DerekT Posted May 20, 2008 Share Posted May 20, 2008 I would suggest SP1 with Vista and go to SP2 as soon as it is available. ^^ Agreed ^^ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employee RAM GUY Posted May 20, 2008 Corsair Employee Share Posted May 20, 2008 And some have reported that the KB article #929777 was not installed with SP1 like it is supposed to be so you may have to manually install that patch. Also You'll need to install MS patch 929777 from Microsoft for more than 3 GIG in Win Vista. You can search for it at http://www.microsoft.com. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garvin Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 After researching this board on net, it appears that alot of folks are having problems with this board. There are better than 400 threads devoted to problems with this board over at the Asus forums. Googling problems with the board turns up many more. It appears that with every BIOS update Asus releases, more incompatibilities turn up. With the latest 1705 Beta BIOS, apparently the NIC disappears, especially on systems running Xp. I ran across numerous threads where video output was either flickering, crashing the system, or freezing the rig. Some got the problem to stop by disabling Q-Fan and/or Amd's Cool N Quiet in the BIOS. Other folks installed a secondary fan to blow directly on the northbridge heatsink. A couple of links: http://vip.asus.com/forum/topic.aspx?elitepost=0&SLanguage=en-us&board_id=1&model=M2A-VM%20HDMI&page_size=20&page=3&count=454 http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=20070511122714500&board_id=1&model=M2A-VM+HDMI&page=1&SLanguage=en-us Until Asus gets the bugs out of their BIOS versions for this board, I'd hesitate to say this problem is fixable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridder Posted May 21, 2008 Author Share Posted May 21, 2008 Yeah I had seen some of these posts over the last 4 months Garvin, after buying the board and running into trouble of course, the release of this board was not Asus' finest hour. I saw the 1705 BIOS a couple of weeks ago, it doesn't even state what it is meant to fix, why would anyone install a Beta BIOS when they do not even know what it does? Asus must be mad. I had heard that Asus support was not up to much so I haven't even bothered to contact them directly, prefering to sort it out myself (yeah right!) or going into the community like I am doing here. Asus q-fan is scary, I have it disabled all the time. My cpu heatsink has fans on both sides, it's an arctic cooling freezer, not bad and should be good enough at stock speeds, you can hear it whirring away, when you turn q-fan on it sounds like the fans are virtually turned off, my temps in the bios which I appreciate are probably not accurate but do give some guidance go from low 30s to high 40s, just sitting at the desktop... It may be an option for me to remove the heatsink off the nb and replace it with a heatsink and fan combo, especially when I get to the point of inserting my 3850 gfx card, it's a reasonably cool running card, certainly compared to the competition, whilst not as fast as some nvidia cards it is made on a 55nm process which reduces the voltages required and the heat output, the 16x pci-x slot sits directly underneath the cpu and nb..... Actually my case has an empty slot at the front to put an additional 120mm fan, sort of an intake for the external back exhaust, I will look into getting that fan fitted and creating some throughput..... Thanks for looking into this Garvin, appreciated, regards, John C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garvin Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 According to what I've read, the 1705 Beta BIOS improvements expand compatibility for the latest AMD Phenoms and improve the boards ability to come out of Sleep with certain components, mainly DVR tuner cards. A quick check to see if the northbridge is running too warm is to just touch the heatsink with the tip of a finger, being careful not to touch anything else. If it would be uncomfortable to hold your finger there for awhile, then it's definitely running too warm. On the temporary Asus board I got with a Q6600, I had to slap in a spot fan blowing directly on the miniscule northbridge heatsink to keep it under 45C, otherwise the system would freeze/lockup while gaming (strangely 12 hours of Prime95 didn't exhibit this behavior, though there isn't much of a video load with it). Unfortunately, I don't really see any way of getting out of reloading your operating system and drivers. Frequent crashing necessitating hard reboots frequently leads to corruption of core critical files. Rooting them out one or a few at a time is very time consuming and tedious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridder Posted May 23, 2008 Author Share Posted May 23, 2008 Thanks again for looking into this Garvin, I had seen posts complaining that