EP45 DS3P - Wide Range of Problems Help please

[Spoonysam]

Re: EP45 DS3P - Wide Range of Problems Help please

LSDMeASAP - those look like they might be overclocking settings.

Before we even think of overclocking, my son and I want to find out if the HyperX 1066 memory and EP45-DS3P motherboard work correctly. I'm concerned that the video card has failed since it moved from its old ASUS P5B motherboard to this new system, and that HyperX 1066 memory doesn't work in slots 0 and 2.

Given that 800mhz Corsair ValueSelect and 800Mhz PQI memory work in slot 0, can you suggest a strategy or some settings to figure out if I have a settings, a motherboard, or memory problems getting the 1066 memory to work in slot 0 and slot 2?

Oh - and a tip for anyone who owns a DS3P who reads this post - be careful of the clips on the side of memory slots 0 and 1. They're REALLY close to the graphics card and if you leave them open and push the card into position, you can break the clips.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: EP45 DS3P - Wide Range of Problems Help please

HAHA who is Dick Smith! HAHA (You should hear me laughing, dont know why but that is funny for some reason!!)

Wow, Sorry For the above laughter. I comment as I read! Hmm, not sure if GA offers RMA if you change things like that, but if you ship it back (If you still can) to the place you bought it without mentioning this you can likely for sure get away with it.

No, those are optimal ranges for stock use of the ram and CPU. All stock, just the lower you go on the ram settings the better the performance/less stable.

That ram works fine in that board, I do think from your burning smell comments you have a GFX card issue though for sure. Are you sure you did not get any on another part of the card? Not sure about what you are using, but it may contain metal which if you get on anything else (Even under the heatsink) you may have shorted some bard contacts with this paste

So what do you want settings for here? Sorry you have confused me with your mention of various ram brands and speeds. You should use only 2 of the same speed/brand. So let me know what you want settings for. The above is still my suggested for 2x1 @ 1066. A link to the ram to check voltage would be great, but I assume you are fine with checking that yourself and deciding, again 2.2 is not needed normally even if stated in the specs

[Spoonysam]

Re: EP45 DS3P - Wide Range of Problems Help please

You're obviously not from Australia. Dick Smith has a large network of electronic hobyist shops in Oz. Sort of like Tandy. He also has a sense of humour. He started out being a hard-core shop for hobyists with lots of electronic bits and kits, and all his trucks had "The Electronic Dick" written in big letters down the side. Then, of course, they were taken over and they lost the sense of humour. Ah well. But my point was that it's compound from a hobyist shop. Not the ultimate, but probably good enough for most non-overclocking applications.

A shame about the RMA on the video card. Maybe I should have thought a bit about the advice I was given.

OK. Thanks for the advice on the settings. I was a little unsure when I read the bit about selecting 1200 instead of 1066. I thought they might be for overclocking.

After a long day's testing, I now know that the pair of 1066s test perfectly in memtest86 if they're in slots 1 and 3, and using the settings you gave. Either stick tests perfectly in slot 2. Neither stick passes if it is put in slot 0. It's looking strongly as though slot 0 doesn't work with 1066 memory - although it works fine with 800 memory.

The heatsink compound is silicon based. It only went onto the chip and then onto the heatsink. Good point though.

I was asking if you could suggest settings that would encourage the 1066 memory to work in slot 0, but given today's testing with your optimum settings, I'm not encouraged. It really is looking as though there's a problem with slot 0, not just with the configuration (any suggestions gratefully accepted though).

The memory is Kingston HyperX KHX8500D2K2/2GN. The Kingston site says it's 5-5-5-15 and 2.2V

My mention of various brands of memory is because lots of brands of 800 memory work in slot 0. The motherboard is not a basket-case, just not working with hyperX 1066. Sodding annoying though. Why doesn't this equipment just work with standard memory without farnarkling around?

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: EP45 DS3P - Wide Range of Problems Help please

Ya, I am not in Oz! Thanks, I got ya!

Now, even more funny since you added the electronic dick!!!

I always redo my cards, but maybe you was given bad advice? I am not sure since I did not see or hear the exact info you was given. But like I said and as you saw that is a bard silicon chip under there with many bar contacts around it. And if you are not careful with Metallic based pastes you can fry things. Silicon based certainly does not mean no metal is included, since It is not mainstream I cannot be sure. But usually if it is meant for a CPU it will have metal in it. Got a link to the product page, maybe I can find the exact ingredients. If there is no metal then you may have either tightened the sink down to much and cracked the chip or somehow damaged the card in another way. It should not smell as you have described, which you of course know. And since you only noted this afterwards, sounds like something went wrong for sure

Sounds to me like you have a faulty slot 0 then, I would RMA if you still can if you plan on using 4 sticks anytime in the future before you sell this board or get another


1066 settings I would recommend are above, those would be for any slot. Since you say 1066 works in all sots but 0 then 0 sounds to be faulty to me. You could try MCH latch 400 though, that may help if you do not want to RMA

[Spoonysam]

Re: EP45 DS3P - Wide Range of Problems Help please

RMA might be a problem. Although we've only had it for a week the video card had been in and out many, many, many times. One time the clip on the side of slot 0 was pointing out (which puts it under the card!), and it broke as pressure was put on the video card to push it in. This happened well after we found slot 0 didn't work with 1066 memory. I've also checked there aren't any plastic bits still in the slot.

As for the advice, a fellow Canberra dweller posted a reply on page 1 suggesting I remove the heatsink and fan. Well, he was right - the card did start working again after the unit was removed, but only for a while. A couple of minutes later we got the burning smell. It was a good idea, but I should have also thought about the warranty implications.

