Asus P4T533 memory and stability problems

[Bernie Lofaso]

Almost 2 years ago (July 2002) I built a system based on the Asus
P4T533. I used a single Samsung RIMM 4200 (256Mb) and the system ran
great. This past December I ran across an application that was a
memory pig and decided that I needed more RAM, so I bought a second
identical RIMM and now I'm having stability problems. The problems are
very intermittent, but when I stress the system with memtest86 or a
memory intensive application like re-encoding video, then I get
crashes. I've tried all combinations of RIMMs and it doesn't matter
which stick of memory I use, nor does the slot(s) used matter.
Everything is fine until I put both RIMMs in, then I get instability.
Asus (like other MB manufacturers I've dealt with) don't seem to
answer emails concerning problems with thier products ... at least
after a week I haven't heard a peep from them. Is there anyone out
there that can offer suggestions or if you've had similar experience
.... how did you solve it. Incidentally, the system is running a 2.4Ghz
P4 and it's NOT being over-clocked.

Thanks.

 

[Barry Watzman]

Your problem may not be memory. I love this motherboard, and I have 6
of them, but the early production of the P4T533 motherboard definitely
had a problem (apparently in the onboard power supply for the CPU
Vcore). The problem was fixed, and late production motherboards are
solid (in fact, wonderful), but if you have one of the early ones, you
may never get it to operate with stability.

The dividing line between "early" and "late" was approximately October,
2002. The "late" boards also have a small fan on the heatsink for the
CHIPSET, which was missing on earlier models (note, however, that the
fan itself isn't the issue, but was simply added at about the same time
that the fix for the stability problem was made).

People who have these problems often do report that "things were fine
until I .... {did something that increased the "stress" on the board}".
Most commonly, they upgraded to a faster CPU, but adding memory might
do it also. It's also commonly reported that the problem is application
dependent, that is it will run fine with applications that "lightly"
load the CPU, but that increasing the CPU load causes instability.

The only solution is to RMA the board to Asus, they will exchange it for
a board that has the changes necessary to resolve the stability problems.

Of course, it's also possible that the memory module that you added was
bad. In any case, you should (MUST) be able to run Memtest with ZERO
errors. If you remove the old memory module and test with only a single
memory module (but the "new" one), what happens? For that matter, are
you able to run memtest with zero errors using only the old memory module?

Asus support phone numbers:

510-739-3777
510-608-4555

Their RMA service is fairly good, I had to use it on a P4T533 recently.
Total turnaround time was about 3 weeks, including shipping both ways.

 

[Fred Blau]

I have an early P4T533 (Rev 1.03, July 2002 = serial number 27...)
that crashes with FSB at 133MHz, but seems okay with FSB slowed to
125MHz. I called Asus tech support at 502-995-0883 in an attempt
to verify that the problem is indeed the one you describe, but the
technician knew absolutely nothing about this board, and he found
nothing in his database about problems with it.

Have you talked with oneone at Asus who is familiar with this
problem? If so, can you point me to him/her? When you RMA these
boards back to Asus, do you enclose a description of the problem
and a request for a newer version of the board? Is there any way
to get them to send out a replacement board _before_ I send them
the bad one? Three weeks without my computer is a long time.

... the early production of the P4T533 motherboard definitely
had a problem (apparently in the onboard power supply for the CPU
Vcore). The problem was fixed, and late production motherboards are
solid (in fact, wonderful), but if you have one of the early ones, you
may never get it to operate with stability.

The dividing line between "early" and "late" was approximately October,
2002. The "late" boards also have a small fan on the heatsink for the
CHIPSET, which was missing on earlier models (note, however, that the
fan itself isn't the issue, but was simply added at about the same time
that the fix for the stability problem was made).

 

[Golfe]

I have an early revision of P4T533-C as well and have strange problems in 3D
applications. (Games)
Now and then the game just quit with no warning and I find myself back to
desktop and no trace of the game..
No error messages in event viewer either... Tried different videocards as I
was shure that was the problem, but same strange behaviour with Abit 4200Ti
as with my new Asus 9600XT...
Asus smart doctor that came with my new graphic card reports low Vcore and
low AGP Vddq.
"VGA'S voltage is out of safe bound. Motherboard doesn't supply reliable
3.3Voltage."
Im using a P4 2.66Ghz and have 1GB Kingston 1066 RAM.
This is driving me crazy.....

 

[Barry Watzman]

Back when this board was in active, current production, this whole
matter was discussed extensively, on this board. There were, over a
period of 6 to 12 months, probably several thousand messages about it.
I've told you what I know and have learned. You can accept it, or you
can continue to live with an unstable system. I'd give you your money
back, but I didn't charge for the advice to begin with.

