The Maximus Formula Thread - Help/OCing/Guide/Rampage conversion

[TouGe]

Okay, I've had it! My board is dying and I no longer have any patience. I think I'm going to take this piece up north with me next month and put it out of its misery w/ an 8mm 196gr fmj.

Seriously though, something here just isn't right. When I first set this board up when it was released I was able to run 4-1GB Mushkins w/o any problems but over the last month the board has been really unstable with 4 sticks of RAM. On cold boots I'd have to enter the BIOS due to OC failure to find that the BIOS has my DIMM voltage set at 1.9V even though I have it set to 2.12V. After exiting the BIOS screen I have to wait for the PSU to turn off and then on before the computer would boot properly.

I've followed everyone's suggestions on this board and on other boards but none of them have worked. I have also ran a few loops of Memtest and my OC was 4 hours+ stable under OCCT using both RAM/Blend. I never BSOD'd or had any lock-ups while encoding or playing games.

Yesterday I decided to pull two sticks of RAM to see if the problem would go away and sure enough everything is fine. When I cold boot I no longer have to enter the BIOS and the BIOS holds the DIMM voltage where I set it. For some reason I can no longer run 4gigs of RAM on this board. How does this happen? I even tried to run 4 gigs of Patriot PC8500 but ran into the same problems. The RAM works great until I make changes that require more than 1.90V at which time I get a Det Ram error again.

Oh well, the board was fun while it lasted. I ordered a DFI X48 from Newegg today and should have it by Wednesday. Thanks to those who helped me set this bastard up so many months ago--I don't think they come around here anymore. Maybe I'll see some of you guys over in the DFI x48 thread in the future.

[ericab]

Okay, I've had it! My board is dying and I no longer have any patience. I think I'm going to take this piece up north with me next month and put it out of its misery w/ an 8mm 196gr fmj.

Seriously though, something here just isn't right. When I first set this board up when it was released I was able to run 4-1GB Mushkins w/o any problems but over the last month the board has been really unstable with 4 sticks of RAM. On cold boots I'd have to enter the BIOS due to OC failure to find that the BIOS has my DIMM voltage set at 1.9V even though I have it set to 2.12V. After exiting the BIOS screen I have to wait for the PSU to turn off and then on before the computer would boot properly.

I've followed everyone's suggestions on this board and on other boards but none of them have worked. I have also ran a few loops of Memtest and my OC was 4 hours+ stable under OCCT using both RAM/Blend. I never BSOD'd or had any lock-ups while encoding or playing games.

Yesterday I decided to pull two sticks of RAM to see if the problem would go away and sure enough everything is fine. When I cold boot I no longer have to enter the BIOS and the BIOS holds the DIMM voltage where I set it. For some reason I can no longer run 4gigs of RAM on this board. How does this happen? I even tried to run 4 gigs of Patriot PC8500 but ran into the same problems. The RAM works great until I make changes that require more than 1.90V at which time I get a Det Ram error again.

Oh well, the board was fun while it lasted. I ordered a DFI X48 from Newegg today and should have it by Wednesday. Thanks to those who helped me set this bastard up so many months ago--I don't think they come around here anymore. Maybe I'll see some of you guys over in the DFI x48 thread in the future.

so...
i haven't been following your dilemma regularly, so excuse me if i state something that you've already debunked but....;
why the fu** do you insist on running 4 sticks of ram ? why dontcha try emulating everyone else's successful settings w/ this board not only with software settings, but w/ hardware too..

either way good luck on your DFI;

hope its.... more to your taste.

[TouGe]

so...
i haven't been following your dilemma regularly, so excuse me if i state something that you've already debunked but....;
why the fu** do you insist on running 4 sticks of ram ? why dontcha try emulating everyone else's successful settings w/ this board not only with software settings, but w/ hardware too..

either way good luck on your DFI;

hope its.... more to your taste.

I'm sorry, does the board come with 4 RAM slots or only 2? Were the white slots just decorations then, a little eye candy? If your car dropped two cylinders would you still drive it our would you get it fixed?

The reason I run 4 sticks is because it ran fine w/ 4 sticks since I purchased it back in October of last year. I have two sets of 4 gig kits that I've been using since my P5K-D which, I might add, never had a problem running 4 sticks. So what, you ask? Now I should just go out and buy a 2x2gig kit since my board can't handle 4 sticks anymore. Sounds a tad absurd.

But hey thanks for the comment As needless as it was

[XtremeTiramisu]

Okay, I've had it! My board is dying and I no longer have any patience. I think I'm going to take this piece up north with me next month and put it out of its misery w/ an 8mm 196gr fmj.

Seriously though, something here just isn't right. When I first set this board up when it was released I was able to run 4-1GB Mushkins w/o any problems but over the last month the board has been really unstable with 4 sticks of RAM. On cold boots I'd have to enter the BIOS due to OC failure to find that the BIOS has my DIMM voltage set at 1.9V even though I have it set to 2.12V. After exiting the BIOS screen I have to wait for the PSU to turn off and then on before the computer would boot properly.

