Asus Striker II Extreme: Corruption/Freezes Troubleshooting Thread

[Deathspine]

@deathspine:

i think your right when you say that reading can solve many problems but in some cases like mine it didnt help much, because noone had rams like mine (from mushkin) so its kinda hard when you mostly read about corsair or whatever ram and not much/never about your ram manufacturer

but in the end we all learn a lot and thats why i would like to thank all of you (especially benchzowner) for their passion on pcs and hardware and for their clues and hints on solving other people problems!

I'm with you, lots of variables involved.

[EnemyWithin]

hi and happy x-mas!

after nearly a week without mass freezes they finally came back yesterday.
I "played" a bit with the timings (set them even higher) and the fsb but couldnt stop freezes longterm.
Now the strangest thing at all:
yesterday my pc worked out well, no real probs except some freezes. Today i want to start windows and it takes like 10 mins till he gets on desktop, but without taskbar and all styles from windows look like win 98 oO.
Strangest thing is, that after 2-3 mins i get the message that my pc will shutdown in 60 seconds because a remote programm from windows closed itself!

So what the F***! seems like i get dataloss because my system wont run stable!? is that even possible? and how should i fix it (yeah i know format c: ) but i mean how can i prevent myself from getting that strange error again?

[neo mike]

Hey guys just bought this board, glad there is a thread on it, im seeing alot of issues through this thread, how long has this board been out ? 6 months ? still issues. What is the overall feeling about this board ? I see asus has not updated the bios in 4 months, and will this board run a 4x2 2000 mgz ram kit ?, thanks for your information.

[Apollyon]

It's pretty sad that this mobo Isn't even stable out of the box, being that it was a gift I will keep it but it's time to get something better so I'm going to pick up an EVGA 790i SLI FTW Digital PWM tomorrow. Hopefully I'll have better luck with that one.

[neo mike]

Im detecting alot of problems with this board, dam i just bought it and its on its way.

[BenchZowner]

It's pretty sad that this mobo Isn't even stable out of the box, being that it was a gift I will keep it but it's time to get something better so I'm going to pick up an EVGA 790i SLI FTW Digital PWM tomorrow. Hopefully I'll have better luck with that one.

As long as the motherboard's name includes the word SLI and it's a LGA775 motherboard, you're just wasting your time.
All these issues are sourcing from the nF790i chipset.

[EnemyWithin]

thanks to nvidia for the fu**ed up chip!

very well done!

bench you think there will come a bios in near future which is more stable?

or should we better get another mobo and throw the striker out of the window?

[crashaxe]

Maybe I'm just dumb or blind but where do you get the bios file you are recommending I have looked on the asus site and I don't find it.
Thanx,
Crashaxe

[BenchZowner]

thanks to nvidia for the fu**ed up chip!

very well done!

bench you think there will come a bios in near future which is more stable?

or should we better get another mobo and throw the striker out of the window?

A new BIOS for the nFORCE 790i motherboards ?
Especially from Asus ? No way.

Most of the manufacturers do not even care about supporting the community with new BIOSes for old products, and the bogus nFORCE 790i boards are their Achille's heel.
I haven't received any BIOS update for the Striker II Extreme in ages...

As a gamer I would avoid SLI/CrossFire.
Several issues, minimal to none benefits.

A P45/X38/X48 board with a single fast graphics card is way better than the nFORCE headache and SLI/CrossFire Micro-Stuttering amazingly cr*ppy gaming experience.

[BenchZowner]

Maybe I'm just dumb or blind but where do you get the bios file you are recommending I have looked on the asus site and I don't find it.
Thanx,
Crashaxe

1 or 2 pages back depending on your forum preferences.

Here's a link to the latest BIOS version for the Asus Striker II Extreme

[Apollyon]

That's good to know, I guess that I'll just move away from the SLI/Crossfire platform because there are too many headaches to deal with and the nFORCE chip is a joke! BenchZowner, thanks for the help and honest input on this POS mobo. Striker II Extreme? More like STRESS II EXTREME! THANKS FOR THE PAPERWEIGHT ASUS.

[neo mike]

Im getting mixed reviews on this board, some say its great, some say it sucks, what is the main problem with this board ?

[BenchZowner]

Im getting mixed reviews on this board, some say its great, some say it sucks

Read on

what is the main problem with this board ?

All these pages filled with users issues ( some solved, most unsolved )

[neo mike]

Anybody contacted asus with these issues ?

[BenchZowner]

Anybody contacted asus with these issues ?

