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#11
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New Build PC Spontaneously Reboots Sometimes Before OS Load
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New Build PC Spontaneously Reboots Sometimes Before OS Load
In news:alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt, VanguardLH posted on
Thu, 10 Jan 2013 19:13:40 -0600 the following: NOTE: Since the computer reboots BEFORE the operating system loads (as claimed by your Subject), I've clipped out all the stuff about the OS as it is irrelevant. "Damaeus" wrote: Before turning it on for the first time, I cleared the CMOS. Then I accepted all the default/automatic settings in the BIOS because it's supposed to detect all my stuff and configure itself appropriately. But did you check if the BIOS was using the SPD from the memory card(s) to determine what clockings to use? Yes, it was. Boosting the speed to 2133 MHz and timing 11-12-11-30 increased stability for about an hour and a half. Since then I've lowered the speed back to automatic 1333 MHz and automatic 9-9-9-24. I still got a reboot there after about 3.5 hours, but it's strange how it just decided to stop rebooting so quickly with the same timings I had at first. I then enabled an "optimize for 4 GB DIMMs", which lengthens the timing a little to 10-12-11-28, and I can't be sure yet until I run it for more than 3.5 hours, but it seems to have increased the stability some more. Here's what the settings look like with 4GB DIMM settings loaded: http://home.earthlink.net/+AH4-damae...-crosshair.jpg While I was in there grabbing that screen shot, I noticed that the voltage was set to manual at 1.4, and it was in yellow. I reset that to automatic. I'm not sure yet how that'll affect stability. I don't even know how it got to 1.4 volts. I must have fiddled with it thinking I was going to exit without saving, then maybe I found something else, changed that, and accidentally saved both of them. Nonetheless, I still used to have reboots on all-automatic, even before I ever messed with voltage settings. Did you disconnect the hard disk and retest? Yes, there won't be an OS to boot but you're trying to discover the cause for hardware rebooting, not something the OS which isn't involved since it isn't even loaded yet. Also disconnect any optical drive (CD/DVD) and remove any daughtercards unnecessary for booting the hardware (i.e., NIC). I haven't tried that. The least I've had connected when turning the machine on is the hard drive, one DVD drive, and a graphics card. It never would reboot when I was just in the BIOS+IBQ-only after starting an OS load, or in the case of the Windows 8 install disc, it would reboot while showing the Windows 8 logo and an animated graphic showing that something is in progress. The NIC is integrated with the motherboard. At best, I could just unplug the ethernet cord. I did that before, but I still had the hard drive and DVD drive connected. It's a new DVD drive, by the way. My old ones were connected with IDE cables, but this motherboard has no IDE connectors, so I had to get a new drive, too. Just for giggles, you didn't leave a diskette inserted into the floppy drive, right? No, I have a USB floppy drive since I use a floppy disk so infrequently that having one installed in the case only makes it a dust collector. I once had a floppy drive installed and I only got two uses out of it before it became so dust-ridden it would no longer work. It's hard to get the dust out of one of those things with an air can. And fortunately, the USB floppy drive I have just happened to work when I was trying to give WinXP the SATA driver for this motherboard, so it should work when I do Memtest86. I've tried pulling all but one DIMM, which I left in A1. Presumably the result of which was that the computer still did a reboot before the BIOS got to the point of loading the OS. So the memory card you employed in this scenario is suspect. Well, there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it yet. I've tried having two DIMMS in A1 and B1, and two DIMMS in A2 and B2, then just one DIMM in B2. But did you omit the memory card that was used in your first 1-slot test? Maybe you kept including the same memory card in each test. I tried two of the four DIMMs by themselves. You know, I really hate changing these DIMMs out. Of all the pieces I put together in this thing, DIMMs are the scariest because the slots are so tight. It takes considerable pressure to get them to snap into place, and it always sounds like there's sand in the slots. They're clean, of course, but it sounds so nasty sticking them in there that I'm afraid that swapping them out too much might do more harm than good. Do you really think bad memory can just cause a reboot? Seems like it could cause the system to freeze or create strange errors. But just a sudden reboot sounds odd, but I don't consider myself a computer-building expert. I know enough to build one, and if it works after I put it