3.3v reading

I have an older 430W Enermax PSU that has worked flawlessly on all my EPOX MB's. However, this is the first time I noticed that my 3.3V reading is at 2.57. Is this low? I thought I read somewhere that this is normal on my 8RDA+, at least with a Antec 400 or something like that. I seem to drop to desktop or reboot completely when I play graphically intensive games as of recently and am trying to get down to what the issue is. I have an ATI 9800 PRO 18 with the new 3.10 drivers. I have been using the 3.9 and 3.7 drivers as well. Maybe someone could assist me with this issue. TIA.

I've heard that on many Epox nForce boards that the 3.3V reading is actually your VDimm, so your 2.57V reading is fine.

Regards, Balrog

Well then, if this is correct, what else could be causing my issues?

What version of 8RDA+ do you have, I'd check the ATI section as I've heard of various compatability issues with certain drivers and board combos.

Regards, Balrog

Version 2 is what I have, maybe 2.1. I only got it from newegg.com about 4 months ago.

It should be printed on MoBo, either way better than a Ver 1.1 I still think you should talk to some folks in the ATI forum regarding the best driver combo to use on your board. I'd suggest getting some active cooling on your NB and some heatsinks on your SB and mosfets. I did this to my board (AN35N Ultra) and I'm running 220FSB and getting 14000 3DMarks with an old ti4200.

Regards, Balrog

I also have a Rev. 2 8RDA+ and the 3.3 reading in MBM is the Vdimm. To verify it, I changed my Vdimm in bios and checked the readings again. Sure enough they changed in MBM. What you might try is running Prime95 in the different modes and see if fails in small, large or blend. This might give you some idea of where the problem is.

I would say the issues you are encountering are either software, heat or voltage. MBM does not monitor the 3.3v right for our boards. Monitor your +5v in bios or through software keeping your rails perfect make a big deal on these boards especially when overclocking. Second what nforce drivers are you using and did you hack them so it wouldnt install the display driver built into the UDP package. You should also NEVER install the SW IDE driver its EXPERAMENTAL to say the least. I would follow this procedure for the software installation. Also if you have a santa cruz you should disable the game port for it...there are issues with nf2 and the santa cruz game port.

<<<<<<<<If, like most enthusiasts.. you intend to tinker with various nforce drivers please remember that..as with previous UDP/Nforce drivers.. you MUST let Windows detect bits and reboot between uninstalling any older drivers and then installing newer ones. Not doing so will cause problems. It should go like this:

1. Uninstall all nForce bits.
2. Reboot.
3. Let Windows try to find, and fail, at all the nForce stuff.
4. Reboot.
5. Install the new nForce drivers.
6. Reboot.
7. Install the graphics drivers all by themselves.
8. Reboot.

If you still can't get your graphics to install, it is probably the issue that was in the previous install packs. It means re-install the whole OS.>>>>>>>>

-from nforceshq


<<<So I read around a little at nforceshq and guys are hacking the nforces with newer audio drivers ect. So I figured I would do the same thing except take the drivers that cause instablity and the drivers I dont use out of the install.

This is so damn easy.

1. Download winrar
http://download.com.com/3000-2250-10204199.html?part=113677&subj=dlpage&tag=button

2. Download the Latest nforce driver 3.13
http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_udp_winxp_3.13

3. Right click the nforce.exe file you downloaded and extract it to a folder.

4. After extracting it to a folder open the folder and Delete the folders that you will not need or do not want installed. I myself on my plain jane 8rda removed the AudioDrv, AudioUtl, Display, Ethernet. After I deleted the folders I didnt want then all you do is run the setup.exe icon in the folder and kaboom...no more drivers you dont need or drivers that cause issues.

If you have a full feature nforce 2 board with soundstream and onboard ethernet you will want to remove only the Graphics driver folding in the packages UDP.

Remember dont install that SW IDE driver. I installed it with some nforce UDP releases and it worked ok...I've installed it with others and got big problems. >>>

-Taken from some of my posts at maximumpc forums

Hope this helps out some...I had some problems for awhile also with driver issues.

Edit to add: You should download "Driver Cleaner 2.6" and make sure you dont have any left over nvidia dets on your system.

http://www.3dchipset.com/utilities/nvidia/removal/index.php


Wazer

Hmm, the SW IDE driver I did install, if I remember correctly. This could be causing a crash to desktop and rare rebooting issues? I AM using the 3.13 Nvidia drivers, but I do not recall having this issue before they came out. I could be wrong but this sounds VERY plausable. Thanks for the info. I will uninstall/reinstall the 3.13 drivers without the SW IDE driver set and see what happens.

Thanks again!

Tacoman667 said:

Hmm, the SW IDE driver I did install, if I remember correctly. This could be causing a crash to desktop and rare rebooting issues? I AM using the 3.13 Nvidia drivers, but I do not recall having this issue before they came out. I could be wrong but this sounds VERY plausable. Thanks for the info. I will uninstall/reinstall the 3.13 drivers without the SW IDE driver set and see what happens.

Thanks again!

Click to expand...

I personally had the SW IDE driver installed from other nforce UDP releases fine. The SW IDE driver released with the 3.13's did not work with my system worth a crap I was getting crashes during gaming mostly, but system stabilty was definately an issue. Hopefully following that procedure for cleaning the install and fresh drivers will help you out.

BTW my main setup that I ran into issues with:
Old Inwin Tower w 530w fortron source Power Supply
Epox 8rda 1.1
[email protected] 200fsb Swiftech MCX462
2x256 samsung pc3200
Radeon 8500le 128meg (hope to upgrade soon)
Santa Cruz
3ware 7000-2
2x80meg maxtor 80gig 8meg 7.2k drives
Samsung CDRW-DVD combo Drive

The only real changes I've had to make is 1. Adding a fan to the northbridge (old golden orb fan) and 2. upgradeing my antec 420w true power Power Supply because the rails were limiting my overclock. Hope I've been some help.

Wazer

Looks like using the driver cleaner and reinstalling without the SW IDE driver did the trick! Thanks a ton for the help on this. I played for 1 hour on CS and about 1.5 hrs on WC3 without so much as a hiccup. I never would have thought the SW IDE driver was the culprit. Damn you Nvidia for making crappy *** drivers!

Tacoman667 said:

Looks like using the driver cleaner and reinstalling without the SW IDE driver did the trick! Thanks a ton for the help on this. I played for 1 hour on CS and about 1.5 hrs on WC3 without so much as a hiccup. I never would have thought the SW IDE driver was the culprit. Damn you Nvidia for making crappy *** drivers!

Click to expand...

Yeah I found out the hard way also. Nvidia should completely drop out the SW IDE driver completely till its actually stable.

Wazer

What is the SW IDE driver for anyways?

Tacoman667 said:

What is the SW IDE driver for anyways?

Click to expand...

Its supposed to be an accelerated IDE driver. Some guys say they getter better IDE performance out of them...unfortunately they seem to cause alot of issues also. I might catch some **** for this but the SW IDE driver is much worse than any 4in1 driver I've ever installed. I'm just glad I figured out what my problem was and that your all better now also

Wazer