Author Topic: Abit IC7 MAX3 users, need some advice please (Read 369 times)

Wanker · « **on:** October 20, 2003, 09:11:55 AM »

Ok, so I built the system last night, here's a list of the goods:

Abit IC7-MAX3
Intel P4 2.4 800 mhz fsb
1 GB(2x512) Kingston Hyper-X DDR400
Seagate Serial-ATA Barracuda 7200rpm 120 GB hard drive.
128 MB ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
Antec Sonata case with stock 380 PS

Using Seagate's nifty little bootable CD-ROM from their website, I booted up and fdisked & formatted the drive.

I created a 116 GB partition with NTFS for my C:

I created a 4 GB partition with NTFS for my D: (Swap file)

So far, so good. I went into the BIOS and made sure that the CPU was set for 2.4, as I don't want to overclock until I have a stable system. The memory timings seemed pretty aggressive to me, I think it was 2.6.2.2.2, but I left it because I was hoping the BIOS knew what was good for it better than I did.

Ok, so now I start installing WinXP Pro. I get about 3/4 of the way through, at the point of choosing the timezone, etc. when I got a BSD(blue screen of death), a page fault error.

Hoped it was a fluke, rebooted, performed a repair on the install of XP, and got a bit farther this time before it BSD'd again. This time is mentioned something about LPN file is bad. It was late at night last night when this happened, so I didn't have the stamina to try anything.

I have a few ideas, and was hoping to bounce them off you all:

1. RAM timings are too agressive, I should probably go back and set it to more slow settings. If I do this, can anyone recommend safe settings?

2. Do I need to load the S-ATA driver that came along with the MB when prompted by WinXP? WinXp does say to press F6 if I have any RAID or SCSI drivers to install. Although I don't plan on using RAID, does WinXP consider an S-ATA drive to be a SCSI drive, thereby requiring a special driver?

3. The hard drive may be bad, I could boot up with this Seagate uitility disk and check the drive for bad sectors.

All advice and help appreciated!

Siaf__csf · « **Reply #1 on:** October 20, 2003, 10:00:24 AM »

It could be a number of things. Check your system temperatures in Bios - you might have a problem with cooling if you mounted the cpu/heatsink yourself.

You might have seating problems with hardware - press each component in firmly and try again.

You might have bad ram - try single ram sticks one at a time if you have more than one.

You might have bad HD - try installing to another hd, even a small one just to try it out.

You have a bad OS. Period.

You have a bad judgement in partitioning your hd. C: should be left only for system files and everything else installed on d: e: etc. partitions - that way a OS reinstall is a painless procedure. Swapfile doesnt need a dedicated partition - XP is not linux. The only way you can make swapfile more efficient is to set it to _another_ harddrive in _another_ bus which optimises your bandwith usage.

If your SATA drivers would cause problems, you'd probably never get to the part where you can define settings - install would fail to first hd access in windows. Probably that is.

I call XP (Xtreme Pain)

Dead Man Flying · « **Reply #2 on:** October 20, 2003, 10:32:40 AM »

banana, that sounds like RAM issues to me, particularly when you're getting random "bad file" errors. I ran into exactly this problem three or four months back where I'd get a BSOD on bootup declaring I had a bad file (NTFS.dll). When I went to reinstall Windows XP using two different installation CDs, I received more BSOD errors.

Turns out one of my two sticks of RAM was bad. I yanked that out and the BSODs stopped immediately. So your initial intuition is probably correct -- set the RAM timings to something very conservative, at least when you're installing the OS.

-- Todd/Leviathn

bloom25 · « **Reply #3 on:** October 20, 2003, 12:16:18 PM »

It definately sounds like bad ram to me as well. You are right that those are aggressive memory timings. I would back them off or set to "by spd", which will basically ask the ram itself what timings to use. If you still get errors you can download memtest86 from http://www.memtest86.com and check the ram.

Roscoroo · « **Reply #4 on:** October 20, 2003, 01:11:51 PM »

ive seen a bad stick of ram run at a slower clock speed , but as soon as it was turned up the os crashed (lost driver files also)

Pfunk · « **Reply #5 on:** October 20, 2003, 01:28:49 PM »

Yup its bad ram or your timings are to tight. Had the exact same problem happen on my last build. Ran memtest on the memory and it was riddled with errors. Returned the memory and problem was solved.

214thCavalier · « **Reply #6 on:** October 20, 2003, 01:50:40 PM »

banana do not dispare.

Try this they had a few issues with memory timings to start with.
Go into bios and change your memory timing from auto to manual, although thats all it took for me if your really peeved with it slow the timings down too.

I tried everything when i 1st installed XP onto an IC7-G and got loads of different BSOD's at different points of install, soon as I changed bios from auto to manual loaded first time.

When you have XP loaded you can safely put it back to auto or any other setting the problem will not reoccur.

The rest is specifically Max 3 related.

When you get to overclocking to save you some hair pulling, currently do not try a memory voltage over 2.8 volts btw 2.8 is safe for most memory.
Problem is the Max3 memory voltage fluctuates madly at the 2.9 and 3.0 settings but is reputed to be stable again at 3.1 or was it 3.2 volts.
It also causes the cpu volts to fluctuate wildly at the same time.

Either way you will be braver than me to try anything over 3.0.
Also be aware the CPU undervolts as well by approx .5 volts although the amount seems to vary depending on the dialled in FSB.

