Need help pinpointing errors? RAM/MOBO?

FatRakoon

FatRakoon

FatRakoon

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Ok, done some tests, but not been able to actually come to a decision on whats wrong with it.

This is the system..

DFI LanParty UT 250GB Socket 754
ClawHammer 3700
2x512MB Corsair XMS 4400 TWIN-X
Radeon 9800Pro ( Saphire with Artic Cooler )
Creative Audigy LS
IDE 0 = Seagate 120GB ( C: + E: )
IDE 1 = Seagate 160GB ( D: + F: )
IDE 2 = BTC 8x DVDRW
IDE 3 = Freecom 4x DVDRW

Thats pretty much it

What happens?

Well, putting it simply, it BSODs all the time, I can do everythign or nothing, and it will BSOD after some time. I have never managed to get it to repeat the crash... I mean, if I can get it to crash doing a certain task then I might have a chance at trying to fix it, but to be honest, I cannot.

Now, the OS is currently WinXP64, however, the issues are 100% identical whether I try XP Pro, Home, 2000, or XP64, so I very much doubt its a driver issue.

What errors do I get up on the BSOD?

You name it basically.

I have had the usual IRL or PageFault, which points to the RAM, but then when I try the RAM out in any of my other PCs, it checks out perfectly fine, however, the DFI has a built-in MEMTEST and when I try to run that, I get garbage on the screen, and it resets, so perhaps?

Other BSOD errors I have never seen before, and many I have never even heard of, nor have seen since... I am in serious doubts as to whether I have seen the same error more than once??? - Worse is that it gives me an error at least every half an hour... Usually less.

Other RAM in this PC is a bit iffy... With the exception of OCZ... Thats been just peachy to be honest, until just a few days ago.

Now, today, it has started to bring up the Windows has recovered from a serious error dialog on startup, it did it with XP64 then with XPHone and now again that XP64 is back in.

Ok, other info that should help, and its leaning me towards the Mobo being the culprit, is that I have tried to update the BIOS, however, it wont do it. Apparently, it does not have an Award BIOS??? - It bloody well does!

So, I have forced the BIOS in, but it has made no difference at all?

Not that I expected it to because the BIOS is the same as the one already in... Its a fairly new Mobo.

So, can anyone offer to shed some light on this?
 
if u really suspect it to be memory problems then google memtest and download and run it for a few hours, fails then bingo ram buggere rma job solved.

if not then u will need to test prime and seperate graphics stuff 3d mark see if they have any different effects,

download speedfan see what the status of the hdds are like possibly the table is corrupt.

reinstall windows if all pass with no errors. possibily at this point would either be board or cpu. is ment to be a way to tell which but i cant remember what does it sorry.
 
Cheers guys.

Ok, With setting the RAM manually, this will be a small chore, although perhaps it is a must... The ammount of RAM settings on this Mobo are well OTT... Never have I seen anywhere near half of the settings that the DFI has... a whole page that scrolls down FFS!!!

So, knowing what each of those needs to be for my RAM isnt going to be easy!

The RAM I am using is CORSAIR XMS4400 TwinX ( 2x512 ) and I opted for this RAM for 2 reasons...

1 - I already had it in my MSI Neo2, and its rock solid RAM.
2 - The site says its the best RAM for this board.

No.2 did it for me, but to have it already also meant that I didnt need to spend more money straight away.

The MEMTEST 86 program thats accessible fromthe BIOS would crash with a garbaged screen before it would even start. I have now changed the BIOS to yet another one, and this memtest program no longer appears in the BIOS, I do have memtest and the RAM checks out perfectly fine after 17 hours in the NF7S and 8 hours so far in the MSI Delta ( XPM25 @ 245FSB ).

The HDs themselves are just fine... PArtition tables etc are testing out ok, and in fact, they are fresh partitions on fresh HDs.

I already use Speedfan, temps are fine... HDs and GFX cards are nice & cool. The front fans are blowing directly over the HDs, and onto the GFX... The PSU is a hyper480 and this does get a bit overly warm, but has since day 1 and the RAM is a little too out-of-the-way and not much of a breeze goes near it, so the RAM does get warm too, however, nowhere near too warm... I have therefore modded a 40mm fan to blow directly onto them. They now stay stone cold like the rest of the system.

Ok, adjustments I have doen to the system today are:-

Primary slave ATA133 HD is now running from the SATA and through a Serillel adapter... This is because 2 HDs sharing the line was meaning that copying files abotu was slower then it could be.

The Audigy LS is now out, and all creative software is now gone too, and I am using the OnBoard Audio... Lost the quality, however it has done one thing thats another major issue... When copying large files over, it would skip and fart after about 150MB or so... This has now seemingly gone,and I was able to copy a 2GB Ghost Image file over in a few seconds rather than it taking hours ( Yes, hours ), plus, now is the first time I have been able to leave it go for longer than 10 minutes without crashing.

In fact, its been chugging away for almost 4 hours now... I have been able to install UT, UT2K3 and UT2K4 and have a play on each for a short while all withotu it crashing.... Is it Audio or IDE related then?
 
Ok cheers I got that.

Listen...

I have forgotten to mention that the Device Manager, is telling me, that I not only have the NForce SATA and PATA Devices, but I also have the Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Adapter too!

So, this isnt quite setting up the HDs properly is it?

Any clues to that?

It tells me thats why the HD access is so with larger files.

As for the BIOS, I am currently runnign on 6/23 as I found it on another site, and yes, you are right... It does seem to be the most stable that I have been using so far... I have not had a BSOD for a while... I will be taking that PC back in to work in the next couple of days, probably monday though, and throw some stressfull stuff at it... The Wife nagging at it should be the best stress test I know of.
 
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