[A64] RS480 random lockups, hard crashes, rebooting, freezing

[Txiasaeia]

Now that I've got your attention, specs:

AMD A64 3200+ rev. e (Venice)
MSI RS480, bios ver. 3.4
2x512 Corsair Value Select Dual Channel kit PC3200 CAS2.5
Leadtek PX6600GT Extreme (550/1100 stock)
SB Live! Value
WD 80GB 7200rpm 8mb cache IDE ATA100
Seasonic SS-380 (25a on 12v rails, 380w total)
Pioneer DVR-109
Inwin S500T mATX case
Nexus 92mm CPU fan on Thermalright XP-90 heatsink

I've been experiencing random lockups and restarts in 3d apps & games (Battlefield 2, Warcraft 3, Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War, GTA:SA) since I built this system back in May.  I'm so sick of this computer right now that I could happily take a sledge to it and reduce it to rubble.

Symptoms:

1) Random reboots and lockups, *not* due to heat.  Heat prior to lockups using Speedfan has the CPU consistently around 50 C and the video card consistently at 40-45 C.  Needless to say, these are very cool temps, but an extra case fan was added to make sure that air flow in case was good.

2) Motherboard RMA'd after purchase - simply refused to post.

3) RAM RMA'd after about a month after several dozen memtest86 errors found.  New RAM has been tested - each stick individually & together - and no errors after testing each configuration for 12 hours.

4) Video card RMA'd after massive heat spikes (upwards 120 C) detected.  New video card arrived yesterday & have had one lockup since, which wasn't unusual with old setup.  Problem still remains.

5) Sound card was removed for testing when lockup in #4 above occurred, which leads me to believe that my POS SB Live isn't the problem.  Too bad, as it would have been a terrific excuse to upgrade to an Audigy 2 ZS.

6) When video card was removed, system was rock solid, not a single crash.  With video card in, crashed all the time prior to RMA, and once in two days after new one received.  While the old video card certainly appeared to have problems, I'm hesitant at this point to put all my problems on the video card.  Is this an erroneous assumption?

7) At least eight or nine different Forceware versions were used for testing; different driver versions did not prevent crashes.

Now, it hasn't crashed again (which means nothing; it's been a couple of hours) since disabling SATA in bios and downloading & installing AMD driver for processor.  Will be moving RAM from slots 1 & 2 to 3 & 4 shortly.  Before my sanity is finally and truly lost, is there anything else that anybody can think of to stop these hard locks?  I'm off to move the RAM around and do some further testing, but any advice whatsoever would be absolutely terrific.  Thanks!

(topic title changed.  apparently some people thought I was kidding.)

[Tiresmoke]

Next time use accurate titles in your posts. We are good about helping and we don't like deceptive, ficticious or angry topic titles. That is likely to get your post deleted out of hand.

I will leave this one this time and let folks help you that know that board best but if I see another title like that just to get attention the post will be gone. Accurate titles draw our attention as we actually enjoy helping here.

[Txiasaeia]

Moving RAM to slots 3 & 4 did absolutely nothing; Battlefield 2 crashed within about fifteen seconds of loading a map.  Any suggestions?

[Tiresmoke]

Run Memtest86 and see if you are getting RAM issues.

[Txiasaeia]

Run Memtest86 and see if you are getting RAM issues.

"3) RAM RMA'd after about a month after several dozen memtest86 errors found.  New RAM has been tested - each stick individually & together - and no errors after testing each configuration for 12 hours."

RAM has been tested with memtest86.

[Tiresmoke]

OK well two other essues that crop up the most with any A64 system are lack of 12v amps from the PSU and as Inwin PSU's are way to the lite side it could be an issue. Please post how many amps the 12v lline shows on the PSU lable.

Second is airflow and as you have seen tempreture spike it could be the problem as well.

You need a minimum or an 80mm intake fan on the lower case front and an exhaust fan of the same size on the rear about the level of the CPU. Airflow needs to be balanced and cords and cables should not block that path. Another words tame the snakes nest of wires by tieing them back out of the way and make sure that whatever fanss you use on the front get used in equal amounts out the rear. You don't want to pressurize the case or create a vacuum as that will stop good cooling.

[Txiasaeia]

OK well two other essues that crop up the most with any A64 system are lack of 12v amps from the PSU and as Inwin PSU's are way to the lite side it could be an issue. Please post how many amps the 12v lline shows on the PSU lable.

Second is airflow and as you have seen tempreture spike it could be the problem as well.

You need a minimum or an 80mm intake fan on the lower case front and an exhaust fan of the same size on the rear about the level of the CPU. Airflow needs to be balanced and cords and cables should not block that path. Another words tame the snakes nest of wires by tieing them back out of the way and make sure that whatever fanss you use on the front get used in equal amounts out the rear. You don't want to pressurize the case or create a vacuum as that will stop good cooling.

I'm sorry, maybe I wasn't clear, but this info's all in my first post.  25 amps on the 12v rails.  No heat issues whatsoever - the faulty video card was spiking once in a while from 40 C to 120 C; it's been RMA'd & the new card doesn't have any heat problems.  Max heat info is in #1 in first post.

[Tiresmoke]

Sorry as I did not go back and reread this post from the beginning each and every time you post. I have better things to do and I have a pretty reliable memory although it can fail me at times.

I guess I will turn you over to the experts on your board whenever they show up.

[Txiasaeia]

Anybody else?

