Problems... and pictures!

I left 3DMark running all night while I was sleeping, and let it go in a loop.. Woke up just now and it was still running fine :) I'm so happy that the bad card seems to be the problem! I also played COD4 for a bit, and WoW for a while... everything worked amazingly. Incredibly fast, and really high FPS with just the one card.. can't wait to get a second working one in there :p

I'm still crossing my fingers for the next few days, hoping that I don't get any more BSODs.. But it seems to be fine so far :)
 
Still no errors or anything.. games running fine. The only thing that's worrying me now is that my HDD is pretty much ALWAYS making noise or 'seeking'. It's not slow, and nothing is laggy or anything.. But I'm not sure it's supposed to always be making noise?

It had a jumper on the back that was supposed to be removed to enable 3.0Gb/s.. so I took it off last night. I'm not sure if it was making so much noise before I did that or not. Do you think this is a bad sign?
 
that motherboard is toast.
edit: apparently not lol. I only said that because I thought my previous suggestions should have discovered any video card errors, combined with networking issues I thought it was all but confirmed.

I suggest you use ATI tool to stress the video card. That little fuzzy cube really seems to put the hurt on video cards, plus it keeps you on your desktop which is convienient as you can combine it with a CPU stressing program.
 
Syribo said:
Still no errors or anything.. games running fine. The only thing that's worrying me now is that my HDD is pretty much ALWAYS making noise or 'seeking'. It's not slow, and nothing is laggy or anything.. But I'm not sure it's supposed to always be making noise?

It had a jumper on the back that was supposed to be removed to enable 3.0Gb/s.. so I took it off last night. I'm not sure if it was making so much noise before I did that or not. Do you think this is a bad sign?
Click to expand...

It's suppose to make that noise. Seagate/Maxtor drives are known to be pretty loud.

Nothing wrong with the drive. Perfectly noble.
 
Danny Bui said:
It's suppose to make that noise. Seagate/Maxtor drives are known to be pretty loud.

Nothing wrong with the drive. Perfectly noble.
Click to expand...

Okay that makes me feel better :) Even if it's like 90% of the time it makes the noise? Like I said, I don't care if it makes the noise.. it doesn't bother me, and it's incredibly fast (Then again, I was just using an incredibly outdated Dell Dimension 4550 before this..), so as long as the sound isn't bad, I don't mind.

MrWizard... Why?? Everything has been working perfectly since I took out that second video card. I've run Prime95, Orthos, and 3DMark for hours and hours, and not one BSOD or error. I put in the other video card and try to run 3DMark and it freezes ASAP. I can run both Prime95 and 3DMark together with the 'good' card, while downloading stuff, torrenting, using AIM, checking my mail, surfing the web and listening to music.. and my temps are all very low, and everything is STILL fast. I figured I had solved the problem.. well, the board solved the problem ;)
 
Syribo said:
MrWizard... Why?? Everything has been working perfectly since I took out that second video card. I've run Prime95, Orthos, and 3DMark for hours and hours, and not one BSOD or error. I put in the other video card and try to run 3DMark and it freezes ASAP. I can run both Prime95 and 3DMark together with the 'good' card, while downloading stuff, torrenting, using AIM, checking my mail, surfing the web and listening to music.. and my temps are all very low, and everything is STILL fast. I figured I had solved the problem.. well, the board solved the problem ;)
Click to expand...

yeah I updated that post.

When you ran the each card seperatly as my suggestion indicated, what was the error that occured when you were running just the good card alone?
 
It'll stop making noise all the time in ~2 weeks when Vista stops being stupid and trying to index and cache everything since the dawn of time.
 
MrWizard6600 said:
yeah I updated that post.

When you ran the each card seperatly as my suggestion indicated, what was the error that occured when you were running just the good card alone?
Click to expand...

I never got an error with the good card alone.

I tried each separately just in 3DMark twice, and neither had an error or BSOD. So then I tried them together and I got an error again. Then I reinstalled Vista, SP1, drivers, everything.. And I tried running a bunch of tests and they all worked. Then I realized I had SLI disabled. As soon as I enabled it, the computer restarted right away again.

Took out the 'bad' card last night and ran Prime95 and 3DMark together for a while with no problems. Then I tried it with the bad card and got a BSOD right away.

