Athlon XP Venice problems

sgtwilliamssgtwilliams Grand Rapids MI
edited December 2005 in Hardware
Athlon 64 3200 Venice
GA-K8NSC-939
ATI X700 AGP
2 GB RAM 2 DIMMS pc 3200
Running Windows XP SP2 off RAID 0 on the NVIDIA SATA Controller


Having intermittent lock up problems, the system will just plain freeze and not respond to anything short of a hard reset. The lock up leaves no event logs at all for windows. Happens in games and sometimes just overnight when the system is idle

Replaced Video card with ATI 9600 same problem

Replaced PSU with new 480 Watt same problem

Updated Bios on Mobo

Initally had 4 DIMMS installed but read that the venice does not like 4 DIMMS and went to 2 1GB each.

Any ideas???

Comments

  • NosferatuNosferatu Arizona
    edited August 2005
    Have you tried boosting your RAM voltage a bit or adjusting the timings?
  • sgtwilliamssgtwilliams Grand Rapids MI
    edited August 2005
    Nosferatu wrote:
    Have you tried boosting your RAM voltage a bit or adjusting the timings?


    I have not It appears I have options for (going from memory here) +1 and +2. May I ask what this might do? I was under the assumption that that was used for overclocking only.

    Thanks for the reply I will give that a shot tonite.
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited August 2005
    Go up on the DRAM Voltage.
  • sgtwilliamssgtwilliams Grand Rapids MI
    edited August 2005
    Looking at the manual it looks like I can up the DDR voltage .1v or .2v.

    I will give this a shot. Because this problem is intermittent and from what I am thinking tied to memory anyone have a good way to test memory? Or try to force the problem to occur? (outside of waiting till I am playing (insert game here) and it crashes.

    Thanks again. And nice forum by the way.
  • dragonV8dragonV8 not here much New
    edited August 2005
    sgtwilliams wrote:
    anyone have a good way to test memory?

    Memtest.
  • sgtwilliamssgtwilliams Grand Rapids MI
    edited August 2005
    did a few tests tonite. Used Windows Memory Diagnostic (CD based boot )

    With any configuration of 1GB Centon or 512 Centon or 512 Simpletech memory I get LRAND Errors immediately when that phase of the test begins.

    Tried to up the voltage on the memory
    Changed the CAS to 2.5 no change

    The other memory settings are foreign to me so I havent a clue.

    With the timing mode on Auto the settings are as follows
    CPU/DDR Clock 2/2
    DDR Speed 400
    Cas# latency 3
    Min RAS# (Tras) 8T
    Trcd 3T
    Trp 3T
    Trrd 2T
    Trc 11T
    Trfv 14T
    Trwt 4T
    Read Preampbe 5.5ns
    Asynch Latency 7ns

    Sent an email to Giga-byte we shall see what they say, but my troubleshooting seems to point to the Mobo rather than anything else. I pulled memory from a P4 2.4 system for testing and that runs stable.

    Ran the memory test on the Pentium 4 system with 2GB in 4 512s and 2GB in 2 1GB DIMMS and the memory passed with flying colors.

    Any other ideas?

    Will memtest give me a better or worse idea as to what the problem is?

    Thanks
  • sgtwilliamssgtwilliams Grand Rapids MI
    edited August 2005
    Running memtest now also.

    Ok Ran Memtest all night, in difference to the Windows memory test which would lock up the pc and require a restart to get it rolling again, memtest did find errors but continued to Run. I think it was test #7 that had errors but I will get more details and post them this evening, I left it running today also.

    Any recommendations for a good 939 motherboard for this processor that also has SATA RAID? I love a good problem, but I also have a low tolerance and very well might spend the money to get a better motherboard. I will wait to see what Giga-byte tech support responds with.
  • sgtwilliamssgtwilliams Grand Rapids MI
    edited August 2005
    And the answer from Giga-byte.

    "Since you are using generic memory it may be the issue for locking up if cpu temperature is not overheating and does not exceed 60c under BIOS. Please try testing with different type memory for further testing. The below link are a list of already tested and validated memory for this board."

    Now I realize that Centon memory isnt top of the line, but since I did also test with Simpletech and I dont wish to overclock at all I am a bit miffed at this answer.

    Love that taiwanese tech support.
  • JimboraeJimborae Newbury, Berks, UK New
    edited September 2005
    I'm afraid Gigabyte are probably right for once, when Athlon 64 cpu's were 1st released it was fairly common to find it wouldn't work with many types of memory. Just ask Shorty, he had a sh!t load of problems, these days thing are much better but hardware compatability problems,as you have discovered, still exist.

    Many of the more experienced people here just won't buy cheapo generic ram as it's a false economy, therefore I'd suggest you put that ram in the P4 system as it seems to like it and try the P4 ram in your athlon system.

    Your other alternatives are to buy some quality ram such as, Cosair, OCZ, Mushkin, Crucial, PDP etc.

    The final thing you can try is to relax the memory timings if you can in the bios

    Change to the following values:
    Min RAS# (Tras) 10T
    Trcd 4T
    Trp 4T
    Trrd 4T
  • sgtwilliamssgtwilliams Grand Rapids MI
    edited September 2005
    Thanks for the feedback I will try those memory timing settings. I am glad you detailed what "relax" means as I looked at the numbers and said, "cool numbers"

    In addition I think this is odd, after running memtest for 8 hours Wed night, I let it run all day yesterday, it never had another error beyond the single one from the first run. I then restarted it last night for giggles and it ran clean all night.

    I will not have a chance to try the MS memory test again until tonite, and since that test not only showed errors but also would guarantee a lock on the system every time I can use that as a good problem reproducer.

    I will order some more memory for this machine then, I already am running 2GB in the P4 with 4 sticks of 512, I guess the old work machine gets an upgrade to 3GB

    Thank you for your feeback, I will continue to post until I have a solid resolution.
  • Omega65Omega65 Philadelphia, Pa
    edited September 2005
    sgtwilliams wrote:
    Any recommendations for a good 939 motherboard for this processor that also has SATA RAID?
    All of the Latest mobos have SATA Raid now. The VIA & NF3 chipsets have 2 native SATA ports and the NF4 (PCIe only) have 4 native SATA ports

    Your top mobo makers are.. in order of tweakability

    DFI
    Abit
    EPoX
    MSI
    Asus
  • sgtwilliamssgtwilliams Grand Rapids MI
    edited September 2005
    Long story short...... new MSI mobo

    Old Giga-byte mobo waiting till I wish to begin another project and spend a bunch more money on good RAM.

    Thank you all for your help, I will be around.
  • sgtwilliamssgtwilliams Grand Rapids MI
    edited December 2005
    Well I will say that someone will say, "I told you so"

    I finally rerigged that Venice core processer into the Gigabyte mobo again and this time got 2GB of Crucial RAM. Been running the Microsoft mem test that had locked up repeatedly before now for an hour or so with out a peep.

    This will work better all the same as this is the system I have rigged with a water cooler.

    Just a follow up.

    I actually like the GB board better than the MSI board that I have my X2 in, the MSI temp and fan speed reporting is rather touch and go.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited December 2005
    sgtwilliams wrote:
    ...the MSI temp and fan speed reporting is rather touch and go.
    I'm a real fan of MSI boards in general, but I'd have to agree that their monitoring software leaves much to be desired. The first thing I do when I use one of their boards is make sure all that Cool 'n Quiet stuff is gone.

    Glad you got things going. :D
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