 

[Barry Watzman]

The problem that was descirbed to Fred did NOT exist in the P4T533-C, it
was limited to the P4T533 (no "-C" suffix).

Your problem sounds like a bad power supply, although, of course, any
given motherboard can have any given problem.

I have an early revision of P4T533-C as well and have strange problems in 3D
applications. (Games)
Now and then the game just quit with no warning and I find myself back to
desktop and no trace of the game..
No error messages in event viewer either... Tried different videocards as I
was shure that was the problem, but same strange behaviour with Abit 4200Ti
as with my new Asus 9600XT...
Asus smart doctor that came with my new graphic card reports low Vcore and
low AGP Vddq.
"VGA'S voltage is out of safe bound. Motherboard doesn't supply reliable
3.3Voltage."
Im using a P4 2.66Ghz and have 1GB Kingston 1066 RAM.
This is driving me crazy.....

 

[Fred Blau]

I hope my previous post didn't seem offensive. Asus seems very
confused, and I was looking for someone within the company that
could give me more information. I accept what you've written, so
I am about to shut down (!) for two to three weeks while Asus
deals with my board.

 

[Bernie Lofaso]

I thought I'd post a quick follow-up. This board is a strange puppy.
Barry ... I was fully intent on following your advice and RMAing the
board back to Asus. To make a long story short, I decided to spend the
weekend flogging the board to get the particulars about memory
locations failing and when they fail. I got my computer room up to
about 82 F which is warmer than it normally ever gets. After about 8
hours of memtest and video compression tests, I didn't get a single
error! One thing though ... I opened the case to get serial numbers,
revision numbers, etc. that I thought Asus would ask for and noticed a
bit of dust on one of the front case fans. Got out the compressed air
can and blew it off and while I was at it dusted off the whole
machine. It wasn't obviously dusty, but even parts that looked clean
kicked up a little dust when sprayed. I also noticed that only one of
my two front case fans had been plugged in. Guess I was worried about
noise at the time, so I plugged it in. Now, I never had been worried
much about heat build-up since 53C is about as hot as the CPU gets,
which is reasonable. But I'm wondering if my little dusting and
plugging in the 3rd case fan could have had any effect on things.
Mostly just curiosity at this point. Even though I had a crash as
recently as a week ago ... I just can't get the thing to fail right
now. Just wondering what I did right?

 

[Barry Watzman]

It's possible that this is a thermal problem and that dusting the
computer "fixed" it, but I'm skeptical. However, one thing I've
wondered about was why Asus added a fan to the CHIPSET on the P4T533,
but never did add a fan to the chipset on the P4T533-C (very similar
board, same chipset !!). The fan was added at the time that the
instability problems (reported, but never confirmed, to be in the Vcore
power supply) were fixed. Some speculated that the fan was added as
Asus way of telling the fixed from the unfixed motherboards (boards that
have come back from the Asus RMA process have been seen to have had the
fans added when their production dates were far prior to October, 2002).

The P4T533-C never had any systemic problems, and not ALL of the early
P4T533's had problems either.

In other words, I can't answer your question with any certainty, but if
it were my board I'd RMA it (problem description: Board is unstable and
locks up / crashes, especially when warm).

 

[Ronald Cole]

It's possible that this is a thermal problem and that dusting the
computer "fixed" it, but I'm skeptical. However, one thing I've
wondered about was why Asus added a fan to the CHIPSET on the P4T533,
but never did add a fan to the chipset on the P4T533-C (very similar
board, same chipset !!). The fan was added at the time that the
instability problems (reported, but never confirmed, to be in the
Vcore power supply) were fixed. Some speculated that the fan was
added as Asus way of telling the fixed from the unfixed motherboards
(boards that have come back from the Asus RMA process have been seen
to have had the fans added when their production dates were far prior
to October, 2002).

The northbridge fan on my P4T533 seized up after only six months. I
replaced it and the new fan spins three times faster (according to
ASUS Probe) and the machine hasn't crashed once since then! Sure,
it's only anecdotal evidence, but one takes what one can get!!

 

[Hawkeye]

What is the make/model of the replacement










--
______________________________

ASUS P4T533 / P4 2.8 @ 3.0 GHz
ASUS Ti 4600 / 1 Gig 1066MHz
RAMBUS / Audigy 2 / XP Home

 

[Ronald Cole]

What is the make/model of the replacement

<http://www.1coolpc.com/>
Look for item "J" under the fans/filters/grills>small fans

 

[Hawkeye]

Thanks











--
______________________________

ASUS P4T533 / P4 2.8 @ 3.0 GHz
ASUS Ti 4600 / 1 Gig 1066MHz
RAMBUS / Audigy 2 / XP Home