Here's a link to the Unick spec sheet. Lots of Zink Oxide apparently. Probably explains why it looks like sun-block cream :)
UNICK Heat Transfer Compound (N1205) - Dick Smith Electronics - Australia.
I've checked for any compound being in the wrong place. There was a small amount, which I cleaned up. I re-compounded it and put the unit back on without any sideways movement. Any paste on the chip should now be only between the chip and the heatsink. There's only a little paste, so there shouldn't be any squeezed out between them.

We retried the 8800GT and it still gets really hot, but I don't know if that is normal. After around 5 minutes the cubical blocks next to the capacitors were too hot to touch. The power plug socket was also hot. There wasn't an overpowering burning smell, at least.

So, Question 1: Is it normal for the video card to get too hot to touch?

Question 2: Any suggestions on software I can use to monitor the health of the video card? And what temperatures or values are considered normal? I had a very quick look at RivaTuner before we turned off the PC, and it didn't seem to have any monitoring functions.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: EP45 DS3P - Wide Range of Problems Help please

Well... you can always lie since you just got it. Say it came to you with a broken clip and a dead slot

As for the card, you may be able to slip it thru RMA dept. just put the heatsink back on and say it smelled burnt and never worked

Ouch, you should never run a card without a heatsinks for sure. You should PM the admin there and get that post removed!!!!

And yeah, there is for SURE metal in there so if you got it on ANY Metal traces under the heatsink you likely made a short (Clean this up before any RMA Attempt) >>>

The Unick Silicone Heat Transfer Compound is a grease-like silicone material that is heavily impregnated with heat conductive metal oxides

[Spoonysam]

Re: EP45 DS3P - Wide Range of Problems Help please

If it was just the bad slot 0 I'd have no problems RMAing the mobo. But I've broken the clip in the meantime, so it's not the same condition I received the item in.
As for the video card, they know how long we've had it - it's already RMA'd. When we first received the 8800GT, something caused a hole to be blown in one of the chips on the card - you could see this big pit in the middle of it. That's why I went and bought a new power supply a couple of days ago to replace a 5 month old Coolermaster 600W PSU - just in case the PSU was killing gear. All the voltage readings looked stable and well within range, but something must account for the video card frying, and the memory to go bad on the old ASUS mobo (the original reason for everything being upgraded at once). But I digress....

Gigabyte did the right thing by us when the video card first fried itself, so it's fair that I should be honest with them. I'm just a little bit miffed that the mobo had a fault, and I can't RMA it because of my stupid error breaking the clip because of their stupid design putting the memory clip so close to the graphics card. And of course my stupidity in not thinking of consequences before removing the heatsink. Live and learn...

I'm not worried about powering up the graphics card with the heat sink removed. It was only long enough to see the beginning of the POST, then it was powered off. The card was under minimal stress and it was only powered up for a second or two - just long enough to confirm it displayed something.

You said

Ouch, you should never run a card without a heatsinks for sure. You should PM the admin there and get that post removed!!!!

There's no point removing the post because Gigabyte will never link this username with the issue. And it may be useful to other readers, which is what the forum is all about.

I think I'll contact Gigabyte and see if they can test and repair the video card. I might even explain the situation with the mobo and see what they say. I'm still not sure it wasn't a mobo fault that encouraged the video card to die just after I moved it from its donor machine, and there's obviously a fault with the memory slot, so who knows what other faults it might have.

Anyone got any suggestions on how hot the 8800GT should get, and how we can monitor the temperature? The card may actually be working 'normally' now.

Thanks

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: EP45 DS3P - Wide Range of Problems Help please

Well, you can always lie about the ram clip. But I guess maybe you are to honest for that?

About your quote by me. I meant since that was not good advice you should ask to have the post removed by the person who said it was ok to run without a heatsink. That is terrible advice for sure

I would say GPU Core temps of 60-70C would be normal but I am not for sure. I think over 70C would be hot I can say that for sure. You can check temps with GPU-z >>>>
GPU-Z Video card GPU Information Utility

[Spoonysam]

Re: EP45 DS3P - Wide Range of Problems Help please

Gigabyte Global Technical Services have been very helpful. They suggested I RMA the motherboard. It's the first time they've heard of this fault - just my luck.

As to the 8800GT, well, that's another story altogether.

I bought a 9800GT and some Antec Formula 5 paste. I cleaned out the old paste from the 8800GT and replaced it with the Antec, just to be safe. I moved the 8800GT to an EP35-DS3 and the 9800GT to my son's machine. The 8800GT worked reasonably well for a couple of days, and the HUD program said the temperature was good. Then the machine stopped after some message about power or screen saving. This was on the EP35-DS3 (ie not the board with the marginal slot 0). Rebooting the machine did nothing. If I removed the power cable and reinserted it then turned on the power I saw a quick flash from the LEDs on the mobo, a small movement on the CPU fan and the video card fan, then nothing. That looked like a serious short to me.

Took a close look at the card. There's a dimple on one of the chips. Exactly the same chip that had the hole in it when I RMA's the original card. How's my luck? Two cards with exactly the same problem. Only problem is, I have no idea how long the hole had been in the chip.

It looks as though I actually had 2 problems happening at around the same time. I thought it was all being caused by the new motherboard.

If anyone's interested, it's the 5th chip down from the power connector on the 8800GT, labelled Q544. The 8800GT is a model GV-NX88T512HP, Rev 1.0. I'd be interested to know if anyone else has the same problem.

Thanks for your advice, LSDmeASAP. And thanks Gigabyte Tech.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: EP45 DS3P - Wide Range of Problems Help please

Hmm, well at least you know the problem now. So did your Gigabyte RAM go smoothly, did you get your new board yet?