Oops

[dod]

It WAS the cpu after all, my RMA's been accepted. I've been doing a bit of digging and this is by no means the first A64 to surrender, although to be fair most have been running under far more stressful conditions.

[Daniel ~]

Semi-Good news, or Good news from where you are at this point in time! You'll be MHz stuffing in no time! ":O}

[dod]

Originally Posted by Daniel ~

Semi-Good news, or Good news from where you are at this point in time! You'll be MHz stuffing in no time! ":O}

It's a bit hollow seeing your mishap. First boot is going to be nervous

[Daniel ~]

Naw! You'll be fine! Just a bit of bad luck, perseverance will scare it off! ":O}

[dod]

Originally Posted by Daniel ~

Naw! You'll be fine! Just a bit of bad luck, perseverance will scare it off! ":O}

THIS CAN NOT BE RIGHT

Got my new chip today. Installed and booted up, every thing fine. Rebooted and went to bios, changed CAS from 2.5 to 2, that's all I did I swear, everything else left on auto. It's killed this cpu too.

What on earth is going on?????

Is there a compatability problem here??

[Daniel ~]

This is too painful for words! Are you sure it's dead?

I do know that with the memory controller on the CPU chip it seems MUCH less capable in handling fast ram

CASS 3 seems is more to it's liking.

What does your Diagnostic chip do when you try to boot? When mine diied, i.e. when I murdered it,

Both in case and out as soon as it got power it would flash FF for a brief instant in time then go dark. It would do this as often As I turned off my power supply and turned it on again.

I'm really sorry dod...to painful for words!

[dod]

It's doing exactly the same as the last one Dan. Stuck on C1 (Mem error) and a repetitive long beep. Now it won't even start to post. Because I don't have a spare I can't honestly say it is definitely dead, but the symptoms are identical. LoL, looks like a sheep, smells like a sheep usually turns out to be a sheep

Okay, is there any way in which we can start to rule out user error here?

1.Anyone else using XMS3500 Platinum with the Via chipset?
2. Can anyone else run CAS2 if they are using XMS?


Full spec: 8HDA3+
XP3000
Antec 480 true blue
2X256 XMS3500 (Not LL)
Maxtor 40G
2X 80Gb Maxtor SATA
Rad 9800 pro
Using onboard sound/LAN

[dod]

Forgot to say, first boot was with Kingston 2100. Then installed XMS, let it boot, then changed to CAS2

[danrok]

I have just installed 2x twinx3200LL 512mb, which is CAS 2.0 and all seems well, bar the fact that I haven't as yet updated to the latest BIOS. Why? Because I feel too paranoid after reading your experiences!

Anyhow, the system is fine and running F@H.

Do you think the CPU in yours could be dying during the actual flash process? Could it be some kind of short on the board?

[dod]

Originally Posted by danrok

I have just installed 2x twinx3200LL 512mb, which is CAS 2.0 and all seems well, bar the fact that I haven't as yet updated to the latest BIOS. Why? Because I feel too paranoid after reading your experiences!

Anyhow, the system is fine and running F@H.

Do you think the CPU in yours could be dying during the actual flash process? Could it be some kind of short on the board?

This was the new bios, it wasnt actually a bios flash. It booted twice and loaded win 64 before it died again. The modules are both version 1.1 but I havent taken the heatspreaders off to make sure they're the same chips yet. Don't really see why they wouldn't be but I'll check them.

TBH I can't be bothered right now but I'll try it out of the case tomorrow. I don't think it's going to make a lot of difference though.

[danrok]

What vcore voltage are you running at? Mines currently at about 1.5v and my MSI board will not allow more than this. I have a funny feeling that at least some A64's are dying through too much voltage.

[dod]

Originally Posted by danrok

What vcore voltage are you running at? Mines currently at about 1.5v and my MSI board will not allow more than this. I have a funny feeling that at least some A64's are dying through too much voltage.

It was 1.5 stated, setting at auto. I havn't had a chance to warm either of them up

3.3 rail is also suspected but this ones bang on. Vdd and vdimm at stock, absolutely bog standard.

There is something about my setup they don't like though

Sod it, I'm going for a beer.

[warp11]

Got my new chip today. Installed and booted up, every thing fine. Rebooted and went to bios, changed CAS from 2.5 to 2, that's all I did I swear, everything else left on auto. It's killed this cpu too.

My Epox 8HDA3+ absolutely hates to have the memory timings set manually. It runs perfectly if the timings are by SPD, but if I set them manually, it is always a failure.

When I have a failed attempt at changing my memory timings, I get either a 'C1' or a '26' error. I usually have to clear the CMOS and then hold down the 'insert' key when I boot.

I truly hope that you can revive your board.

[danrok]

OK, I thought I'd lost my system just now. Clicked on a Linux link (LOL) and bam, instant power off. Managed to get it up again with a cmos reset.

I think I must upgrade to the latest BIOS. The RAM Guy at Corsair told me to do the following: Use SPD (ditto warp11), set vdimm to 2.7v and flash to the latest BIOS.

From what I've read elsewhere, playing with high voltages is a risky game on the A64's.

[bradmax57]

Originally Posted by danrok

What vcore voltage are you running at? Mines currently at about 1.5v and my MSI board will not allow more than this. I have a funny feeling that at least some A64's are dying through too much voltage.

think mine goes to 1.55v?

@DOD hope you get it sorted

[danrok]

I can't flash the BIOS. I'm having to use the floppy method because the MSI live update doesn't seem to want to work under xp 64 bit.

But the AMI dosflash program does sod all. Just displays the help screen.

[danrok]

Flashed it now. The floppy I was using had Caldera DOS on it which wouldn't work.

[dod]

Originally Posted by warp11

My Epox 8HDA3+ absolutely hates to have the memory timings set manually. It runs perfectly if the timings are by SPD, but if I set them manually, it is always a failure.

When I have a failed attempt at changing my memory timings, I get either a 'C1' or a '26' error. I usually have to clear the CMOS and then hold down the 'insert' key when I boot.

I truly hope that you can revive your board.

Yep, mine was fine at SPD too. What memory are you running?

No luck by the way, I took the battery out last night, unplugged, tried to fire her up just now holding insert and it's just the same.

[Daniel ~]

Mine was the same, set to AUTO or SPD. But when I used faster ram PC 4000 and tried to loosen the settings I ended up pulling the CMOS jumper.

A little bird told me that the on CPU memory controller is not on par with Nvidia or VIA.

I think we're seeing that!

[dod]

Originally Posted by Daniel ~

Mine was the same, set to AUTO or SPD. But when I used faster ram PC 4000 and tried to loosen the settings I ended up pulling the CMOS jumper.

A little bird told me that the on CPU memory controller is not on par with Nvidia or VIA.

I think we're seeing that!

It's beginning to remind me of the growing pains experienced with the introduction of the NF2 chipset. Who else remembers the numbers of bios chips killed when changing more than one or two parameters at a time?

This is unfortunate time consuming and annoying, BUT, it will get better