DFI LanParty NF4 Ultra-D problems...

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DarkBahamut

Gawd
Joined
Mar 18, 2005
Messages
551
Ok, i got a new DFI board, got it all installed today, and ive had nothing but problems with it.

There seems to be a BIOS/CMOS problem with the board. When i first installed it all i got a blank screen when i turned it on. After resetting the CMOS it booted up. I went into the BIOS, changed a few settings, saved them and teh system restarted. Blank screen again. Even after powering it down and up again, blank screen, but once i reset the cmos it worked ok again.

After that i let it boot into windows, installed some drivers and rebooted. Blank screen again. One CMOS reset later and the system boot.

Anyone want to though some ides as to why i need to reset the CMOS every time i reboot the system?

When the system does boot, i get 'Checksum Error - Defaults Loaded' but pressing F1 makes the system boot ok (untill you restart it). Is the BIOS screwed, or am i missing something on this?
 
update to the 3/10 bios if you havent already, if that doesnt help, try one of the later ones like the 5/10 or 5/23 and definetly run a few runs of memtest, the DFI board is by far the pickest out there.
 
mate, i just got almost the same board (dfi lp sli) but, i had the same prob

turns out when i was messin around to plug in my sata drives, i must have knocked the jumper off the clear cmos jumper....

check that.
 
MrMitch said:
update to the 3/10 bios if you havent already, if that doesnt help, try one of the later ones like the 5/10 or 5/23 and definetly run a few runs of memtest, the DFI board is by far the pickest out there.
Click to expand...

Ahh thanks a bunch, thats cleared itup fine. Flashed to the 3/10 bios and no more checksun errors and it reboots fine.
 
i'm running the 618 beta bios

super stable and overckicking super with it-- :cool:
 
there's a 7/4 bios out now too...just flashed it. workin' great so far...but haven't tried o/c'n yet.
 
Yeah i may have to ry one of these newer ones. I just started OCing it abit now, and ive noticed another problem. Twice when starting windows, just about when the 'Welcome' screen is about to come up, the system restarts, but once its in windows its fine, and memtest is fine and prime is running ok too.

Its good to have fairly decent temp monitoring again though. My old Abit AV8 used to be horrid for that, its well known to over-report the temps, so i never knew what my CPU was running at. At 2.4GHZ 1.525v my old abit would never ever be under 50C load, normally 53-55C at least, and on hotter days it would be close to 60C. Now this DFI at 2.35GHz 1.525v is running at 42-43C in prime, great to see something below 50 at last :).
 
Ok, something is seriously wrong here. After the bios issue i had yesterday, it seems to work ok so i started overclocking, since then its rebooted twice on the windows welcome screen when loading up, even though it works ok once in windows, i tried running NFSU2 and that locks up in a few seconds, but only teh graphics lock up, not teh system so i can still use the task manager. After try NFSU2 for a fre times, im not longer able to access the task manager so i reboot. ONce its rebooted i get a bunch of memory violation (read/write errors) pop up for a bunch of programs, forcing me to reboot again. After the reboots windows loads up ok, but all my trillian accounts had gone (trillian was one of teh programs with a memory violation error).

Problem is, i cant work out whats causing it.

I looped memtest86+ twice, 0 errors
I ran Prime95 for 1hour 30min, 0 errors
and the graphics card still at stock speeds (and runs a HDR demo fine without crashing).

Might be time to try updating to a newer BIOS or something, because this just isnt working.
 
are you tweaking your ram settings in bios as you're overclocking? If so, back them down to defaults (usually Auto) and then overclock. If you can get back to the same speeds you were before and it's stable, then it's something with your RAM settings. the DFI has a TON of ram options to play with. It is quite possible that it could take a few days to get things to run stable at the speeds you want due to all the options. There was a guide on XtremeSystems forums regarding getting your system stable with the various ram options.

also, since you say it's freezing in graphics programs...what's the PCI-E speed set to in Bios? should be 100. I know a lot of guides say set to 104 or 105...but many of the people I've talked to about it said that their system would crash with graphics if it was set at those higher settings.

is it stable at stock?
 
Its not teh memory timings, im using 2-3-3-5 1T @ 218MHz, which i know work fine, and the PCI Express bus is set to 100MHz, and yes, it still just locks up at stock clock speeds.

I do wonder if its because of my PSU. I do only have a 20pin PSU (on a 20 to 24pin convertor) but its a good PSU (Antec TP 550W) and easily more than powerful enough to power this system. Hell, my friend ran a dual 6800GT SLI setup with a 3800+ on an asus board with a TP 550w no problems. So it will be pretty weak on DFI if my 550w PSU cant power this system ok, considering it takes FOUR power connectors.

I updated to the 6/23 BIOS and still no change.
 
I got mine running with the 310 BIOS and its real stable. However, I shall never flash the BIOS again on this rig. Just too risky.

Never worried about it with any other board.
 
Ive been rather lucky with bios flashing myself, no dead boards (yet!).

Seems its starting to work better anyway. the NFSU2 problem is due to a driver issue, and other 3d programs seem to work ok now. 3dmark crashed out once but then ran ok after i tried it again, and some other games are working. Ill have to see if any more memory errors come up.
 
I ran into the same problems. I had to underclock on my 3500 just to get windows to load and run. Even after that at full speed it wouldn't. (I didn't get the check sum). Found out if you bump your memory up to 2.8v from 2.6v it works fine. It's a DFI thing, doesn't matter what memory or BIOS you have loaded on it. Now I'm even able to over clock. (218Mhz)

It's not the PSU I had a 20pin in mine until my apt came. BTW I did order a 24 native psu should have it soon.
 
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