"Official" DFI nF4 Ultra-D / SLI-DR Thread

[skgarach]

yeah actually i did. do you know which pins they should be on? i forgot.

 

[thanatos355]

check the manual. i remember seeing the pic of that in the manual, but cant remember what it said or looked like. helpfull, i know.

 

[skgarach]

i'm looking at the manual right now, but it doesn't say anything about the jumpers on the module. it identifies the pins, but doesn't say where the jumpers should be.

 

[skgarach]

figured it out. thanks guys.

 

[cronic]

Hello,
I just recieved my SLI-DR eariler today. I was so excited to get it after being very dissappointed with the overclocking performance of the A8N-SLI I have. So after tring to set the bios up for 4 hours I am at a loss. Here is a detailed list of my components:
DFI SLI-DR
AMD 3500 90nm
OCZ EL PC4200 PLATINUM 2X512
ASUS 6800 ULTRA
2 WD 36 GIG Raptors (want raid stripping on nvidia raid)
2 MAXTOR 200 GIG IDE
1 SONY DRU-22
PC POWER AND COOLING 510 SLI PS
VAPOCHILL XE (CPU COOLING AND CASE)
WILL BE ADDING WATERCOOLING TO THE GPU AND CHIPSET AS SOON I GET THE SYSTEM GOING
When i get into the bios I make changes to the settings that need to be changed, save the settings and exit. upon resetting none of the changes are saved. aka disable logo. Then IF i am lucky enough to get back into the bios it will lock up. If i restart and it will go to the raid screen and give me a flashing cursor below the press cntrl x to enter raid ultility. What gives? Is the bios that ships from the factory bad? I have never had so many problems just tring to make adjustments, unless I was tring to overclock. Which I am not because I can't even get the bios settings to stay where I set them. PLEASE HELP, I AM PULLING MY HAIR OUT HERE!!!!!!! IF I CLEAR THE CMOS, TURN ON COMPUTER , ENTER BIOS, LOAD OPTIMIZED DEFAULTS,AND THEN SAVE SETTINGS, REBOOT AND ENTER THE BIOS IT SYSTEM FREEZES AFTER ABOUT 8 SECS. IN BIOS.
:disgust: ALSO, when i change the memory voltage from 2.6 to anything elese it automatically goes back to 2.6 immediatly. my memory wants at least 2.75. WHY WANT IT ALLOW ME TO CHANGE MEMORY VOLTAGE.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Originally posted by: cronic
Hello,
I just recieved my SLI-DR eariler today. I was so excited to get it after being very dissappointed with the overclocking performance of the A8N-SLI I have. So after tring to set the bios up for 4 hours I am at a loss. Here is a detailed list of my components:
DFI SLI-DR
AMD 3500 90nm
OCZ EL PC4200 PLATINUM 2X512
ASUS 6800 ULTRA
2 WD 36 GIG Raptors (want raid stripping on nvidia raid)
2 MAXTOR 200 GIG IDE
1 SONY DRU-22
PC POWER AND COOLING 510 SLI PS
VAPOCHILL XE (CPU COOLING AND CASE)
WILL BE ADDING WATERCOOLING TO THE GPU AND CHIPSET AS SOON I GET THE SYSTEM GOING
When i get into the bios I make changes to the settings that need to be changed, save the settings and exit. upon resetting none of the changes are saved. aka disable logo. Then IF i am lucky enough to get back into the bios it will lock up. If i restart and it will go to the raid screen and give me a flashing cursor below the press cntrl x to enter raid ultility. What gives? Is the bios that ships from the factory bad? I have never had so many problems just tring to make adjustments, unless I was tring to overclock. Which I am not because I can't even get the bios settings to stay where I set them. PLEASE HELP, I AM PULLING MY HAIR OUT HERE!!!!!!! IF I CLEAR THE CMOS, TURN ON COMPUTER , ENTER BIOS, LOAD OPTIMIZED DEFAULTS,AND THEN SAVE SETTINGS, REBOOT AND ENTER THE BIOS IT SYSTEM FREEZES AFTER ABOUT 8 SECS. IN BIOS.
:disgust: ALSO, when i change the memory voltage from 2.6 to anything elese it automatically goes back to 2.6 immediatly. my memory wants at least 2.75. WHY WANT IT ALLOW ME TO CHANGE MEMORY VOLTAGE.

I had the same problem with the memory voltage, its the BIOS. If you flash to a newer one then it should take care of it (I could actually get it to stick, but you have to only scroll down as far as the mem voltage and then change it and then make sure and not go any lower on the menu).

There have been quite a bit of people who seemed to have problems with the shipping BIOS (likely the 1/25 one). Mine worked fine other than the memory voltage thing.

