Installed new mobo, killed pc...

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

The RAM I'm using is in dual channel mode (even said so the time it actually booted). One stick is DDR333 the other DDR400 and two different (generic) manufacturers. I have been using them in the PC with the other mobo and it was fine though.

Dual channel is a lot more sensitive to ram types. Two sticks of generic with different specs from different manifacturers is kind of the worst combination for dual channel.

Try pulling a stick and see what happens.

 

[Sxotty]

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=via+bios+corruption

Try that look tons of results... but of course it is talking about corruption of something completely unrelated.

My point is that there was not any actual data ever released about how common this actually was. Having people say it happened on message boards or so on doesn't say much. Gigabyte had dual bioses for a long time now does that mean all their boards have a propensity to loose the bios info? I do not beleive so.

I personally experienced it (bios corruption on an NF7-S v1.0). ME I know it existed, but I am not going to jump on a bandwagon and start jumping up and down saying it is or was a huge problem.

You stated that bios corruption is the reason why the AN7 was released, but let me tell you a secret, I have messed with the bios on my nf7-2 v1.2 and v2 a huge amount with no problems at all. I know tons of others who have as well, therefore according to the standards espoused by you there is abosulutely no problem, and the AN7 was fixing an issue that was already fixed.

I do not deny and never did that the first boards had issues, anyone who has built a computer before knows that it is best to wait out the first release unless you like buggy hardware. I knew it at the time but couldn't resist the temptation. And that time like the time before I thought to myself "never again will I get the first revision right when it is released" well we shall see.

 

[Goragoth]

Ok, I've tried clearing the CMOS (after a leasurely breakfast in case you are wondering why it took so long after my last post ).

My results are as follows: boots fine after clearing CMOS with CMOS checksum failed press F1 to continue or Del to enter setup. So I go into setup and first time around just exit out without changing/saving anything. 'Puter boots fine again but with the same CMOS checksum message. So I go into setup, load optimized defaults like the manual says and save. I get the usual "Don't turn of PC while saving settings" message followed by the screen going blank and the same repeating long beep as before. What the ....?

Before I go pulling ram (which is a real pain since the ram sticks are stuck under IDE cables and I have to pull a bunch of stuff just to get to them) can anyone give me a good guess as to what is happening?

Doesn't seem like a ram problem anymore since it works fine until I try to save the CMOS settings. BIOS flash maybe? Or is the board DOA and needs replacing?

 

[The549]

You should manually check to see if your ram are both set at 333, and make sure the cas latency is fine. After that then try using just one stick of ram.

 

[The549]

I also had that prob when I had a setting wrong (I think) in my mobo...where the checksum would always come up wrong. Maybe it's the battery or the bios, but check through all your settings first in the bios. And does anyone know if the nf2 has a new bios to dl?

 

[Goragoth]

I also had that prob when I had a setting wrong (I think) in my mobo...where the checksum would always come up wrong. Maybe it's the battery or the bios, but check through all your settings first in the bios. And does anyone know if the nf2 has a new bios to dl?

Yeah, bad checksum usually means a failing battery but in this case it was (I'm pretty sure) caused by my reseting the CMOS with the jumper. Anybody know if that message is usual after doing this or did that mean the CMOS didn't clear fully (i.e. I didn't leave the jumper on long clear long enough; I left there 1 minute like the manual said)? There's a new BIOS, latest one is pretty recent (last month I think). The computer I'm using now doesn't have a floppy drive though but I might be able to do something.

 

[Goragoth]

Ok, I did another test. This time I reset the CMOS. Booted ok and went into the menu. I changed absolutely nothing at all, went save and exit and BAM! same damn beeping. Only thing I can think of is that the BIOS is crazy and commits suicide everytime I try to save the settings. WTF??? I mean, there's really no reason for it not to work when it is booting on the same default settings it just booted on before is there?

Sometimes computers drive me nuts and this is one of those times.

 

[martrox]

Hate to harp on it, but you really do need to check your memory..... Try one dimm , then the other. If both work try then in non dual ddr position.

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Before I go pulling ram (which is a real pain since the ram sticks are stuck under IDE cables and I have to pull a bunch of stuff just to get to them) can anyone give me a good guess as to what is happening?

Then pull out the IDE cables first. Your PC is giving you *memory errors* - there's no point messing about with everything else when you could test the memory sticks separately in a few minutes. Lots of people experienced problems when dual channel first arrived, especially when trying to mix non-identical sticks. The memory should really be the first thing you look at.

 

[Goragoth]

Ok, I pulled the stick that was giving me trouble when I was inserting it and no go. Same stupid beeping. I guess I have to test the other stick now but I'll probably do that tomorrow. It just doesn't seem to me like the memory is really what its wrong though since it always boots fine after clearing the CMOS but dies specifically after saving settings even when nothing has changed. Surely the BIOS is buggered

I did, after much searching, find another occurence of this on the nforcehq message boards, but unfortunately the question was never resolved and there were only a couple of (unhelpful) replies. I'll probably just try swapping the other stick of ram and if that doesn't work and nobody comes up with anything useful then I'll have to take the computer in to a shop where they can do proper testing and all that. Bloody brilliant

 

[Sxotty]

Hey I don't know if anyone said anything, but yes that message is normal after clearing the CMOS.