together, I consider myself good at BUILDING computers, but perhaps not so good at diagnosing them if they don't work properly after I'm done. This is the first out of seven builds that I've had problems with. All the others just worked perfectly from the start without having to fondle the BIOS to enourage it. Have you tried inserting one memory card and then running memtest on it? No, I haven't done that. I'm going to do a memory test, though. The power supply is fairly new, and I've had it tested at Best Buy where I got it, and they said it was good, though their "big machine" they normally test power supplies on was broken down. He used some handheld device to test it. The typical hand-held plug-in testers merely check voltages are within range. They don't perform a load test. Voltages can waver under load. Devices plugged into the PSU can cause regulation problems. You can test voltages using any multimeter. The tester you mention doesn't show you the voltages but just lights a LED if voltages are within the acceptable range. A multimeter would show you the voltages AFTER you connected the PSU to all the devices. It won't show regulation (ripple) but will show the average value. I don't have a super-powerful rig here. It just has one hard drive, one DVD drive, and a mid-range graphics card. I think I have a lot of power supply for the equipment I have. If you're building your own computers then you probably have a multimeter (alas, most users never get them calibrated or send them in for recalibration at 5-year intervals). With everything hooked up to the PSU, use the multimeter to check what are the voltages UNDER LOAD. LOL, no. I gave my multimeter to my dad because I never used it. I've seated and reseated the video card. I tried changing the video card to a new MSI GeForce GTX 650, and that didn't help. If the video card wasn't working, you wouldn't see the BIOS or POST screens. The video BIOS must load before the system BIOS. If the video isn't working or missing, you'd hear some beeps but no video obviously. Yeah, video works. I've never had a problem with that. When I put the new GTX 650 in was when I first got the computer to stop rebooting so quickly with automatic settings in the BIOS, but it eventually did reboot, too. With the 7950 GT, reboots happened quickly. Then, when I put the 7950 GT back in with automatic settings, it didn't reboot like it had before. But I may not have had it up long enough for it to happen. You never mentioned if you do or do not hear any diagnostic beeps on a cold boot. I usually hear one beep when booting, and that's all. In the manual, one short beep means: VGA detected Quick boot set to disabled No keyboard detected Well, I have a keyboard and it does work. All my temperatures are fine. Right now, my CPU is at 18.8+ALo-C. Really? 20C is room temperature. You're saying your CPU is not only not producing any heat but it is actually chilled? Are you using water cooling instead of a fan? If water cooled, you actually have a chiller that will reduce the water's temperature below ambient? No, I don't. Something is up with the thermal sensor. It's 70 degrees in here, but right now, the CPU temperature is showing 64+ALo-F in HWiNFO32. I don't have Cool n Quiet installed. I've only seen it go as high as 42+ALo-C. Now that's a normal operating temperature. GPU runs idle at about 56-58+ALo-C, but I've read that this is okay for this particular graphics card. So how are the fans? Are they all spinning? Are they spinning at full speed? A non-moving CPU fan (whether because it is a bad unit or some obstruction stopping the fan) will have an RPM of zero and the BIOS will shutdown the computer. A bad fan that reports low or zero RPM, or one that spins too slowly (RPM too small), or an obstruction that stops the fan blades (i.e., poor cable routing) can result in the BIOS seeing a too-low fan speed and shutdown the computer. Yes, all the fans are working. I actually keep mine cool with the side of the case removed and a huge fan is blowing inside it at medium speed, which doesn't put out a whole lot of air, but it's enough to put a nice breeze into the case. So there are no case fans installed. The only system fans are the CPU, GPU, and PSU. Oh, And I noticed the fans for the UPS battery are not working. blush I wish it was as simple as that, but the PC rebooted even when not connected to the battery. What do you think is the problem here? Any suggestions? When you mounted the mobo to the case using the standoffs, were they plastic standoffs onto which you push the mobo or are they metallic threaded rods and you use screws to hold down the mobo? If the metallic type, did you use the phenolic insulating washers between the screws heads and the mobo, or do the mobo have a nice grounding pad around the hold through which the screw passes? I have seen where metallic standoffs and metal screws have caused shorts. In addition, I've found mobos that had problems due to solder flakes or whiskers. I have metal screw-in studs that go into a metal case. I asked about using washers in my last build and someone told me that those washers aren't needed because using metal screws in metal studs "grounds" the motherboard to the case. It looks like the printed circuits steer clear of the mounting holes. If you think I should have washers in this thing, I can get some and put them in. I've used them before. Hmmm... Maybe that's why my KT7A-RAID system died after three power outages in 15 seconds. These people are saying no washers are needed: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/24...ulated-washers And this guy says no washers are needed because the motherboard needs grounding: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/artic...herboard/145/2 Damaeus |
