Problem with new budget build - APU

I bought this package for my wifes mother:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.816573

Ive never dealt with these APUs and right after win 7 64 bit ultimate installation i got a stop error 101. From that point on my win 7 was not even loading said problem initializing ect so I reinstalled and it did it again. Then I installed xp and it said disk read error and then I tried win7 again and again I got a stop 101. Maybe the hdd is bad? I know seagate have had some issues lately but from the surface, any suggestions? I did disconnect and make sure everything was properly seated and I thought if I just flashed the bios it might get it going but no such luck. Thanks in advance.

Have you tried starting with 1 stick of ram, Im not sure what that error is but a quick search brought me to a MS system error page and 101 has to do with memory that belongs to another thread. Not sure if thats the right error but it might be worth looking at.

what mode is your hdd in? RAID AHCI? Move it too a different setting. Try installing it with AHCI.

Could you get the exact stop error? as in the hex code?

If it was a bad drive windows wouldnt load onto it. Sounds like a bad driver to me. Also if you have more than one HDD controller on the board try the 3rd party chip, and if your using the 3rd party chip try the amd controller. Also using optimized defaults could help.

as stated it could be memory, try setting the memory speed manually to 1333.

Well I initially tried the setup with some ram i had laying around because the ram that goes with the kit wasnt here yet so I dont believe it was the ram because both sets of ram came up with the same error.

Yes I will get the error exactly and post it up.

I will also try changing the HDD setting and the memory autoed at 1333 but I could try and set it to manual 1333.

eluminx said:

Well I initially tried the setup with some ram i had laying around because the ram that goes with the kit wasnt here yet so I dont believe it was the ram because both sets of ram came up with the same error.

Yes I will get the error exactly and post it up.

I will also try changing the HDD setting and the memory autoed at 1333 but I could try and set it to manual 1333.

Click to expand...

Yeah just set it manually, what type of ram are you using? timings, voltage, etc?

Sorry I might have been confusing there, but Im using the ram thats in that bundle now so its G Skill 9-9-9-24 @ 1333, auto volts

I just tried ACHI and same error so Ill try ACHI Raid next, it was set on native IDE.

whats your setup for sata devices, if you could list the speed of the devices aswell that would be helpful.

There is a known problem with mixing sata6 hard drives with sata3 hard drives, it can cause boot problems or the inability to register devices correctly.

Its just 1 sata 6 seagate 500g HD thats in the bundle I linked.

what version of the bios is the board running? Alot of these boards stock are stilling running f1 or f2 which are initial release bioses which have memory compatibility issues. So its definitely work updating the bios if this is the case. It might be worth trying to reflash the bios aswell. I have had several gigabyte fm1 boards have corrupted bios issues that prevent booting or other parts of normal operation.

Also make sure you actually set the timings for the ram, this platform can be very very picky about memory, and allowing it to set the timings itself can result in it changing the timings on each boot, from acceptable settings to settings that are a problem. APU's are very picky about ram and ram timings due to there reliance on it for video.

I would look into updating the Bios first. Then running in IDE mode. Not AHCI. For troubleshooting purposes; I'd run IDE, not AHCI. AHCI is really only useful for hotswaps and SSD's anyway. A conventional boot drive HDD won't really benefit at all.

TsunamiJuan said:

what version of the bios is the board running? Alot of these boards stock are stilling running f1 or f2 which are initial release bioses which have memory compatibility issues. So its definitely work updating the bios if this is the case. It might be worth trying to reflash the bios aswell. I have had several gigabyte fm1 boards have corrupted bios issues that prevent booting or other parts of normal operation.

Also make sure you actually set the timings for the ram, this platform can be very very picky about memory, and allowing it to set the timings itself can result in it changing the timings on each boot, from acceptable settings to settings that are a problem. APU's are very picky about ram and ram timings due to there reliance on it for video.

Click to expand...

I did flash it and I believe its f6. I will check the timings as well.

Mjolnir said:

I would look into updating the Bios first. Then running in IDE mode. Not AHCI. For troubleshooting purposes; I'd run IDE, not AHCI. AHCI is really only useful for hotswaps and SSD's anyway. A conventional boot drive HDD won't really benefit at all.

Click to expand...

Yea I know that AHCI is for SSDs typically but thats what someone else suggested so I tried it.

On another site a guy told me that typically this error occurs from the CPU needing to be reseated or needing a bit more voltage or just flat out needing an RMA so I will try all of these suggestions. Thanks and anything else u guys can think of shoot it my way. I would hate to let my wifes mom down and tell her sorry no PC.