What it means is that your CPU isn't set up correctly usually. Often it sets it to like 800Mhz or some really low number. But to be perfectly honest unless your memory was set to 1:1 ratio and therefore was running at likt 200MHZ I don't see why the beeping would start when you put it at the defaults.

Have you tried fail safe defaults? Which slots are you putting the memory in? You are supposed to start at the far one (from CPU) and work in. It is different on all boards and some it doesn't matter on, but as I recall on the NF7-S it does matter and it is out to in. However, I will admit when I got mine I put it in the close slot and it worked fine till I tried to get dual sticks to work then I had to put them in the correct slots.

 

[Goragoth]

Hey I don't know if anyone said anything, but yes that message is normal after clearing the CMOS.

Oh ok. Thanks for clearing that up.

Have you tried fail safe defaults?

I haven't tried that but I figure thats what gets loaded after clearing the CMOS. The bizzare thing is as I said earlier: after clearing the CMOS it works fine but if I go into the BIOS and change nothing at all and choose save and exit it dies, if exit without saving it is fine (but it continues to give me the checksum warning).

Which slots are you putting the memory in?

I had one stick in slot 1 (close to CPU) and 1 stick in slot 3 (which is the dual channel one). I specifically checked the manual but it says nothing on where to insert the memory. Anyway, the stick I pulled was from slot 3 (which was the slot that was really hard to get the ram into). Maybe I should try some different slots too then...

Honestly though, if the memory is bad shouldn't it not work no matter what or randomly fail? Why would it stop working after saving the BIOS settings with no changes??? Perplexing.

 

[Dio]

I had a very similar NF7-S nightmare - still ongoing, unfortunately. Would only boot up if I cleared the CMOS RAM first every time.

In the end I thought I'd fixed it by removing the motherboard and reinstalling it, which I find kind of scary. My suspicion is that some of the motherboard fixing points are close to grounding things that shouldn't be.

Unfortunately I now hear that the machine has died again and I'm going to have to fix it again. I'm going to pull all the motherboard mounts around the CMOS RAM and see if that helps.

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

In the end I thought I'd fixed it by removing the motherboard and reinstalling it, which I find kind of scary. My suspicion is that some of the motherboard fixing points are close to grounding things that shouldn't be.

This is a common problem when people replace boards. Heck I've even done it myself. The new board has different mounting points, and the old standoffs touch the underside of the board, shorting something (with me it was one of the RAM slots).

The only solution is to yank out the old stand-offs if they are in the wrong postition - there is no other way to be safe.

 

[Dio]

I'm not that daft - crikey, I must have built a good fraction of a hundred PC's by now. There were no posts except where there were holes.

 

[Sxotty]

So try to make this clear for everyone,

You load fail safe, and it works with both dimms.

If you start it enter biost and exit does it then still work?

If you enter bios and change just the CPU to the correct frequency it fails?

Have you checked to see what the memory speeds actually are at those two seperate settings. That is the only thing I can think of. Anyway try tech support ABIT has quite proficient folks here anyway.

 

[Goragoth]

If you start it enter biost and exit does it then still work?

Yes, as long as I exit without saving it works.

If you enter bios and change just the CPU to the correct frequency it fails?

I didn't change that. If I change nothing at all, just enter BIOS and then choose save changes and exit then it won't boot anymore.

The new board has different mounting points, and the old standoffs touch the underside of the board, shorting something

Of course I made sure there were no standoffs where they shouldn't be.

I had a very similar NF7-S nightmare - still ongoing, unfortunately. Would only boot up if I cleared the CMOS RAM first every time.

So you had to clear the CMOS on every reboot? What did the machine do when you didn't? Mine will boot fine as long as I don't save settings in the BIOS but I'm not going to leave it at that since something is obviously very wrong.

Maybe I should clear the CMOS and boot into Memtest86 and let that run for a bit to see if there really is a memory related problem?

 

[Dio]

It was temperamental. If I cleared the CMOS RAM immediately before restarting it would boot every time.

If I didn't, it might, but most worryingly, it depended on how much I'd messed about with the board - unplugging and replugging the HD to the MB would knacker it every time.

Have you any experience of running a board caseless? (If you don't absolutely totally understand the consequences of doing this wrong - i.e. if you accidentally short any part of the board you WILL fry the board - please don't try it).

 

[Tim Murray]

hm, this problem sounds to me as if the machine is detecting memory timings or clocks incorrectly with optimized defaults.

 

[Althornin]

hm, this problem sounds to me as if the machine is detecting memory timings or clocks incorrectly with optimized defaults.

agreed.
when you enter the bios after a CMOS reset, look at the CPU speed and memory speed.
Make sure it is correct.