This is for a new build. The system will start to boot and I can get into the bios, but within 1 minute it crashes. The screen goes blank, but the fans continue to spin. I have to hit reset and then power to shut down. It seems like a stability issue, but I can't figure out where. I checked all the connections and standoffs. I have also tried booting with no drives attached, with the same result. Here are the complete specs: Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X2048-6400C4 Matched pair Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Brisbane 2.6GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Dual-Core Black Edition Processor MSI K9A2 Platinum edition ABS Tagan BZ Series BZ800 ATX12V / EPS12V 800W power supply MSI 8800GT 512MB vid card. I have a Duorb on the video card and a zerotherm BTF90 on the CPU. The highest CPU temp IO have seen in the bios is 23C, right before a crash. I also tried plugging the cpu fan into a 3 pin case header and a case fan into the cpu header to make sure it wasn't a speed issue, but no luck. I also tried reseating the video card. TIA for the help.
Here's something to try... Try either options: [1] use only 1 stick of Corsair XMS2 in memory slot-1 or 2 to boot. Once PC POST. Go into BIOS and reset BIOS to default and downgrade the DRAM to 533MHz and SAVE BIOS settings. Power down the PC. Insert the second DIMM in Dual-Channel mode. and reboot. Now Test stability: Installed Windows/Linux, boot and stress test with Prime95 for hours If successful, then go to BIOS and increase DRAM to default speed and see if it become unstable again. IF So, then you got RAM compatibility problems. [2] Insert the RAM in Single-Channel Mode. Reboot and see if it is more stable. Try install windows and stress test it like mentioned in Option 1. Good luck and may the force be with you. Sorry, i will say it here... ME! "Strongly" dislike Corsair XMS series.
thanks, I'll try it. Just out of curiosity why do you dislike this stuff so much? I bought it because Tom's hardware had it on their Christmas gift guide as good stuff.
Oh.. rant... The background story is that we tested a lot of the XMS against many boards in the labs since early 2007, and we found the DDR Memory signal characteristics is all over the place. Different XMS modules (versions) on the same board gives different stability results and OC characteristics. IMHO, so many felt like budget RAMS with heat spreaders. Some of the XMS modules have so little signal "safety" margins left, that some motherboards cannot boot at default settings. The BIG Irony is we found some budget RAMs to perform better than Twin2X XMS. Tech sites like Toms Hardware do send out requests for memory modules. What Corsair and other companies do is they pick the BEST modules for them to tests and review. What the average user buys in the retail market has wider variations in quality. A single postive XMS review based on 1 or 2 versions of XMS is insufficient to gauge the quality of the XMS brand as a whole. Corsair PR and Spinmeisters are like WoW Level 70 characters ganging up. One thing i don't like is that in recent years, they have segmented the XMS brands into so many sub-brands that uses different grades of DRAM chips. IMHO, i just think there are better products than XMS.
thanks. You know the ironic thing for me is that I really was not overly concerned about price on this build. I wanted a good price/performance ratio but didn't want to nickel and dime it. I had been planning on getting a phenom 9600, but because of the bug I decided to wait, so I viewed the 5000+ as a stopgap until AMD gets the bugs worked out of the phenom. I bought the K9A2 board fully planning on upgrading the CPU in about 6 months. Because I got a 5000+ I had to go with DDR2 800 RAM, but am planning on getting rid of it when I get the phenom and going faster. I'll try your fix and post results tonight. If I were to replace the RAM what would you recommend, 2 GB, needs to last me about 6 months. Also, if I read you correctly you feel that my issue is RAM with a high degree of certainty. Do you think I should replace it right now. thanks for all the help
A 65nm Brisbane at 3GHz (once you get it stable) will out perform most Phenoms in single-core and even the occasional multi-tasking application. How recent is the BIOS? Have you updated it?