I would flash to one of the newer BIOSes and see how it goes then.

 

[thanatos355]

ok, where in the hell is memtest hidden? i cant, for the life of me, find the thing! man, there are alot of settings to 'tweak' on this thing! they should have shipped a glossary for the darn thing!

 

[TJmoney]

To set memory voltage just put the cursor over the correct field and use the + and - keys to adjust it. Theres an interface bug with the menu if you hit enter, but + and - work perfectly with the 1/25 bios.

 

[arthas76]

how is the onboard sound? does that karajan module make any difference or not? im hoping to use it till those hitec DD live cards come out

 

[Mykl]

I guess it depends entirely upon how picky your ears are. Personally, I think it sounds fine.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Originally posted by: thanatos355
ok, where in the hell is memtest hidden? i cant, for the life of me, find the thing! man, there are alot of settings to 'tweak' on this thing! they should have shipped a glossary for the darn thing!

What BIOS do you have? Only certain ones have it (the 1/25 one doesn't, but I think all the ones after that might, perhaps not the early february ones though). It will be under the menu that you get to from the top right choice on the main menu. Its lower down below the voltage options but before the network options (enable firewire, LAN, and then the MAC address stuff).

 

[darkswordsman17]

Originally posted by: arthas76
how is the onboard sound? does that karajan module make any difference or not? im hoping to use it till those hitec DD live cards come out

Well as far as CPU useage goes, its better, but for sound quality its not gonna be as good as a dedicated sound card, nor will it have EAX support.

 

[thanatos355]

well, i had the 1/25 then flashed to the 2/01. havent tried any of the newer ones. don't know if i really wanna risk it. not even being listed on dfi's site and all.

 

[rpgfan]

Originally posted by: darkswordsman17

Originally posted by: cronic
Hello,
I just recieved my SLI-DR eariler today. I was so excited to get it after being very dissappointed with the overclocking performance of the A8N-SLI I have. So after tring to set the bios up for 4 hours I am at a loss. Here is a detailed list of my components:
DFI SLI-DR
AMD 3500 90nm
OCZ EL PC4200 PLATINUM 2X512
ASUS 6800 ULTRA
2 WD 36 GIG Raptors (want raid stripping on nvidia raid)
2 MAXTOR 200 GIG IDE
1 SONY DRU-22
PC POWER AND COOLING 510 SLI PS
VAPOCHILL XE (CPU COOLING AND CASE)
WILL BE ADDING WATERCOOLING TO THE GPU AND CHIPSET AS SOON I GET THE SYSTEM GOING
When i get into the bios I make changes to the settings that need to be changed, save the settings and exit. upon resetting none of the changes are saved. aka disable logo. Then IF i am lucky enough to get back into the bios it will lock up. If i restart and it will go to the raid screen and give me a flashing cursor below the press cntrl x to enter raid ultility. What gives? Is the bios that ships from the factory bad? I have never had so many problems just tring to make adjustments, unless I was tring to overclock. Which I am not because I can't even get the bios settings to stay where I set them. PLEASE HELP, I AM PULLING MY HAIR OUT HERE!!!!!!! IF I CLEAR THE CMOS, TURN ON COMPUTER , ENTER BIOS, LOAD OPTIMIZED DEFAULTS,AND THEN SAVE SETTINGS, REBOOT AND ENTER THE BIOS IT SYSTEM FREEZES AFTER ABOUT 8 SECS. IN BIOS.
:disgust: ALSO, when i change the memory voltage from 2.6 to anything elese it automatically goes back to 2.6 immediatly. my memory wants at least 2.75. WHY WANT IT ALLOW ME TO CHANGE MEMORY VOLTAGE.

I had the same problem with the memory voltage, its the BIOS. If you flash to a newer one then it should take care of it (I could actually get it to stick, but you have to only scroll down as far as the mem voltage and then change it and then make sure and not go any lower on the menu).

There have been quite a bit of people who seemed to have problems with the shipping BIOS (likely the 1/25 one). Mine worked fine other than the memory voltage thing.

I would flash to one of the newer BIOSes and see how it goes then.

I had same problem with 01/25 Bios. I wanted to set the votage to 2.8, but it didn't let me do it. I tweak it to 2.9, after two times try, I succeded. Now my bios can set 2.8, 2.7,.. whateever you want.(same 01/25 bios) Magic seems hovering on the board. My rig now runs flawless, I did memtest and memtest86, no problem at all.

 

[thanatos355]

anyone have any info on what are safe volts/temps for the nf4 chip?

