Stability Problem with Athlon 64

[ren97]

Hello I have an AsRock K8S8X Athlon 64 motherboard. It uses the SIS chipset. I used to have an athlon 3000+ NC co running at stock speeds perfectly. I upgraded to an athlon 64 3400+ NC cg revision clocked at the default 2.4 ghz, now I have huge stability problems. I am using the stock heatsink the crappy new all aluminum one, it's not the old copper one. Anyway it runs a little hot, 48c idle 57c max load with games and super pi. The instability comes when I set the memory to run at 200mhz, if I load the default bios settings it lowers the memory to 166mhz and everything works perfect. If I up the memory to 200mhz, my ram is 1 gig of kingston value 3200+, It doesn?t? boot or I get bsods and or memory errors. The only other thing I did was flash my motherboard bios, it was an update to take advantage of new features. One of the new features is MA 1t, 2t memory timing. Anyway I have these memory settings:

Memory Clock - 100, 133, 166, 200
Bank Interleaving - auto, disabled, enabled
Node Interleaving - auto, disabled, enabled
Burst Length ? 4 or 8
Cas Latency 2, 2.5, 3, etc
TRCD ? 2,4,5,6,7,8 etc
TRAS ? 2,4,5,6,7,8 etc
TRP ? 2,4,5,6,7,8 etc
MA Timing ? 1t,2t

I tried using the auto settings and only changing the speed to 200mhz, all the other settings change accordingly. CL goes to 3, trcd goes to 8, tras and trp go to 3. Bank interleaving is auto and Node is disabled. So what I'm wondering is how this could happen from just upgrading the processor. I tried reinstalling windows also. Should I try and revert to previous bios, any ideas. Does HyperTransport have anything to do with since the memory controller?s on the processor? I tried setting hypertransport width to 8 bit, and 16 bit, I left it at 800Mhz. I?m freaking out as I had a perfectly stable very fast system for almost a year.

 

[Markfw]

Sounds like bad memory. Try re-setting the bios to default after upgrading it. Then run memtest.

 

[ren97]

I dont think it's the memory it ran perfectly yesterday at 200mhz with an athlon 3000+.

 

[Lithan]

200, auto, auto, 4, 2.5, 3, 3, 3

Last setting... 1t has better performance but might not be stable. Try it first. If it isn't stable use 2t.

I've got no clue why RCD is setting to 8. That is most definately wrong. It should be 3.

 

[ren97]

Thanks Lithan, this is kingston value ram though cas latency 3, isn't 2.5 a little tight for for value ram. I will change TRCD, TRAS, TRP all to three though. Thanks. Any idea why upgrading the processor would do this?

 

[cbehnken]

Put the old chip in to verify that the RAM still works. Maybe the memory controller on your new A64 is bad?

 

[ren97]

That's exactly what I was thinking but the old 3000+ is already off and sold to someone on ebay.
Monarch Computers doesn't do returns on cpu's, should of gone with newegg. I really think it's the processor is amd pretty good about rma's.

 

[mechBgon]

What is the memory voltage set to? If it's at AUTO, then use 2.7 volts and see what effect that has. Also, what power supply are you using (brand and model) and what's the overall system specs (cards, drives, video)?

 

[ren97]

I don't know what the memory voltage is set at, there is no option in the bios. I will list my entire system specs below. One other thing, I toke out my ram and then put it back in to make sure it was installed correctly and then it would run fine at 200mhz for 3 full loops of 3dmark 03 and then the memory errors started coming back. I just don't understand how this could happen. Could power limitations keep my ram from going 200mhz but allow it to operate perfectly at 166.

Powmax 500 watt psu
AsRock K8S8X motherboard
athlon 64 3400+
1gig 3200 kingston value ram
Matshita dvd-rom drive
Matshita dvd-ram drive
80 gb ata100 harddrive
80 gb sata harddrive
floppy disk drive
Gainward Geforce 6800 128mb 350/800
Creative Audigy 2
Leadtek Wintv 2000 expert (Tv tuner)
northbridge fan
1 hardrive dual fan cooler
i case fan

 

[mechBgon]

PowMax, huh? :evil: Any chance you've got a high-quality PSU you could test with (Fortron, Antec, Enermax...)?