Micron will be getting back to me soon about the details on a rare high performance DRAM and where they are being installed and used. I'm looking for those modules as well. I think so but it is important for me to stress that there could be other issues at play. The danger of working with RAMs too much is that we tend to see all sorts of problems being related to RAM when they are not. I try to be very careful, but still... hard to see my own butt. We came across large amount of boards failing to POST and Crashes in BIOS attributed to RAM compatibility problems. Should you get the RAM replaced now? Depends. Can you change the RAM to other make or brand? Can you replace the motherboard? For the BEST RMA replacement, try to get RMA via Corsair Support forum through the "RAM Guy". Document your test procedures, board+BIOS details, when and where you got the XMS and so forth, and post it at Corsair Support Forum. BUG the support people there until they refer you to a Corsair testing procedure page... There are a few Application Engineers at the Corsair Forum. When successful. they'll give you Direct RMA details. Specifically ask for XMS version that is "More Compatible" with your specific motherboard. At Corsair they got extensive database of System Test results of RAM versions vs Motherboards & CPU coupled with tech support issues with each version. Downside... You'll be weeks without RAM for your system, but you'll get the best chance of getting things running.
The board was bought brand new retail in December. I have not updated the bios, heck I can't get it to run long enough even if I wanted it to. On the dos screen the bios says this: Fasttrack PDC4289 bios version 2.8.1030.0012 on the board itself there is a sticker that says AMIBios VK44 4636 when I get into CMOS it says V 02.61 AMI Not sure which one of these is the real bios
I did post in the Corsair forums earlier today as well as tech support for MSI, but I have not heard back from either. I can change RAM but not sure if what I have in the kid's Dell is compatible. I would prefer not to replace mobo because it cost almost $200, but it isn't doing me much good now, so that is also not out of the question
make sure your memory is stable before updating BIOS. We had a fair few motherboards with bad flash due to having incompatible RAM. It is safer to used a single DIMM downgrade to 533MHz when flashing the BIOS. In case there is something bad during flash, try rebooting the system with the motherboard CD. some vendor include BIOS recovery system in the driver CD.
no joy on running the ram at 533 or 400 either. I also put in a stick of corsair 533 I took out of the kid's dell and lastly tried a stick of hynix from the dell. I tried 1 stick in each of the slots with no luck. Now I am wondering if it is Ram at all. With this thing crashing within 1 minute I'm not sure I can flash the bios. At this point I don't think I can do anything but wait for MSI. Assuming the 8800GT and the 5000+ black are good if I were to replace the mobo what would you recommend? Also, I am going on 2 weeks of active duty to Guam week after next so a wait on parts is not a problem
Oh, sorry to hear that it did not work. Next in the elimination list is the PSU and follow by the board. Try another PSU? My feeling is board failure is more common than a high quality psu failing. Unfortunately, without identifying what is failing, buying/RMA parts may not resolve the problem. You plan to OC?
Please do not even consider flash the bios until the machine become stable! you might brick it! Could you put the ram sticks in your kids pc and boot into a Memtest86 floppy http://www.memtest.org/#downiso and let it run. We will then know if its the ram
SUCCESS!!! ok...finally got it. problem was the video card. Here is the story. I borrowed a card from work and tried it. Lo and behold the system came up no problem. So I got to thinking about why my brand new MSI 8800GT wouldn't work with my brand new MSI motherboard. I starting thinking cooler. The stock cooler plugged into a 4 pin header on the card. The Duorb uses a molex, so I was wondering if I needed to jumper it or something odd like that. I got to googling it and found a post in a forum about mounting that cooler to that card. The post said that the instructions are wrong. The instructions are very specific about which standoffs to use with which card. It turns out that if you use the ones they tell you the heatsink will not make good enough contact with the gpu to cool it properly. Problem is that if you use the smaller ones there is a gap between the mounting bracket and the card that will deform the card if you don't use a spacer. So you need to put spacers in there and it will mount fine. Did all that and viola....no more stability issues. Can't believe that was it. Thermaltake needs to modify their hardware AND their instructions. Hope this helps someone else, but thank you for all your help, I learned a lot by posting here in this forum.