Since I put the good card back in by itself, I've had the computer stable for 24 hours. Ran 3DMark for 8+ hours straight, and all other tests and games are fine.

Also, I've been running the little 3D cube thing in ATI Tools along with Prime95 for a bit now, no problems yet still :)
 
While running ATI Tools and Prime95, I'm getting temps of 54C, 55C, 48C, 48C. Is that normal? Or does it sound too high. As soon as I turn both tests off, they go down to 38, 43, 34, 36.
 
I still think you need to re-mount the HSF, as I'm pretty sure you used too much paste. The temps are fine, nothing is overheating, but it should be doing better than that in your windtunnel case at stock speeds. About what temperature if your house/room kept at?
 
silent-circuit said:
I still think you need to re-mount the HSF, as I'm pretty sure you used too much paste. The temps are fine, nothing is overheating, but it should be doing better than that in your windtunnel case at stock speeds. About what temperature if your house/room kept at?
Click to expand...

Hmm.. well I know it's probably bad, but I don't have a lot of space in my room.. the radiator is about two feet from my computer case.. is that bad? It doesn't come on too much. The thermostat usually is around 60 for the house. I keep my window open a bit too.
 
55C is fine. At 1.52V my E6300 runs 62C, 100% stable. Its running a thermalright Ultra 120 (non-extreme). I also think the theory about too-much thermalpaste is bogus. If its so caked on that its impeeding the pressure applied by the mounting hardware, then you can get yourself into trouble. Apple never had adaquate mounting hardware, so their work around was to use way too much thermalpaste so as to litterally bridge the gap (which was millimeters rather than micrometers).
 
And as a result the bottom of my Macbook Pro gets hotter than any point on my motherboard's heat pipe, even when pumping 1.5v to it. (Although I must say it's never failed on me.) In the end, it does great double duty as a blanket warmer for my bed.
 
Soo.. ANY time I try to torrent something (Using Bittorrent now.. uTorrent is my preference but it messed up too) my internet almost completely stops working. It keeps downloading and uploading, but I can't go to any websites in Firefox.. and AIM doesn't work either very well.

When I exit the torrent program, after a minute or two, everything goes back to normal.. I'm using a NetGear router and a Scientific Atlantic modem (My Dell is connected next to this computer, and my father uses wireless). When the internet stops on the new computer after I open a torrent program, I try to go to a site on my Dell and it works. The internet on that computer is fine. It's just this one.

Any ideas?
 
set global max number of connections, max number of connected peers per torrent, number of upload slots per torrent to 50 each.
 
You got a new router at some point, right? It is distinctly possible it sucks. (Always with the technical terms, I know...)
 
Just to update for those who have been following this whole situation :) The computer has been stable still (at stock of course) since my last post yesterday.. No BSODs or ANYTHING. I tried FlashGet and the internet has not frozen while torrenting, sites just open a little slow.. which is to be expected I think :p

Everything else is great.. Games play great.. Temperatures are in the 30s and low 40s all the time. Just waiting for my new HDD and 8800GTS to get here, and hopefully they both work this time. Also bought some new SATA cables that are a little bit longer (Oh and blue to match :p, the red didn't look good at all ;) ), two fans to replace two of the ones in the case, new headphones and a G9. I'm going to try the G9, hopefully I like it better than my M518, either way I need another mouse since I have two computers now.

I hope it stays this way :)
 
ISPs have begun to block the traffic users running torrents. Thats the first thing that pops into my head but I don't think its likely that thats the problem.
 
MrWizard6600 said:
ISPs have begun to block the traffic users running torrents. Thats the first thing that pops into my head but I don't think its likely that thats the problem.
Click to expand...

No, more likely a combination of Vista's fairly low half open connection limit and a poor quality router/modem.
 
silent-circuit said:
No, more likely a combination of Vista's fairly low half open connection limit and a poor quality router/modem.
Click to expand...

I miss my old Motorola modem! That thing was the best.. This Scientific Atlanta one that the cable company gave us (Said that the Motorola one was not compatible with the new digital cable and phone service thing) I really hate it.

I don't know much about routers, as this is the first time I've had to use one.. It's a Netgear router.. If there was a better one out there that would allow both my computers to it and my fathers wireless connection, I would totally buy it.
 
