DFI NF4 Ultra/SLi-D BUGS and Fixes Thread

I've got a DFI NF4 SLI Infinity board and I had a pretty big quirk during installation.
With two optical drives on one 80-pin cable, things were VERY bad. With the hard drive running SATA, I was able to put each CD-ROM drive on its own cable/channel and that fixed the issue.

What i mean by VERY BAD is: Once windows was installed, anytime I tried to use the CD or DVD to install an ap or game, I was shown the BSOD. When the system recovered, it was the general hardware fault that says it could be ANYTHING. Is that the standard fix. Run the CD drives alone on their own 40-pin cable? Becuase every now and then, I get a BSOD during an install. The last was with Quake4. Big proggie to install. It bombed the first try, but i got it the second.

:mad:

I am having DFI NF4 Ultra. One of the giga ethernet port isn't working. I believe it's a marvell chip. windows xp can't find it's driver. I have used system driver from the DFI web site.

Any clue?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by raydelee

DFI 4 Leds Of Death -weird boot

my systems spec :
dfi ultra-d sli
amd64 sd3700
tr-XP90C
ocz el1024mb pc3200 rev2 TCCD
asus7800gtx
80g hd
enermax noisetaker 600w

every time pc switch on 4 leds light up,all fan ruuning including gfx fan

To boot:
still with 4 leds lights on mobo quickly switch off psu before 4 leds goes OFF turn it back on then pc will boot up without any problem even overclock to 2.9ghz

any idea what is the problem here

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Something simmilar (but haven't found the way to make it work):

Yesterday I set up my new rig:
DFI nf4 SLI-DR
Venice E6 3000+
OCZ4001024ELDCGE-K
Gainward 7800GT nonGS / Samsung 173P TFT
OCZ PowerStream 420W
Raptor 36Gb / Caviar 200Gb / Barracuda IV 80Gb
Pioneer 110 DVD-R / Liteon DVD / Floppy
Lian-Li PC-61

I'm sure I did everything correct (I mounted and unmounted it 3 times, I worked for RMA for 2 years, mounted like 40-50 Pcs, so I know what I'm doing, but this was my first PCI-E/24pin/DualChannel/939 MoBo). Plugged the 24pin and 4pin conector, but not the molex/FDD type ones (as I'm not running SLI I've read those are not required). But it won't boot at all. All the fans start, the lights are lit, the HDDs start, the DVDs open/close but none on screen, it turns off after 10 seconds. No VGA BIOS, no beep errors, no mobo BIOS, nothing. Nada.

The 4 leds are lit green (as seen in the manual, that means everything is detected, or nothing? never sure when in manuals they draw lights xD). The buzzer won't make a sound (I changed the jumper to "On"), no beep without VGA/DIMMS. The fans work, the PSU works, and the lights on the motherboard are lit. Again, I'm sure I've set up everything right. I've tried with only proc mem and vga with everything else unplugged and nothing. What is strange is there is no beep error if I unplug the VGA and/or the dimms.

Possibilities:

1. Defective motherboard: Any issue with dead DFI nf4 motherboards out of the box?
2. The monitor doesn't recongize correctly the signal: Don't think so, because it has full DVI-D pins, and doesn't show the usual "Not signal on cable".
3. It is making a shortcircuit with the case: I didn't put any separator between the mobo and the case bolts, but I've never put and never had any problem. Should I put that? Anyway, there is no short because everything seems to work alright: lights, fans, leds, drives, etc.