Mjolnir said:

I would look into updating the Bios first. Then running in IDE mode. Not AHCI. For troubleshooting purposes; I'd run IDE, not AHCI. AHCI is really only useful for hotswaps and SSD's anyway. A conventional boot drive HDD won't really benefit at all.

Click to expand...

Thats Interesting, i use AHCI for my sig drive, it feels a lot like my computer wants to much from it, For example when loading into Windows from boot it wants to load all my apps and background services at the same time, and at lightning speed, the poor dive can't keep up and works away furiously locking everything up until its settled.

It does the same once i have finished a few hours gaming and the drive unloads the page file, the computer freezes up during this until its done.

The computer is perfectly fluid, smooth fast... just loading apps and stuff but i can tell its making the drive work for it.

I have tested the drive for all the usual and its fine, i have also speed tested and it reads / writes at around 100MBs, which is about right for the drive.

could running in AHCI be causing the high workload on the drive?

Frakk said:

Thats Interesting, i use AHCI for my sig drive, it feels a lot like my computer wants to much from it, For example when loading into Windows from boot it wants to load all my apps and background services at the same time, and at lightning speed, the poor dive can't keep up and works away furiously locking everything up until its settled.

It does the same once i have finished a few hours gaming and the drive unloads the page file, the computer freezes up during this until its done.

The computer is perfectly fluid, smooth fast... just loading apps and stuff but i can tell its making the drive work for it.

I have tested the drive for all the usual and its fine, i have also speed tested and it reads / writes at around 100MBs, which is about right for the drive.

could running in AHCI be causing the high workload on the drive?

Click to expand...

AHCI allows for some extended fuctions of sata. Hotswap just being one of them. Native command queuing being one of the major ones, For ssd's and larger hard disks like WD black series drives, it allows the built in microprocessor on the drive to do more of the work instead of the os/cpu handling these functions. Primarily the functions are encryption, compression, and queuing of data, The queuing of data can be as simple as small packets of information that needed to be written to geographically different locations of the disk, Or caching of data during the write process which for some drives is much slower.

As for your drive taking a big performance hit when you load games or start windows this is normal it would happen reguardless of the sata settings. When you start windows there arent just all the windows services that have to start up but also most virus software does a startup scan and surface disk scan. Ontop of what your already trying to load, (services, steam?, skype? extended driver interfaces for sound, video game controllers, video control panel). When your starting a game the load type is normally slower for two reasons. For starters theres alot of code being executed to launch all the functions that get called for the 3d engine, network engine, and baseline functions. Not to mention it has to decompress a large portion of whats available to it. Since most games are packed into compressed packages even after install, to minimize drive real estate. Similar things happen on exit. The game gets unloaded from ram, aswell as whatever has been cached to swap from it must also be unloaded, and whatever temp files or state files it generatres during run time. so again a large amount of disk activiity will occur.

That's very informative, thank you.

Ok checked the timings, they were correct and i set it on manual just in case it tried to auto change them back and forth.

Changed the HDD back to IDE mode.

I reseated the CPU again and changed the CPU voltage to manual but keeping it at normal just in case it was spiratically changing.

Also ran a mem test through win7 cd and came out no issues.

I even upped the voltage a few times to see if there was any difference AND I re-re-re-re-reformatted win7 64 bit ultimate and i STILL got an initial blue screen stop 101 error.

The codes following the error were:

0x61
0x000000000000000
0xFFFFF880009E9180
0x01

I have also tried XP and win 7 just in case I didnt mention that.

So far Ive gotten no where. Does anyone have anymore suggestions before I RMA?

The ram voltage would not be the voltage fix in this case, it would probably NB voltage, however if the chip's IMC is to weak to run the ram at 1333 without increased voltage there is already something wrong with it, 1333 and 1600 should be no problem for these chips to run aslong as the ram matches. 1866 sometimes requires a boost to the NB voltage which is not abnormal.

Well another guy on another forum just said that often times stop error 101 is a CPU that is not seated correctly, not getting enough voltage or needs RMAed.

Do u have any more suggestions TsunamiJuan or do u think I should RMA?

You've covered the basics of what are usually problem areas for these chips, so i am thinking there might be something bad with the chip, probably send it back to newegg at this point since it appears its been less than 30 days. It certainly is starting to sound like you might have the rare occasion of a bad cpu. Its pretty hard for these chips not to be seated right, if the chip is laying flat in the socket and you had the lever lifted before you inserted the chip than locked the lever, that should literally be all there is to it.

Only time i have seen chips do what your desribing after going through the known problem is when there is something questionable about them in the first place, usually an indicator that they have gone bad.

Yea ive built mutiple computers so i KNOW it was seated the first time but I tried it again anyway since PCs can be picky but no such luck. I guess I will just RMA. Thanks for the assistance.