ECS nforce4a-939 locking up like crazy

[SubKamran]

Originally posted by: Zap
Was your last computer socket 478 with a dual channel board?

Yes, Asus P4P800-D motherboard. Ran like a rock. I'm selling it now...

 

[Zap]

I thought so. Yeah, those 865PE/875P chipset boards ran 4 sticks of RAM like nobody's business. Alas, don't expect the same out of socket 939.

 

[yukit]

Originally posted by: AkumaX

Originally posted by: bboy

Originally posted by: AkumaX
sound fixed!!! its called "Install Official Drivers" kept thinking that the Nforce Driver Set included sound, but that was only true back in the nf2/soundstorm days.

edit: actually, its more like "don't use the drivers that came with XP", and d/l the Realtek ones off of ECS's site.

The nForce drivers do work for the Realtek right?

b

well, it didn't work for me perse, i ended up going to Device Manager and manually installed the Realtek drivers by updating the Nvidia ones instead.

Well, I may be having the first real problem with this MB.
It seems I am getting no sound output at all from the speaker output port on the back.
I don't have an extra set of speakers kicking around so I just plugged in a set of headphones.

I played around with both Windows & Realtek drivers & utilities, but no sound at all.
The sound effects applet even recognizes me plugging in & unplugging the headphones, but no sound.
I don't imagine there is anything else special to do in the BIOS (it is set to Auto) or on the MB itself.

Looks like I may have to get a new MB afterall if I want sound.

 

[Donquixoteh]

so anyway i have the same fry's combo and i want to know - can anyone give me a definitive way to stabilize this board aside from bitching at fry's or buying a new mobo?

 

[Donquixoteh]

it seems like disableing usb 2.0 and uninstalling the nvidia firewall crap helps - btw im a newb so include links to any resources or anything

 

[Zap]

If you're positive it's the motherboard, bring it back to Fry's for an exchange if you're still within the return period.

Some people also do not install the Nvidia IDE drivers. You may want to run some tests to try narrowing down any stability problems. Start with Memtest and Prime.

 

[Donquixoteh]

well it seems like i stabilized it simply by downgrading the usb 2.0 to 1.1 in bios - i have been running fine for 5+ hours transferring songs via ipod, downloading and lots of other stuff that would freeze the pc. Still, not being able to use the usb port is a return - quality malfunction and i plan on yelling at them for selling me this (i am past warranty).

Thanks for all the tips - ps - we sould all like, sign something in a big reply reply to let fries know we all had problems
by!

pss. - i already passed memtest, prime and harddrive etc - it's definitely the mobo acting up.

 

[Donquixoteh]

scratch that it still frezes... wow what a bad mobo

 

[yukit]

Originally posted by: yukit

Well, I may be having the first real problem with this MB.
It seems I am getting no sound output at all from the speaker output port on the back.
I don't have an extra set of speakers kicking around so I just plugged in a set of headphones.

I played around with both Windows & Realtek drivers & utilities, but no sound at all.
The sound effects applet even recognizes me plugging in & unplugging the headphones, but no sound.
I don't imagine there is anything else special to do in the BIOS (it is set to Auto) or on the MB itself.

Looks like I may have to get a new MB afterall if I want sound.

I exchanged the MB tonight.

The good news is that the sound is now working.

The bad news is the MB does not like the Kingston RAM. It is the same RAM I was running at DDR480 with the previous MB, but I can't even get them past the memtest #7 at the default DDR400.

I almost want the old MB back. I can always get another soudn card.
I will keep tweaking the BIOS to see if I can reach memtest stable.

 

[Zap]

Strange. Perhaps boost vDIMM. There is a possibility that your new board has too low vDIMM.

 

[Juntao1]

you guys seem to know a lot about this board. I like everyone else got the ecs/x2 3800 combo at fry's...and i'm having a different kind of problem, since you're all experts on this board maybe you could help.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=29&threadid=1757053&enterthread=y

 

[yukit]

Originally posted by: Zap
Strange. Perhaps boost vDIMM. There is a possibility that your new board has too low vDIMM.

Already tried different vDIMM last night , but no go.

I am trying a trick that worked for me with my old Shuttle socket A MB with a Burton CPU.
I swapped the position of RAM sticks.

MemTest passed one cycle without an error at default CPU (2GHz) & RAM (DDR400 3-3-3-8).
I will try overclocking it a bit to see what happens. It was at 2.4, DDR480 2.5-3-3-7 with teh previous MB.

 

[Zap]

Interesting results, yukit. Keep us posted.

I've run memtest and Prime on my ECS board and have "tested" it by looping a video playing off a USB 2.0 flash drive for many hours. It seems to be a fully functional board.

Tomorrow I will install it in my "main" system that I use daily.

Wish me luck!

 

[yukit]

I am prime stable at 230, 2.5-3-3-7, that is good enough for me.