I used to.
Letting them know about the issues is something, making them work things out is another.
I've been asked to delay the release of my review of the Striker II Extreme back then when it was launched, they needed a few days to iron the reported issues out... but I didn't, I released the review anyways.
Was it a bad choice ? Not at all, the issues that I reported back to them are still there, and it's been 8 months already
As long as the hype is good, and the sales are ok, they may support the product a bit, never gone over the fence, but still work it out a bit.
After a while the product doesn't really matter to them and the support with newer BIOSes and such stops.

If only they'd listen to the reviewers/beta testers & buyers we wouldn't be here in this god damn multi-page thread of issues.

They didn't even bother to get their customer technical support department cleared up from those morons after our report.
Heck they didn't even payed any attention to the hundreds of messages from buyers from all around the world regarding their amazingly slow web server and the super duper low speed transfers from their site & FTP.
Downloading a 1MB BIOS image at 5kb/s... jeez.

[neo mike]

Thanks bench for the insight, i bought this board for a really good deal off ebay and its unopened,all the reviews i read on anadtech etc, said the board just rocks, so im surprised to see all the crap about this board, now im not feeling good about the board i have coming. I think people have reported all these issues, and there hasnt been a bios update since august, asus just dont care, they have made there money, and probally dont want to deal with all these issues. I think that is just sick on there part, but i think most board makers are probally just like asus. I heard foxconn and gigabyte decided to not even make a board with this 790i chipset. I really dont care about the sli part, i want it for overclocking, and it has great memory bandwidth performance, so i dont know what to do. I was going to get a p5e3 preminum, but went with this board, seems like the p5e3 has all the issues worked out, guess i will try it when it arrives, and see how it, if its bad i will dump it.

[EnemyWithin]

This board is just crazy!

was on a lan the last 2 days, so the pc worked like 40 hours nonstop with tons of games and multiplayer etc etc.!

I had 3 freezes: 1 watching a movie to chill out and 2 playing nfs undercover!

Fact is, that this board just fu**s me up whenever it wants. Just can't say,"well i do play 3 hours now in 10 mins it will freeze" !NO it just wents down sudenly!

I read tons of reviews to find a speedy board which is stable and most of the reviews told me so but in then end i should have read benchz review first

Benchz maybe you got a hint for someone like me who would like to buy a new board ?! Is it better to w8 for good/cheap core i7 boards or shall i buy a socket 775 board in the meantime?

Btw, i don't think my system setup will be stable anyday, i tried so much timings on ram, overclocked (with memory lvl up) ram and cpu, set synched and linked and in the end for nothing oO

I even think about to never buy asus boards again!

"a premium board for overclockers"

[neo mike]

I feel for you, i just bought this board off ebay, and its unopened, dont know if i want to even try to set it up. But i have talked to people on this forum outside this thread that have this board, and have no issues at all, they claim there 100% stable, so i may set mine up, and give it a try, i dont plan on running sli, i only want a single video card, so i hope that will rid me of most problems. There is a guy on this forum by the name of ket, who makes and tweaks bios, im wondering if he could fix some of these problems.

[neo mike]

I would like all your striker 2 extreme guys, tell me what the main issues are on this board that need fixing, THE BIGGEST PROBLEMS, i may have a guy who makes and tweaks bios, he may be able to address these problems, depending on what they are, i need to know, so i can reley the information to him.

[EnemyWithin]

My main issues:

1. data corruption
2. freezes
3. sometimes windows crashes on startup (somekinda freeze when the load screen appears)

Most Problems seem to come from incorrect voltages/timings which, in my case, are hard to fix (set ram timings higher and lower, overclocked ram to 1600mhz, set ram to 1333mhz) only thing i need to try now is fix the voltages but atm i got no real clue how to set them oO!

I am now on standard bios settings just some parts disabled which are not really necessary for the problem!

I will post my settings today or tomorrow and hopefully we all can do something

The settings i got now seem to be at least a bit stable so i think it is good to take this as a start point!

[BenchZowner]

I would like all your striker 2 extreme guys, tell me what the main issues are on this board that need fixing, THE BIGGEST PROBLEMS, i may have a guy who makes and tweaks bios, he may be able to address these problems, depending on what they are, i need to know, so i can reley the information to him.

Let's keep things ON-TOPIC please.

Off-topic, don't raise any hopes.
nVIDIA is being secretive about their chipset's data and there's very limited technical info, and to be bloody honest, there is no chance of getting it fixed by simply injecting stuff, etc.

This thread is about troubleshooting configuration issues that lead to data corruption/instability/freezes.

If you want to talk about other stuff, the New Thread button is only one click away.

[EnemyWithin]

hi guys,

i may figured out what causes the laggs.

