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Odd instability DFI nF4

O

OGRE EX

n00b
Joined
Jan 3, 2005
Messages
13
Well I recently built a new rig, specs are as follows:
DFI LANparty nF4 Ultra D
AMD 3000+ Winnie
512x2 PC4400 Corsair XMS 2.5-4-4-8
BFG 6800GT OC
Antec NeoPower 480w

Those are the need - to - know specs I think.
My problem is as follows:
I am running the RAM at the rated speed of 550mhz and I have lowered the multiplier on the CPU to 7x275 so it still runs cool under the stock heatsink. Anyways, Prime95 ran for about 4 hours then it had an error. Immediately I realized my RAM probably isn't running as good as it should so I decided to up the voltage to 2.85. Still no luck, and now I am having random BSOD shutdowns. I decided to run EVERYTHING at stock speeds and I STILL get the BSOD every couple hours. It's usually during when its underload. It should be known I am running dual channel, slots 2 and 4. Does anyone have a guess or just a shot in the dark as to what my problem could be? Thanks for any advice in advance.
 
What version of prime are you running Does it fail at the same place everytime. I have seen some motherboards that had issues with certain versions.....
 
Prime95 Version 23.8.1 (Latest Release I believe) Although the fact that my RAM is failing at stock speeds bothers me, I am more so concerned with the random shutdowns... I am a 3D Animator which means I require a rock solid rig for long render times and if I have instability problems, even at stock speeds, it can seriously hinder my work.
 
You picked the wrong board for a rock-solid rig. [H] wrote a review on a DFI NF4 and found out it couldn't run 24/7, even STOCK. I'm trying to find the article now.

Edit: The NF4 Ultra-D review, though I don't think this is the article I had in mind.
Only after about nine hours of stress testing with a 100% load at stock clock settings did our DFI NF4 Ultra-D crash. Files in 3Dmark were corrupted when it crashed and had to be reinstalled to operate. You will notice that Prime95 is still moving along fine though. Again I will say that I am unsure that these instability characteristics will ever impact anyone in a real world scenario. It is worth mentioning that there are motherboards out there that do pass our stress testing with flying colors.
Click to expand...

Edit2: The NF4 SLI-DR review, which is what I was looking for.
Once again we saw a DFI motherboard fail when it comes to long-term stress testing. By “long-term,” we mean in excess of 24 hours. While most of the latest heavy hitters from the likes of ABIT, ASUS, and MSI will literally run error free for days under 100% load, that is not the experience we have had with DFI motherboards. While this seems to put a really bad spin on the DFI nF4 SLI-DR, in reality it does not at all. Our DFI nF4 SLI-DR would many times run 8 to 16 hours error-free under severe temperature conditions while pulling a heavy workload.
Click to expand...
 
Sigh :( Although this issue will never, ever effect me, it's enough to drive an OCD overclocker insane. I was prime stable over approximately 8 hours while I left for work and came home so figured I was in the clear. Time to try a 24 hour test to see if this was not some isolated findings with a few boards... Starting 24 hour test now, will post back in 2 days on results at overclocked speeds, since I'm more interested in stability at current settings which I plan to keep.
 
Ouch...sounds like I'm pretty SOL. Thanks for the info/advice anyways guys. I guess I can hope for some miracle BIOS update or something, but maybe thats wishful thinking.
 
I couldn't get prime stable until I followed these settings-

DFI Bios settings

I was stable for about 4 hours until I made the changes listed.

Now I can run overclocked under full load for 24hrs. (All that I tested.)

I'm wondering if [H] should re-test with different BIOS settings. They may get different results.

So it may not be the mb hardware, just the settings used. I personally think people should be able to use default settings without a problem, but this is a picky board and default settings just didn't work for me.
 
Prime stable for 18 hours so far on overclocked settings. I am NOT using RGone's BIOS settings for my OC since I was able to squeeze out a little more speed customizing it myself by tightening the RAM timings but losing some RAM bandwidth since I'm running duel channel and I actually lost performance using crappy timings just to gain a few Mhz on the RAM.

I think the stability problems listed above may have been fixed by just using a newer BIOS version, not necessarily having to use very specific BIOS settings like the DFI forum mod.

I'll let Prime run for 30 hours or so until I stop, but I feel fairly safe that the above problems are not universal or were fixed with new BIOS. There is a new official BIOS just released 3/10/05 btw.
 
I'm guessing the ram is TCCD. Anyways, I had a problem on my dfi nf4 with tccd when I burnt the ram in at 3v, it didnt want to go back to 2.6v. What I would do is put active cooling over the ram area and bump up the volts to 2.9-3.2v and see if it helps any. Or you could go get some quality gskill/ocz ram ;)
 
Update:

Prime stable for past 24 nows on overclocked settings with 2/17 BIOS. [H] either got a couple of bad boards or BIOS fixed the stability issues.

Whew. Feel better about my Ultra-D now :)
 
Ok, well I went ahead and used those settings for the RAM timing, and other BIOS settings. So far it seems rock solid, not one shutdown for the past 3 days. Prime is still misbehaving a little. I get to about 3 hrs 30 mins and it usually has an error, and the same error every time...Whether or not that is a conflict with my Winnie and Prime, I am unsure. Thankyou everyone for your help though, and I`ll be sure to post updates if I do find a resolution to my Prime problem.
 
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