Help needed on first built PC

Horsefumbler

Hi

I've recently built my first Pc but I'm having some problems getting it to work properly.

Specs:
DFI nf4 lanparty ultra d
AMD Athlon 3800+ Venice
Pheonix technoligies LTD Version 6.00PG 01/25/2005
2X 512mb Corsair CMX512-3200XL
1X 200gb WD SATA HD
LG 16x dvd rom
ATI radeon 850pro
audigy 2 zs
Antec Neo power 480w
Windows XP Pro SP2

the problem I'm having put simply is that is crashes when I'm playing games on it. The problem seems to be memory related it only happens when i'm using 2 sticks of ram its fine with one( but 512mb sucks for games).

here's the weird thing. Every program that can check how much ram u have installed is telling me I have twice as much ram as I actually have. ie 2048 when there 1024mb installed, 1024 when theres 512mb installed etc. I'm fairly sure this is the root of the problem but I don't know how to correct it.

I've been on the dfi street forums and I found out that corsair ram apparently has issues with the dfi board but I tried it with the same amount of crucial ballistix ram and the exact same thing happened - showed up as twoce as much as it should be, crashed during games.

The only thing i've been advised to do is update the bios which I've never done and am a bit wary of doing incase if **** up something.

does anyone have any advice or suggestions as to what I should do? btw i do have the ram in the correct slots( the 2 orange ones)

thanks:)

Cuddlesworth

You may have a faulty board.

Lets run down the list. What voltage is going to the ram? Did you enable the 4 volt jumper? Have you tried the yellow slots? Have you messed with ny of the memory timings? Have you tried that handy little program in the bios called memtest? Does in error? On what test and on which stick?

DemonOfTheFall

Id definitely just go for the bios update. The chances of messing anything up are super slim. Even updates from windows are pretty much foolproof these days.

Cuddlesworth

Nothing ever goes easy with the dri nf-4 boards

duridian

Could be one of your ramsticks is dodgy, since you say that one works ok but 2 together is a no-go. Can't do any harm to download Memtest86+ and give it a run to check for memory errors. You can get a bootable ISO from their website, just burn it to a cd and boot from it to test. Would be one of the first steps I'd take in your situation, I would definitely do it before flashing the bios. TBH I'd be afraid to risk a bios flash if I thought I had dodgy ram in case of the flash not taking properly.
Edit Just realised you said that you tried two different kits, not sticks. Still might be worth giving it a run to see what result you get. If you get errors on both sets of ram in the DFI board try the 2 kits in another pc and run memtest to see if they pass. If they do then it is probably the DFI motherboard which is dodgy.

Cuddlesworth

All dfi-nf4 bios have memtest. when you go into the bios, pick the top right option, scroll down to the bottom and enable. Then save and exit. At the re-boot it goes straight into memtest.

gline

krazy_8s wrote:

All dfi-nf4 bios have memtest. when you go into the bios, pick the top right option, scroll down to the bottom and enable. Then save and exit. At the re-boot it goes straight into memtest.

wow never heard that before

Cuddlesworth

I dont think its advertised but it is there.

gline

krazy_8s wrote:

I dont think its advertised but it is there.

il have to check that out:)

duridian

Well a bit of Googling seems to confirm what Krazy_8s says. That's a pretty darn cool feature by DFI.

Col_Loki

Wow, never knew that either. Great feature, more people should be informed about it.......

DemonOfTheFall

Yeah, heard about it a good while back and thought it sounded really cool. People never seem to talk about using it though. For shame Loki, you have a DFI board

Horsefumbler

cool i'll try that bios memtest.


Another thing a mate told me to try was to put continuoity modules in it. these are like ram sticks but empty. think they'd work?

Cuddlesworth

Horsefumbler wrote:

cool i'll try that bios memtest.


Another thing a mate told me to try was to put continuoity modules in it. these are live ram sticks but empty. think they'd work?

Never heard of them.

Just to point out the memtest in the bios might be stable but normally there is a 10mhz difference to windows stable. I use it as a pre-test before booting into windows