Gigabyte K8NSNXP-939 Problems & Support..

Just a note here, i had set the AGP Aperture to the max Size at 512MB with my X800XT PE, if it was higher than memory of video card, some games would just not run, also, on another note, doing timedemo's, i got my best results in Doom 3 with 256MB Aperture

here are my results as per hardware sited in previous message:

1600x1280: Ultra, everything maxed, with 4.8 Catalyst, default settings after driver install.

All scores after second run

0-AA: 48.4
2-AA: 39.8
4-AA: 28.5
 
Hi my first post for now...

I had similar problems like you. BSODs & the temperature reading is exactly the same.
After contacting Gigabyte about 5 days ago i've got no reply yet so: support -> crap

I tried to solve my problems on my own an read after a bit of research the following test of the K8NSNXP-939 @ zdnet.de

The author wrote that every AMD64 dualchannelboard has problems running DDR400 in dualchannel. To get the memory run stable you have to run them @ DDR333. Only if you mount 4 DDR400 sticks you will be able to run it at full speed. You can read it on your own at the above mentioned link if you can read german.

In my case i had to set the speed manually down to DDR333, but the author wrote the board will detect if only 2 sticks are mounted and will lower the speed automaticly. But as said before: not in my case (G.E.I.L. DDR400 1024MB DualChannel Kit Value).

(To lower speed press CTRL-F1 in BIOS and go to the additional menu appearing.)

Now it runs for 2 days w/o any BSOD, freeze or something else. I did not notice any performance loss at normal work/gaming but maybe in benchmarks you will notice it. Now im asking what is faster: running 2x DDR400 in SingleChannel mode or 2x DDR333 in DualChannelmode? If you know please let me know. :confused:

so far...

Greetings Daze
 
First question answered, from single channel 2 x 1024 using Infineon DDR as per in my previous first post, in single channel, it runs perfectly rock solid at a much slower speed than in Dual, i bench it just over 2.2GB / Sec with sandra, with same DDR in dual this time i do almost 5900 in Dual, now thats more than double, off course totally unstable, in Doom 3, from the console, timedemo demo1.demo, from single 2 x 333, to Dual 2 x 400, i have a 20% frame rate in Doom3....., now obviously, dual is desired

Regarding running 4 x dimms to get stable, i'll try it at work, since we have a load of P4 from same manufacturer with exactly same DDR, will be easy to test if 4x same DDR runs stable, i will post back with the results probably tonight after work, when i get to be able to shutdown required computer where i can fish out ram to try this scenario.
 
I do not completly understand what you have wrote ThyDude that what i get as a german from your post is:

running 2x DDR400 in single channel: 2,2Gb/s
running 2x DDR400 in dual channel: 5,9 Gb/s (i got something about 6 Gb/s with mine)

i'll bench this evening with 2x DDR333 running in dual mode @home
If the performance with 4x DDR400 in dual mode will be outstanding i'll
think about buying 2 more sticks like this. but only if it runs stable.
 
running 2x DDR400 in single channel: 2,2Gb/s (Detects as DDR 333)
running 2x DDR400 in dual channel: 5,9 Gb/s (Detects as DDR 400)

I was saying that i will try 4 times exacts same DIMMS and see if it runs good as per only 2 in dual
 
It's sad to see that the Gigabyte support is so bad.. I've been waiting for a newer bios since i got my GA-K8NSNXP-939, as the CPU temp is waay to low. I've tried a beta bios, but the temperature was the same. :(

Edit: I'm running 2x512 MB Kingston KHX3000 BH-5 chips, no memory problems.
 
ThyDude said:
running 2x DDR400 in single channel: 2,2Gb/s (Detects as DDR 333)
running 2x DDR400 in dual channel: 5,9 Gb/s (Detects as DDR 400)

I was saying that i will try 4 times exacts same DIMMS and see if it runs good as per only 2 in dual
Click to expand...

What about DDR333 in dual mode? any benches done yet?

I would test a new BIOS too, but i've got no response yet from GB :(

Does anyone know if Zalman 7000A/B-Cu fits w/o modifications on this Board?
 
I have tried the 433, 400 DDR i have here, all the way to 266, with forced settings to slow them down with only two DIMM's, i will try tonight with 4 of them to fill all banks, see if thats any better, so far i have run at all speed in dual, pretty stable....... but eventually it will crash and bsod's, how ever how slow i put in the timings
 
daze said:
What about DDR333 in dual mode? any benches done yet?