Doubts:

1. The 7800GT current connector must be connected to TWO molex?
2. I must connect the 24pin AND the 12V 4pin right?
3. The buzzer should beep when no VGA with 1 long and 3 short beeps, and continued long beeps when no DIMMs right? I can't see any info regarding this in the Features/User's Manual but those are the standard.
4. The 5V/12V molex and FDD should be plugged ONLY when two VGAs are present? I didn't plug them.
5. What the lit leds mean?, because without that or speaker errors I'm totally lost to define the problem. From the post I'm quoting, I assume the lights should turn OFF when everything OK, right? All of them stay lit in my mobo.
6. Should I commit suicide? :mad:

Tonight I'll re-do everything from scratch again. I spent like 4 hours yesterday :slap: but never had too many problems (well yes, with a dead Abit KV8-Pro, so my fears :( it showed error numbers not listed in the manual, so I RMAed it and got a new one, without errors, but that's another story :p: )

Thanks in advance

/edit1: changed "The 4 leds are lit" for "The 4 leds are lit green"

Well another one of my DFI bites the dust today. Counting 3 now. Glad I had backup handy and should be up and running tomorrow once I find time to replace mobo. Time for RMA again.... -_-;
I really need to look for alternative mobo than DFI.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mursaat

Something simmilar (but haven't found the way to make it work):

Yesterday I set up my new rig:
DFI nf4 SLI-DR
Venice E6 3000+
OCZ4001024ELDCGE-K
Gainward 7800GT nonGS / Samsung 173P TFT
OCZ PowerStream 420W
Raptor 36Gb / Caviar 200Gb / Barracuda IV 80Gb
Pioneer 110 DVD-R / Liteon DVD / Floppy
Lian-Li PC-61

I'm sure I did everything correct (I mounted and unmounted it 3 times, I worked for RMA for 2 years, mounted like 40-50 Pcs, so I know what I'm doing, but this was my first PCI-E/24pin/DualChannel/939 MoBo). Plugged the 24pin and 4pin conector, but not the molex/FDD type ones (as I'm not running SLI I've read those are not required). But it won't boot at all. All the fans start, the lights are lit, the HDDs start, the DVDs open/close but none on screen, it turns off after 10 seconds. No VGA BIOS, no beep errors, no mobo BIOS, nothing. Nada.

The 4 leds are lit (as seen in the manual, that means everything is detected, or nothing? never sure when in manuals they draw lights xD). The buzzer won't make a sound (I changed the jumper to "On"), no beep without VGA/DIMMS. The fans work, the PSU works, and the lights on the motherboard are lit. Again, I'm sure I've set up everything right. I've tried with only proc mem and vga with everything else unplugged and nothing. What is strange is there is no beep error if I unplug the VGA and/or the dimms.

Possibilities:

1. Defective motherboard: Any issue with dead DFI nf4 motherboards out of the box?
2. The monitor doesn't recongize correctly the signal: Don't think so, because it has full DVI-D pins, and doesn't show the usual "Not signal on cable".
3. It is making a shortcircuit with the case: I didn't put any separator between the mobo and the case bolts, but I've never put and never had any problem. Should I put that? Anyway, there is no short because everything seems to work alright: lights, fans, leds, drives, etc.

Doubts:

1. The 7800GT current connector must be connected to TWO molex?
2. I must connect the 24pin AND the 12V 4pin right?
3. The buzzer should beep when no VGA with 1 long and 3 short beeps, and continued long beeps when no DIMMs right? I can't see any info regarding this in the Features/User's Manual but those are the standard.
4. The 5V/12V molex and FDD should be plugged ONLY when two VGAs are present? I didn't plug them.
5. What the lit leds mean?, because without that or speaker errors I'm totally lost to define the problem. From the post I'm quoting, I assume the lights should turn OFF when everything OK, right? All of them stay lit in my mobo.
6. Should I commit suicide? :mad:

Tonight I'll re-do everything from scratch again. I spent like 4 hours yesterday :slap: but never had too many problems (well yes, with a dead Abit KV8-Pro, so my fears :( it showed error numbers not listed in the manual, so I RMAed it and got a new one, without errors, but that's another story :p: )

Thanks in advance

---

Firstly, the current recommendation... scratch that, requirement is for all the power connectors to be connected REGARDLESS of whether you're running dual vid cards - yes the manual says otherwise, but this is the experts at DFI-street preach for maximum stability... however without the additional connectors plugged in it should still boot.

If all 4 DEBUG LEDs are lit it means your CPU has not even been detected so the startup procedure cannot continue from there. IMO either your CPU is a deadfish or your motherboard is broke'd. Good luck :)

Well mobo, processor, memory and VGA are new so I hope pluging 4 current conectors and rebuilding all from scratch solves the problem. I will try some build advices I read at dfi-street.

