** OFFICIAL ** Intel DX38BT & DX48BT2 BoneTrail Thread

[gtj]

Well I think I have some bad hardware. Either the power supply or the motherboard.

I first put everything together (whole new system), and although the mobo shows a green light indicating it's getting power, pressing the power button only causes the system to come on for about a half a second then it shuts off. While it's on there is a red light on the mobo which I think is normal anytime you power on a system but not sure. I disconnected everything one by one until all I have was the power supply plugged into the motherboard, and still getting the same thing. Current plan is to go get another power supply and test it out before RMA. Any suggestions?

Red Light means processor overheat. If it just flickers briefly at power up, it's OK. If it stays on as long as there's power, it's NOT.

Try removing the processor and make sure that none of the contacts are shorted in the socket and that the pads on the processor are clean. Maybe the PROCHOT signal is shorted.

Also try a different processor if you can.

[mryerse]

Got it working. Wouldn't have had a problem had Intel supplied an installation manual

I wasn't aware of the 8 pin power connector. I had the 24 pin hooked up, but not the 8 pin. Hooked it up and now I have Vista 64 loaded. I do feel like an idiot, but seriously, a manual would have prevented that problem.

One other problem is that my ps2 keyboard with a ps2 to usb dongle didn't work at all. So I bought a cheap kb at a store, and it works, but a couple of boots it hasn't worked. If I go into bios and don't make any changes and save and exit, it seems to work. Wierd. I set windows to not require a login so if it doesn't work again at least I'll get the desktop.

Now to install good drivers.

[xMrBunglex]

yeah, my USB keyboard and mouse power off while my computer boots. power comes on at the first POST screen, then turns off, then comes back on again right before Windows starts to load. my mouse never works while i'm running Memtest from a boot disk. it's very annoying.

[Miwo]

glad to hear that you got it working! Funny, I ended up with a similar problem with my keyboard. Had all my parts, then realized there was no friggin PS/2 connector. And of course, I didn't have an adapter on hand, and BestBuy wanted $25 for it -_-. I ended up buying a USB Keyboard at the end.

I think I'm finally done grilling my Bonetrail and have found my 24/7 settings. All in all, great board for $150 once you get past the quirks, memory issues, etc. Reminds me a lot of my previous XBX2, which I had a similar experience with. Its been smooth sailing now. I am crossing my fingers for more options to play with in the future via new BIOS (hopefully they add tRD adjustment ). My memory latency seems to be a bit high, no doubt because I am on the 400/1333 strap/freq. I'm a little bummed out over my memory though, anything over 1.78v causes instant errors. I can boot at CL7 50% of the time, but in order to not run into any coldboot issues at all I need to be on CL8. Subtimings dont seem to make a difference on my sticks and bootup problems. Its a shame, they have D9GTS chips, but I guess the PCB on them can't handle marginally higher voltages. Hey, I got what I paid for I suppose, $240 for 2x2GB of SuperTalent Value sticks.

Current Progress: Vista 64bit

[xMrBunglex]

Miwo, that screams. i think you're motivating me to go back and do some more tuning on mine. great scores on Everest and HD Tune.

[Miwo]

Thanks MrB, couldn't have done it with the pages and pages of info from you, gtj, Tony, and a lot of other people I am forgetting
Let me tell you, if we can get tRD/PL adjustment, I will be quite happy . I don't have much more room on my CPU though since its not a particularly good chip compared to other Wolfdales, and I am on air and would prefer to stay under 1.4v 24/7. I might be able to squeeze out a few more FSB without dropping down a divider, but at the expense of timings probably. Matrix Raid was a breeze to setup and pretty damn cheap for the numbers you pull though

[mryerse]

So I tried setting the fsb to 333 and mem to 1333 9-9-9-21 (should have set to 9-9-9-27 I think) without any other changes except watchdog off and e1c off, but it wouldn't boot. In fact, setting the jumper to configuration mode, or even recovery mode would not boot. Was able to get into the bios by removing the memory, powering on, powering off, and setting jumper to config mode. Without doing that, when I tried going into config mode, all I got was a solid (non-blinking) cursor in upper left. I set the memory back to automatic leaving fsb at 333 but still wouldn't boot. Loaded defaults and I'm back. Got to be a quicker way than pulling memory to get back into bios.

