RD600 first look and general questions

[Apollonas]

Thank you Jimmyz.

I think I can live with that. I really dont care for any raid features since I wont be using it.

[marauder16]

hi guys, I was just banging my head to the table because I think my board is dead, what did I do?
Well, I was just reassembling my whole system and I also added a MCW30 to my NB, but the problem was that I for one, didn't put enough paste on the core, cause I forgot that it could be damaged, and second, the HS wasn't fitted good on the chip, I mean one corner of the HS wasn't touching the chip. I blame lousy mounting system for it. But the best thing is that Ididn't notice any of this problems ( ) so I turned on the system and happily went into bios to admire my new chipset twemps, and what I saw? A 70C reading on my chipset on stock settings!!! I looked at the HS and saw it wasn't sitting properly, soI gently moved it, and the temps began o go down, I thought, great. But then the BIOS froze.
I unmounted the block and cleaned it and the core up, and saw that both the core and the block were damaged, the block was scratched, very much, and the core was chipped off on the edges, but not that much. I almost started crying... I put alot more AS Ceramique this time to ensure not to damage the core more and mounted back the block, but this time found one more way using zip-ties to mount it good, including those little bending wires they provide with the block.
Then I EZ cleared the CMOS and started the PC, and of course there was a C1 error looking at me again. But I thought no problem, I did all of those things, plugging out all the cables, putting the jumper to clear the CMOS, removing the battery and shorting the two pins with the edge of the battery for at least two minutes. Then I returned all the cables and everything, put one DIMM in the furthest slot and fired the PC on. But there it was again, the well known C1 error. And then came the part of me banging my head to the table when I realized I stupidly killed my 250$ board.

Now, does anyone have any idea what else can I try cause I don't think DFI would except my RMA with a lapped stock HS and chipped off core, even if I pretended dumb and said I didn't remove it. Please help this fool guys...
thnx in advance

[steelballzz]

well...2 things i can tell you

1st....i did killed 1 dfi because of poor mounting an aftermark cooler

on the other hand.....
with another board when i had C1 code....ccmos wouldnt solve the issue.....
after removing the battery for a few seconds i had to leave the mobo switched off with power cord plugged and wait for half an hour or so and then it would come back to live

[marauder16]

well...2 things i can tell you

1st....i did killed 1 dfi because of poor mounting an aftermark cooler

on the other hand.....
with another board when i had C1 code....ccmos wouldnt solve the issue.....
after removing the battery for a few seconds i had to leave the mobo switched off with power cord plugged and wait for half an hour or so and then it would come back to live

thnx for posting, I'll try it with the power cord plugged in...
any other ideas guys?

[2000army]

Just wanted to say that my board has been extremely cooperative and
I look forward to going crossfire with ATI's new cards coming out!

[Eldonko]

Can you post a pic of the nb core? C1 error makes me think it might not be damaged, try 1 stick of mem in nearest orange to cpu and if it doesn’t boot, try the other. Also try the yellow slot and clear cmos for longer. Did your ram boot after cmos clear before this?

[cadaveca]

needs 533/667mhz SPD to pull out of C1 if CMOS clear does not work. I use 512MB sticks, not 1GB, for this.

[marauder16]

Can you post a pic of the nb core? C1 error makes me think it might not be damaged, try 1 stick of mem in nearest orange to cpu and if it doesn’t boot, try the other. Also try the yellow slot and clear cmos for longer. Did your ram boot after cmos clear before this?

sorry, I'm too scared to unmount the block now to take the pic, but believe me it is damaged on the edges, not much, bearely visible, but on all four sides of the core.
When I had a C1 error before the memory would boot after the standard procedure with one stick in the third or fourth slot from the CPU.
I will try with the one stick in the first or second slot, but I cleared the CMOS for like 24hrs or so with the battery out so I think it's maybe the BIOS chip that has gone because this C1 error started when the BIOS blocked because the chipset was overheating (70C or so) and I moved the block a bit and the BIOS freezed. That's when some weird error showed (sth like a simbol, don't know what it was) and then I cleared the BIOS and got the C1.
I now that C1 is a memory error, but I read that people (like nealh I believe) got an unrecoverable C1 error when their board 'died', why do you think it's not the NB?
thnx for responding

needs 533/667mhz SPD to pull out of C1 if CMOS clear does not work. I use 512MB sticks, not 1GB, for this.

I will try to find a stick like that and try to recover it, if I don't succeed otherwise, thnx


EDIT: IT BOOTED, IT BOOTED!!! Thank you very much Eldonko, I can't believe I didn't try the closest slot to the CPU, I always read that it should be the furthest slot... The chipset temp is 46C in the BIOS at stock, but I'll accept any temp now, lol, thnx again

And I can't believe that my second Cellshock 1GB DDR1000C4 now causes a C1 even when I set it to it's stock 2.2V 500MHz, that's strange, and the other one boots at 1.8V, any ideas how to solve this? It has been causing C1 before, and it needed 1.95V to go, but now that isn't enough.