I've followed everyone's suggestions on this board and on other boards but none of them have worked. I have also ran a few loops of Memtest and my OC was 4 hours+ stable under OCCT using both RAM/Blend. I never BSOD'd or had any lock-ups while encoding or playing games.

Yesterday I decided to pull two sticks of RAM to see if the problem would go away and sure enough everything is fine. When I cold boot I no longer have to enter the BIOS and the BIOS holds the DIMM voltage where I set it. For some reason I can no longer run 4gigs of RAM on this board. How does this happen? I even tried to run 4 gigs of Patriot PC8500 but ran into the same problems. The RAM works great until I make changes that require more than 1.90V at which time I get a Det Ram error again.

Oh well, the board was fun while it lasted. I ordered a DFI X48 from Newegg today and should have it by Wednesday. Thanks to those who helped me set this bastard up so many months ago--I don't think they come around here anymore. Maybe I'll see some of you guys over in the DFI x48 thread in the future.

Make sure all 4 ram sticks are working properly at both stock/OC state. I had 4x 1GB configuration in the past as well and it was indeed harder to keep the system stable while OC'ed. I eventually ran into the same trouble as you right now and later I figured it was one of the stick from a pair of 2 x 1GB rams failed. So I RMA'ed the failure pair of ram sticks, of course, got a new pair soon after and installed them on another system. If I ever wanted to go with 4GB config again (mostly likely a yes in my case as I'm running x64 Vista Ulitmate) I'd go with 2 x 2GB config for less trouble.

Also make sure both pair of your 2 x 1GB ram kit are of the identical model # and revision and make sure that they're compatible with this mobo. If you can dig up someone's OC template using the same ram kit as yours, take his template as a reference for you to OC.

While some has complained that Ballistix Tracers are incompatible with this mobo, I'm one of the others who has no trouble OC a pair of Ballistix Tracers 1066 kit with this mobo. I've both the 1st and 2nd revision of the Ballistix Tracers are they're working perfectly with this mobo.

Good luck

[TouGe]

Make sure all 4 ram sticks are working properly at both stock/OC state. I had 4x 1GB configuration in the past as well and it was indeed harder to keep the system stable while OC'ed. I eventually ran into the same trouble as you right now and later I figured it was one of the stick from a pair of 2 x 1GB rams failed. So I RMA'ed the failure pair of ram sticks, of course, got a new pair soon after and installed them on another system. If I ever wanted to go with 4GB config again (mostly likely a yes in my case as I'm running x64 Vista Ulitmate) I'd go with 2 x 2GB config for less trouble.

Also make sure both pair of your 2 x 1GB ram kit are of the identical model # and revision and make sure that they're compatible with this mobo. If you can dig up someone's OC template using the same ram kit as yours, take his template as a reference for you to OC.

While some has complained that Ballistix Tracers are incompatible with this mobo, I'm one of the others who has no trouble OC a pair of Ballistix Tracers 1066 kit with this mobo. I've both the 1st and 2nd revision of the Ballistix Tracers are they're working perfectly with this mobo.

Good luck

Yeah, I spent most of Saturday/Sunday running Memtest, first with all 4 sticks then just two at a time and they never kicked up any errors. I've been using the 4x1GB Mushkins (purchased at the same time from Mushkin as a 4 gig kit) since I purchased this board, 10/24, w/o any problems. It wasn't until about a month ago that this issue started happening. I don't think its the RAM since I also tried it with a 4 gig kit of Patriot RAM that are brand new from an RMA and were tested back in November.

Why would the RAM cause the BIOS to reset the DIMM back to default voltage and why would it happen now and not back in October?

My OC is fine. I've tested and retested it many of times using OCCT and Prime95 and it has never failed at its current settings nor has windows crashed, locked-up, or BSOD'd while gamming or encoding.

I'm not about to purchase more RAM when I have two kits that are working fine. All I need is a stock pile of DDR2 when I plan on switching over to DDR3 in the fall.

Thanks for the suggestions though....

[XtremeTiramisu]

Yeah, I spent most of Saturday/Sunday running Memtest, first with all 4 sticks then just two at a time and they never kicked up any errors. I've been using the 4x1GB Mushkins (purchased at the same time from Mushkin as a 4 gig kit) since I purchased this board, 10/24, w/o any problems. It wasn't until about a month ago that this issue started happening. I don't think its the RAM since I also tried it with a 4 gig kit of Patriot RAM that are brand new from an RMA and were tested back in November.

Why would the RAM cause the BIOS to reset the DIMM back to default voltage and why would it happen now and not back in October?

My OC is fine. I've tested and retested it many of times using OCCT and Prime95 and it has never failed at its current settings nor has windows crashed, locked-up, or BSOD'd while gamming or encoding.

I'm not about to purchase more RAM when I have two kits that are working fine. All I need is a stock pile of DDR2 when I plan on switching over to DDR3 in the fall.

Thanks for the suggestions though....

Okay, there's nothing more I can add from here. May I wish you best luck in OCing your new x48 DFI board.