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Crazy Asus M4A88T-M problems

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Dandaman

Registered
Joined
Jul 31, 2011
Location
UK
Hi there everyone, im new here and I happened to come across the site when I was searching online regarding this issue

I recently bought an Asus M4A88T-M motherboard for a mATX build using an amd phenom II x6 1100t cpu and 8gb corsair value ram (never let me down before and good performance for cheap price)

I put the system together and straight away I installed the 4 ram sticks and tried to install windows with no success. Every time I booted from disc it would freeze so I tried the most obvious thing and removed 3 sticks of ram only leaving 1 stick and windows installed no problem

Now this is where the craziness begins, everything was goin fine so I decided to install the other dimms and computer booted fine but then kept gettin BSOD every 5 or 10 mins. I read the manual and so on about the mem ok button and followed the instructions but still wouldnt work. I ran memtest countless times with just 1 stick in the system at a time and I got no errors whatsoever but I decided to change the ram out for som g-skill ripjaw 4x2gb sticks and everything worked for about an hour or so then suddenly the computer froze and all I could see was wavey lines. After that the computer would boot up fine but would never last more than 5 mins without freezing and showing crazy looking lines. When I tried to reboot after this happened the mem ok light would remain solid and the computer wouldnt post until I removed 3 sticks and left only 1 in

Yesterday I decided to swap out the cpu and try another one, I replaced the chip with an old Phenom II x2 550 of mine and everything is working fine with the 4 sticks of value ram installed. no crashes or anything and I have the phenom II x6 1100t installed in the computer I am using to write this which has an Asus M4A79XTD Evo motherboard and im using the g skill ram I tried with the other build and its working fine also so im pretty confused.

Does anyone have any ideas what could have been causing this ?

Also i forgot to mention i tried changing the PSU's and so on before i swapped out the chip but it was the same result, crashing and showing crazy lines


Cheers, Dandaman
 
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Default ram voltage on the Asus M4A88T-M is too low for the ram. The older 790 chipset motherboard likely has a bios specified higher ram voltage. Beyond that it gets down to a lot of trial and error for sure.
 
How can this be ? Im running the x2 550 in the same board with the same ram and have no problems at all with the settings at default so with what you said Im begining to think that the x6 1100T is struggling with the auto settings ?
 
Crap I was reading your writing but troubleshooting in my head like I do. I did not realize you pulled the Gskil ram out and put the value stuff back in at the same time as going to the 550 cpu. So what I said was skewed somewhat.

Dandaman said:
Im begining to think that the x6 1100T is struggling with the auto settings ?

When you swap the cpu you also swap the memory controller which is internal to the cpus for current AMD cpus. So you could see some problem with that. BUT when you put the six core in the older 790 chipset board the NB frequency is different. Plus the default ram voltage can be different for the older chipset and what most ram required voltage wise.

So you need to check in a menu like PCHealth for the voltages supplied from board to board and that might show why the X6 works seemingly ok in the older 790 board. At least that would be my approach based on what I think you have written.
 
Thank you for the reply yet again. I've been building computers for a while now and i've never really ran into anything like this before so its just unusual to me. Im happy knowing that the mobo and cpu work perfectly fine so I can rule them out as being faulty now seeing as I have 2 setups going and both working perfectly now. I'll try the board and the x6 chip together again sometime this week and i'll update this thread to let you knw how I get on. I'll do as you said above and will try altering some settings accordingly to see where that gets me.

Dandaman
 
Sounds like a plan man. Correlate the AUTO settings from the 790 to 880 chipset and it may show the buggaboo. Luck to you.
 
Hey there, thought i'd update this thread

I never got round to re-trying the chip in the mATX board, I've left the x2 550 in it and have put it up for sale now as I haven't had any issues with the x6 in this mobo so why bother now.

I will deffo be keeping this in mind for the close future as I plan on upgrading my system with a new case and mobo.... scrapped the micro project now onto a standard mid tower again avoiding this headache :p

Thanks for your help its much appreciated

Dandaman
 
With this Asus M4A88T-M motherboard for a mATX build using an amd phenom II x6 1100t cpu and 4gb I have a problem with audio. I tried using different drivers but sound is still sometimes like sh**. Maybe some people already resolve this problem? Or I need to change some devices?
 
crashing and showing crazy lines

That's exactly the same issue I am having so I was really hoping to find a resolution when I found this thread but it seems like you have swapped bits out into another PC. I have a similar set up to yourself Asus M4A88T-M with a AMD Phenom ii X6 1055T and 8gb of Crucial memory which was guaranteed to work according to their website, anyway I was wondering if anybody had anymore ideas on what this issue could be, I have tried manual settings in the bios but was stabbing in the dark a little if i'm being honest. There are clearly loads of knowledgeable folk on here so was hoping to tap into some of that know how Help!! lol
 
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Used the M4A88T-M with phenom II X6 and 2 4g ripjaws about three years ago now to make my very first build and spent over 3 weeks trying to get windows up and running on it. Called every tech support line that I could find and nothing worked. Just happened to run into the onboard os/webbrowser that ASUS built into that board, incase you needed support during the setup I guess. Turns out it really messeswith the windows config. And causes all kinds of issues if you don't turn it off before you start the windows instLation. Turns out you can hook up a power source and monitor to that board and go on line. Once that was done it has run like a dream ever since. Just happdned to be surfing around looking for ideas on how I might reset the bios to better perform with all the long list of build tool programs needed to rebuild my Android ROM's to something I like.
 
Used the M4A88T-M with phenom II X6 and 2 4g ripjaws about three years ago now to make my very first build and spent over 3 weeks trying to get windows up and running on it. Called every tech support line that I could find and nothing worked. Just happened to run into the onboard os/webbrowser that ASUS built into that board, incase you needed support during the setup I guess. Turns out it really messeswith the windows config. And causes all kinds of issues if you don't turn it off before you start the windows instLation. Turns out you can hook up a power source and monitor to that board and go on line. Once that was done it has run like a dream ever since. Just happdned to be surfing around looking for ideas on how I might reset the bios to better perform with all the long list of build tool programs needed to rebuild my Android ROM's to something I like.

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"U can hook up a power source and monitor to that (m4a88t-m ?) board and go on line". But HOW, please. Thank you in advance.
 
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