Need help with new system

[Captain Nate]

I'm writing this from my ever stable Alienware that I've had since 2002...

I just received a new cyberpower system specs below.

Couple issues I had - Raid was not set up so I couldn't even boot into Vista at first till I got it sorted out ( I think). Running raid 0 configuration and I'm not sure it is set up right. Once I got the raid up and running, Vista began crashing. also the #3 data HD, a 500 gb Samsung was not showing up... got that fixed too I think. This is really frustrating.

Possible issues: CPU is overclocked to 3.46GHZ.

Vista is only recognizing 3 GB of the 4 GB installed

Not sure the Raid is working or drivers installed properly

I get about maybe 15 seconds after full boot into Vista before it goes to the blue screen of death.

Specs:

Samsung 21.6" monitor (I have not installed the special software for it yet)
Coolermaster stacker 830 Case
1200 watt Thermaltake power supply
QX6800 quad core CPU @3.46 currently
Vigor MonsoonII Lite CLT-M2LI cooling (system running at 36 degrees Celsius)
Asus Striker Extreme nforce 680i SLI
2x 2 GB PC6400 DDR2/800 Mushkin Extreme w/heat spreaders
2x XFX 8800 GTX in SLI (have not installed latest drivers yet)
2x WD Raptor 10k RPM 150 GB
1x Samsung 7200 RPM 500 GB
Killer M1 NIC (not configured or active)
Linksys wireless USB WUSB54GS ver 2.1 (I don't have my office hardwired yet for the killer M1 - this is installed an working in safe mode at least)
16x DVD ROM (waiting to see if HD-DVD or Bluray wins)
18x DVD RW
12-in-1 flash reader
Logitech G15 keyboard
Logitech G7 wireless mouse

Sound is provided via the included ADI 24 bit 7.1 riser card. (it was a X-Fi Fatality or the Killer M1... not room for both)

Other notes - I have an air conditioner plugged into one outlet plug. The other plug goes to my UPS (Opti-UPS ES1500C 1400 VA/980W) which has my Klipsch pro-media 5.1 THX speakers plugged into it, the computer, the monitor, and that's it (I'll probably move my Epson Printer to the UPS also although I'm thinking about moving the air conditioner to another outlet with an extension cord...)

Ok, please give me ideas what I need to do to get this beast up and running. I just got back from being shot at in Afghanistan for the last 16 months and have been dying to get back into gaming as I'm sure you can tell by the system I built.

EDIT 1: Also noticed that when I plugged in the power cable to drive #3 the instability issues began or got worse. They had all three drives daisy chained on on power lead coming out from the power supply... could this be the problem?

EDIT 2: Blue screen message went by too quick to copy down but it is up and running for now and I got this about the error -

BCCode - 124
BCP1 - 00000000
BCP2 - 86186838
BCP3 - B2000040
BCP4 - 00000800

Os version - 6.0.6000.2.0.0.256.1
LocaleID - 1033

 

[mechBgon]

Welcome to the Forums Here are some suggestions:

1) as a fact-finding step, revert the system to stock clock speeds

2a) confirm that your RAM is getting a healthy dose of voltage, since it's fancy stuff. You don't run 87 octane gas in a Dodge Viper, do ya Try 2.1 volts, which is Mushkin's recommended maximum, and you should know pretty quickly if that's the fix.

2b) consider running memtest86 from a bootable CD (it's a free download) and see if the RAM is error-free

3) is the BSOD the same thing every time? If you can get far enough in Safe Mode, you can disable the automatic reboot on error in order to see it, if it doesn't stay on the screen: right-click Computer on the Start menu, choose Properties, Advanced System Settings, go to the Advanced tab on the next panel, then hit Startup & Recovery > Settings and uncheck Automatically restart. Alternately, fire up a camcorder or video-capable digicam and film it, then freeze the movie to read the BSOD error. It could also have to do with storage drivers, I'm guessing, based on the RAID problem. If it were me, I'd switch to non-RAID, but it's not my system

4) If Vista is only seeing 3GB out of 4GB installed, then I'm guessing you have 32-bit Vista, which is going to do that. 64-bit would give you 4 for 4 and leave the path open for another 4 if you want.


