Problems... and pictures!

Reformat the key. Something is wrong with its filesystem. If there's an option for type of filesystem in the HP utility make sure it's set to FAT32.
 
I've already refofmatted it a bunch of times... Using the HP program right? And "FAT" is chosen. I can choose between "FAT" and "NTFS".
 
Yup, tried reformatting it and trying to boot from the key again... still nothing :( Maybe I am doing something wrong.. The USB key can't be bad too!

Oh yeah, I need to buy some blank CDs or something.. But I haven't bought them in years, and don't know what kind I need exactly. I have the SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black. DVDs? CDs? Speed? I really just need them to copy things from my old computer to this one.. and for booting things if I need to.. which it seems I need to.
 
One other thing, in addition to my last post too.. Is there any program I can download that will show my GPU temps? I don't seem to see anything anywhere that lists those temps.
 
OK anyone looking for the V1.1 Beta 4 bios I linked earlier, the link has been updated. Same location, new archive. If you got the old version /please delete it/ my filenames didn't work under DOS and prevented the BAT file from being called. The new bat file is fixed and confirmed working on my own board, which just arrived in the mail.

Please do not run this in Windows! It will brick your board!
p7ndiamondbiosv114b.rar (updated)
Also, if you downloaded this in the last couple of minutes please delete it and get it again. Another minor update.
 
OK anyone looking for the V1.1 Beta 4 bios I linked earlier, the link has been updated. Same location, new archive. If you got the old version /please delete it/ my filenames didn't work under DOS and prevented the BAT file from being called. The new bat file is fixed and confirmed working on my own board, which just arrived in the mail.

Please do not run this in Windows! It will brick your board!
p7ndiamondbiosv114b.rar (updated)
Also, if you downloaded this in the last couple of minutes please delete it and get it again. Another minor update.

I'll say it again, you're awesome :) Thanks! I'm about to go babysit my nieces for two hours, so I'm going to try it as soon as I get back.
 
Okay I put the files on the key, and tried to boot it up. I typed in dir /p and the files came up (No error this time). But when I type in v114, nothing happens. I even tried v114flash, and a few other things.. I'm doing something wrong! :(
 
You must be because it worked fine for me and it's the same files.

You should copy the files (there are 4 of them) on to the root of the USB key (not in their own folder).

One is v114.bat and there are 2 others with strange names, one ending in exe, one in 114.

If they aren't immediately visible when you open the USB drive from in Windows you're putting them in the wrong place.

When you type v114 it will type one line and then a program should start and run, which will take some time (do /not/ turn off the computer no matter what once it starts!), and then you have to restart.
 
You must be because it worked fine for me and it's the same files.

You should copy the files (there are 4 of them) on to the root of the USB key (not in their own folder).

One is v114.bat and there are 2 others with strange names, one ending in exe, one in 114.

If they aren't immediately visible when you open the USB drive from in Windows you're putting them in the wrong place.

When you type v114 it will type one line and then a program should start and run, which will take some time (do /not/ turn off the computer no matter what once it starts!), and then you have to restart.

They ARE on the root of the key :( I can't figure out what exactly I am doing wrong! I'm following the directions to a T.
 
You don't have the new files then.

EDIT: not your fault, my fault. The file didn't update properly. I'm replacing it now. I'll tell you when the new one is up.

Just not my day. I'm also angry as hell at my own board, so that's not helping me think straight.

EDIT2: OK, it's fixed and I re-downloaded it at tested it this time. Really sorry.

p7ndiamondbiosv114b.rar
(last fix, I swear...)
 
You don't have the new files then.

Argh.

I just downloaded them from the link you posted on the other thread though.. Let me try it again for a third time.. third times a charm :p Downloading the one in this thread now, a few posts up.

Okay, when I open the zip file up, there are four files.. One is still named v114flash.bat
 
I'm just going to rename the file.. It still says v114flash.bat.
 
4 times in a row now, trying to start up the computer, after the little bar on the bottomstarts filling and stuff... nothing. My computer stops making noise, screen goes black. Have to turn it off, then back on again. I didn't make any changes at all grrr...

I just got it started FINALLY. So now I'll try again with the file renamed this time. YGPM silent :p
 
Okay... changed the name of the file... so this is what's on my screen right now:

C:\>v114

C:\>AFUD4234 A7510NMS.114

General failure reading drive C
Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail?
 
There's something wrong with that key or something. I don't know. Can you use a different machine to format it?
 
I've been using my old computer to do the formatting on it. It worked when I did Memtest... I'm so confused.
 
Hopefully someone else can help for a while. I can hardly see straight right now, and it seems like it's time for new ideas anyway.
 
It's working! It's doing the AMI Firmware Update Utility!

Thank you thank you thank you :) Now after this, whats the next thing I should do. Enable SLI to see if it works, then run 3DMark to see if it crashes?

Actually it just said Program ended normally... So is it safe to restart now?
 