I think I'm going to read this thread some more before I try to OC again.

[Miwo]

mryerse did you try starting Memory Voltage at 1.7v? Many of us had to give mem voltage a slight boost before it would post, especially at 1333+
Black Slots are supposedly better for 2 Sticks if you want to give that a shot as well

[mryerse]

Thanks, I'll give that a shot

[mryerse]

Is this IDCC link http://download.desktopboards.com/idcc working for anyone else?

[mryerse]

Another unsuccessful OC.

First tried bumping FSB only. 266= default, 271 was okay, 276 booted to a screen that said corrupt files due to bad checksum. Increased core voltate to 1.3 from 1.2875 but that didn't help. Also tried 300 and 333, but those two brought me to a screen saying post failed. Maybe I should turn watchdog off and see if they'll work.

Set FSB back to 266, tried running mem @ 1333 9-9-9-27 with 1.74v (in black slots). Won't even show bios screen. bios jumper in config mode and recovery mode would not bring up bios screen. Only way I knew how to get out of that is to remove memory, boot, put memory in and now I can get into config mode to reset defaults.

Maybe this system is just not good at OC'ing, or maybe I am just not good and OC'ing.

[Miwo]

Have you checked the DX38BT Calculator? Remember that your memory speed is calculated by your Reference Freq (Northbridge Strap), and Memory Freq.

Try this, if all goes well should give you 3GHz and 1333MHz RAM. Reference and Memory freq are in Memory Overrides menu

Host Bus Freq: 333MHz
Reference Freq: 333MHz
Memory Freq: 1333MHz
I dont think you'll need to change vFSB/vMCH/vCPU with this slight OC, but you never know. You can give it a slight bump if you want, vFSB + .05v, vMCH + .1v, vCPU + .05v

btw, If you tried to boot at 266FSB with Memory Freqency at 1333MHz, if you were on the 266MHz Reference strap this would have made your memory speed 1666MHz not 1333MHz!!!. A general rule of thumb you can follow for easy OCing is not to have your Host Bus Freq higher than an available strap. For example, don't exceed 333MHz Host on the 266Ref, 400MHz Host on the 333Ref ......until you get a handle on how your board works and responds to vMCH/vFSB increases

Calculator: http://www.peakin.com/x38/calculator.html

[mryerse]

Son of a *** it worked

Thank you, you rock.

I don't fully understand the terminology yet, but I hadn't changed the ref freq, so that much have been the problem. I bumped the voltages as you recommended. Now for a stability test...

I can even tell just by using the computer it is snappier with the 25% increase.

[xMrBunglex]

snappier is good. that means you're either stable or much closer to being stable. my preferred stability test is Orthos. if you use it, make sure you let it run for no less than 10 straight hours. 2 hours Orthos stable does not guarantee stability. 10 hours doesn't guarantee anything either, but it's about as good as you'll get.

[Miwo]

Son of a *** it worked

Thank you, you rock.

I don't fully understand the terminology yet, but I hadn't changed the ref freq, so that much have been the problem. I bumped the voltages as you recommended. Now for a stability test...

I can even tell just by using the computer it is snappier with the 25% increase.

sweet
Like I said, once you figure out the board, get past its quirks and weird terminology, its not so bad... :p

If you havn't already done so, I highly suggest you updating the BIOS to the latest revision. Tons of fixes, and you can disable C1E straight from the bios without pulling jumpers.

Good luck, happy testing. Be sure to follow the calculator so you don't start running your memory at speeds that are way too high to handle.

[mryerse]

Yeah, I'm running 1554. It seem to be pretty stable. Stress tested all night last night and it didn't freeze. Q6600 load temps were 62-67, but it was really hot in my house (85F) and won't normally be that way. It runs at 62 under load when my house is normal temp.

I want to push a little further but am not sure where to start. Is there a guide that explains the calculator? I'd like to try a 10x multiplier at 333, the BIOS only gives 6,7,8,9 as choices. I think I saw someone has a tool that lets you change it from Windows. I tried 366FSB on the 333 strap and it wouldn't boot. Probably my memory is not able to handle that speed (1464 I think).

[Miwo]

Yeah, I'm running 1554. It seem to be pretty stable. Stress tested all night last night and it didn't freeze. Q6600 load temps were 62-67, but it was really hot in my house (85F) and won't normally be that way. It runs at 62 under load when my house is normal temp.