I would test a new BIOS too, but i've got no response yet from GB :(

Does anyone know if Zalman 7000A/B-Cu fits w/o modifications on this Board?
Click to expand...

It's tight, but it does fit. At first glance it looks like it won't, but once you put it all together, it clears that big wonkin' DPS module by a hair.
 
So far passed MemTest86+, it only detects when using 4 at 333, if i force it, it will take a some time to boot, and it falls it back to 333, in Sandra it does 3750, after second run

Well........ results......... all shit, did a couple 3dmark 2001SE 330, fine, did one run 3dmark 2003, crashed to windows, did about 10 timedemo with demo1.demo in doom3, fine, ran it against a custom made on from the end of the game, everything tapped to the highest, crashed in dual in first run, in single ran same over 5 times no probs

That setup does not appear to fix it, still crashes, still is more stable than running any dual just 2 dimms i have run so far, better be cause so far ram benches so damn slow!
 
I'm not sure I buy that every AMD64 mobo has problems with DDR400. I've got an Asus SK8N and three Asus A8Vs running rock solid with DDR400 sticks (4 Corsair TwinX1024-3200LL in the SK8N with an FX-53 and 2 TwinX2048-3200 in the A8Vs with 3500+s) in DDR400 mode and with the exception of the SK8N, running at SPD timings. The SK8N has one timing bumped up one to match the timing of TwinX1024-3200 or XP does BSOD randomly). I haven't run MemTest on the SK8N but it's been running for months as my game system. This past weekend I swapped out the HSF and Prime95 runs rock solid. The two GA-K8NSNXP-939s were swapped with A8V rev 2s. Memtest reports DDR400 dual channel memory and exact SPD timing. Rock solid. XP SP2 installed without effort and Prime95 runs for hours on end perfectly stable. A friend has the Asus K8V with stock HSF and Corsair TwinX1024-3200C2 sticks. Equally as stable.

I need to call the local Gigabyte location and send them one of the GA-K8NSNXP-939s to try and duplicate some of the issues as they still insist they can't duplicate the issues (temperature readings or RAM incompatibilities). Just need to find time to getrdone.

(Edits to fix spellinks)
 
Apparently,replicated my setup, and tried my 3 supplied DDR and chip numbers, and no problems with all 3 brands when they tested it in HQ, on another thing in the e-mail he said the BIOS reads the SPD settings from the DIMM's, now if thats the case how about some of u out there, trying the same dimms into other boards and see what they are detected as on other board than that Gigabyte board, obviously that answer i receive does not satisfy me, as a shitload of people are having that exact same problem with ram and temp, is everyone here with problems actually doing something about it?
 
ThyDude said:
is everyone here with problems actually doing something about it?
Click to expand...

I am.

I have the GA-K8NSNXP-939 and Corsair 3200XL and have problems running in dual-channel mode. I get bluescreens and Prime95 failures in the first few minutes.

I have been doing the Gigabyte e-mail support thing and made my case with them. After trying a few different combinations for them, they asked me to go with a memory that is on their approved and tested list. Since the Corsair 3200XL is not on that list, I am going to try different memory and report back.

In the meantime, I have a pair of DDR500 Crucial Ballistix memory and a MSI Neo2 Platinum waiting for some time to mess with it. Between the mobo and memory, I should be able to isolate the problem. If NONE of this works, I will look into a VIA-based motherboard or wait for nforce4.

THis has been their most recent response:

Hi,

Any chance you can obtain a different manufacture of memory which has already compatible for this board. Please refer to the below links.

http://www.ec.kingston.com/ecom/configurator/modelsinfo.asp?SysID=19300&distributor=0&submit1=Search

http://www.crucial.com/store/listpa...a-Byte&cat=RAM&model=GA-K8NSNXP-939&submit=Go

Thank you
Click to expand...

so we'll see!
 
Anyone here who has a similar board than that Gigabyte, off course a NON GIGABYTE is a must, what other companies have board socket 939, dual DDR, nForce, Dual Gigabit if any, 1394B, 4 SATA connectors or more that users here are using in DUAL correctly, without the weird non existing problems that the Gigabyte one has!?, i am willing to give them time to come up with a fix, but in the end, i will not wait much more than a couple more weeks, after that that board and Gigabyte are history, and thats the end of Gigabyte for me

PS: As a note the reason i changed motherboard in first place is cause the other one went dead on me..... it was also a Gigabyte..... i was willing to say it was a fluke, and that it happens... but last two boards i have had from Gigabyte had problems, this one from the start when using Dual RAM, and the previous one after a couple more months after i had bought it, but was pretty busy, so on that one kinda blamed it on windows
 