Hope that helps get the troubleshooting started

 

[Captain Nate]

crap. I just realized about the RAM. I got the 32 -bit because of the intel chips still not being able to really use the 64 bit for the time being and the compatibility issues (if I went AMD I wouldve got 64 bit) I thought 32 was capped at 4 though. So I guess I have a gig of Ram I don't need and can't use. great haha

You know back in the day I used to build my systems from the ground up... I hired someone to do it and more and more I am finding out I should've just done it myself. sheesh. I was trying to save time. The kicker is My system was a month late arriving... I could've gone on newegg and bought most of the parts and put it together, troubleshot it and gotten it running smooth by now...

error messages keep changin. That much I got. I'll check the memory voltage for sure. I was already thinking about knocking the CPU down to maybe 3.06 ghz if this keeps up.

 

[Noema]

Originally posted by: Captain Nate
crap. I just realized about the RAM. I got the 32 -bit because of the intel chips still not being able to really use the 64 bit for the time being and the compatibility issues (if I went AMD I wouldve got 64 bit)

False. Core 2 Duo chips are fully compliant with the x86-64 instruction set implementation.

Why, I'm running Vista 64-Bit on my Core 2 Duo.

As for the errors, they seem like a bad over clock, bad memory, or both.

Follow mechBgon's advice. He is wise.

 

[Captain Nate]

Well I'm at 3.19 overclock on the 2.93 chip now and it is running fine. I could go higher but I think I'm good for now. It seems kind of sluggish in Vista though. I thought it would be faster for a new OS...

That and I can't get symantec liveupdate to freakin download the new virus defintions...

doh.

Hope is stays stable through various instllations and updates... then we'll see how it does on games.

 

[mechBgon]

You can get the Intelligent Updater to update the virus definitions manually, and see if that gets it over the hump. Vista's Indexer might be getting its initial indexing out of the way, so don't be too concerned if you see lots of disk activity for a while.

Follow mechBgon's advice. He is wise.

aw shucks

:beer:

 

[Captain Nate]

slowly working through this stuff. Virus fix as as easy as redownloading a symantec autoupdater and reinstalling that portion. works fine now.

So I moved on to game installs since it was somewhat stable... and now it was safer to access the internet with Symantec installed

I tried the first two I had onhand at the house (and crysis and hellgate london aren't out yet anyway)

So I installed 1 online game and one (older)albeit one I wanted to play but didn't get the chance to yet.

I got elder Scrolls Oblivion installed and patched to 1.2 and it randomly shuts down to the desktop and all polygons are basicaly getting extended lines of bright colored (whitish) spikes coming off them. So evry character model is running around looking like a spiked voodoo doll. The terrain modules and background builds seem fine and in fact look great... tnkered around with in game settings, no change to this problem. ideas what could be causing this? Remember - last card was a GEforce4 TI4600 (yeah that old /sigh)

So I moved on to test game #2 - LOTR online with all the settings cranked up. Installed fine and got to the character generation screen when I got a blue screen of death again... this time IRQL conflict... at this point I cursed, had another beer and went to bed.

I'm thinking the sound card may be causing this instability issue. ADI 1988 B riser card that comes with the asus board. other ideas? This was the second time I got an IRQL blue screen. Again, I've still got to change the auto reboot portion... so I can get the error codes

EDIT: Also - I'm not wsure what benefit a raid 0 stripe has for me...

considering just using one 150GB for Vista, one 150GB for XP, and sharing the 50GB data drive. Thoughts? (I'm not sure how the OS and etc. was installed on the drives when they loaded it though... come to think of it... the manufacturer really didn't install much of anything preloaded for me)

 

[Noema]

Originally posted by: Captain Nate
It seems kind of sluggish in Vista though. I thought it would be faster for a new OS...