Which netgear? I've had trouble with some of their low end routers before. Switched to a Linksys and all was well.
 
enginurd said:
Which netgear? I've had trouble with some of their low end routers before. Switched to a Linksys and all was well.
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+1, I switched from my low end netgear to a D-Link DGL-4100 and couldn't be happier, have not had my connection drop once since I bought it *knock on wood*.
 
+2, Yeah I've had a couple of crappy low-end Netgear Routers before, like the infamous WGT624. :ugh:

Switched to the Dlink DIR-655 and never been happier.
 
Danny Bui said:
+2, Yeah I've had a couple of crappy low-end Netgear Routers before, like the infamous WGT624. :ugh:

Switched to the Dlink DIR-655 and never been happier.
Click to expand...

Oh my God... That's the router I have! The Netgear WGT624v3. (Also, considering that it sucks so bad.. why the hell is it still so expensive? My father just bought it a few months ago for like $65!)

Can anyone recommend some good wireless/wired (Has to do both, of course) routers that DON'T suck? I was thinking about getting the LINKSYS WRT54GL (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833124190). Any positive experiences with it?

Although, will having a nice not crappy router still not matter too much if you have a crappy modem? My old modem was definitely waaay faster... but apparently I can't change the modem because I need it to be compatible with the cable phone service? I want my Motorola one back :(
 
Well are you sure that your new modem is slower than your old one? In fact, are you sure that your ISP didn't just lower your speeds? If the answer to both is yes, see if your ISP is willing to give you a better modem. Tell them that the modem you have is slower than the old modem. It's worth a try.

As for that Linksys router, no experience with it. IIRC, there are certain Linksys WRT54G routers that you should avoid. Forget which ones though.

Anyway, if you're willing to pony up the cash for it, I'm using the router and it's rock solid:
D-Link DIR-665 Xtreme N Gigabit Wireless Router - $115

And yeah, I really hated that Netgear router. Died every week or so which would then require me to do a hard reboot.
 
6146.png

Here's what I got just now. And it says "ISP upload compression detected".

It was much higher a few days ago, both upload and download speeds.

8920.png

Just tested again and got this.. and didn't say anything about ISP upload compression.
 
I have some questions about Overclocking :)

Now that the computer seems to be great and stable.. I want to try to begin my journey into OCing. I would like to just get my Q6600 to 3.0GHz... This shouldn't be too hard, yes? What else is good to OC.. RAM? GPU?

I'm going to check out the Cooling and Overclocking forum for more information also... But would still love anyone else's advice and tips ;) Or.. directions :D
 
I recommend waiting another week or two to make sure that your rig is fully stable. Your rig has barely been stable for the past 2-3 days. So don't go rushing off to OC just yet.

With that said, overclocking is not that hard to do. All you really can OC is your CPU and GPU. C2D systems do not benefit from having faster RAM or having the FSB and RAM at anything other than a 1:1 ratio.

So assuming you keep a 1:1 ratio with the FSB and RAM, you really don't need to OC the RAM:

Stated FSB/4 = Actual FSB
Multiplier x Actual FSB = CPU Speed
2 x Actual FSB = RAM Speed

Q6600:
Multi x Actual FSB, Stated FSB, RAM Speed = Clock Speed
9 x 266Mhz, 1066Mhz, DDR2 533 RAM = 2.4Ghz <== Stock Speeds
9 x 333Mhz, 1333Mhz, DDR2 667 RAM = 3.0Ghz <== Good OC
9 x 400Mhz, 1600Mhz, DDR2 800 RAM = 3.6Ghz <== Excellent OC, About the Max
 
With that board, go in to the advanced BIOS Settings, then CPU features menu and press F4, then turn off the other three except for execute disable bit

Then go in the Cell menu.

Make sure your RAM is set to Expert and your timings are correct, then set:
FSB to 1333 (type it in, press enter)

everything else, use pg up / pg down keys.

NB voltage to 1.45 v
DRAM to 2.10
CPU voltage to 0.2
CPU GTL to 65
FSB Ref to 25

Everything else to auto/detault settings. F10 to save, reboot and say a little prayer to the OC gods. Once you get in to Windows, if you get in, run Prime95 small FFTs and see if it locks up or the threads fail. If they do reboot and set FSB Ref to 63 and CPU Ref lower,to 30, 35, and see if that works better. If none of the above works come back and tell us and I'll think some more.


