I'm unable to change the BIOS settings for DRAM Voltage - everything is set to auto and is greyed out.

Any ideas?

Thanks

 

[Gwhizzle]

Hust need to highlight and press enter... providing DOT is disabled

The Gray shows safe or standard settings


The DDR one is obviously memory set to 2.1V
With fast DDR adding +0.1V to the NB (north bridge) may also help.

Don't go wild with the voltage, many of the higher options are avaiable but need water cooling


AD

Think I have it sorted! Changed the FSB frequency to 266mhz, then set the FSB/DRAM Ratio to 1:1.5 (=DDR2-800) and adjusted the DRAM voltage to 1.95v.

I've suffered no crashes since installing xp pro & crysis again

Thanks for your help folke