ThyDude said:
Anyone here who has a similar board than that Gigabyte, off course a NON GIGABYTE is a must, what other companies have board socket 939, dual DDR, nForce, Dual Gigabit if any, 1394B, 4 SATA connectors or more that users here are using in DUAL correctly, without the weird non existing problems that the Gigabyte one has!?, i am willing to give them time to come up with a fix, but in the end, i will not wait much more than a couple more weeks, after that that board and Gigabyte are history, and thats the end of Gigabyte for me

PS: As a note the reason i changed motherboard in first place is cause the other one went dead on me..... it was also a Gigabyte..... i was willing to say it was a fluke, and that it happens... but last two boards i have had from Gigabyte had problems, this one from the start when using Dual RAM, and the previous one after a couple more months after i had bought it, but was pretty busy, so on that one kinda blamed it on windows
Click to expand...

This isn't really a gigabyte problem I don't think. It's more of an nforce3 problem than anything. It may even be an "amd" thing if the on-die memory controller has anything to do with it.

While I personally have everything working well with both my gigabyte and msi boards, the problem here is the age-old problem with chipsets that support AMD. While Intel solved all these dual-channel problems early on, threads like these seem to indicate that "stability problems" are still alive and well on the AMD side of the fence.

I never hear anything about "4 dimm restrictions" like having to drop to 333mhz or having to be forced down to single channel or anything like that. The intel side also has fewer restrictions on what brands/types of memory you can use. More often than not, you can toss any old memory on an intel chipset board, fill up all 4 dimm slots, and they'll work as intended with 4500MB/sec+ of memory bandwidth. Sure, the AMD can get you to 6000MB/sec, but look at the hoops you gotta jump through...

It's been years now, and they still can't get this stuff working consistently or reliably on the AMD side. Since VIA and NVidia appear to both have problems with dual channel, i'm not sure where the blame goes. But if you ask me, these kinds of problems are inexcusable after this long.

All that being said, i'm glad my stuff is working ok.
 
Anyone using this Crucial Memory without problems

1GB — CT12864Z40B DDR PC3200 CL=3 Non-parity
 
Arrangement made to return the 2x 1GB Infineon DDR Dimms, i ordered 2x above Crucial DDR's, i am actually saving money by getting those and returning the others and keeping with list of compatible ones, will post results as i get them tested in
 
Is anywhere an official list of supported DDR400 sticks by the GA-K8NSNXP-939? If so i'll try others too.

Thought: If DDR400 Chips run stable @ 333 on this board in dual mode maybe DDR433 or DDR500 run stable in DDR400?

BTW: DDR333 dual: ~4,7 Gb/s in my System
 
so i found following interesting article on the GEIL Website (Support FAQ)

# Q: The 400MHz DDR DIMM apparently seems to work. However, it only works at speeds lower than 400MHz. What's going on?
A: In order to set your DDR to 400MHz (200MHz x2), the CPU's fsb needs to be overclocked. With the CPU to DIMM ratio of 1:1, the CPU's fsb will have to be 200MHz, making the resulting CPU speed too high for the CPU to boot properly. It is not the DDR module that failed to boot, bur rather the CPU itself. The only way to successfully boot your system with DDR400 setting is to choose a lower CPU to DIMM ratio of 3:4 or 4:5, which will make CPU fsb to be 150MHz or 160MHz respectively. Some motherboards show these 2 settings as DDR266 or DDR333. It's actually the ratio that gets modified. Please note that at the time of this QA, only the top model CPU heat sink/cooling fan can properly cool down the the CPU.
Click to expand...

Im currently working at DDR400... stable until now. Im playing with the Voltage & Timing
 
For anyone running a pair of Sata drives in a raid-0 (in my case 2xWD Raptors) do they show up in windows as active USB devices? its very weird but hardware manager just sees the large raid drive (as it should) but windows usb manager sits in my task bar permanently telling me it has two WD drives ready to be stoped. I just ignore it and everything works fine but seems odd to me that it shows up like that so wanted to know if anyone else has this.l
 
Smacknca said:
For anyone running a pair of Sata drives in a raid-0 (in my case 2xWD Raptors) do they show up in windows as active USB devices? its very weird but hardware manager just sees the large raid drive (as it should) but windows usb manager sits in my task bar permanently telling me it has two WD drives ready to be stoped. I just ignore it and everything works fine but seems odd to me that it shows up like that so wanted to know if anyone else has this.l
Click to expand...

this is normal due to s-ata hot swap funtinality. you can handle them like external USB/Firewire Devices. But this little icon is bothering me to.. :D if anyone knows how to disable it: let me know.