All that said, I agree with Danny that you should wait a bit longer. Also, make sure you backup anything you might lose on the drive, since I've fraged Vista at least twice while OCing with this board.... but I was also aiming for a lot higher than 3Ghz and see to be the exception rather than the rule. Still. Better safe than really pissed off and missing your Odin Sphere memcard saves.... (damnit.)
 
Syribo said:
I have some questions about Overclocking :)

Now that the computer seems to be great and stable.. I want to try to begin my journey into OCing. I would like to just get my Q6600 to 3.0GHz... This shouldn't be too hard, yes? What else is good to OC.. RAM? GPU?

I'm going to check out the Cooling and Overclocking forum for more information also... But would still love anyone else's advice and tips ;) Or.. directions :D
Click to expand...

man my face just lit up as I read that.

Silent Circuits recomendations are almost gaurenteed to work. I'm betting you could push as far as 350 without any serious problems, after that your getting into the Q6600s highest OC.

and I'll double what Silent circuit said about backing up. I just tinkered with a little OCing, managed five or six BSODs. Readyboost and Dreamscene (the new content pack is nice) both no longer functioned. I reformatted. The best thing to do would be to make an image of your Hard drive if you can manage it.
 
Okay I am not going to OC for at least another week :) But at least I have the directions on how to do it now, thanks Silent ;)

I was thinking of getting new fans for my case.. but don't know which fans are better than others. I heard that the Yate Loon fans are good? I may just replace the two 120mm LED fans and two 90mm fans that my Armor case came with.. and end up getting 3 120mm LED fans for the front, leave one I already have as rear exhaust, and also buy two new 90mm fans for the top and back. Don't know if I'll need the 90mm fans to be LEDs because I'll already have about 4 LED fans in the case (All blue, by the way.. gotta have it match :p). I also want to replace the 250mm fan on the side door, if it's worth it. (Perhaps with this fan: http://www.frozencpu.com/products/5306/fan-260/250mm_Silent_LED_Case_Fan_-_Black_Frame_-_Blue.html)

Being silent or quiet would be a big help. although it's not my main concern.. I don't mind the noise too much. I just want some more airflow in there, and more pretty LEDs :) What should I go for, do ya think?
 
I couldn't hold my need to OC back any longer.. so I did it last night ;)

Got the Q6600 to 3.0Ghz which is where I'm going to leave it for a while (Maybe if I ever get into water cooling, I'll try to get it higher). It's totally stable. Ran Prime95 small FFTs all night long along with looping 3DMark.

Then I tried to OC my one GTS (I can't wait to get the second one back) with RivaTuner and ATI Tool. Put my fans up to 90% (I could put them up to 100%, the noise really doesn't bother me.. there are no drawbacks to having the fans up high, right?). I've managed to OC the card to 815 core/1935 shaders/1055 memory. Is that good for a first time OC? I can't go any higher without getting artifacts in ATI Tool. I left 3DMark running all night long in a loop, and I woke up with no problems so the OC seems to have gone successful. My 8800GTS has an idle temp of 45C right now, and it goes up to about 55C while being stressed.

Are there any kind of GPU coolers that fit on the 8800GTS (Or at least two of them in SLI)?

My idle temps on my CPU are 37, 42, 33, 35. That seems good, once I get the new fans and I remount the HSF and properly reapply the thermal paste, it should go down a bit more.
 
55C load on the GPU is very good, actually. GPUs follow a different standard than CPUs when it comes to temperatures -- my stock cooled 8800 GTXs run 60-70C idle and occasionally top 90C under load. There's a reason I'm going to water cool them. ;)

It's a good OC. Remember that you may have to back it off some after adding the second card, as having two cards in the case at the same time will raise temperatures.
 
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Load temps? Like while stressing the system and such? Right now I have WoW minimized.. but I have Large FFTs in Prime95 running with ATI Tool also. My temps are 54, 56, 49, 49. GPU is 49.

I really want to get it to 3.4 eventually... I wonder if I can do it. If I were to try, I would again need help because I still don't understand the numbers no matter how hard I try :p

I want to get the coolers so I can get my two 8800GTS cards overclocked more. OCing is fun, if you don't mess up something :D
 
Danny Bui said:
What are your load temps for the CPU?