That and I can't get symantec liveupdate to freakin download the new virus defintions...

I'm betting this Symantec suite thing is what's making Vista sluggish. It should fly on the monster machine you've got. Symantec's security programs tend to be hogs and they take over pretty much all the I/O within the system. If it's still sluggish even after you get it to be stable, I suggest getting rid of the Symantec bloatware and using a lighter Antivirus solution.

Also: I find it odd that they sell quad cores with such high overclocks, running on air. Those things are hot as hell!!

I suggest you set everything to stock. Everything. RAM, volts, multiplier, FBS. Stability is your first priority...what good is a XQ6800 at 3.4GHz if it BSoDs every 5 minutes. That thing is plenty fast even at stock speeds. Then try memtest86 like mechBgon suggested, and leave it running for at least 8 hours to rule out the possibility of bad RAM. Vista is also very picky about bad overclocks. A machine that is seemingly stable on XP could BSoD in Vista.

I got elder Scrolls Oblivion installed and patched to 1.2 and it randomly shuts down to the desktop and all polygons are basicaly getting extended lines of bright colored (whitish) spikes coming off them. So evry character model is running around looking like a spiked voodoo doll. The terrain modules and background builds seem fine and in fact look great... tnkered around with in game settings, no change to this problem. ideas what could be causing this? Remember - last card was a GEforce4 TI4600 (yeah that old /sigh)

It's probably artifacting due to all the heat inside your case. It's bound to be a veritable furnace in there, what with 2x8800GTX and an overclocked XQ6800, all running on air :Q

Try disabling SLI via the drivers to see if the problem persists.

Also: Get the latest <a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1667">ForceWare
drivers</a> for your 8800GTXs. AFAIK SLI is kinda broken in Vista but I think these drivers help a bit.

 

[Captain Nate]

Yes I found it odd also they overclocked the damn thing to 3.46 ghz and it was not using water cooling.

That's why I dropped it down to 3.19. Guess I will put it on 2.93 as per standard. Everything else currently set to auto. Had to go visit the family the day after I got this beast and I need to get back to it and get it working right when I get home tomorrow.

For cooling it has that monster heat pipe, three 81mm side fans, a 120mm front fan and a 120mm back fan. It's actually running pretty cool in there according to my temperature gauge. Of course I'm not playing hellgate london yet either... I have the room at 75 degrees Fahrenheit with an air conditioner blasting cold air about 3 feet from the intake fans.

I'm not sure the oblivion problem is artifacting. It is only the character models that look like porcupines... nothing else. Sounds like a problem porting into Vista to me. great! haha.

Bethesda's site says they plan no official support for vista either. wonderful... How hard is it to do a XP/Vista dual boot on a machine currently set to raid 0. I had to configure the raid (i.e. set it up in the cmos) when it came because, oops, they forgot to. I know XP Pro will detect other windows based OS and configure for them, but, I have Vista installed right now, not XP. And before I turned the raid on, it was coming up with no OS in the boot sequence (obviously pointing to the wrong 150GB raptor in the startup)

I intend to run the memtest when I get home. Had it already downloaded when I left. I think the memory is probably ok though... probably just Vista being picky like you said.

Thanks for the help guys. I'm 3 years out of date on the hardware (I was married) and not much of an overclocker. Amazing how the basic concepts stay the same though...

 

[mechBgon]

In my opinion, the best method of dual-booting would be to

1) mark the existing hard drives 1 and 2, then mark their data cables likewise, so you don't mix 'em up

2) unplug the data cables from the hard drives

3a) install an additional hard drive and connect it to a separate disk controller that is not in RAID mode, or

3b) install a new pair of hard drives and set them up as a RAID array

4) install WinXP on this new hard drive or array while the Vista array is disconnected, so each OS has its own drive/array and they're completely independent

5) now connect the data cables to the old array again, and when you power up the system, begin tapping the F8 key at the motherboard's POST screen to summon up the boot-device menu. Pick the array, and thus the OS, that you want to boot.