 

[Markfw]

Powmax ? That explains everything I think) a crap PSU can't handle the extra load a faster cpu puts on it. The most logical explanation yet !

 

[ren97]

Iv'e always had great reliability with powmax, this psu was around $175 when I bought a few years back. It is 500 watts, but If you both think that could possibly be it then If I clock the processor back down to 2gz the speed of the 3000+ everything should work as it did before the upgrade to the 3400+. Is this assumption correct. Would that give me a good indication that it's the psu if everything works fine when clocked down to 2ghz.

 

[mechBgon]

Try unplugging all the unnecessary drives from the power and data cables, and also unplug your case fan and HDD cooler temporarily too. See if the system does better like that. You can aim a house fan into the case to keep it ventilated for your test. My way of thinking is that the PSU begins to struggle and is not regulating its voltages as well as necessary, resulting in the memory problem. I could be wrong. PowMax has earned a pretty low reputation around here, sorry to say.

 

[Lithan]

Odd. My k8n pro wouldn't run my ram above 185mhz... but I understood that to be a problem with some NF3 150 boards. Didn't think it extended to any sis boards. Try using a ram divider and see if it's stable.

 

[ren97]

I'm way ahead of you, I just unplugged all unnessesary cables, extra hard drive, dvd drives, etc. Booted it up and then nothing that's right nothing. I did the usual things, unplugged for a few seconds, etc and then tried the power butten again, this time it started to smoke a little that's right baby. Looks like you may have been right, it did work very well for about 9 months, but alas i will never buy powmax or the like again. I really hope that the fuse just blew and that nothing was damaged. I will be buying a new power supply and seeing if that's the only problem. The voltage problem sounds like the anwser to me. What psu's with a good price, a dedicated 12 amps on the 15 volt, with tons of molex connectors, the powmax was a server psu that had a ridiculous amount of connectors.

 

[Lithan]

I like fortrons. The 350's go for a little under $50 shipped at newegg. The 530's are about 85$ shipped.

 

[mechBgon]

How about a Enermax 460W unit, it's got 33 amps on the 12V line and Enermax typically has an abundance of drive plugs too.

 

[AnnoyedGrunt]

Seasonic Super Tornado 400W - Very quiet, efficient, handles brownouts well:
http://www.newegg.com/app/View...=17-151-018&depa=1

-D'oh!

 

[ren97]

Thanks again to everyone for their help on this issue. I decided on the ENERMAX Noisetaker Series 470W Power Supply http://www.newegg.com/app/View...=17-103-446&depa=0. I am very concerned about the 12 volt rail. The noisetaker series has 2 12 volt rails to help regulate power. It also has 2 self adjusting temp. controlled fans that stay on for 2 minutes after you turn off your pc to cool it down, . I also might pick this mobo up if my other one is toast, http://www.newegg.com/app/view...=13-157-035&depa=0, it supports both 754 and 939 athlon 64, sempron and FX, very cool. Anyway again I really hope my processor and mobo, ram etc. are ok. I will keep you posted.

 

[ren97]

I installed the new psu, which is awsome by the way, and everything is exactly the same, which leads me to believe that the problem is still the processor, possibly the memory controller, it also crashes sometimes when throttling down using cool and quiet which didn't happen with my 3000+. Any ideas. Thanks.

 

[ren97]

Hey check this out, another person has the EXACT same issue. Looks like the motherboard as I just updated to an even newer bios and it did nothing.

http://boards.ign.com/message....s=11&ui=cb_post_01

 

[ren97]

I find someone else with the EXACT same problem, please checkout this link. http://boards.ign.com/message....s=11&ui=cb_post_01

 

[effee]

Have you thought maybe it is the mobo? Maybe it wont allow you to OC it that much

 

[ren97]

I am not overclocking it, it is at it's default speed of 2.4ghz, but yes I am thinking now that it might be the motherboard, I was wondering if anyone else has heard of this.

 

[ren97]

I don't want to call it to soon, but it seems as though everything is now running perfectly stable with my ram at 200mhz, . I turned off cool and quiet, I think that was it. The feature was easily overlooked and I forgot about it. With that off, everything seems ok. I really hope it fixed my problem. It seems as if it has. Thanks again everyone. I needed the Enermax psu anyway because now my gainward geforce 6800 GT Golden Sample runs like it should. In fact I just got 12,450 in 3d mark 03.