Possible bad Opteron 165?

[aggressor]

I bought an Opteron 165 for dual core goodness, but I've had some big problems since installing it. First, some system specs:
DFI Ultra-D, 2x512mb ram, x1900xt, Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic, standard hd\dvdrw, powered by a OCZ Powerstream 520w.

Now, the problem(s). This all at stock settings (1.8ghz) on a freshly formatted (twice, now) machine running WinXP SP2.

1) Windows will frequently lose my OS skin changes. Sounds silly, but probably indicative of something wrong. Happens randomly. See end of #2 for pics

2) I checked the Event Viewer in Windows and found a new error: An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk0\D during a paging operation. This does NOT happen with my old processor installed. It shows up multiple times, but I can't tie it to any one process having issues

Here are the pics:
How I have it set up:
http://img146.imageshack.us/my.php?image=two7po.jpg
How it looks after a reboot (50% chance of happening):
http://img527.imageshack.us/my.php?image=one4jm.jpg

3) One out of about 5 reboots will cause a VERY loud pitch\whine\whatever to come from my speakers. It's so loud that even with the volume turned all the way down on the speakers themselves, I can *still* hear it. Mutting all in Windows makes it stop.

Normally I would point to an instable system after overclocking, instead this is all at stock speeds, and I've even tried upping the voltage on the CPU a bit in case it was undervolting, but nothing changed. The strange thing is that I've ran dual Prime95s overnight and it passed until I stopped it at the 11 hour mark. I've tried multiple BIOSes and tried different settings, but nothing has fixed it.

Should I RMA this processor back to Monarch, or should I look at other possible problems (and what?)?

 

[Budman]

sounds like a hd problem,did you install Nvidia drivers? did you install the Nvidia ide drivers too?

 

[aggressor]

Like I said, if I pop in my old CPU (Winchester 3200+), the HD errors disappear, along with the other two problems.

I do have the nvidia drivers installed, both SMBus and IDE.

 

[Budman]

try uninstalling the IDE drivers.

go to add/remove programs....

 

[aggressor]

OK, but why am I removing them? Are there known issues between the IDE drivers and dual core processors?

I'll do it, I'd just like some more info.

 

[Budman]

Originally posted by: aggressor
OK, but why am I removing them? Are there known issues between the IDE drivers and dual core processors?

I'll do it, I'd just like some more info.

lots and lots of people have issues with Nvidia IDE drivers, a quick search will find them.

 

[Furen]

Budman, he says that just replacing the CPU by itself (without reinstalling, I'd guess) fixes the problems, so I'd guess it's somewhat related to the CPU, if not a CPU problem, in itself.

HAve you tried installing the newest drivers? Updating the bios? Have you tried integrated audio (just to try)? I'd also look at the bios memory settings, perhaps some of your settings work ok with the older Rev-D mem controller but not with a Rev-E one...

 

[TrevorRC]

Might be the sound card.
Lots of problems with X-Fi + nForce4; throw in a dual core CPU and you're asking for it.

 

[aggressor]

I have the newest drivers for everything, and as stated in the original post, I've tried different BIOSes. I clear the bios when I swap CPUs and apply the same settings.

It MAY be the sound card, but it was working perfectly before I put in the Opteron.

 

[aggressor]

Alright, I've formatted and reinstalled (Probably overkill, but I have this down to ~30 mins now) but I don't have the Creative X-Fi drivers installed nor the nVidia IDE drivers and everything *seems* okay, but I'll have to do 10~ or more reboots before knowing for certain.

 

[Megatomic]

I'd blame the X-Fi before I blamed the SW IDE drivers. They've been working fine for me since the Epox 8RDA+ was first released. All my mobos since then have been nForce boards and I've used the SW IDE drivers on each and every one of them.

 

[aggressor]

Well, to be fair, there are a lot of people who *do* have issues with them. Budman was right, do a search and you'll see a lot of hate for them.

X-Fi is a good contender for being the cause of the issue, but I'm skeptical since that would be a motherboard incompatability (a famous one, at that), and not CPU related.

 

[Megatomic]

I've seen the threads, I just don't give the issue any credence.

Is your X-Fi an older card? Creative re-wrote the firmware for X-Fi to eliminate the incompatibility with NF4 mobos. If you have an older with the old firmware code, Creative will exchange the card for you at no cost.

 

[aggressor]

I have no idea. I bought it back in November, I think. The cards had been out for awhile, but the NF4 bug wasn't known at the time. I wonder if Creative will send me a new card before I have to send back the old one, and just use my CC incase I fail to return it. Being without sound would suck. I guess I could use the onboard sound, but...I'd rather not :|

 

[Budman]

Originally posted by: aggressor
I have no idea. I bought it back in November, I think. The cards had been out for awhile, but the NF4 bug wasn't known at the time. I wonder if Creative will send me a new card before I have to send back the old one, and just use my CC incase I fail to return it. Being without sound would suck. I guess I could use the onboard sound, but...I'd rather not :|

I did read about this bug with Chaintech ( BFG) NF4 board from BFG forum

But i would think DFI had a bios update to fix it.


Just to be sure why dont you remove the card for a few days and use the yucky onboard sound,if your problems go away then you found your problem..

good luck.

 

[AkumaX]

dual core bios?

 

[aggressor]

I've tried multiple BIOSes including the newest

 

[aggressor]

Alright! It looks like it was the IDE drivers. I installed the X-Fi drivers and still haven't had any problems.

For the record, apparently I have a RevC X-Fi, so I already have the EEPROM fix. Ah well.

 

[Megatomic]

Hmm, they work great for me. SWIDE.jpg

 

[aggressor]

I'm not really sure myself, but hey, it works now. Might be a motherboard thing...I know DFI doesn't 'officially' support Opteron processors, and their last BIOS update was months ago.

 

[Budman]

Originally posted by: aggressor
I'm not really sure myself, but hey, it works now. Might be a motherboard thing...I know DFI doesn't 'officially' support Opteron processors, and their last BIOS update was months ago.

Like i said,some people run with the ide drivers no problems,some have very weird issues like aggressor did. i myself never install the Nvidia ide drivers,the Microsoft stock drivers work just fine.