individuals did not know what the new beta BIOS was for, certainly on the BIOS download page it doesn't state what it is supposed to fix. I've set the os back up on a spare ide drive now, I've ran a 6 and 12 hour occt run and both seem to suggest the cpu is working within its thermal range, peaking in the low to mid 50s, I've been on an away day with the company that I am working with and whilst away I've ran memtest86 for over 24hrs, again no errors. So I'm just starting down the path to re-enabling each individual component making sure to check for stability with each component that I enable, I'll be looking at the event viewer and the report centre that you have highlighted too, kind regards, John C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garvin Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 Hopefully a clue will turn up somewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridder Posted May 24, 2008 Author Share Posted May 24, 2008 I believe I am closer to understanding my problems with this setup, although this is just an early hunch. I've tested the basic system for some days now and it seems to be fine, stability is good. I had been concerned about the temps on the northbridge of the chipset, after taking the side off the case and touching the heatsink however I was surprised to find that it was only mildly warm. Occt runs have lasted for 6 and 12 hours both sessions working fine, with a peak in temps of around 56c for the CPU. I've enabled the onboard sound now and all seems well, an eight hour occt session showed little change to the stability or temps, I've also looped for a number of hours audio and video files. I wanted to test the system with a little more stress on it, with this in mind I enabled the asus q-fan in the bios, this drops the cpu fan speeds from around 3500 to 1500, the system is a good deal quieter but the cpu runs a good deal hotter... After reaching windows I started an occt session, I only planned to view it for a couple of minutes before going out and viewing the results later, it did not take long to fail. After only a couple of minutes my cpu had hit 59c at which point occt made me jump a bit to be honest with this duck quacking type sound. I've taken a look online and it seems that the A64 X2 6400+, being made on the 90nm process and having a 125 TDP, cannot take too much heat, its limit according to the thread below is 63c, with the advice to keep it below 60c, I can see now why mine went bang at 59c. http://forums.amd.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=22&threadid=95350 However this has raised more questions for me, I have traditionally been running this setup with a HD3850 sitting just underneath it, running at around 40-70c itself, this obviously adding to the general heat inside the case, if occt is hitting 55ish with onboard everything I'm sure adding the HD3850 and blasting around in UT3 for an hour may push it up a further 3 or 4 degrees c into bang territory... I have the latest 1603 none-beta bios, after reading over at the asus forum I cannot, with this bios, modify the multiplier whilst cool 'n' quiet is enabled (It is a bug or something). I would gladly turn the multiplier down a little to give me cooler temps on the cpu core in exchange for more stability, apparently the 1604 bios fixes this. http://support.asus.com/faq/faq.aspx?no=EB327862-53A8-6618-1E41-459BBDA09F05&SLanguage=en-us Perhaps I need to review the cooling systems in place, or consider switching to a cpu mb combo, like the core2duo or quad that does not produce so much heat, perhaps I could look at buying a phenom cpu but I don't want to spend too much money on this platform, I'm just thinking out loud now... I will of course continue with the testing process and if the onboard sound is eliminated I will move onto further testing with the wireless network card and finally the HD3850. q-fan is once again disabled in the bios, John C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekT Posted May 24, 2008 Share Posted May 24, 2008 I have the latest 1603 none-beta bios, after reading over at the asus forum I cannot, with this bios, modify the multiplier whilst cool 'n' quiet is enabled (It is a bug or something). I would gladly turn the multiplier down a little to give me cooler temps on the cpu core in exchange for more stability, apparently the 1604 bios fixes this. Intel and AMD Processors for some time now have carried a technological enhancement called "Multiple VID". Multiple VID (Voltage IDentification)is a Code Set Instruction for raising and lowering Processor Core Voltages [utilizing a 6-bit digital-to-analog converter (DAC) for Intel and a 5-bit DAC for AMD] housed in the CPU. This DAC uses a VID-code provided by the CPU to program the desired CPU core voltage. Thus the regulated output voltage can be dynamically adjusted by changing the VID-code "on the fly" and giving a "boost' to the core voltage when needed or dropping