Also be aware that you might just need to change HG:L to WinXP-compatibility mode. Find the actual program executable, right-click it, choose Properties and try setting it to Windows XP compatibility mode (I assume you have UAC enabled like a sensible fellow ).

 

[Captain Nate]

I'm running memtest86 now finally.

I got it the system stablized but continuing errors in games. I suspect it to be memory related...

If I manually set all the voltages etc on the striker extreme MB, bearing in mind I have a QX6800 and my ram is default to 5-4-4-12 at 2.0-2.2 volts,

what should the settings look like? Should I base it on a 1066 FSB or go with 800 and leave everything 1:1?

should I set it to 400 MHz x 7 (2800MHZ) or 400 x 8 (3200MHZ)

or go with a lower 266MHZ x 11?

also, there is alot of new stuff in the striker bios I'm not familiar with.

What can I leave on auto versus manually tweak? What is absolutely required to be set in a certain way to stabilize this?

thanks in advance... I'll post the memtest results when its done...

 

[Noema]

I'm not sure the oblivion problem is artifacting. It is only the character models that look like porcupines... nothing else. Sounds like a problem porting into Vista to me. great! haha.

Oh, it's artifacting all right. I've run Oblivion in Vista extensively, as do many, many people in these boards; never had an issue. The cards are overheating.

Also: nVidia has released new Vista drivers that fix many problems with SLI support in Vista. Give these a shot, and see if it fixes some of your problems.

 

[Noema]

Originally posted by: Captain Nate


what should the settings look like?

I'm not sure about this particular mobo, but if there's an option to set everything to default (and there should), just select it until you can get the system stable.

 

[Captain Nate]

Noema - default is auto. auto assigns bad values to the voltages etc. causing my memory error (I think - since it only failed test 8 on memtest86... and repeatedly)

Also... found a way to stop oblivion from doing whatever it was doing... running in windowed mode, but at 1280x1024 res (full screen except have the little windows header at the top) no issues other than the occasional crash to desktop... so not sure what the heck it was...

LOTR online is another story...

I haven't even gotten to the FPS yet

I'm getting bsod now that I'm playing with some of the bios settings...

Their tech support was asking me dumb questions and then when I expressed my displeasure, they were like "You can send it back to us on an RMA and we'll fix it"

I explained how everything I am now doing SHOULD have been done at the factory before it was sent to me... it's called quality control... So monday I have to call them back and then talk to a supervisor to get a RMA to send it back, but they have to send me a new system first. probably another lemon...

NEVER buy Cyberpower PC.... That's all I have to say.

I've got the forceware ver 162.22 WHQL cert drivers installed.... didn't really help.

oh and I just learned the BIOS wasn't up to date either.... sheesh ver 1002... latest is 1302.... hmmmmm

 

[Noema]

If it's failing Memtest...that doesn't sound good, and it looks like we have a culprit.

Let's try this: Flash the BIOS to the newest version.

Then try setting your RAM to 1.9V (but not higher). Try Memtest. If it errors out, then bump the voltage gradually, but not higher than 2.1v. High performance RAM sometimes requires more juice and that's actually the recommended voltage for your RAM at 4-3-3-10. The timings on your RAM are 4-4-3-10 per factory spec, but that's a bit too tight. Leave it AUTO if possible, which will default to 5-4-4-12, a bit looser but also more stable.

Then run Memtest86 again, for 8 hours. If it still errors out, then we have bad RAM, or a bad mobo maybe.

Try then each of the sticks separately, using all of the Mobo's available memory slots, until they either all error out, or you find a DIMM / slot combination that works.