[Txiasaeia]

I changed the RAM from PC3200 to PC2700, and everything *seems* to be stable (I've said that before), so could the problem simply be the RAM?  Do I need more expensive RAM to run it at full speed?  I was just running it on auto which put the CAS to 2.5 (the RAM should be able to handle that)... anyway, if you guys think that this could be the problem, can anybody recommend some good RAM that's known to work with the RS480 and a Venice processor?

[Tiresmoke]

Well yes it could be the RAM. For what it is worth everyone I have seen with Kingmax RAM seems to be happy and so far as I know it works with all the cores. It is also not very expensive stuff. Hope that helps.

[dannol48]

FYI...you're not the first to report problems trying an nVidia gForce video card on this motherboard (ATI surroundview enabled Xpress 200 chipset).

If you didn't notice, the Compatibility Report posted for the board ONLY has ATI Radeon cards.

http://www.msi.com.tw/html/products/mainboard/testreport_pdf/7093/vga.pdf

And the real question remains, "Is there a way to make it work?".      I didn't try to disable onboard video or surroundview, so not sure if there's a workable approach.

Danno

[Txiasaeia]

Well yes it could be the RAM. For what it is worth everyone I have seen with Kingmax RAM seems to be happy and so far as I know it works with all the cores. It is also not very expensive stuff. Hope that helps.

Kingmax, eh?  I'll see if I can find any (I'm in Canada).  Do you know how good their customer service is?

I think that before I try to pick up some new ram I'll send Corsair an email; according to their site, the VS is supposed to be compatible with the RS480, which is one of the reasons I bought it.  Who knows; maybe they'll upgrade the RAM that I've got for cheap.  But thanks for the advice!

FYI...you're not the first to report problems trying an nVidia gForce video card on this motherboard (ATI surroundview enabled Xpress 200 chipset).

If you didn't notice, the Compatibility Report posted for the board ONLY has ATI Radeon cards.

Bloody hell!  Why didn't I check that?  Well, I gotta think about this some more.  Good grief.  Thanks for bringing this to my attention!

[Tiresmoke]

Corsair is usually real good with their tech support. I wish I could say the same for Kingmax except I never had a problem where I had to find out so I can't say if they are good or bad. LOL I have yet to hear any real problems either so I can't even give a second hand report. LOL

[dannol48]

Yeah.....think they should add a sticker to the PCIe Slot:  "Reserved for Radeon ONLY".   

Danno

[Txiasaeia]

So it seems to me, after thinking about it, that if the motherboard isn't completely compatible with my RAM, and if the mobo isn't compatible with my video card, that the simplest solution is to get a new motherboard.  I was panicking for a bit because I thought my case was mATX only, but it turns out that it can fit a full-sized ATX motherboard.  Now, given all the parts that I've listed above, can somebody recommend me a good, solid motherboard that has the *least* amount of problems?  Doesn't necessarily have to be an MSI, but recommendations on chipsets would be appreciated.  Again, it's got to be compatible with the parts listed above.  Thoughts?  (And thanks very much for the advice already!!)

[Tiresmoke]

RAM compatibility issues start with the CPU and not the MB as the memory controller is inside the CPU and not the MB. However the NVidia conflicts with an ATi chipset can be sorted hopefully someday. Until then the MSI K8T Neo2 MB if you have AGP or Neo 4 Platinum or Platinum SLi if you have PCIe...

[Txiasaeia]

What I meant about the RAM is that the type I've got isn't officially supported by the RS480.  I'd like to think that, if the primary purpose of the 3.3 bios update was to "Strengthen memory compatibility," that it's more the motherboard's fault than the processor's for the potential RAM problems I've been having.

All I know is that my system isn't working the way it should be.  Whether this is due to the video card or the RAM, I have no idea, but it seems to me that the first step towards fixing this problem is a new motherboard (or waiting 12 months before a stable bios is finally released for the RS480).  Anyway, thanks for the suggestions... off to read reviews.

[dannol48]

Are you using Bios 3.3?  Bios 3.4 added Venice core support and the latest release is Bios 3.5.

Danno

[Txiasaeia]

Are you using Bios 3.3?  Bios 3.4 added Venice core support and the latest release is Bios 3.5.

Danno

I'm using 3.4.  Haven't risked the upgrade to 3.5 yet.  I ordered a Neo4 Plat, so I'm going to sell this motherboard and let somebody else worry about it.  (Hopefully somebody who doesn't want a discrete graphics card will want it.)

[nitnatsnoc]

Hey I'm having similar issues I think.

System Specs:
as below

I went through 2 motherboards before I got one that worked, and had to convince the shop to sell  me identical ram because that was causeing all sorts of lockups if i forced dual channel mode.

But everything has been sorted out except for constant random lockup/BSOD while in 3D apps (mostly games, or video benchmarks). I'm now using speedfan to log tempuratures and I will see if thats the problem, but i don't see how it could be. I have a number of inflow and outflow fans (blowing from front to back) and all cables are cleanly kept out of the way. Ambient room temp is around 19C or so I'd guess.

[jmagg]

If the machine runs stable with the onboard vid, and your powersupply is up to the task, it seems academic that the vid card is to blame.

[jmagg]

If the machine runs stable with the onboard vid, and your powersupply is up to the task, it seems academic that the vid card is to blame.
Eather defective or incompatable with the board at the moment.

[chatto]

I have same problems... I tried everthing possible. nothing changed. My friend has same config except ram (twinmos), same crashes, freezes.....

so, DON'T BUY THIS BOARD... but if you want to trouble and lots of headaches go and buy one..

[Tiresmoke]

If youy want help then ask. If you want to bash then begone.