it when not needed. This helps to keep the processor cooler as lower voltages usually equal lower processor operating temperatures. Cool 'n' Quiet allows the VID to be lowered and raised by the CPU when higher voltage/power is deemed unnecessary. Remove Cool 'n' Quiet and lower the multiplier manually if you wish. I never use a Cool 'n' Quiet when overclocking as it often hobbles the stability of the more higher overclocks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridder Posted May 27, 2008 Author Share Posted May 27, 2008 I've been running now since I put my IDE drive in with no blue screens whatsoever, all hardware is now in place. I've been running Occt periodically throughout this process and never had a problem, it's great, I'll even put a childish smiley face in :-) I have altered one thing, I had previously mentioned disabling cool'n'quiet and reducing the multiplier, I haven't done this yet but will reserve this as an option, if I upgrade to the 1604 BIOS I can even leave cool'n'quiet enabled and get access to the multiplier, but again this is an option for the future. What I have changed is I've gone out this weekend and bought a great big honking cooler for the CPU, a "Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/LGA775)"; http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-039-TR This has reduced my temps on the CPU under load(Occt) from 56c to 45c and at idle from 32c to 20c, this should give me some headway when I am gaming and the heat from my HD3850 starts rising up onto my CPU. I can only think that this is either my sata drive/controller/cable or temps, my own gut feeling is that it has always been temps, I was convinced that it was a compatibility with the ram and motherboard, this just isn't the case, Memtest86 has continually been fine with either single stick or both sticks in, I am much more aware of what is going on in my case now, I've taken on board some of the tips I have received here and will take them with me into builds in the future, the "do not restart after a blue screen" setting for example and the great little utility Occt, also not to install software like a madman when the system is unstable as it is. I'll never replace RAM GUY around here anytime soon but I do know a little bit more, I'm going to get my SATA drive back in and just wanted to thank RAM GUY and particularly DerekT and Garvin for helping me with this, I finally feel like I have a stable system that I can start using now..... much appreciated, John C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekT Posted May 27, 2008 Share Posted May 27, 2008 You're very welcome. I had mentioned the IDE interface as it is a separate chip and problematic. You are having SATA issues and the dump shows ATA which includes both SATA and PATA for the dump. I will remember this for the next time such an issue comes forward. Even if that is not your issue, it still remains that the dump is (S)(P)ATA and not PATA alone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridder Posted June 22, 2008 Author Share Posted June 22, 2008 Hello again, just wanted to report back that my system has been incredibly stable since I was last here, nothing wrong with the ram at all, I do drop in now and then but mainly to lurk and take a look at what is going on, once again many thanks to DerekT, Garvin and RAMGUY, regards JohnC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekT Posted June 22, 2008 Share Posted June 22, 2008 Glad to hear that you're issue free :D: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garvin Posted June 22, 2008 Share Posted June 22, 2008 Awesome. As a side note, gotta agree with DerekT on Cool n Quiet, think it blows chunks and has more to do with marketing than any real world usefulness. Did you ever put the SATA drive back in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridder Posted July 4, 2008 Author Share Posted July 4, 2008 Apologies for taking so long to reply Garvin, yeh the SATA drive went back in after I had gone through the elimination procedure, It had to really as the IDE I had got was only 30GB, my SATA is 250GB. The motherboard is poo really, the very cheapest AM2 m-ATX board I could find at the time of purchase, the AMD SB600 northbridge has been universally panned but I'm running everything at stock so it isn't a problem, I'm just glad I finally have a stable system, the new CPU cooler really has done the trick for me I'm sure, along with some BIOS tips from DerekT and a bit of common sense, actually using the thing now! God it was frustrating to have all this new hardware (mostly good stuff) and for it to run like crap... thanks again, JohnC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garvin Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 No problem, just didn't want to see you stuck using the IDE drive alone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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