***Update, Greg read my last post***oh no, my seti rig is crippled.

[sean2002]

This sucks, I just got another 256MB of Kingston PC-1066 RAMBUS for my main system. Now I can't overclock at all, at 135Mhz it will boot into windows then restart and just loop like that. With my two orginal stick I could run at 154Mhz. So it looks like I'm stuck with 2.26Ghz, as I really neended the extra memory

 

[mechBgon]

!

 

[deerslayer]

Well that sucks !!!!!!!!!!!

 

[przero]

What kind of average unit processing time does that rig have?

 

[Evadman]

poopie

 

[micron]

 

[Freewolf]

Is it the ram or the MB?
If it's the ram sell it and try another one.

 

[PieDerro]

Ah Sean2002!! I have been having EXACTLY the same problem with my Gigabyte 8IHXP and 512MB PC1066... I could run it at 156MHz for 3+GHz (I have a 2.53) and then gradually I started getting BSODs in WinXP. I can't even run at default 133MHz now - I think the RDRAM has crapped out on me.

Does RDRAM do that? My main unit at home has been down for the last three days... that's 30WUs down the drain!! I was pulling 2:10 WU times on 0.417 AR WUs when overclocked too!!!

 

[Smoke]

Ack, I've almost got my GA-8IHXP ready to roll. Waiting on a "replacement" chip. I've got two sticks of Kingston 1066 RDRAM. Wanted Corsair but still on back-order. Maybe I should just wait ... anyone got any Corsair 1066 yet? What ram are you using Pie?

Bet that chip I returned was OK and my problem is with the RDRAM. :| I could only install the OS when I used 100 FSB (Chip was a 2.4G 533(133X4) MHz version: I got errors during OS install when FSB was any higher. I didn't have another MB or CPU to verify, guessed the chip was defected. This news makes me think I guessed wrong.

 

[sean2002]

With the orginal 2 sticks I can still run @ 154Mhz, with the t new ones I got to 140Mhz, with all 4 I can't even boot into windows @ 136Mhz

 

[PieDerro]

Ok Smoke, I'll explain my exact situation. Hopefully we can figure out what's causing this.

The parts are as follows:
Gigabyte 8IHXP Motherboard
Pentium 4 2.53GHz (with the 133MHz FSB)
2x256MB Kingston PC1066 RDRAM
Stock Intel Cooler
2xSeagate Baracuda 40GB Hard Drives Striped
1xMaxtor 40GB Hard Drive on its own
350W Enermax Power
Heaps of Powerful Sunon case fans (actually, 3 to be precise)
Geforce 3 Ti200 (from my old system)

The problems are as follows:
I installed WindowsXP on my machine the first day I set it up. I had it running at 156MHz right from the word go and it worked like a charm. No lock ups or anything like that, I was doing well. After the install completed, I shut down the machine. When I came back and restarted it, I got an error saying something like NTLDR is missing so I played around with the FSB and lowered it back down to 133MHz. Anyway, I reinstalled WindowsXP and it then ran ok at 133MHz. But this time I tried upping the FSB back to 156MHz, and I got a BSOD on startup or random reboots during startup. So i lowered it progressively until I got to 133MHz. Then it started up again. I was bummed cos it was a ZERO overclock!!!! The BSODs just wouldn't go away otherwise!

Anyway, cutting my losses, I installed SETI on that machine. I was running okay and it was screaming through a WU until it just reboot itself while I was posting a message on the forum a few days ago. On restart, I got a BSOD during the startup process. This was at 133MHz. So I then checked my temps to make sure they were okay. They were a bit warm, reporting in at 46C, so I pulled off the HSF and put some Artic Silver on it, and I lowered my temps down to 43C or so. My machine would still intermittently reboot at stock speeds when SETI was running.

Now the machine reboots at stock speed even if SETI isn't running!!! And I lowered my Ram speed from 1066 to 800 in the BIOS!! I have no clue what it could be, but the system is getting progressively worse.

I have a few ideas though...
1. Is it the RAM? The BSODs gave me the idea that I have crapola ram.
2. Is it a temperature issue? I think that a stock intel cooler with Artic Silver that IS MOUNTED CORRECTLY (it's impossible NOT to mount those Intel coolers correctly) with heaps of case cooling and low ambient temps, should be enough to rule this out.
3. Is it a bad motherboard?
4. Is it a bad CPU?

That's all I can think of... Hopefully we can sort this all out guys... these machines chew through WUs in no time!

