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Getting nuts here

sa seba

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Joined
Feb 9, 2008
Messages
303
Location
Vancouver, BC
So, I was trying to build myself a nice little htpc:

Fractal Node 304
AMD A8-7600
GA-F2A88XN-WIFI
8GB Gskill 1600
Thermaltake 600W PSU
250GB Evo
Temporarily installed DVD drive for windows install

What's happening is that this thing freezes up constantly, requiring hard reset. Screen stays on, slight visual artefacts (green or red dots flickering on the screen), all usb devices turn off, system fans and cpu fan keep spinning.

I managed to get windows 7 installed after tons of tries and installed HWinfo64 to check temps and fan readings. The cpu hovered around 50 degree celcius on no load at all. Goes to 60 when installing drivers and updates. Freezes randomly every 5 to 10 minutes.

I switched out the ram, tried single stick, did mem tests, switched out the power supply, used only USB2 inputs for keyboard and mouse, installed an OCZ Vendetta 2 on the cpu, removed everything from the case and tried the above again.
Nothing helps.

At this point I am ready to return both cpu and motherboard.
The problem is getting another mitx fm2+ board. Darn.

Does anyone have another idea?
 

SugarJ

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Have you tried bumping the voltage on the CPU and on the Ram? It sounds like a memory lock up to me.
 

FreeKnight

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In the last Gigabyte bios I used it had both a load 'with default settings' and a 'load with fail-safe setting'. If it has that option, try the fail safe configure your HDD and Boot priority and then I wouldn't change anything and see if your system has better luck. Might give you an idea if it's a bios issue. Maybe pull your battery beforehand too just to be safe.

I had a lot of issues setting up my last gigabyte board, but once I hammered out the bios settings it ran great for some time. Compared to my last ASUS and MSI boards which ran fine right out of the gate.
 

sa seba

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Feb 9, 2008
Messages
303
Location
Vancouver, BC
I actually bumped up the ram voltage a bit. CPU I haven't touched since it gets fairly hot in its default state (with the ocz vendetta 2 cooler, mind you).

I shall bump up the CPU voltage a tiny bit and try again.

Battery I took out for 5 minutes and boot priorities I also configured.
There was an load optimized settings option, which I tried but didn't resolve it.

Thank guys!
 

sa seba

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Messages
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Vancouver, BC
Ok, so I have raised the CPU voltage, to no avail.
The CPU package temp might be an indicator of what's wrong. It got up to 73 degree Celsius before it locked up again.

Bloody hell.
 

FreeKnight

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IIRC, on gigabyte boards the 'optimized' settings are what Gigabyte thinks are the best performing settings for your rig. I had issues with it on my G1, and had to always make a few tweaks. Since AMD doesn't have XMP, if you've already tried the stock specs for the RAM, maybe see if you can find out what the other XMP settings come up as on an intel board and try inputting those manually?

73° isn't all that bad. It shouldn't be causing a freeze. Have you tried running ubcd from a stick and running the stress tests just off the linux stick? If they run no problem, could be settings. If not, I'm suspecting your chip/board is less than healthy.
 
Last edited:

sa seba

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Feb 9, 2008
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Hm, I had set the ram timings to the advertised ones and then also gave it a bit more voltage.
It really shouldn't be such a mess. 2 evenings of testing is not what I paid for, so back to memory express they go (board and CPU) and I am going to switch them out for new ones.

Running the tests of a Linux stick is a good idea, but I ended up not having time for that last night anymore.

I will report back with new hardware tonight.
 

Cptn Vortex

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Yea that doesnt sound fun at all. I'd probably just swap CPU first but if you got them as a combo then yea, go for the whole thing. The artifacting sounds like a GPU issue, so to be sure you could test by putting a PCIe GPU on and see if you still get that artifacting.
 

sa seba

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Feb 9, 2008
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Location
Vancouver, BC
I gave my last spare GPU away recently, so this was out of the question. :(
Both the mono and CPU are now back at memory express and they are going to test a combination of a new mobo and the current CPU in a windows environment, while I am at work.
Next up will be CPU. The thing is, the only other A8-7600 they have is open box...

We will see.
 

Cptn Vortex

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Where in Van are you? I've got loads of old GPU's I could give you one to keep on the shelf for future testing.
 

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