A7N8X Deluxe Problems

[Jason]

Hi all,

I'm having problems with my system - here are the specs:

Athlon XP 3200+ @2.19GHz
Asus A7N8X Deluxe PCB 2.0 Bios 1005
Corsair XMS TwinX 1024MB PC3200C2
Creatice SB Audigy 2 Platinum eX
HIS Excalibur Radeon 9800 Pro
Hauppage WinTV PCI Card
Adaptec AHA-2940U2W SCSI Controller
Windows XP SP1

The problem seems to be memory related - I get a few BSODs that display
general page faults, and errors in both the paged and nonpaged memory areas.
This might indicate a faulty RAM module, which would make sense considering
the other problems (file corruption when large files are copied, CRC errors
and general crashes / freezes).
Most of the hardware has been used in other systems, and definitely
works (SCSI, Sound, TV and Video cards all work in an old PIII 800 system).
I have been unable to reproduce the errors that I'm seeing, and I have
tried using a number of computer loading programs, such as BurnInTest,
CPUBurn, Cacheburst, PCMark etc. I have no other memory to test the system
with, so I'm asking before I return the modules for testing.
I have been running the system without overclocking, although I have
changed the RAM latencies in the BIOS to the ones specified by Corsair. This
seems to make no difference to the problems. I have also tried each stick
individually on both channels, but the tests are inconclusive as i am unable
to reproduce the errors 'on demand'.

Any ideas?
Jason

 

[Ben Pope]

Hi all,

I'm having problems with my system - here are the specs:

Athlon XP 3200+ @2.19GHz
Asus A7N8X Deluxe PCB 2.0 Bios 1005
Corsair XMS TwinX 1024MB PC3200C2
Creatice SB Audigy 2 Platinum eX
HIS Excalibur Radeon 9800 Pro
Hauppage WinTV PCI Card
Adaptec AHA-2940U2W SCSI Controller
Windows XP SP1

The problem seems to be memory related - I get a few BSODs that
display general page faults, and errors in both the paged and
nonpaged memory areas. This might indicate a faulty RAM module, which
would make sense considering the other problems (file corruption when
large files are copied, CRC errors and general crashes / freezes).
Most of the hardware has been used in other systems, and
definitely works (SCSI, Sound, TV and Video cards all work in an old
PIII 800 system). I have been unable to reproduce the errors that
I'm seeing, and I have tried using a number of computer loading
programs, such as BurnInTest, CPUBurn, Cacheburst, PCMark etc. I have
no other memory to test the system with, so I'm asking before I
return the modules for testing. I have been running the system
without overclocking, although I have changed the RAM latencies in
the BIOS to the ones specified by Corsair. This seems to make no
difference to the problems. I have also tried each stick individually
on both channels, but the tests are inconclusive as i am unable to
reproduce the errors 'on demand'.

All I can say is to try backing off the FSB and RAM slightly, 10% would be a
good starting point.

You could get MBM5 and see if your core voltage is dropping at any time, or
try bumping the core voltage up notch (quarter or half a volt - be sure
temps are ok before doing this). You could try running the RAM on 2.7V.

Is RAM and FSB in synch? If not this can also be the cause of random BSODs.

I presume AGP is 66MHz? And everything else "normal".

Ben

 

[AJ]

Hi all,

I'm having problems with my system - here are the specs:

Athlon XP 3200+ @2.19GHz
Asus A7N8X Deluxe PCB 2.0 Bios 1005
Corsair XMS TwinX 1024MB PC3200C2
Creatice SB Audigy 2 Platinum eX
HIS Excalibur Radeon 9800 Pro
Hauppage WinTV PCI Card
Adaptec AHA-2940U2W SCSI Controller
Windows XP SP1

The problem seems to be memory related - I get a few BSODs that display
general page faults, and errors in both the paged and nonpaged memory areas.
This might indicate a faulty RAM module, which would make sense considering
the other problems (file corruption when large files are copied, CRC errors
and general crashes / freezes).
Most of the hardware has been used in other systems, and definitely
works (SCSI, Sound, TV and Video cards all work in an old PIII 800 system).
I have been unable to reproduce the errors that I'm seeing, and I have
tried using a number of computer loading programs, such as BurnInTest,
CPUBurn, Cacheburst, PCMark etc. I have no other memory to test the system
with, so I'm asking before I return the modules for testing.
I have been running the system without overclocking, although I have
changed the RAM latencies in the BIOS to the ones specified by Corsair. This
seems to make no difference to the problems. I have also tried each stick
individually on both channels, but the tests are inconclusive as i am unable
to reproduce the errors 'on demand'.

Any ideas?
Jason

Try changing the FSB to 197. I would also lock the RAM to 100% for
stability.
In the BIOS go to:
Advanced Chipset Features-
System Performance-
User Define-
Memory Frequency-
100%

 

[Jason]

Hi all,

Having tried both the SPD and manual settings (when I use SPD the BIOS comes
up with the wrong latency values - it displayes 8-3-3-2.5 when the settings
should be 6-3-3-2), as well as tweaking the core voltage (which btw stays
constant), as well as tweaking the RAM voltage, as well as slowing down the
fsb, agp bus and the processor the problems still remain - I'm thinking
either a HW conflict or bad RAM.
Would anyone have any ideas how to reproduce these errors? I've tried
memory intensive apps and various loading programs to try and get the
computer to malfunction, but during all of these it seems strangely
stable...