I did finally encounter the USB problem people have been rreporting here though.
I connected an USB wireless NIC borrowed from Tivo because I am setting up the system in my livingroom where there is no LAN connection.
It was working fine for a while, but it BSOD while installing Windows updates.
So I guess I am now with the rest of people.

I need to try the USB connection with my externally powered USB hard drive when I get a chance to see if it will die.
Luckily, if USB does not work, the case also has firewire.

 

[Zap]

Well, got my system upgraded and everything seems fine so far. A few hundred dollars spent on new CPU/mobo/2GB RAM/PCIe video card/PSU and I now have about 300 more 3DMark05. Well, my system runs quieter now and I'll be putting the old parts to good use in other systems. Only rough part was the system not powering on after assembled. After 20 minutes of troubleshooting, found out I reversed the reset and power switch wires.

Oh yeah, another thing was that though the system had passed Memtest outside of the case, I ran it again while testing a CDROM drive and it immediately failed. :Q Lowered the HT to 4X (x250=1000MHz so nothing lost) and bumped vDIMM up a single notch and it passes now. Don't know why it would pass before and not now at 5X HT and default vDIMM.

 

[Donquixoteh]

hey everyone i just got fed up with this board and quit trying to mess with it - i just took it to fry's with this forum printed out and they gave me a store- credit for the mobo - bought a new one! so if you go bitch at them enough they'll bend...

I'm never EVER buying ecs again - what a load of crap

 

[yukit]

Originally posted by: Donquixoteh
hey everyone i just got fed up with this board and quit trying to mess with it - i just took it to fry's with this forum printed out and they gave me a store- credit for the mobo - bought a new one! so if you go bitch at them enough they'll bend...

I'm never EVER buying ecs again - what a load of crap

How much credit did you get for the ECS MB?
More importantly, what MB did you get for the replacement? When I browsed Outpost.com for a possible replacement, I did not see anything I like for the price they were charging.

I will probably end up doing the same thing Zap did, build a new system with this CPU, use the ECS MB for something else.

 

[Zap]

No no, I ended up using the whole Fry's combo in my main rig (that I'm typing this on). Only had one glitch so far and that was after playing Zero Hour for about 6 hours last night, it just suddenly dumped out to the Windows desktop. Who knows what caused it. Was it the 500MHz overclock? Was it because the motherboard sports the ECS brand? Most likely it was because Zero Hour was made by EA Games - famous worldwide for fun games that we pay retail to beta test. I've seen Zero Hour dump out on other systems so the jury is out on this one. I bumped the vcore up one notch from default and will see...

I too would like to know how much store credit Donquixoteh got.

 

[yukit]

Originally posted by: Zap
No no, I ended up using the whole Fry's combo in my main rig (that I'm typing this on).

Ok, I may have gotten mixed up with someone else (I think Abit was the replacement).
This thread is going on for a while

Originally posted by: Zap
I too would like to know how much store credit Donquixoteh got.

At least I managed to swap for a new MB without much hassles despite I may have been beyond a few days past the 14 days. I just need to be careful with USB devices. I maybe able to solve this issue with a powered USB hub.

 

[DragonGC]

well what i did was underclock my ram from 200mhz to 166mhz. it works but im not happy about accomadating my motherboard like that. im thinking of bringing this in to frys too but i think by now its way past the 14 or 15 days. u think they will still take it/

 

[Zap]

We don't work there so anything we say about their policies is conjecture.

Still using my system. Used a USB 2.0 external drive bay for a tiny bit today without problems.

 

[JeffForSale]

well, my problems are solved

:| i just disabled usb 2.0 on the board and installed a pci usb card

:| geez..

 

[yukit]

Originally posted by: JeffForSale
well, my problems are solved

:| i just disabled usb 2.0 on the board and installed a pci usb card

:| geez..

Man this thread just keeps going

I wonder if it makes a difference whether using the USB port on the backplane or a cable connected to one of the USB header on the MB.

USB is a part of the chipset, how can they screw that up so badly?

 

[Zap]

My guess is a grounding problem or bad trace layout. Some front USB ports on cases don't work for USB 2.0. You plug in a 2.0 device and Windows will say something like "high speed device plugged into non high speed port" even if the rear ports work fine. Perhaps that can affect badly laid out traces for rear ports as well. Another issue may be a grounding problem. Perhaps those with USB problems can physically unplug their front ports from the motherboard and see if the problem goes away when using the rear ports.

 

[bboy]

Originally posted by: Zap
My guess is a grounding problem or bad trace layout. Some front USB ports on cases don't work for USB 2.0. You plug in a 2.0 device and Windows will say something like "high speed device plugged into non high speed port" even if the rear ports work fine. Perhaps that can affect badly laid out traces for rear ports as well. Another issue may be a grounding problem. Perhaps those with USB problems can physically unplug their front ports from the motherboard and see if the problem goes away when using the rear ports.

I have unplugged my front panel USB ports completely and still have the problem.