Yes, restart and do all of that now. You'll have to change all your BIOS settings first though. It resets them.
 
Yes, restart and do all of that now. You'll have to change all your BIOS settings first though. It resets them.

Oohh.. ahh.. Uhm. I have to change the RAM then (What was that again... 5-5-5-16?) and the CPU volt? I forget what else, heh.
 
What mobo issues are you having SC? My machine is together with the exception of the DVD drive, the video card, and some Arctic Silver. We'll see if she'll post tomorrow after work.

Keep going Syribo, you're nearly there. What did you have to do to get your flash drive to finally load the firmware?

-Jade
 
What mobo issues are you having SC? My machine is together with the exception of the DVD drive, the video card, and some Arctic Silver. We'll see if she'll post tomorrow after work.

Keep going Syribo, you're nearly there. What did you have to do to get your flash drive to finally load the firmware?

-Jade

I can't get it to OC as well as the 680i LT did, and at some point I killed my Vista partition during an unstable boot, so I have to reinstall now.

That part's my fault, but so far I'm just unhappy with the OCing. I was expecting 3.6Ghz easy and higher with some tweaking. As it is I haven't managed to get it to run stable past 3.15Ghz. I had the same chip stable at 3.4Ghz on the XFX 680i LT with less vcore, so it isn't the chip.
 
Sigh... Got back into Vista, went to the Nvidia control panel.. Clicked Enable SLI.. Then the screen went back (It does that when I disable and enable it).. but it's not coming back :( It's been like this for a few minutes already... Ugh :(

Okay.. now my computer just restarted itself. And I have the Windows did not shut down successfully screen.. ! :( It seems enabled though. I just checked after restarting. Oh but this is strange... My Enter key isn't working, what the hell?!
Now for the moment of truth... Going to run 3DMark to see if it freezes... and if the results went up. After I restart and hopefully my enter key will work. Never had that happen before with my G15 or any other keyboard.
 
Syribo, I still don't think it would be a bad idea to try each card individually, or at least leave SLI off for a bit until you get things sorted out. I know you want to get things all running the way you want them right away (I would too!) but it might make life easier if you do things in baby steps. Get it running stable for awhile, do some testing, then try to get the SLI running right. Just a suggestion.

That being said, I'm going to bed now so I can get to work early and you're in the more than capable hands of SC it seems. Best of luck to both of you and I'll check up on your progress tomorrow.

SC, hope you have some success getting that overclock figured out. Have you changed anything else with the system? Could it be memory related?

-Jade
 
This much trouble is rare, I'm hoping you wont be too discouraged by this on your next upgrade, at the very least don't buy from Dell.

I've gotta ask: You did apply thermal paste to your CPU before mounting that after market cooler to your CPU and motherboard right? Its a common mistake and its physically impossible granted standard air cooling to have temps below ambient (which is what speedfan seems to be reporting).

OK, at this point a BIOS flash looks like a good idea to me, but I've never actually had to flash an MSI BIOS, so I'll leave that up to you guys, but usually a floppy is the way to go and floppy drives are only a couple of bucks these days. Format an unused floppy. *note* if you go the floppy method your uncompressed BIOS file MUST be less then 1.3MB.

Alright, this sounds way too much like the power supply is trying to beat the snot out of every part of your system. Random corruptions and problems with multiple parts of your computer are pretty indicative of a Power Supply problem, (or a mainboard problem which a BIOS update might cure). What is the make and model of the PSU?

Next, disable SLI, turn the system off, and remove one of your video cards.Turn the system back on and try your hardest to get it to bsod (go nuts in Crysis or something). Do you BSOD? Now remove this card and plop in the other one (best to put a stickey tab on one or something to tell them apart) do whatever you did to test the first one as identically as you can do the 2nd one to test it. Do you BSOD with card 2?

If you do with one and not the other, the card that fails is bad, RMA it. If you do with both the problem is not graphics card related. And if it fails with neither, its either the power supply or the motherboard.

If you have another known good power supply (with wattage upward of 400W (25A on the 12V at least), test the system with ONE video card again.

report back after you've tried all this.

Don't worry, we'll get this computer working properly, I'm not leaving this thread till we do.

edit: wait you guys are overvolting things already? Thats not a good idea, run everything at stock. All ram follows JEDEC and JEDEC requires that at least one profile be completely stable at 1.8V. an increase of .1V (for 1.45V) to the CPU right off the bat is too aggressive for the newest steppings. Run everything stock.
 
I acutally have it working PERFECTLY now. 3DMark ran without a BSOD with SLI enabled this time! My games have seem a DRAMATIC increase in FPS, all after flashing the new BIOS which silent-circuit explained to me how to do it.

Everything seems wonderful right now. Hopefully it STAYS that way!

