Massive problems with a D975XBX2

[EntityAT]

First, full system specs:

4gb Twin Corsair CAS4 (4-4-4-12) memory
e6600 (F stepping)
Intel d975xbx2 Motherboard
2x150gb Raptor 10kRPM drives
1xGeforce 7900GTO
1xGeForce 7300
Antec P182 case
Seasonic 650w PSU
Tuniq Tower Cooler

I think that's all that's relevant. I put together the full system a few days ago, and after getting everything installed, decided to give overclocking a shot. I slowly moved it up (this was under BIOS 2674) until at 360FSB, it gave me some Orthos errors. I tried to step it back down to 350 and then the system was completely unstable, no booting, nothing. Ugh. I never bumped any of my voltages out of reasonable territory (highest CPU voltage 1.45, highest FSB=1.55, highest MCH=1.6), and never had any of them even that high for very long.

Periodically when trying to o/c the system, I'd have to shut it down to fiddle with the BIOS reset jumper. At some point -- I don't remember exactly when -- the system simply stopped responding whatsoever. Power would turn on, but no POST. Eventually I figured out that for whatever reason, I have to do the following to get it to reset sometimes:

1) Move jumper to "normal."
2) Boot PC with no RAM.
2a) After hearing error beep codes, turn off CPU.
3) Switch to BIOS configure mode.
3a) Put in 1 stick of RAM.
3b) Set all BIOS settings back to normal.
3c) Put in other 3gb of memory.
4) Reboot in "normal" mode.

This was working fine, up until earlier today, when I couldn't get anything to work at all. Finally I decided to try the "BIOS recovery" mode as I had been moving between 2674 and 2333 a few times and was afraid something might have been corrupted. I tried it both on Floppy and CD, but after leaving it to sit for 10-15 minutes and watching it, never saw a lot of the lights, etc (it would seek to the floppy/CD drive depending on where the disk was, but wouldn't move much past that). I gave up, tried the method I described above again, and the system booted.

However, after getting the system to boot at that point, eventually the system became unstable again and, at this point, would never get much past the BIOS. The BIOS screen would flash, then I'd see the Marvell BIOS info, and then the screen where, in the lower right-hand corner, you can see combos of two letters flash. The last two letters I'd see were "EB", and then it'd stall up.

I've tried the BIOS recovery mode again but with no luck. This time, when I try to do it (only by floppy this time), the BIOS loads, appears to copy, and the system reboots. When the system reboots, I see the Intel BIOS screen, and then the screen goes black...and when I plug the jumper back into the system and try to boot (remember, I can get into the BIOS but can't get past it), I'm still running my old BIOS (currently 2333, and I've tried to flash into both 2674 and 2507).

If anyone has a clue about what I need to do next (is this grounds to RMA the board?) then I'd be very appreciative.

Rob

[gtj]

My guess is as you increased the FSB you didn't adjust the memory frequency to compensate so you were wildly overclocking your memory.

Check out the guide in my sig then feel free to post with followup questions.

and Welcome...

[mezcal]

gtj may be correct but check out my "Untimely demise of bad axe 2" thread. There was one other person in the big bx2 thread that described the exact same symptoms but never posted a resolution.
btw, I had never increased ANY voltages over default.
I rma'd it-replacement works fine (so far.)

and welcome...

[EntityAT]

My guess is as you increased the FSB you didn't adjust the memory frequency to compensate so you were wildly overclocking your memory.

Check out the guide in my sig then feel free to post with followup questions.

and Welcome...

I not only made sure to change the memory settings, but I read your guide and used your calculator to do so. Thanks for all the hard work on that, btw. I'm pretty sure the highest my memory ever got clocked was up to 900mhz @ 2.2v (this was brief, as it was not stable). I bought a new board today and will try it out tonight/tomorrow (Asus P5B-Deluxe).

Rob