A7N266-C - CPU voltage too high/bugcheck reboots

[Noid]

Hi,,, (this post continued from technical forum, The old post takes to long to load.)

I contacted ASUS about the CPU voltage being too high and MB temp reading of 33-36C at idle.
My CPU temp is Ok considering the voltage is 1.79 ,,, 41-44C at idle. (alpha cooling)

I just asked for a RMA from Newegg.

I was running smoothly until I installed RealOne player last nite.. I woke up this morning to find my computer unable to wake up.

I'm now experiencing BugChecks, when it reboots, the Buzzer gives long single beeps (means no RAM detected.)

I then have to power down. It wont reboot after that ,,, until ,,, I remove the power cord to let the capacitors drain,,,, then hard boot 2 more times... then it finally boots ... when I go into BIOS the CPU setting are back at system default (FSB 100 and says the system had incorrect CPU setting in red).

My FSB was 133 and multipier 10.5 (1.4 t-bird) these are the correct settings.

The only thing I installed lately was RealOne player. I went looking for the "agent" that randomly accesses the internet to shut it off. But, I couldnt find it. Seems that RealOne installs this agent into the system some how. So I uninstalled it. Dumped the trash. Then I crashed again.

On the reboot... I seem to be running ok so far... I'm still able to complete this post ...

I'm using W2K SP3 ... on a fresh install. Seem like when I told my ZoneAlarm not to let the RealOne manager to access the internet ... it caused BugChecks.

 

[DainB]

That sucks, have you tried a different PSU?

 

[Noid]

I havent had a BugCheck since I got rid of RealOne player. I 've never owned software that could cause a hard crash, with no reboot and messing up BIOS.

First time for everything I guess.

My power supply voltages are as follows... (Enermax EG465P-VE)

12V = 13.076
+5V = 4.757
+3.3 = 3.376
CPU = 1.79 (at the lowest jumper setting 1.70/1.65 )

all readings at idle

Room temp is 26C/78F
CPU temp 37C/98F
MB temp 32C/89F

My previous MB (K7master) rarely got over 32C on full load.

...... DainB ... the MB supplies the voltage to the CPU not power supply.

I dont think I'm going to make the trouble of putting a blue orb on the Nforce chip... I'm gonna just RMA it.

 

[mechBgon]

Maybe you have the Overvoltage jumper enabled. It boosts the voltage by a blanket 0.3V on top of whatever you set with the other jumpers.

 

[Noid]

Huh? ... there is no such jumper. Tell me where...

My random softboots are back ... I been on and off the computer about 13 hours before it started again.

I even got the long beeps again on the reboot and lost my FSB setting in BIOS again, but no BugCheck in event log.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

It's starting to sound like a PSU problem, what Brand, wattage, combined 3.3&5v output PSU do you have?

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Noid
Huh? ... there is no such jumper. Tell me where....

Doh! You're right, I was thinking of the A7V266's which do have them. Sorry to hear your rig is still being bad... if you haven't looked already, you might make sure the little slide switch on the rear of the PSU is set for 110V and not 220V (a guy I knew had this problem, and believe it or not, this was the cause!).

 

[Noid]

Hiya DaPunisher...

You need to wake up or get some sleep (or glasses?) ... lol ... look 3 posts above yours.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: Noid
Hiya DaPunisher...

You need to wake up or get some sleep (or glasses?) ... lol ... look 3 posts above yours.

ROFL It was definitely the need for sleep brudda! it was way late here on the East coast. I'm with you on the RMA, you've been tryin' to sort that board out for awhile now

 

[Noid]

My random lockup became permanent early this morining.

I was woke up about 2am to the sound of those long beeps ... lol

I shut it down till this morning, and found a permanted non-boot situation. So ... at least now I can locate my problem ...lol ... turns out one of my Crucial 256 sticks went bad. I've never had mem crap out before. ... So ... Do you think my 2.6 volt setting fried this stick ? ... I really have no way to know if the voltage is actually 2.6 ... since the CPU voltage on this board is hosed anyway, I figure I'd better back down to 2.5 jumper on my remaining good stick. (I cant trust any voltage on this board)

Now I have another choice also ... If I have to buy new memory ... I might as well go 333....

Any recomendations?

I'll just sell my last 2100 256 stick then.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Get the Epox 8K5A2, it has the 1/5 divider so you can run 166fsb and still have the PCI/AGP in spec. Buy some Crucial 2700DDR through here and since you have a 1.4 T-Bird which is factory unlocked you can just drop the multiplier and raise the FSB to 166mhz and run your CPU and RAM synchronously which will provide substantially better performance than the stock asynchronous settings.

 

[Noid]

I may just keep this MB now...

That stick of mem was my oc problem I guess too...

Im at .....

9 x 167 = 1503 @ 1.952v
turbo 2.5 mem setting @ 2.6v
1:1 divider setting

When running 3dMark ... CPU 47C I missed the mb temp ,, but at idle 30C now
(I re-arranged some fans and the room temp is 27C/81F)

Sandra SE MEM = 938/1184 CPU 4219/2078
3dMark SE 5803

My Sandra was 536 at 133FSB and no turbo / no CPU o'c / default voltages
And 3dMark was around 4250

As you can see I almost doubled my mem score
And 3dmark jumped 1553

I should get more when I get the second bank of mem refilled.

No lockups or reboots yet.... I'll keep ya posted

 

[DAPUNISHER]

[Mr Burns] excellent[/ Mr Burn]

 

[Noid]

After some adjustment to eliminate artifacts in Unreal..... Here's my final settings ...

9.5 x 158 = 1501 @ 1.952v - 2.5 turbo mem setting @ 2.6v

Same temps

3dMark 5730
Sandra mem - 897/1129
--------- CPU - 4215/2034

I found it interesting that I had no artifacts running 3dMark or Q3A,,, yet my Unreal did...

Maybe cuz it wasnt developed on dx8

Anyway ... I was stable at my 1st settings... I just cant live without my Unreal

Thanks for the coupon ... ordered my replacement...

_________________ Anyone know if my bad stick is recycleable?