I want to play with my new rig ASAP :mad:

//EDIT: I'm going to plug my venice in a friend's board and his proccesor in my SLI-DR to know which one is broken

mursaat you NEED to place those spacers unless you want fireworks. Try it and see if it helps.

2. yes you nede to connect in a 24pin and the 12v for the cpu

6. its an option ..

If the welding contacts on the back of the mobo are touching the metal surface on the back plate of the chassis you probably have a shortcircuit there. As said before, use the spacers. Remeber of the eletrostatic energy, always touch a grounded device before working with electronic components, well, if you worked at RMA you should know that already.

I recently got two ultra-D's. One from the usa, one here from holland..

The board from the USA has a dead nvidia lan port.. drivers load fine, it shows as connected.. and it seems to transmit, yet 0 packets are received.

The board i got in holland has dead pci-e slots, my gtx refuses to work while it does work in the other board with every other component the same. . (actually i only tested the first pci-e 16x slot.. i should try the other one i guess)
The nv lan port works on this board, so i know that my network is fine.

I used the same windows install to test both boards so it's not a software problem and both boards were flashed to the latest official bios. (the FX60 official bios, i think)

Also i noticed the USA board has expoxy on the nf4 chip to prevent SLI modding, while the dutch one doesn't have this... lol is SLI modding an american thing? ;)

Anyways i'm not sure what to do at this point..
Currently i'm running the board with the dead nvlan as my desktop (using the marvell.. although my pci bus is saturated as it is grr :( )
The board with the dead pci-e slots is going to be used as a server ..obviously..

I'm quite disappointed to say the least.. maybe someone can help?

EDIT: Tried my GTX in the second PCI-e slot, it works... that's a relief, i'm happy with that
Now if only i could get the nvlan working... maybe i should examine the boards close up near the vitesse chip, maybe there are visual defects that i can fix.. wish me luck, i'm getting hopeful again ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Khaotic

I've got a DFI NF4 SLI Infinity board and I had a pretty big quirk during installation.
With two optical drives on one 80-pin cable, things were VERY bad. With the hard drive running SATA, I was able to put each CD-ROM drive on its own cable/channel and that fixed the issue.

What i mean by VERY BAD is: Once windows was installed, anytime I tried to use the CD or DVD to install an ap or game, I was shown the BSOD. When the system recovered, it was the general hardware fault that says it could be ANYTHING. Is that the standard fix. Run the CD drives alone on their own 40-pin cable? Becuase every now and then, I get a BSOD during an install. The last was with Quake4. Big proggie to install. It bombed the first try, but i got it the second.

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You havent installed the IDE driver in the nforce4 package have U ??? because it f*cks up a lot.....

Actually i did, but i currently have the ATA controller and the second SATA controller disabled. Still no go..
How would i remove this IDE driver? I don't see it in the removal options (add/remove software --> nvidia drivers)
Aren't the drivers required for Nvidia RAID though? (mediashield manual claims they are)

What could be my problem? My situation is this: I have a San Diego 3700+, without problems i can do 280x10 (tested with TCCD pair). I have a 2x512MB mushkin redline. It happens a strange problem related with Vdimm. The problem is when i set 3.7V in bios, whatever frequency, whatever timmings if i set 3.7V (with +0.02 Enable or more than 3.7V) the system hangs. For example, i can boot at 270Mhz 2-2-2 with 3.6+0.02V but Windows is very unstable, i changed almost all timmings and the problem persist. The problem comes when i set 3.7V or more.

I read Tony article, but i have a different problem, if i set 1.475V for Vcore i can enter to windows, but the system is unstable too because i neet 1.52V for full stability with my San Diego (tested with TCCD).

