ASUS K8V Lockup when game playing

[Chris S]

Hi everyone. I hope you can help me. I've recently built a new system, but
it completely freezes after a couple of minutes when playing games (e.g.
Racing Driver 2, NFS Underground). the system is as follows:

400W power supply
ASUS K8V SE m/b with 2x512MB Kingston ram (the ones approved by asus)
Athlon64 3400+
Nvidia (ASUS) 6800 AGP graphics
Soundblaster Audigy2.
XP Home addition with SP2

I originally thought it was an overheating problem, but I've ruled that out.
with the side of the case off nothing gets much above 43c.

I thought it may be a power issue, but 400W must be enough.. surely?

I've tried a new power supply & graphics card, so I guess they can be ruled
out

removing one ram card, leaving just 512MB

I'm wondering if it is a bios setting, I've tried things like switching
on/off Coo'n'Quiet,
I've tried 4x AGP instead of 8x.

I've tried 256mb AGP window instead of 64MB (what does this do anyway?).

just to repeat. the system is fine when running normal windows applications
and video clips etc, just when playing games. the only way to clear the
problem is to switch off the machine by holding in the off switch for 5
seconds

any idea?

Thanks very much

Chris

 

[Mike]

Hi everyone. I hope you can help me. I've recently built a new system, but

it completely freezes after a couple of minutes when playing games (e.g.
Racing Driver 2, NFS Underground). the system is as follows:

As you are aware many factors can cause lockups... bad drivers, video card, etc
etc. but when I get problems such as this the first thing I do is to run
Memtest86, if only to eliminate the memory. Windows can work okay but in games
can lock due to the fact that the faulty memory location may not be used in
normal use but comes into play on games etc.

Its always worth trying an increase in voltage to the memory and vcore by 1
notch too.. For example I recently had a new stick of Twinmos 512meg which was
failing memtest but passed okay when the default 2.5v was increased to 2.63v the
next notch up.

Mike

 

[Chris S]

Hi Mike... verrry Interesting!

The machine does indeed lockup when getting to about 80% of test #4,
(different point each time the test is run)

I've tried both dimms in by themselves and in all the 3 slots, but there is
no difference.

I haven't noticed in the bios where to adjust voltages though. any more
thoughts ( I hope it's not the processor at fault)


cheers Mike

 

[Chris S]

ok, sorry, I've found voltage options now

Hi Mike... verrry Interesting!

The machine does indeed lockup when getting to about 80% of test #4,
(different point each time the test is run)

I've tried both dimms in by themselves and in all the 3 slots, but there
is no difference.

I haven't noticed in the bios where to adjust voltages though. any more
thoughts ( I hope it's not the processor at fault)


cheers Mike

 

[Mike]

ok, sorry, I've found voltage options now
Let me know if they make any difference. You really need to get memtest86 to
run through its tests without any errors... until you do you are simply wasting
your time running windows!

In simple terms think of windows as just another program running on top of DOS
because that's really all it is, If you get failing tests in memtest86 you are
simply wasting your time trying to get windows stable as I guarantee it will
blue-screen or lock at some point, so I would concentrate on that first.

AIS failing memtest can be caused by a few things, memory compatibility, memory
voltage etc, bios memory timings?. Relax the memory timings to their safest
settings just to prove a point... you can always speed them up again later.
Increase the memory voltage up to 2.7v ie. a couple of notches if necessary
though leave at the lowest that returns no errors. I've had several sticks of
memory that need a little more voltage to run without giving errors.

IMO experience its nearly always tests 5,6 or 7 which tent to fail first when
there are problems, don't forget you can specify a particular test to run to
save you running the whole sequence from the start.

Hope you have some luck

Mike

 

[Chris S]

yeah, but I'm not getting memory errors, it is actually locking up the pc! I
think it is more likely to be a duff processor as that is where the memory
manager is on the athlon 64

 

[Mike]

yeah, but I'm not getting memory errors, it is actually locking up the pc! I

think it is more likely to be a duff processor as that is where the memory
manager is on the athlon 64

Yes I know... its possible of course the cpu is naff, You may have a faulty
onchip cache, only a swap can prove that, but your original post (as title..
states locking up mainly in games) so assuming you get no lockups in normal
windows use or the lockups are infrequent.. that does not suggest the cpu to me.
But as you know anythings possible in this game.

