[DFI Infinity RS482] Stability Issues

[Chir]

I have the following hardware:

Motherboard: DFI Infinity RS482
RAM: 2x256MB Kingston HyperX PC3500
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3000+ (CPUz says it's a Venice)
PSU/Case: Antec 430w PSU [from the Antec Fusion Case]

I'm experiencing two problems:
1: The system will not boot when I try to run the memory in dual channel mode. If I put the ram in banks 0 and 1, or 2 and 3, the system will not post. I have to put the memory in Banks 0 and 2 in order for the machine to post.

2: While running with the memory in single channel mode, the machine will lockup, sometimes even rebooting itself.

At first, I thought it was a memory problem (possibly bad ram) so I ran Memtest86 for a couple of hours. The machine eventually locked up, but there were no errors reported on the RAM.

I've reseated the BIOS chip. Well, seated it actually, considering that when I got it, the chip wasn't all the way in the socket. When I pushed it into place, the chip actually clicked in. I gained a bit of stability here, but not enough.

I've have updated the BIOS to the latest revision, which is dated 10/30. It was the same revision that shipped with the board, but I forced the updated anyway.

Instead of setting the ram by the SPD, I configured it to run as defined by Kingston (2.5-3.3.7). I recently read an article that said the tRAS value should be the sum of tRP+tRCD+2, which is 8. Since I have 7, I'll be trying it with a value of 8 tonight, but I'm not sure thats going to do much.

I've tried increasing the voltage from 2.6v to 2.8v to see iif a little more juice might help it out, but it didn't seem to help.

Last night I was playing around with CPUz and I saw that on the memory tab, it showed both of my memory sticks and it looked like they weren't running at the same speed. I saw something like this:
bank 1: 217 mhz, 2-4-4-9
bank 2: 200 mhz, 2.5-3-3-7

edit:I'm going to try this tonight, for grins, but could the problem be the RAM isn't as matched as I thought it was? Could one stick work fine at 2-4-4-9 and the other at 2.5-3-3-7? In which case, could I combine the timings for a greater success? Something like 2.5-4-4-9?

I'm new to playing with these settings, so be gentle.

The timings that I'd defined were showing up for one stick, but not the other. I took a peek at the BIOS settings, and I found and option labeled Enable All DIMM slot clocks. When I cahnged this option to disable, it looks like it forced all the RAM to run at the same speed with the timings I set (200mhz, 2.5-3-3-7). However, it didn't seem to affect much.

Processor never goes over 42c. Tested this by running Prime95 and watching the temperature in the AMD Dashboard utility.

I experienced the lockup problem in Fedora Core 6, Ubuntu, Windows XP and occasionally in the BIOS screen.

I'm out of ideas! Here are my BIOS settings:

DRAM Timing and Config
CAS Latency(tCL): 2.5
min RAS active time (tRAS): 7
RAs to CAS delay(tRCD): 3
Row Precharge Time(tRP): 3
Row to Row Delay(tRRD): <auto>
Row cycle time(tRC): <auto>
Row Refresh CYC Time(tRFC): <auto>
Read to Write(tRWT): <auto>
Refresh Rate(tREF): <auto>
Write to Read Delay(tWTR): <auto>
Write Recovery Time(tWR): <auto>
1T/2T Memory Timing: 2T
Read preamble Timing: <auto>
Async Latency Value: <auto>
DRAM Drive Strength: <auto>
DRAM Drive Strength Ratio: x1.42 <default>
DRAM DQ Drive Strength: <auto>
DQS Hysteresis: <auto>
Read and Write Queue Bypass: <auto>
Dynamic Idle Cycle Counter: <auto>
Idle Cycle Limit: <auto>
Bypass Max: <auto>
odd Divisor Correct: <auto>
Dual Dimm: <Auto>
Disable Jutter: <auto>
Digital Locked Loop: Enabled <default>
DRAM Bank Interleaving: Enabled <default>
Burst Length: 4 beats <default>
Enable all DIMM Clocks: Disabled
MTRR Mapping mode: Continuous <default>
PDL Delay Adjust: <auto>
DRAM ECC Feature Control: <disabled>

ANY help is greatly appreciated!

 

[Chir]

Welp, nevermind.

It crashed mid bios update and won't even boot. It's going to go back to newegg, and something else will replace it. Might be a good board, but it's too picky and too unstable for me.

It's a shame, as a I really wanted it to work.