BTW: ThyDude i'm running my DDR400@400 with VDimm +0.1V and i've set the timings manual just like they where mentioned in the G.E.I.L. specs

I played Doom 3 for awile, surfing, memory benches, burn in, for about 2h now and no crash!
 
Smacknca said:
For anyone running a pair of Sata drives in a raid-0 (in my case 2xWD Raptors) do they show up in windows as active USB devices? its very weird but hardware manager just sees the large raid drive (as it should) but windows usb manager sits in my task bar permanently telling me it has two WD drives ready to be stoped. I just ignore it and everything works fine but seems odd to me that it shows up like that so wanted to know if anyone else has this.l
Click to expand...

Yep, mine show up there too. That's not a USB device console btw, that's a "removable hardware" console.

I have 2 PATA drives in RAID0 as well, and they don't show up there. Just the RAIDed raptors.
 
I have some news to report.

I am running the Gigabyte GA-K8NSNXP-939 and it fails the Prime95 torture test (always within the first two minutes) with BOTH Corsair 3200XL and Crucial Ballistix PC4000.

With the Corsair, I have tried all sorts of memory timing combinations (some even received from the "RAM GUY" himself) with no success.

The Crucial I just installed a few minutes ago and let the motherboard auto-detect SPD timings. Windows boots and appears to be working right, but Prime95 gives me this awful rounding error (same error as with the Corsair 3200XL).

So... I shift my blame back to either the motherboard or the nforce 3 chipset. Fortunately, I have an MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum mobo here that I can pop-in and test with either the Corsair or the Crucial.

Hmm, the more I think about it, the K8 does have an integrated memory controller... maybe the CPU is the cause of all these problems? Especially if the VIA guys are having dual-channel issues.

This sucks. :(
 
This is of no help to you I know, but there are some of us getting things to run stable. In my case the Corsair 3200XLPRO had to be backed down to 2.5 Cas but after that everything was stable. Went from failing prime in minutes to working for hours with no error. You said you've tried all the settings though so at this point maybe you should RMA your board?

I just dont see how it could be the K8 and/or nforce3 specific if others are able to run it stable. Hopefully that MSI will clear it all up for you.
 
This thread reminded me of a small snippet in an anandtech preview:
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2128&p=3 (bottom of the page)

Given the memory controller is on the CPU, aren't the dimm slots just routed to the CPU socket? I know there's some differential terminations, voltage regulation and probably the clock, but I would doubt there is really much of anything RAM related the mobo can even do. The bios likely talks to the controller in the CPU to setup timings etc. So I would be more inclined to point to a bad/early batch of CPUs. Assuming the mobo manufacturer matched the path lengths on all the data nets from the dimms to the socket and supplies adequate voltages, there's probably not a whole lot else they can do to ensure the RAM will run properly.
 
U put in the settings manually from the info on the site, what about other settings witch are not part of the normal specs, like u have 3-3-3 etc, but what about the rest of them?

I also have an add/remove for my 250GB w.d on the nvidia IDE/SATA controller
 
ThyDude said:
U put in the settings manually from the info on the site, what about other settings witch are not part of the normal specs, like u have 3-3-3 etc, but what about the rest of them?
Click to expand...

I did not try lower timings than the specs yet. i am also not very familiar with tweaking the timings in BIOS because i dont know which value of 2,5-8-4-4 for which switch in BIOS. Is the order everywhere the same?

what i need is a guide which describes me all these settings and tells me all the alternative descriptions for the switches. btw: nothing is documented in the manual!!
 
Maybe they have the answer for all those settings that are extra from base settings that are on the specs with most ram
 
Has anyone acctaully got this board running to its true capabilities. Ie. Dual channel DDR400? Its a shame that such a feature packed board its screwed over by such a immature problem.

Thanks

Jon
 
I moved my Crucial Ballistix to DIMM sockets 3&4, and I can now run Prime95 for over an hour, haven't crashed yet. Sockets 1&2 will definately cause errors in Prime95 and memtest 1.20.

When I was testing my Corsair 3200XL, sockets 3&4 also gave better results than 1&2. Some sort of coincidence.

Hopefully tomorrow I will swap in my MSI to see if the problem follows or stays behind with the mobo.
 
Hornswoggler said:
I moved my Crucial Ballistix to DIMM sockets 3&4, and I can now run Prime95 for over an hour, haven't crashed yet. Sockets 1&2 will definately cause errors in Prime95 and memtest 1.20.