Also, MrWizard: I am using a Corsair 750TX PSU. It won't discourage me :) I've had a great time building this, and it's been a wonderful 20 days since I first came to this board and received so much help. My other post was up to 300 replies, so many helpful people on here! I still kinda like my old Dell though ;) It's gotten me through 6 years with no problems, and is still running strong! I will definitely be building and upgrading my own computers for now on :)

I also haven't changed any voltages myself except for the CPU Voltage and the DIMM one.
 
Spoken too soon. After I made that post, I installed COD4 and started playing it. I was messing around with its control panel, putting it on the highest possible settings, and as soon as I gained control of the main character I received a BSOD:

PAGE_FAULT__IN_NON_PAGED_AREA
0x00000050 (0xFFFFFF22221BFF22, 0x0000000000000000, 0xFFFFF80001C94C76, 0x0000000000000007)

And then... Just a few moments ago I was just changing the look of an icon on my desktop, and the monitor started flickering black, then it kind of froze for a few seconds, and then I got this message:
Device driver nvlddmkm stopped responding but is now running, something along those lines.

MrWizard: I did apply thermal paste, MX-2. I am going to try the thing with taking out one card right now and will report back with results.
 
Okay, I took out the second card in my case, and booted up with just the one card in. I opened up Crysis and right when I got this:
IMG_0138_800x600.jpg

Followed shortly by:
IMG_0139_800x600.jpg

Then the computer restarted itself on its own.

So then I took out the card in there, and put the second card back in the first cards place. Again I ran Crysis at High settings 2xAA and had no trouble like the first card, however I did have this:
IMG_0147_800x600.jpg

Some kind of tearing.. or something. Like half the screen kept getting messed up, as you can see in that picture. When I had control, I went into the menu and turned the settings to Medium with no AA and that problem went away.

After playing around in that for a bit, with no BSOD.. I decided to try and see how the 3DMark test would run. The first time I open it, I get this:
IMG_0154_800x600.jpg

Never got that before... So I close it, then open it again and the test ran fine that time, and I got a score of 11574.

So.. what the heck is wrong?? I also randomly get this a few times a day, out of no where.. doesn't even matter what I'm doing, it always comes up at different times:
IMG_0141_800x600.jpg


Hmm, I read this somewhere, don't know if it's true or not: FYI, Samsung (w/ lighscribe) cdroms will conflict with the Nvidia drivers resulting in a BSOD. If you unplug the drive, everything will run fine. Had to RMA the drive for a Sony.
I have a Samsung drive... with light scribe. Any truth to this you think?
 
Syribo,

The Crysis green-screen is odd.. It may be that there is something wrong with that card in particular. It would explain a lot.

The screen tearing you see in Crysis is a function of vSync. Turn vSync on in Crysis and see if that resolves the issue. Note that this screen tearing is very common in many games, and is at times reduced or resolved by patches or better drivers.

Changing cards or drivers can often trip up programs like 3DMark. I don't know the specifics of how 3DMark is built, but I wouldn't be surprised if it caches configuration information and then fails when it tries to pull up outdated info (as you had just changed the card.) The fact that it ran fully the second time suggests that it's working correctly.

I've seen Windows Media crash on my system too, but every time it does I can reopen it and it will work indefinitely. I googled the issue and seems to be caused by the latest ForceWare beta drivers.
 
Well, I guess I'm right in thinking I should definitely RMA the one card? I just submitted the RMA to NewEgg... Any other ideas are still helpful though ;)
 
Spoke too soon AGAIN. Just tried to play Crysis and about one minute into the game, the screen got scrambled and now it's black...

What is going on!?

First, when I was moving the mouse around everything was lagging.. Then the screen went totally black. I control alt deleted and was able to just stop Crysis and everything is fine now.. it didn't completely freeze..

IMG_0155_800x600.jpg

I really DO have the worst luck!
 
Went into WoW for ONE second and BAM! BSOD AGAIN!! UGH!

So I rturned it off, then when I turned it back on, I got a BSOD right while Vista was loading up.

The BIOS in this system is not fully ACPI compliant. Please contact your system vendor for an updated BIOS.

...What!?
 
It may be that your Vista install was corrupted via the combination of blue screens and configuration changes. It happens.

When I build or overclock a rig, I always do it on a spare drive containing a bare-bones install of XP plus any needed benchmark, stress test, and temp monitoring tools. When I'm happy with my results, then I swap over to my main RAID array and install Vista and everything that goes with it.

I then keep this bench drive alive in the system (but I disable booting from it in the BIOS,) so that when I want to tweak my overclock, I can just refer back to the XP installation. If that's trashed, I can rebuild it 15 minutes. If my main Vista environment is trashed, I'll likely spend hours restoring backups, rebuilding settings, and reinstalling programs.
 
.. I just don't know what I should do. I'm very close to sending EVERYTHING back.
 
I can't help anymore right now. Too overwhelmed with all the crap my board is giving me. At this point I'd say swap the board for a P35, and the graphics cards for a 9800GX2 or 9800GTX. That's what I'm considering at this point, with a ~$150 loss in there... and right now it's looking more tempting than I ever thought it would.
 
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