A bad memory location for whatever reason can certainly cause the m/c to lockup,
it depends what rubbish is in the memory location at the time, the code gets
corrupted and the m/c shoots into oblivion..
Unfortunately it can be many many things, when its a stinker to resolve the only
way is elimination.

OT but...funny enough only 2 week ago I built a new system for a friend a Barton
2800 with 9800 pro card etc. The m/c was very unstable, blue screens galore in
XP, I think it was okay in Dos but crap in Windows, I tried everything I could
think of, in the end it turned out to be an issue with the DMA on his cd burner
(a Samsung) It did not like having its DMA enabled. Once I turned off the DMA
everything was fine.
How did I find it? easy I unplugged everything and then plugged them in one at
a time testing in between... took me more than 3 days to sort it. I've built
loads of m/cs over the last 30 yrs but never came across that one before.

Hope you sort it!

Regards

Mike

 

[Chris S]

Hi Mike,

If I set the bios to 'Normal' as apposed to 'Turbo' and have just 1 dimm in,
then it does not lockup, however on one occasion it failed test 5 , writing
10000000 it read back 10000010 , so it does sound like a timing issue.

I've also set CAS to 30 instead of Auto, and when I set the DDR voltage from
'Auto' to '2.6V' (as you suggested) it locks up sooner than when it is set
to Auto (I assume Auto is less than 2.6V?

 

[Mike]

Hi Mike,

If I set the bios to 'Normal' as apposed to 'Turbo' and have just 1 dimm in,
then it does not lockup, however on one occasion it failed test 5 , writing
10000000 it read back 10000010 , so it does sound like a timing issue.

I agree... some types of memory just don't seem to like working properly in some
motherboards. ie. very fussy.
I use 2 sticks of Twinmos 512meg cas2.5 which runs without any problems even at
the cas2 and turbo settings. Having said that... I did have occasional blue
screens and lockups when I added the second stick some time ago now, on
checking with memtest it was failing on that particular stick so it went back to
the dealer and was swapped... no problems since. I do however have to use 2.63v
otherwise I do get BSODS & lockups and of course memtest fails.

I've also set CAS to 30 instead of Auto, and when I set the DDR voltage from
'Auto' to '2.6V' (as you suggested) it locks up sooner than when it is set
to Auto (I assume Auto is less than 2.6V?

I'm unsure myself if Auto defaults to the basic stock voltage of 2.5v, or if
indeed its smart enough to say write to a few memory locations and read back the
contents written... increasing the voltage each time until it reads back
perfectly... or is that just wishful thinking on my part. )

AAMOI does it lock up also at higher voltages than 2.63v ie up in 2.7 and 2.8
ranges. Don't worry about it damaging the memory... should be safe enough..
some guys run at 2.9v when overclocking their systems. Some memory seems to
like more voltage while at the same time a few simply don't like it at all.
Could be that the memory you have is simply not compatible with the m/board..
it does happen.

You should be able to check the actual voltage being applied by using the ASUS
Probe monitoring utility or something like Sisoft Sandra diagnostics.

Cheers

Mike

 

[Chris S]

Some bright spark suggested that I upgraded my bios to the latest version to
see if that fixed the problem

the upgrade utility said the flash was successful, but after the reboot all
I get is blank black screen, no message to say the bios was corrupt or
anything as the manual shows, so I could not restore the bios from the CD.

I'm Now left with a completely dead system. I've given up (scrapped the
whole thing) and put back in my old trusty a7v133 motherboard

 

[Mike]

Some bright spark suggested that I upgraded my bios to the latest version to

see if that fixed the problem

the upgrade utility said the flash was successful, but after the reboot all
I get is blank black screen, no message to say the bios was corrupt or
anything as the manual shows, so I could not restore the bios from the CD.

I often get that after a bios flash on this board.

Try leaving the battery jumper off for 20mins or so. I find it takes quite a
while on this board to reset the cmos settings.


Mike

 

[Chris S]

Woh howwww... She's alive! ... and now passes memtest-86 as well!

Thanks very much for your help & advice Mike. Waiting 20 mins cleared out
the cmos. and I guess updating the bios has fixed the memory issues.

of course, in hind-sight I remember Athon64s have problems with memory in
the early bios's and updating to the latest has sorted this out.

I've only had a chance to test this on a 'flat bed' so will post a message
once I've rebuilt my machine on Saturday. hopefully all will be well.

Thanks again Mike.