[cadaveca]

is normal death for one stick to go first. You can resume booting with that one good stick, and then it too eventually will do the same.

[Cornelious0_0]

I have strongly valued this thread, and just spent a couple hours going through each and every page.

Reason I'm posting is because I just ordered an ICFX3200 and an E4300 after my RDX200 kinda crapped out last night.

What I want to know is this...should I expect any amount of "trouble" setting FSB up to 266 and booting with stock voltages? I won't have much time to OC but I'd at least like to be able to boot at 266 or so with the E4300 and I was wondering what the highest some people are going without changing any voltages or with minimal voltage/timing work.

[Aivas47a]

What I want to know is this...should I expect any amount of "trouble" setting FSB up to 266 and booting with stock voltages?

I believe default vdimm is 1.8v. Some of the higher speed ram may have trouble booting at that voltage, but if so all you have to do is swap in a lower voltage stick to boot up and change the setting. Other than having this issue occur with one set of ram I've never had a problem booting or clearing errors. Amazingly, despite generating a good number of C1 errors from excessive clocking/too tight timings, I've never yet had a C1 that didn't clear with a regular cmos reset!

Looking forward to crossfire on this baby too.

[Cornelious0_0]

I'm gonna be taking the overclocking in baby steps (after I hit 300FSB) partially due to extreme lack of time to "fiddle" with the board...but it'll still all come together eventually.

I'm gonna be putting in 2GB of OCZ SLI Ready PC2-8500 (link) which even though requires 2.3v to run at rated specs...I'm told it's still able to boot at 200-266FSB in almost any board, or so a couple local friends have found.

Hopefully all goes well, I'm not looking for a balls-to-the-walls overclock initially, because it's not gonna take much to destroy the scores/framerates achieved by my sig system, especially once my X1900XTX crossfire setup is up and running.

I'll be sure to post what I can when I get the board...hopefully within the next week.

[marauder16]

is normal death for one stick to go first. You can resume booting with that one good stick, and then it too eventually will do the same.

how do you mean it's normal? these sticks are just a couple of months old, they should die, the stick was running at 2.2V (it's rated) when it died, that's what is strange. I'll try and RMA it...

[Bluebeard]

please do so

[cadaveca]

how do you mean it's normal? these sticks are just a couple of months old, they should die, the stick was running at 2.2V (it's rated) when it died, that's what is strange. I'll try and RMA it...

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...08#post2189208

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...74#post2189374

Sadly, it seems to be the nature of this IC to have these issues. Sometimes leaving them for a while will allow the sticks to boot again, but this never lasts long. I kept one set that died a few months ago, and while it did boot after sitting for a few months, the non-boot behavior returned shortly after.

[Eldonko]

Yep, once you start getting booting and stability issues it may seem to go away when you let the RAM sit but it will return. Best to RMA before you bang your head against the wall for a month trying to figure it out (like I did).

[marauder16]

strange I didn't hear about D9GKXs die when I was choosing which mem. to buy, good I know now.
Alonso, sorry I didn't know that there was smb from Cellshock here on the forums, I requested my RMA over mem.configurator earlier today since I bought this kit from them, is this enough or should I contact Cellshock directly?
thnx everyone for your help

[M3kk]

marauder16, same problem here .

The first kit was changed ( same problem : dont go without ~2.2-2.3v ), but now from the second kit one module without 2.1v wont start ( c1 ) .
I dont use high voltage for them .

[marauder16]

marauder16, same problem here .

The first kit was changed ( same problem : dont go without ~2.2-2.3v ), but now from the second kit one module without 2.1v wont start ( c1 ) .
I dont use high voltage for them .

This stick that died on me, had the same problem. At first it would boot at 1.8V, no problem, month later it needed 2.1V to pass the C1, and like two months later no voltage would make it pass the C1 error, then came the RMA. I hope now they send me a kit that would last at least a year

[Gambit_2K]

Anybody got an error message saying "CMOS Protected"? It did for me and then it went dead in the water. Im not getting a error code =( This will be my second RMA, and the second time it killed a stick of ram for me =/

Im not sure it said "CMOS", I can't remember now but it's the message you get at the bottom of the screen just before it starts loading windows. Usually it says "(something) updated" if you have changed any settings in bios. But this time it said Protected then it completely froze. Now im just met by a black screen. And the led for the RAM won't light up (tried it with a good stick).

[Eldonko]

You reset cmos?

[marauder16]

normally, it would say 'cmos checksum updated', I believe, but I don't now what that 'protected' could mean, try an extensive clear cmos, if that doesn't help, maybe a new chip, I don't see why it would die.

[chefnr1]

Just a question how to enable CrossFire in bios??

[Cornelious0_0]

Couldn't tell ya...only had a single X850XT to play with since getting my board.

[cadaveca]

Just a question how to enable CrossFire in bios??

Don't need to.