I want to push a little further but am not sure where to start. Is there a guide that explains the calculator? I'd like to try a 10x multiplier at 333, the BIOS only gives 6,7,8,9 as choices. I think I saw someone has a tool that lets you change it from Windows. I tried 366FSB on the 333 strap and it wouldn't boot. Probably my memory is not able to handle that speed (1464 I think).

Unless you have a QX cpu, your multipliers are locked upwards, meaning you can only go down. Q6600 = 9x, so you have 8,7,6,

For the calculator, you enter your Target FSB speed. Type in 366 with 9x, and it will give you a readout of memory speeds with the combination of Reference/Memory frequency you choose. It reads by row, so follow the one with Ref = 333Mhz and Memory Freq = 1333Mhz in your case.

I think your Memory should be able to handle that speed fine. Once you start raising FSB, you will likely need to increase vFSB and vMCH. These are most important for getting your board stable at high FSB speeds. vFSB will help you stabilize higher FSB speeds, but you shouldn't go too high as this can kill cpus. vMCH will help you with FSB speeds as well and let you tighten memory timings and achieve memory stability.

If you dont think your memory can handle it, you can always drop down the Memory frequency to 1066MHz, which will give you a slower memory speed(refer to the calculator).

The northbridge heatsink is fairly cool to the touch. Try going up to 1.45v vMCH and 1.35v vFSB. Use Prime95/Orthos BLEND on 4 threads to test your system/fsb stability, and Small FFTs to test your cpu stability.

[mryerse]

Thanks for all the info.

I tried 366x9@1333 on 333 ref, with voltages you recommended. Got corrupt file message. Played around with some mem timings, tried setting memory to 1066, and it just wouldn't boot. I think there's something else it's not liking. I have all voltages back to default while at 333x9@1333 and it seems to be running good. Should I increase the FSB in increments of 5 and then when it won't boot play with the voltages?

[Miwo]

yeah that is a better idea, you usually should just do big jumps sorry
I have no experience clocking quads, perhaps run a search on this thread for q6600 , etc

[gtj]

Yeah, I'm running 1554. It seem to be pretty stable. Stress tested all night last night and it didn't freeze. Q6600 load temps were 62-67, but it was really hot in my house (85F) and won't normally be that way. It runs at 62 under load when my house is normal temp.

I want to push a little further but am not sure where to start. Is there a guide that explains the calculator? I'd like to try a 10x multiplier at 333, the BIOS only gives 6,7,8,9 as choices. I think I saw someone has a tool that lets you change it from Windows. I tried 366FSB on the 333 strap and it wouldn't boot. Probably my memory is not able to handle that speed (1464 I think).

Look at the link in my signature for the XBX2 guide. All the principles are the same, just the values are a little different.

[mryerse]

Thanks, I'll give that a good looking over.

Do these temps seem high to you for stock cooling on the motherboard (AC Freezer 7 on CPU)? The motherboard reached 52c when I was running prime. It's about 85F in the house. Normally it's 65-75.

[gtj]

That's pretty warm. I'd avoid much stress on the processor under those conditions.

[xMrBunglex]

agreed that it's pretty warm. fyi - i got a Scythe Mini-Kaze 40mm fan for my north bridge and i can't hear it at all. i think it was like $5 on Newegg. it's great for peace of mind.

[mryerse]

Yeah, I need to invest in some better cooling.

This might be my next case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...k=pc%2bp80

Maybe water cooling, or maybe some high end air cooling. Not sure. I think I'll keep this current system to minor mods and just be happy with 3GHz. I need a stable system that works all the time right now.


Hey, are you guys using the 6 pin power connector on the motherboard that is for video cards? I wasn't using it before, just hooked it up, wondering if maybe it'll help keep things stable. My system hibernated while I was gone and I had a heck of a time getting it to boot for some reason. Hadn't made any changes, just wouldn't boot. It's back up now though.

[xMrBunglex]

a 6-pin PCI-E power connector is NOT the same as a 4-pin ATX or 8-pin EPS motherboard connector. they are not to be mixed and matched. i hope i misunderstood what you wrote.

and you can spend $400 on your case if you want, but this $70 Cooler Master looks pretty similar to me:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119152