As for the QX6800, its factory defaults are 11x266fbs=2.93GHz, at a voltage no higher than 1.35V.

This smells like bad RAM to me though.

 

[Captain Nate]

well ran an 8 hour emtest while I slept last night.

processor at 2.93ghz (x11) with 2.2 volt assigned and 5-4-4-12 latency on memory at 2T only got one error this time:

tst 4

pass 0

fail 00313f13j0883mb

good 39b4b9

bad 7926b4b9

err-bits 40000000

count 25

chan


Is this ok or do I need to replace the dimm? 1 error in 8 hours doesn't seem that bad. Also shold I try to go to 1T? Before running memtest, I ran LOTROnline with everything cranked to max. aside from one or two minor stutters, ran smooth for hours until I got a black screen bug (known vista problem...)

 

[Noema]

RAM shouldn't error out at all. Not even one error. That's probably your problem right there.

If you really want to troubleshoot this to the end, you could try memtest with only one stick until you find which one is erroring out, or if both are bad.

 

[JustaGeek]

I have a motherboard with a little cousin of 680i chipset - 650i.

Actually, it is the same chip with some features disabled.

You MUST set everything in BIOS manually to get it stable. When I say everything, I mean:

CPU Voltage - e.g. 1.3V
Memory Voltage - e.g. 2.1V
NB voltage can be left on Auto
VCore offset Off

FSB Frequency (Set to "Manual overclocking", even if you have to enter default 1066)
Memory Frequency (enter 800MHz)

Memory timings (like 5-5-5-15 2T - make sure it is running 2T) - very important! The subtimings can be left on Auto.

Let me know how it works...

 

[Noema]

Yeah, I also have the P5N-E SLI and while 2GB of RAM is much more forgiving, 4GB is just plain funky, and just plain won't POST with the RAM @ 800MHz.

 

[Captain Nate]

Well flashing the motherboard bios helped IMMENSELY...

it was ver 1002... I flashed it to 1300....

WHO DELIVERS A HIGHEND PC WITHOUT FLASHING THE BIOS??>>

amateurs. I havent had time to run memtest again... probably tonight while I sleep.

I'm going to make them send me two new dimms and test it out.

 

[Captain Nate]

Well... ran memtest all day while at work.

failed miserably.

They are sending me 2 new dimms today to try to stablize it but I don't think that is going to work. Also made them fix the vista 64 issue. I told them they send it to me, I replace Vista 32 with 64 myself. God knows a clean install would fix alot too probably...

IF the ram doesn't immediately solve the issues, I am sending the system back as DOA and getting a full refund...

that being said... I'm thinking about doing the following when I rebuid via Newegg...

Coolermaster stacker case
1100w thermaltake powersupply (vented to draw in through top vent)
3 side case fans 120mm, 1 120mm front, 1 120mm rear
QX6850 processor
Creative labs X-Fi Fatality
Killer M1 NIC
SINGLE NVIDIA 8800 GTX ULTRA (as opposed to the 2x8800GTX in SLI)

What do you guys think? Also, need recommendations on what brand card to go with (have XFX now) and which model of motherboard... I like the striker extreme but it is old 680i SLI setup and limited to PC800 RAM... would like PC1066 ram capable motherboard...

I know Intel came out with new motherboard release in June... but is it stable and how does it game? Also need a good recommendation other than liquid cooling (pain in the ass) for CPU cooling. Peltier perhaps? or a huge heat pipe system with a fan of course.

thanks in advance. Needless to say, I'm a little frustrated being at the rope's end with this company. They wanted me to send my box back to them and they would "fix" it... then send it back... yeah.. I want to wait a month for the RMA to be completed and to have my system back. No thanks. I can order the parts and build one myself faster than that.

Also, since I am set on a quad core, there are only 3 available I know of now... 6700, 6800, and 6850... is this correct? Although, I could get the venerable 6600 and overclock the hell out of it with no problems...