When I was testing my Corsair 3200XL, sockets 3&4 also gave better results than 1&2. Some sort of coincidence.

Hopefully tomorrow I will swap in my MSI to see if the problem follows or stays behind with the mobo.
Click to expand...

That's funny, when I put my kingston hyper x ddr 400 ram in slots 3 and 4 I cant even boot up, even with relaxed timings. I can use windows with the ram in slots 1 and 2 but prime95 bombs out in like 40 seconds. Does anyone have any suggestions for me with timings or anything before I end up buying MSI Neo 2 Platinum? Thanks....
 
Hornswoggler said:
I moved my Crucial Ballistix to DIMM sockets 3&4, and I can now run Prime95 for over an hour, haven't crashed yet. Sockets 1&2 will definately cause errors in Prime95 and memtest 1.20.

When I was testing my Corsair 3200XL, sockets 3&4 also gave better results than 1&2. Some sort of coincidence.

Hopefully tomorrow I will swap in my MSI to see if the problem follows or stays behind with the mobo.
Click to expand...

The Ballistix are meant to be completely compatable with this board.

http://www.crucial.com/ballistix/st...&model=GA-K8NSNXP-939&submit.x=30&submit.y=17

Your getting good results in dual channel mode with this ram?

Cheers
 
Hey guys the only thing I found completly compatible with this board is the garbage can. I too was hoping for a "miracle bios" fix. Not only didnt that arrive but the Gigabyte tech support was horrible. I shouldnt have to replace ram I paid $280 for just to see if something will work. Do yourselves a favor and buy another board, I got the MSI and it is a godsend compared to the Gigabyte. Sure it has a few "truly" minor glitches but I am 100% stable at a FSB that my ram could never reach even in my Vmodded NF7. I practically gave my Gigabyte away, and it was worth it. Good luck. :D
 
JonRohan said:
Your getting good results in dual channel mode with this ram?
Click to expand...

Update:

The Ballistix in slots 3 and 4 failed after 2 hours of Prime95. That's a LOT better than the 2 minutes it would fail in slots 1 and 2. (still unsatisfactory considering the money spent on CPU, mobo, and RAM... I expected the best)

Corsair 3200XL will also fail.

All four of my memory modules pass with flying colors by themselves, or in single-channel mode (filling DIMM slots 1 and 3). I don't think it's the memory... going to swap motherboards to the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum (nf3) this morning.
 
SIK_L_CELL said:
but the Gigabyte tech support was horrible. I shouldnt have to replace ram I paid $280 for just to see if something will work.
Click to expand...

They told me to do the same F'ing thing. :mad:

(granted, I already had the replacement RAM on order. I just didn't care for the "shoot in the dark" troubleshooting, blame it on something else)
 
I am on web site at moment for that board what are the minor issues others have on that, one, i am considering changing also, i have played some more, with that pos i have at the moment, and if i drop memory at 266 (133), let it go auto settings, and then raise memory speed throught multiplicator, and HT that i change to 4 instead of 5, i am running my 3500+ at 2267Mhz 8.5, FSB 266, DDR Voltage +0.1, CPU +0.25, and like this i am running extremely good, and ram settings are extremely aggressive, i almost reach 400DDR benchmarks with 266 mhz timings!, i managed to run my ram at 433Mhz for a while but that poppec after a while at that speed i had about 6400Mb in sandra mem-bench
 
ThyDude said:
I am on web site at moment for that board what are the minor issues others have on that, one, i am considering changing also, i have played some more, with that pos i have at the moment, and if i drop memory at 266 (133), let it go auto settings, and then raise memory speed throught multiplicator, and HT that i change to 4 instead of 5, i am running my 3500+ at 2267Mhz 8.5, FSB 266, DDR Voltage +0.1, CPU +0.25, and like this i am running extremely good, and ram settings are extremely aggressive, i almost reach 400DDR benchmarks with 266 mhz timings!, i managed to run my ram at 433Mhz for a while but that poppec after a while at that speed i had about 6400Mb in sandra mem-bench
Click to expand...

I have been at 260x13 3x ram 5/6. But now I am at 235x11 4x ram 1/1. Sandra is 7K in the mem benchmark. All this with the ram that wasnt stable at stock speeds with the Gigabyte. And most of the minor probs are with RAID and also a temp issue. Raid is fixed.
 
On the MSI Bios has everything u'd want in a bios, plus not having to press CTRL-F1 to access some of the settings, what memory and cpu are u using?
 
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