 

[sean2002]

See I have been runnnig @ 150Mhz+ since I put my rig together, but I only had 256MB (2X128MB), So I thought I'd add another 2X128MB sticks. So I bought the same brand of RAMBUS from the same place. When I got it the packaging was the same as the original, but the actual sticks were different, the orginal 2 stick had a much taller PCB than the newer one, and the numbers on the stickers were different. It will run fine @133Mhz with all 4 banks filled.

What I think I'm going to do is to just go ahead and use te orginal 2 sticks (256MB) and just install W2K and run that instead of XP.


I can't wait for Intel to release a dual channel DDR board.

 

[Smoke]

A little summing up.

It appears we all have Kingston Value Ram 2 X 256 1066.
We have the same motherboard
We all have sufficient power. I just bought an Antec SX840 with an Antec 400W PS.

As I mentioned I probably guessed wrong and sent back a good chip. That chip will be received by my vendor today. I'll be expecting the "sad" news that the chip checks out and I'm liable for a 15% restocking fee.

If that happens, we can probably give the chip a pass as being the problem.

That leaves the motherboard and the RDRAM.

I'm going to do a little more web searching on this and also see if Corsair is available.

Let you know what I find a little later.

 

[PieDerro]

Or could it be something along the lines of a "erratum-not-bug" on the Gigabyte motherboard where it will be very touchy if running 512MB RAM or more?

My best guess is either it is a motherboard limitation (I doubt that all three motherboards would be faulty!! Especially since sean's works really well when he has 256MB RAM) or it's something wrong with the 256MB Kingston 1066 RIMMS... that's just my guess...

 

[sean2002]

Originally posted by: PieDerro
Or could it be something along the lines of a "erratum-not-bug" on the Gigabyte motherboard where it will be very touchy if running 512MB RAM or more?

My best guess is either it is a motherboard limitation (I doubt that all three motherboards would be faulty!! Especially since sean's works really well when he has 256MB RAM) or it's something wrong with the 256MB Kingston 1066 RIMMS... that's just my guess...

I think it's the RAM, like I said the new stuff looks totally different. The motherboard seems to be good if can handle a 154Mhz FSB at all.

Greg, I will send you a picture tonight of the old and new Kingston side by side whern I get off off work.

 

[Smoke]

I've done some web searching and found other references to the same problems. No fix, just people asking for help.

I'm starting to think we are on the bleeding edge here and what we need is a new BIOS UPDATE from Gigabyte. Still a guess but that's my current thinking. Hope some of you find an answer somewhere.

{Edit}

Speak of the devil, look what just showed up on the Gigabyte Website:

GA-8IHXP


File Name BIOS Version
(Date)
Version Description
8ihxp_f7.zip F7
(Oct. 04, 2002) 1. Supports Intel Pentium 4 Processor with Hyper Threading Technology
2. Display LAN MAC address in setup "F9 info page"

{Edit 2}

It's so new it is not even downloading yet. Here's the Web Page!

 

[Baldy18]

Hey Sean. Do me a favor and stick the second two sticks of RAM alone in the first two slots without the first two. Let me know then what you can crack that FSB up to.

Sometimes when you add more sticks of RAM you run into instability that can be attributed to poor timing and can be fixed with a BIOS update if one is availible.

 

[Assimilator1]

I don't see an answer to your problem in that bios update

Btw have any of you guys tried upping the RAM voltage to fix the problem? (assuming you can)

 

[sean2002]

Originally posted by: Baldy18
Hey Sean. Do me a favor and stick the second two sticks of RAM alone in the first two slots without the first two. Let me know then what you can crack that FSB up to.

Sometimes when you add more sticks of RAM you run into instability that can be attributed to poor timing and can be fixed with a BIOS update if one is availible.

will do, but you have to wait until I get off work at 5:30 then I need to pick up my kids from day care, but I wil;l post results tonight, I will also post a picture showing the differnce between the two different sticks

 

[sean2002]

Did anyone notice that the bios update is under the 845 chipset page for an 850E based MB?

 

[Smoke]

Oh, good ... it's downloading now. I must have found it as they were putting it up.

Sean, maybe they just put it in the wrong place or have not fixed the title of that page yet ... this might be the 1st BIOS update?

Ass1, I think this might be just what I need because I couldn't install the OS at the nominal 133 FSB. I had to drop it to 100 FSB to do a complete OS installation without file errors. True though, it didn't mention anything about memory. But then again we are not sure what the problem is caused.

Anyway, I can't use it until I get my chip back.