 

[cronic]

i found the cure to the problem.
this was posted on dfi-street
go to BIOS, under Genie Bios settings... you will see DRAM voltage control. just adjust! There is a bug in the 1.25 bios that always sets you back to 2.6v. To get around this use the +/- keys to adjust without going into the submenu, and then use the up-arrow key (NOT down arrow) and then ESC, save + exit.

or just update to one of the 02xx series beta BIOSes

however this did not cure any of my other problems such as any of the bios either freezing up when i enter the bios, or the bios not saving the settings that i make. i am now being told that the ocz pc4200 el platinum (which was highly reccomended by the tech support at dfi as probably the best memory you can use on this board, has known compatability issues with the board. go figure.

 

[cubeless]

will the utltra d boot with a plain pci vid card? my 800xl hasn't arrived yet, but i wanted to start sticking my parts together...

 

[thanatos355]

yes, of course it will.

 

[PrimarchLion]

Pardon my ignorance, but what is the difference between S/PDIF through the Nforce4 chip and through the ALC850 codec?

 

[cronic]

WELL AFTER HOURS OF PULLIN MY HAIR OUT WITH THE SLI-DR I HAVE COME TO THE CONCLUSION THAT MY BOARD IS VERY, VERY DEFECTIVE. THE BIOS WOULD NEVER SAVE ANY SAVINGS THAT I SET AFTER SAVING AND REBOOTING.I TRIED ALL THE BETA BIOS WITH NO SUCESS. SAME ISSUES. I REINSTALLED THE ASUS A8N-SLI AND IT IS WORKING PERFECT WITH THE SAME CONFIGURATION. OH WELL THE ASUS MAY NOT OVERCLOCK GREAT AT THE MOMENT BUT AT LEAST IT WORKS!!!!!!

 

[thanatos355]

damn, that sucks! time for an rma and pray! good luck.

 

[PuniPuni]

Here are my experiences w/ the ultra-d. Hope someone could use this.

Hardware:
DFI Ultra-D
512 Corsir CAS 2.5 (2 x 256)
XFX 6600GT (dual dvi!)
adaptec scsi (for cdrom, burner)
sblive 5.1 w/ remote

set it up w/ my old 350 antec. Disable unused stuff such as sata, sound, 2nd NIC, etc...

Major stability issues including lockup during winxp setup. Order the enermax 535W SLI ready psu from xoxide.

Replaced PSU, windows setup ok. Random bsod though.. strange..

Search around regarding bsod.. seems to point to memory problems.

Increased the dram drive strength to max and its been stable every since.

No errors on prime95 (the current version didnt work though, had to used an older one)

Played a few hours of halo, c&c zero hour, doom3, war3, etc.. no problems.

aside from the dram drive strength, no overclocking whatsoever. Everything else stock settings, drivers are the lastest official stable builds.

 

[canadianpsycho]

Just set up my rig:

3000+ Winnie
SLI-DR
OCZ Plat Rev. 2
BFG 6800GT OC PCIe

Only issus I had:

-Board would not let me install windows with my USB Razer Diamondback Mouse connectoed and "Support USB mouse" enabled in BIOS
-The BIOS thermal control of the fans is a PITA... Makes my fans sound like they are on a rollercoaster. Had to adjust those.

No overclocking yet. I'm very impressed with the board layout (aside from the angled floppy connector. PITA to add in a floppy to flash BIOS chips when you're using a Super Lanboy)

Nice board. I'll flash my BIOS and start OCing after I've got the rig running how I want, and get a uSB floppy so I don't have to dislocate my fingers to install the standard floppy cable

 

[thanatos355]

i had NO problems what-so-ever, till i went to oc, then i had to update the bios as the pci bus lock was NOT working on my 1/25.

ultra-d ntune says version 2 with the nf4 being rev3
1 gb g.skill LC
leadtek 6600gt
audigy 2 zs gamer edition
2x 160 gig maxtor diamond plus
athena power 500W
liteon ldw-811s
sony floppy
vantec fan controller
ms wireless intellimouse explorer
mi wireless keyboard
6 80mm case fans

put everything together, didnt disable ANYTHING, installed xp without a problem. ran for a 3-4 days without a problem. started oc'ing a lil bit and couldnt post at 220. flashed to 2/01 bios and everything has been fine on the oc front since. now i just need my xp-120 and i'll be as happy as a cat in the cream!

 

[slash196]

I've had some crazy problems. I finally flashed to the 2/18 BIOS to see if it would solve my instability problems. But when I rebooted after the flash, the computer went straight into memtest. I went to take the memtest floppy out, only to realize that it wasn't in there in the first place. The BIOS appears to have memtest included, and my computer won't boot from the hard drive. It goes straight into memtest every time. Is there some kind of setting I need to change to get the damn thing to boot from disk?
EDIT: Nevermind, General hardware got me straightened out. Thanks!