EP45-UD3R won't play games

[Seyton]

Recently I decided to upgrade from my AMD x2 4400, bought the EP45-UD3R, Core 2 Duo E8500, and 4Gb (2x2) Gskill F2-8500CL5D. I already had an ASUS EN8800GT, and a 160 gig SATA 1 HDD that were working perfectly.

I've tried different bios configurations, and they all boot into windows just fine. I was running XP when I got this and tried two clean installs, and finally installed vista 64, with the same results. I've tried all the newest drivers, even going back to older ones to attempt to get it to work.

Memtest runs clean, so far I've run it up to 7 passes at once with no issues. I've done a processor burn test and it showed no issues.

I sent the motherboard in for a replacement and received a new one, putting my old mobo/processor/ram in it's place temporarily. While those were in, everything ran fine. Before reinstalling this motherboard I cleaned off all the drivers from the old one.

I still have no luck, games will run, but they all crash, at random times, usually within an hour, some within minutes. Even the simple ones that have few issues. They don't blue screen, and windows continues to run fine, so it doesn't seem like the processor/video is overheating.

I'd try to post what bios settings I'm using, but I've tried just about anything that even sounded remotely like it may have an effect. I'm not trying to overclock anything, I just want it to do what I bought it for. Any help would be appreciated, I don't really want to spend more money replacing parts.

[VorLonUK]

Re: EP45-UD3R won't play games

Is the bios on Auto seeing your Ram as 1066Mhz or are you increasing it upto that from 800Mhz.

Running DDR2 at 1066, will probably need an increment above the nominal 1.8volts for DDR2, to around 2.0volts. You could set that manually.

Then Set tRFC, (Refresh to Act Delay) to 54 and Performance Enhance to Standard.

However, just for reference, note down the DDR2 voltage as reported on the PC Health Bios screen as it stands of Now. This will be useful to reference back to.

[Seyton]

Re: EP45-UD3R won't play games

I had been running with the memory in spec 2.0-2.1, but changing the tRFC seemed to fix it for awhile, but it's started back up.

Also, the bios does see ram at 1066 on auto.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: EP45-UD3R won't play games

You do have the intel chipset package installed right? Just checking, here if not >>>

http://www.station-drivers.com/telechargement/intel/chipset/intel_inf_9.1.0.1007_PV(www.station-drivers.com).exe

What PSU do you have? Init First Display set to PEG in advanced BIOS page?

Here would be stock BIOS settings for you (With minimal changes, if you would like full optimal setting ranges let me know) >>>

[b][u]MB Intelligent Tweaker(M.I.T.)[/u][/b]
Robust Graphics Booster ...............: Auto or Fast
CPU Clock Ratio ..........................: 9
Fine CPU Clock Ratio.....................:.5
CPU Frequency ...........................: 3.16


[b][u]Clock Chip Control [/u][/b]
[b][u]Standard Clock Control[/u][/b]
CPU Host Clock Control..................: [Enabled] 
CPU Host Frequency (Mhz) ............: 333Mhz
[B]PCI Express Frequency (Mhz) .........:Set to 100[/B]

C.I.A.2 .................................:[Disabled]


[b][u]Advanced Clock Control [Press Enter][/u][/b]
CPU Clock Drive...........................: <<< 
PCI Express Clock Drive.................: <<< 
CPU Clock Skew (ps)....................: <<< 
MCH Clock Skew (ps)...................: <<< 50-150


[b][u]DRAM Performance Control[/u][/b][u][/u]
[B]Performance Enhance...................: [STANDARD][/B]
Extreme Memory Profile (X.M.P.).....: Disabled
(G)MCH Frequency Latch...............: [Auto]
System Memory Multiplier ..............: 3.20B
Memory Frequency (Mhz) ..............: 1066
DRAM Timing Selectable ................: [Manual]

[b]Standard Timing Control[/b]
CAS Latency Time........................5
tRCD .........................................5
tRP'...........................................5
tRAS..........................................15/18

[b][u]Advanced Timing Control[/u][/b]
tRRD...........................................
tWTR..........................................
tWR............................................
tRFC...........................................48-52 (Use 54-62 for now and see if it fixes things, then you know this may be the issue)

tRTP...........................................
Command Rate (CMD) ....................:2

[u][b]Driving Strength Profiles[/b][/u][b][/b]
Driving Strength ............................1066

[b]Channel A[/b]
Static tRead Value.........................:7-10 (Try 8-9 now to see if this is the problem)
 tRD Phase0 Adjustment...................:<<< Leave for all below as well
tRD Phase1 Adjustment...................:Auto
 tRD Phase2 Adjustment .................:Auto
 tRD Phase3 Adjustment..................:Auto
Trd2rd(Different Rank)....................:Auto 
Twr2wr(Different Rank)...................:Auto 
Twr2rd(Different Rank)...................:Auto 
Trd2wr(Same/Diff Rank)..................:Auto 
Dimm1 Clock Skew Control...............:Auto  ps
Dimm2 Clock Skew Control...............:Auto  ps

[b]Channel B[/b]
Static tRead Value.........................:7-10 (Try 8-9 now to see if this is the problem)
 tRD Phase0 Adjustment...................:<<< Leave for all below as well
tRD Phase1 Adjustment...................:Auto
 tRD Phase2 Adjustment .................:Auto
 tRD Phase3 Adjustment..................:Auto
Trd2rd(Different Rank)....................:Auto 
Twr2wr(Different Rank)...................:Auto 
Twr2rd(Different Rank)...................:Auto 
Trd2wr(Same/Diff Rank)..................:Auto 
Dimm1 Clock Skew Control...............:Auto  ps
Dimm2 Clock Skew Control...............:Auto  ps

[b][U]Motherboard Voltage Control[/U][/b][U][/U]
Voltage Type.………... Manual
[b]CPU[/b]
CPU Vcore….……….........................: Auto
CPU Termination…..... 1.200V*.......: <<< Please set to stock, Auto overvolts this way to much

CPU PLL…………………....1.500V*.......: << Please set to stock, Auto overvolts this way to much

CPU Referen.…………....0.755V*.......: <<< .64% Of Vtt (Termination above) Auto Will set this correctly 

CPU Reference2………,,0.800V*.......:<<< .67% Of Vtt (Termination above) Auto Will set this correctly 

[b]MCH/ICH[/b]
MCH Core…………….....1.100V...........: << 1.2-1.3 (needed for 2x2GB) 1.24-1.28 likely best

MCH Reference….…….0.800V...........; <<< Leave
MCH/DRAM Ref.…......0.900V...........: <<< Leave
ICH I/O……………….....1.550V............: <<< Leave
ICH Core…………...……1.100V............: <<< Leave

DRAM
DRAM Voltage ……....1.800V............: 2.0-2.1 (you may need 2.1 for 1066) What are you testing your memory with?  And for how long?

DRAM Termination .…0.900V............: <<< Leave
Channel A Reference 0.900V............: <<< Leave
Channel B Reference 0.900V............: <<< Leave

[Seyton]

Re: EP45-UD3R won't play games

I've been using Memtest 86. in various lengths. Oen test I did overnight, it went through 7 passes with no errors. While I've had no problems in memtest, I was usually running with 2.1v on the memory, and 1.26 on the MCH core. It actually seemed to help stability to lower those to 2.02 and 1.22 respectively. I'm going to try out some of the changes above and see how it goes.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: EP45-UD3R won't play games

Let us know how your testing goes