As for GPU coolers, this GPU cooler is compatble with the 8800GTS:
http://www.directron.com/acceleros1rev2.html

However if you use them on both cards for SLI, you will need this extended SLI cable:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Long-Flexible-S...209816316QQihZ012QQcategoryZ162QQcmdZViewItem

Yeah, I only held out for two days before I started overclocking my rig. LOL!
Click to expand...

Also, can I use two of those coolers for my two 8800GTS? How do I go about doing that.. I have to take off the stock cooler for it? I don't know anything about it, but I want to OC my cards more more more!

And I want to get to 3.4Ghz... Hopefully silent can help me with the numbers again ;) And I can pray that I can do 3.4Ghz myself! I have faith in this system, hehe.
 
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I'm really enjoying my computer :) Especially since I've OCd it... but I want to hit either 3.2 or 3.4Ghz... Think I can do 3.4Ghz? Sounds like people can do it fine.. The Zerotherm Nirvana should do a good job of cooling.

But I still don't understand the numbers... I just took the numbers silent-circuit told me, and filled them into the BIOS :p So uhm.. who can help me with the voltage numbers I need to get up to 3.4Ghz :) I really want to do it today, while also fine tweaking my 8800GTS too.

Please help, I know there are many OC enthusiasts on this forum ;)
 
Please review my XS P7N thread for a wealth of P7N OC information.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=178286

We are still waiting on an explanation for the more esoteric settings on the P7N. vCore, vNB, vSB, and vDIMM are self-explanatory. Settings for FSB Term and the reference voltages are still a mystery, although we do know the following:

Aside from vCore and vNB, the two most important settings for getting a stable OC are FSB Term and GTL Ref.

Q6600 OCs beyond 3-3.2ghz will put greater stress on the north bridge. In order to achieve stability, you'll have to bump NB voltage in addition to vCore. In my experience, NB stability can be achieved by tinkering with vNB and FSB Term. For my Q6600 at 3.6ghz, I need a vNB of 1.425 and an FSB term of 25.

CPU stability comes from vCore and GTL Ref. Read the first post of the XS thread for a great deal of info regarding these settings. You need to know your VID before shooting for a high OC. Download and run CoreTemp for this information.

Lastly, some P7Ns seem to need a boost to NB GTL in order to achieve stability at high OCs. My board doesn't, but for those that do, a setting between 10-20 seems to do the trick.

I think the P7N is a great board and I've had much success OCing my CPU with it. I'm at 3.6ghz stable and I've benched at 4.05ghz. As the BIOS matures, I hope and plan to increase my stable OC upwards to 4ghz. (Although keep in mind that a stable 4ghz on a Q6600 is no easy feat, especially on an nForce board. I went through four Q6600 G0s before finding the one I think will do it, and I'm water-cooled.) However, the P7N is not necessary an easy board to OC, especially with the current BIOS. For best results, it pays to thoroughly understand the different technical factors involved in OCing. Knowing how speed, voltage, and heat plays into the stability of your components is crucial. Understanding RAM timings and the relationship between CPU, RAM, and FSB (as well as the math behind it) is also very important. There are many great guides here and elsewhere that will introduce you to the nitty-gritty details if you aren't already familiar with them (and the thread on XS does touch on many of these.) However, until you get a handle on what 1:1 ratios are, where your CPU's speed / voltage wall is, and other neat things like FSB holes, what GTL voltages do, etc... high OC success on the P7N will likely be obtained through trial and error with ambiguous numbers.

Don't get discouraged though :) Many say that the best way to learn how to ski is by going from a bunny slope to a black diamond. When I started with this board, I think I underestimated the difficulty many will have with this BIOS. This board has great potential, and as the BIOS matures, more and more will achieve great OC results with less and less effort. In the mean time, if you're up for a bit of a challenge, the P7N will not disappoint. Lastly, remember that blue-screens, lock-ups, and the like are all part of the game. You will no doubt experience quite a few as others have. However, there really is no risk to the board or any of your hardware unless temps for some reason get out of control. In case the OS gets corrupted in the process (it can happen,) back up everything so you can reformat and reinstall if need be (and once you've settled on your OC numbers.)

Best of luck!
 
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