 

[CosmicGrooves]

Wow... at least newegg is good to work with. I'm using the same board and so far it's doing very well. Right now I'm running Prime95 at these settings. Prime has been running for about an hour now and the whole time I've been surfing the internet.

Did you download all the updated drivers and if you're using Dual Core CPU, download all the dual core drivers from the AMD website? I was having stability issues until I put the dual core driver on. It's rock solid right now, it seems. I thought the hight HT would be a problem, but doesn't seem to be yet.

It looks a bit warm, but Prime95 has been running for a while.

 

[Chir]

I started out using a 32bit version of Fedora Core on it. After repeated lockups, and curiosity, I went a 64bit version of Fedora Core. I also tried Ubuntu and KUbuntu, all of which have support for AMD built into it. Combine that with the fact that it was occasionally crashing in CMOS, I don't think it was the AMD driver.

While it was running windows, I did have all the XPSP2 updates installed, as well as the AMD driver. As far as software goes, I felt pretty confident that I had everything setup properly on my end. I'm pretty good with software, rather new to some of the more advanced configurations of the hardware!

It's a single core proc, so I didn't need any of the dual core drivers installed. But, yeah, I had the driver installed for the CPU. I've got an ASROCK Dual-VSTA board with an A64 X2 3800+. I learned about those instability problems you get without the driver installed, and man, thats a lesson I'll never forget! Thats why, after installing windows, the first thing I did was put that AMD driver on!


Honestly, I've spent the past couple days scrounging the internet for information that can help me. What it really comes down to is that this board is a hit or miss with people: either it works great and people love it, or it's a nightmare and people hate it. All in all it's going to work out for the best for me, as I should have gone with an nVidia card anyway, as I'm using linux on it. ATI just doesn't play well with linux yet, although they are getting there, it's just too slow for my tastes.

I'm probably going to replace it with a BIOStar board. While I can't say I'm a big fan of theirs, the board I'm looking at has gotten some great reviews.

Thank you much for the tips, and I'm glad yours is working! Too bad mine didn't.

 

[SuperDave1685]

Is that the mATX board or the full size ATX one? You could always just order a new BIOS chip. That 430W PSU wasn't helping things either I'm sure. Antecs are known to have the infamous Fuhjyyu caps that are *very* prone to failing and leaking. Almost all DFI S939 motherboards require at least a 480W PSU to operate. Try buying a beefier PSU to see if that fixes your stability issues. Did you purchase the RAM at the same time in a kit or seprate? If you bought them seperate, they may be two different revisions of the same RAM.. same sppeds and brand, but different timings, IC's, or chips themselves.. The CPU-Z Memory tabs is reading what is stored in the RAM's SPD chip (serial presence detect). at 200Mhz, the RAM can do 2.5-3-3-7 and at 217Mhz (which is PC3500 speeds), the RAM can do 2-4-4-9. They are not running at the same speeds, I can assure you of that. Try booting the board with the sticks in slots 1 and 3...Hope I helped a little bit

 

[ziggo0]

This board is to be honest a hit and miss. I had a very good one, and now I have a pretty iffy one. Sometimes it will be 4 hours Prime95 stable and then fail, the next night it will be 12 ~ 16 hours Prime95 stable and so on and so forth. I've noticed this board has some issues with detecting hard drives as well. It's a great board if you get a good one.

 

[Chir]

It was the mATX version. Yeah, I could have ordered a new BIOS chip, but I was pretty frustrated and they wanted me to RMA it, so I'm good with that.

As far as the RAM, I bought it used from a forum member. I was told they were purchased as a kit, but I no way of knowing for sure. I do know that, before it finally died, I was running on just one stick in the first slot and it still crashed.. It didn't matter which stick; I tried them both.

As far as placement, I'm calling slot 0 the one closest to the proc. It had 4 slots, so it's 0,1,2, and 3. I had to run the sticks in Slot 0,2 in order to get them to work. In 1,3 they wouldn't boot. For a while, it would only work in slots 1,2.

I don't blame the board, though. As the poster above said, he's got a good one and so do many, many other people out there. I just got a bad one, and now I'm a bit leary of getting another one, so I'm choosing a different model.

I appreciate the tips, guys.

 

[SkyChotik]

Sorry to resurrect a VERY old post, but I still have this motherboard, but I have the INF. RS482/G
Still going strong! It's running media sharing through my house, and isn't eating energy like a typical gaming rig.
It was my first motherboard for a custom rig. I'm using an Athlon 64 3000+ Venice.
Sorry that you had issues with it, I just find that it doesn't like Windows 7 that much, XP is amazing on hardware like this.