Regards,
Jason

 

[KCB]

Hi all,

Having tried both the SPD and manual settings (when I use SPD the BIOS comes
up with the wrong latency values - it displayes 8-3-3-2.5 when the settings
should be 6-3-3-2), as well as tweaking the core voltage (which btw stays
constant), as well as tweaking the RAM voltage, as well as slowing down the
fsb, agp bus and the processor the problems still remain - I'm thinking
either a HW conflict or bad RAM.
Would anyone have any ideas how to reproduce these errors? I've tried
memory intensive apps and various loading programs to try and get the
computer to malfunction, but during all of these it seems strangely
stable...

Regards,
Jason

Does it work at 8-3-3-2.5?? I can get stable at these settings without
TwinX modules. Corsair website says 7-3-3-2 here:
http://www.corsairmemory.com/corsair/xms.html#twinx
and then in their asus mobo memory guide, they recomment using only one
stick of TwinX (??) See that here:
http://www.corsairmemory.com/corsair/products/guides/Asus-Jul2003.pdf
Have you tried memtest86? This showed me some errors at faster timings and
I learned to never boot into windows if memtest is showing errors because
corrupt files are almost guaranteed. If you can show Corsair that a
respected testing program is showing errors at their recommended settings
then I think that deserves an RMA without question. Good luck.

 

[Jason]

KCB (all),

Lacking a floppy drive im finding it am little tricky to run memtest (this
graphics workstation never noprmally needs an FDD!). However I will scrounge
one from somewhere, and let you know how I get on.
Thanks very much for your advice

Regards,
Jason

 

[Ed]

Memtest is available in ISO, burn it to a CD and boot off it.
Ed

 

[Jason]

Hi all,

I ran Memtest, and lo and behold I had errors at 12 different memory
addresses, spread across both sticks of RAM. I ran it at both standard
settings (normal voltage, latencies by SPD 8 3 3 2.5) and corsair settings 7
2 2 2, and both times I ran it I got errors at exactly the same addresses.
Thanks for all your help, problem solved!

Regards,
Jason

 

[dino]

I was having some weird issues with my An8X-DX with OCZpc3200 EL RAM....so I
started playing...what it turned out to be was in the Device Manager...it
did not show but SB16 Emulation was causing SM Bus conflicts..disabled it in
the DM and all is fine...you don't really seem to require it anyways but
that fixed my issue.

 

[me]

I have run those modules at 5-2-2-2 with no problems. I am running three
sticks of 512 meg Corsair PC-3500 XMS now at 5-2-2-2 timings without
problems.

 

[Arnie Berger]

Hi all,

I'm having problems with my system - here are the specs:

Athlon XP 3200+ @2.19GHz
Asus A7N8X Deluxe PCB 2.0 Bios 1005
Corsair XMS TwinX 1024MB PC3200C2
Creatice SB Audigy 2 Platinum eX
HIS Excalibur Radeon 9800 Pro
Hauppage WinTV PCI Card
Adaptec AHA-2940U2W SCSI Controller
Windows XP SP1

The problem seems to be memory related - I get a few BSODs that display
general page faults, and errors in both the paged and nonpaged memory areas.
This might indicate a faulty RAM module, which would make sense considering
the other problems (file corruption when large files are copied, CRC errors
and general crashes / freezes).
Most of the hardware has been used in other systems, and definitely
works (SCSI, Sound, TV and Video cards all work in an old PIII 800 system).
I have been unable to reproduce the errors that I'm seeing, and I have
tried using a number of computer loading programs, such as BurnInTest,
CPUBurn, Cacheburst, PCMark etc. I have no other memory to test the system
with, so I'm asking before I return the modules for testing.
I have been running the system without overclocking, although I have
changed the RAM latencies in the BIOS to the ones specified by Corsair. This
seems to make no difference to the problems. I have also tried each stick
individually on both channels, but the tests are inconclusive as i am unable
to reproduce the errors 'on demand'.

Any ideas?
Jason

First, make sure that it is a memory problem and not something else.
Try running memtest86 overnight and if you don't get any memory
failures then your problem is not memory. Assuming that memory is OK
then, if you could, remove:

Creatice SB Audigy 2 Platinum eX
Hauppage WinTV PCI Card
Adaptec AHA-2940U2W SCSI Controller

and see if that changes anything. Basically, try to eliminate as many
variables as possible and build up from there.

Arnie

 

[Alan]

If nothing is overclocked, as it appears I believe you should first assume
it is a driver problem. I am not suggesting you do all three items below,
these are places to start as you see fit.

1. Review you latest installations, and updates. You most likely had
installed something in the last while. Also one of your file corruptions
could have caught a system file.

When you get a BSOD, there is a reference to the the device driver, write it
down, as this is a starting point. MS knowledge base will usually have some
information for the specific device it will list.

2. Turn off devices that you do not need, see if the problem persists.

3. Pull out all your devices to a bare minimum, then check to see if the
problem is gone. Add devices until you get the problem back.


Item #1 is your best starting point. Software, changes to hardware, Bios
settings are more likely to cause BSOD rather than hardware breakdown.


Hope this helps,

Alan