I set my commandrate from 2T to 1T and laggs are gone mostly.
I had commandrate on 2T and it lagged so hard in all games i tried.

Dunno maybe someone has made the same experience? maybe the striker is a bit strange when commandrate is 2T, dunno for sure.

I inserted my current settings, maybe one of you sees something to improve!



Required System Specifications

PSU = be quiet! Dark power pro bqt p7-650w
CPU = Intel Core 2 quad 9550 c1 stepping
RAM = 2GB Mushkin 996600 DDR3-1600
HDD = Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500gb
VGA1 = Zotac Geforce GTX 280 AMP! Edition
SPU ( Sound Card ) = Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro Series
NorthBridge Cooling = standard striker II extreme cooling
SouthBridge Cooling = standard striker II extreme cooling
CPU Cooling = ThermalRight HR-01 PLUS
RAM Cooling = standard Mushkin cooler
nFORCE Chipset Drivers Version = nVIDIA nFORCE Drivers v.15.23
ForceWare/GeForce Drivers Version = nVIDIA ForceWare v. 180.48
Sound Card Drivers Version = Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Drivers 2.18.0008
Mainboard Bios = v.1104

BIOS Settings

CPU Level Up = Auto
Memory Level Up = Auto
AI Overclock Tuner =manual
CPU Multiplier = 8,5
FSB - Memory Clock Mode = Linked
FSB - Memory Ratio = Synched
FSB (QDR) MHz = 1333.3
MEM (DDR) MHz = 1333.3
LDT Frequency = 5x
PCIE Bus Slot 1 & 2 MHz = 100
PCIE Bus Slot 3 MHz = 100
SPP<->MCP Ref Clock, MHz = auto
SLI-Ready Memory = Disabled

Memory Timing Setting

P1 = Enabled
P2 = Enabled
tCL ( CAS Latency ) = 9
tRCD = 9
tRP = 9
tRAS = 25
Command Per Clock (CMD) = 1T
tRRD = 4
tRC = 33
tWR = 12
tWTR = 16
tFAW = 21
tRD = 11
tRTP = 5
tRFC = 74
tREF = 7.8us

Over Voltage

CPU Voltage = auto (value set by mb: 1.31V)
Loadline Calibration = enabled
CPU PLL Voltage = auto (value set by mb: 1.50V-1.52V)
CPU VTT Voltage = auto (value set by mb: 1.10V)
Memory Voltage = auto ((value set by mb: DIMM 1.63 - 1.65V DIMM VTT 0.80 - 0.82V )
NB Core Voltage = auto (value set by mb: 1.31V)
SB Core Voltage = auto ((value set by mb: 1.47V-1.49V )
CPU GTL REF0 Ratio = auto
CPU GTL REF1 Ratio = auto
CPU GTL REF2 Ratio = auto
CPU GTL REF3 Ratio = auto
NB GTL REF Ratio = auto
DDR3 CHA1 Ref Volt = auto
DDR3 CHB1 Ref Volt = auto
DDR3 CHA2 Ref Volt = auto
DDR3 CHB2 Ref Volt = auto

CPU Configuration
CPU Internal Thermal Control = auto
Limit CPUID MaxVal = Disabled
Enhanced C1 (C1E) = Disabled
Execute Disable Bit = Disabled
Virtualization Technology = Disabled
Enhanced Intel SpeedStep(tm) Tech. = Disabled
CPU Core 2 = Enabled
CPU Core 3 = Enabled
CPU Core 4 = Enabled

Spread Spectrum Control
CPU Spread Spectrum = Disabled
PCIE Spread Spectrum = Disabled
MCP PCIE Spread Spectrum = Disabled
SATA Spread Spectrum = Disabled
LDT Spread Spectrum = Disabled

[Deathspine]

[QUOTE=EnemyWithin;3542348]hi guys,

i may figured out what causes the laggs.

I set my commandrate from 2T to 1T and laggs are gone mostly.
I had commandrate on 2T and it lagged so hard in all games i tried.

Dunno maybe someone has made the same experience? maybe the striker is a bit strange when commandrate is 2T, dunno for sure.

I inserted my current settings, maybe one of you sees something to improve!



How much ram do you have? I have 4G and was thinking anything above 2G would most likely not be stable on 1T.

Thanks

[EnemyWithin]

i got 2gb!

[BenchZowner]

Could be in your case EnemyWithin, but doubtful if you want my honest opinion.
Especially when it comes to using only 2 DIMMs.
I never had a single problem sourcing from the Command Rate setting, and I've been running 1T CR up to DDR3-2100.