With my bios set to 1.52 std it was actually supplying the cpu with 1.48 and when under load ie running prime 95 the volts drop even more !

Currently with CPU volts set in bios to provide 1.625 volts this actually provides 1.6 idling and drops to 1.57 under load, this is sufficient to get my 2.4 cpu prime stable at 3.0

Leave the GAT settings at auto, auto, auto, disabled, disabled especially if trying to overclock.

I can run FSB at 250mhz 100% stable giving me 3.0 in dual mode, thats memory in either 1 and 3 slots or 2 and 4 slots.

If you put it into 1 and 2 or 3 and 4 hyper threading will not be enabled.

Also be aware it seems most stable running in 1:1 mode for a lot of people, using the 5:4 or 3:2 mode is nowhere near as succesful.

Personally mine refuses to even boot at any FSB in 3:2 mode and max FSB overclock in 5:4 mode is only 220 mhz.

Welcome to the world of Max3, i just hope along with many others that these issues are gonna be solved with a bios update.

useful link

http://forum.abit-usa.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=3

Wanker · « **Reply #7 on:** October 21, 2003, 08:38:39 AM »

Ugh.

Here's an update. I changed the memory settings in the BIOS from "By SPD" to "Man", but that didn't do much for me. So I removed one of the DIMMS, and was able to successfully install XP and remain stable for over two hours.

I upgraded to SP1, but for some stupid reason I didn't upgrade my BIOS immediately. At this point, I thought I was home free, so I took both DIMMS of RAM out and back to the store where I had purchased them to exchange for a new set. No questions asked, they were really good about it.

So I get the new RAM home, plop them both in, but now I can't get into Windows without errors alluding to files on the hard drive. I received a message saying how sorry Microsoft was, but Windows was unable to load due to a change in the hardware or software. I try safe mode, but all that does is put the system into a loop of spontaneous rebooting. I try using the "Last known good configuration", but that didn't work, either.

I decided to re-install XP, hoping that that would help. I took out one of the DIMMS again, hoping to repeat my success from yesterday with installing XP with only 1 DIMM.

I could delete the old partition, create the new one, and quick format it to NTFS. But during the phase where it copies files from the WinXP CD to the hard drive, I kept getting errors about files it couldn't copy to the hard drive. I take the WinXP CD out of my DVD player and load it into my Plexwriter burner. No luck, same errors.

Just to cover my bases, I yank out the brand new Seagate SATA drive and try an old WD 10 GB 7200rpm drive I had laying around. As with the Seagate, I got errors when XP tried to copy it's files from the CD to the hard drive.

Now, I'm trying to decided what to do next. Since my current copy of WinXP Pro is a non-activation corporate copy, I'd hate to have to run to Best Buy and shell out $200 bucks for a legit copy. But that's what the errors I'm seeing on two different hard drives are leading me to believe. I can't see how the data on the CD is corrupted, as it doesn't have scratches on it, and it worked fine previously. But, I suppose it is possible that the media is bad.

I'm still suspicious of my RAM settings, however. I admit, however, that I'm not clear on what settings I should try. I tried to change the settings once, using 3.6.3.3.3, but the system wouldn't boot when I did that, requiring me to reset the CMOS via a jumper on the MB.

On a positive note, while I was out at the store exchanging the RAM, I picked up the Zalmann 7000-cu heatsink/fan combo, and that took 5 degrees off the temp of the CPU.

So here I sit, wondering whether my motherboard is at the heart of the problem, or if I really should run out and buy a new CD of XP Pro.

Right about now, the Asus PC800-E Deluxe is looking pretty good to me.

HELP!

Pfunk · « **Reply #8 on:** October 21, 2003, 11:57:24 AM »

DOWNLOAD MEMTEST86. You can make a floppy or they have the option to make a bootable cd. Run it, that way you can be almost certain that it is or isnt a RAM issue. If you run memtest and the RAM is fine, my guess is that the motherboard itself is bad...possibly a corrupted BIOS, Like I said the same thing happened to me. I tried 4 different XP cd's and they all wouldnt find a specific file when I tried to install them. The memory was riddled with errors come to find out.

mrblack · « **Reply #9 on:** October 21, 2003, 01:44:38 PM »

banana LOL.
You might have better luck with a legit version of XP.

214thCavalier · « **Reply #10 on:** October 21, 2003, 04:19:49 PM »

Ok banana this looks very familiar

http://forum.abit-usa.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=20884&highlight=IC7G+XP+install+problem

Short answer is its a known problem with IC7 series just up the Ram voltage while installing.

Also check this out, following these guidelines i reckon would have avoided the problems.

http://forum.abit-usa.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=24038

mrblack · « **Reply #11 on:** October 21, 2003, 04:23:24 PM »

WOW thats something i never thought of cause I raise vdimm voltage anyway for my overclocking.

Good call cavalier

Wanker · « **Reply #12 on:** October 22, 2003, 07:52:06 AM »

Thanks for the all the help, gents.

I found the perfect solution to my problem.

Asus P4C800 Deluxe.

Yeah, I know, it may not overclock as well as the Abit, but I returned the Abit board and exchanged for the Asus, and I was up & installing my, , semi-legit copy of XP within an hour.

In short, it was the motherboard. The Asus is working flawlessly, and my CPU temp at idle is down from 45C on the Abit, to a chilly 29C on the Asus.

~~Thanks for all the suggestions, I really appreciate the time you gave me.~~