Vcore = 1.520V (Diego 270Mhx10 stable) + Vdimm = 3.7V --> No Windows load, then if i press reset button there is not post
Vcore = 1.475 (Diego 270x10 unstable) + Vdimm = 3.7V --> Windows load, but is very unstable

I tested many bios, 510-1,2,3 , 623-1,2,3 even 704-2bt and nothing change. I've put 1.5V for ldt and 1.8V for chipset and nothing. Why with 3.7V or more my system fails? Please guys, can you help me? Any input is appreciated

*Sorry for my bad english*

is 618-2 ok for my system? will try opteron soon.

i have a trouble !
When I connect my IDE HDD to this mobo the boot process tooks awfully long time and seems to never end :(
And what`s more surprising - I have same thing with my old rig. It occured after I used it with DFI mobo. Once I had no troubles booting with it on DFI and it worked fine - but not anymore. I doubt it`s HDD`s fault. So could somebody help me out here ?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cooper

i have a trouble !
When I connect my IDE HDD to this mobo the boot process tooks awfully long time and seems to never end :(
And what`s more surprising - I have same thing with my old rig. It occured after I used it with DFI mobo. Once I had no troubles booting with it on DFI and it worked fine - but not anymore. I doubt it`s HDD`s fault. So could somebody help me out here ?

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I had a simlar problem caused by the network showing low connectivity, fixed that with a network wizard session. Then the hanging on boot up and down stopped, but not until I got the network sorted.

lets see 1st dfi board killed anything that was plugged into it, and the 2nd one i have now the top pci-e slot(16x) doesnt work, looks like i will have to RMA both of them :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

EDIT: both 16x Slots are semi-dead, thought it was my gpu acting up but when i put a friends 7800GT in 1-2fps in 3dmark 2k1...lol so far dfi is 0-3 in my book

i rma'd this board and got the exact same board back and they just replaced the bios ??? wtf i told them somethign wrong with 939 slot.... but nooooo :fact:

ive had 4 of these boards, and no problems what so ever, i guess its the luck of the draw.

For some reason now I can no longer POST with 4 DIMMs in my board. Using BIOS that is listed in my sig and 4 sticks of OCZ Plat Rev 2. Set in BIOS to use 2T Timing and all I get is that annoying Beep sound! Has anyone else had this problem?

Hi Guys!

I have a problem with my NF4 Ultra-D:
When I set the vdimm jumper to 4V position , then 5-6 second after I push the power on button , the system shutdown , or start to beep.


What could be the problem?

I use 2x512MB OCZ Platium Ltd. Edition PC4800 ram , or 2X512MB Kingston HyperX PC3500(winbond BH5) .

Someone can tell me what is the best bios for dfi lanparty ut sli-dr ?? thkx :D

ill add my problem to the list of others then.

UNSTABLE. unstable at stock ffs....unstable down clocked! ive tryed every timing known to man and havnt been able to get my ram stable..(Ultra-D , Crucial Ballistix 3200 2x512, 3000+ Venice) i think it could be down to me using a 20-24 pin covnerter? however my psu is a Thermaltake PurePower Silent 480w, so 480w is enought juice right?

http://www.thermaltake.com/2005/purepower/W001314.htm

Hey guys, I just ordered ordered an Ultra-D tonight (my gigabyte board died)........I know its recommended to have atleast 480w psu, but was wondering if you guys think I could get away with running my SeaSonic 400w(450w peak +3v 28amps +5v 30amps +12v 22amps, native 24pin) for a while??? Im gonna be running.....

Opteron 146 @2.8 1.45v
2GB G Skill ZX @234 2.7v
1 6600GT(for now)
1 80GB WesternDigital SATA HDD
1 DVD-ROM
3 80mm fans

It really isnt that much, what do you guys think?? Thanks in advance :)

Edit: Im sorry this probably isnt the right thread for my question.......you can remove

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GAR

ive had 4 of these boards, and no problems what so ever, i guess its the luck of the draw.

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ditto... luck of the draw.

sometimes user error:eek:

Running an SLI-D. Sorry if I'm asking a dumb question. Which SATA ports are locked down? I was running RAID on 1 and 2 and immediately scrambled my OS install when I started OCing. There's no way I'm gonna read all 45 pages of this thread.