#13
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New Build PC Spontaneously Reboots Sometimes Before OS Load
In news:alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt, Paul posted on
Thu, 10 Jan 2013 21:09:03 -0500 the following: Run memtest86+. Downloads are half-way down this page. Yes, thanks. I've already got a couple of floppies created for it. I'm wondering if I should run the 64 version or the regular version. It says to run the 64 version on "64-bit platforms", and I do have a 64-bit processor and 16GB of memory, but the operating system is only 32-bit. Which disk should I use? Damaeus |
#14
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New Build PC Spontaneously Reboots Sometimes Before OS Load
In news:alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt, Paul posted on
Fri, 11 Jan 2013 01:29:20 -0500 the following: The advertising mentions Intel. And possibly, because the modules are equipped with optional Intel XMP profiles. http://www.kingston.com/us/memory/hy...s/quad_channel http://www.kingston.com/datasheets/K...1D3K4_16GX.pdf JEDEC: DDR3-1333 CL9-9-9 @1.5V Wow! I'll have to check the BIOS again, but automatic settings have the voltage set to around 1.288 or something like that. Maybe too little voltage is the problem. And this board doesn't recognize XMP profiles. I asked about that in a web forum. This one uses D.O.C.P., but I want it to run at its JEDEC speed. I'm more than happy with that. It's still a lot faster than my last PC. Overclocking is a learning experience. No amount of automation, does a really good job of setting up the board. Many times, a built-in overclock function, is applying way too much voltage, to make it seem "easy". And tweaking is called for. And I'm not even interested in overclocking. I want STABILITY by all means. But then that's why I got a motherboard that CAN be overclocked. I figured that with all that extra headroom for faster speeds, I'd get more stability than I'd get if I got a motherboard designed to run at a certain speed with no way to change that, and then it may just run maxed out all the time. My last board, the Abit Fatal1ty AN9 32x, I never overclocked, and except for that bad capacitor screwing up my game animations, it was the most stable and reliable system I ever built! I'm hoping to achieve that same result with this one. But this is my first Asus board. I didn't realize it was going to be so damned picky! Or maybe I'v got one that's not quite right. It even came in the wrong box. Damaeus |
#15
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New Build PC Spontaneously Reboots Sometimes Before OS Load
In news:alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt, Man-wai Chang
posted on Fri, 11 Jan 2013 12:36:40 +0800 the following: Try manually setting the RAM clock to DDR3-1333. You were overclocking the memory bus!!! I am not sure whether this AMD motherboard could handle DDR3-2133... This motherboard handles up 2400 MHz memory. I don't want to max it out, but if memory ever comes out that's easy to find and runs at a JEDEC standard speed of something like 2133 MHz without overclocking, I'll look into getting some. Damaeus |
#16
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New Build PC Spontaneously Reboots Sometimes Before OS Load
Damaeus wrote:
In news:alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt, Paul posted on Thu, 10 Jan 2013 21:09:03 -0500 the following: Run memtest86+. Downloads are half-way down this page. Yes, thanks. I've already got a couple of floppies created for it. I'm wondering if I should run the 64 version or the regular version. It says to run the 64 version on "64-bit platforms", and I do have a 64-bit processor and 16GB of memory, but the operating system is only 32-bit. Which disk should I use? Damaeus Either version should work. The last time I used it, there was only a 32 bit version, and the behavior was, it was mapping 2GB chunks at a time, and running the test on each chunk. Then it would move on to the next chunk. So it seemed even the 32 bit version could do the job. ******* By the way, DDR3 nominal voltage is 1.5V, and the XMP profiles for your memory include operation to 1.65V. As long as you check and 1.65V is OK with an AMD processor, you could probably use a voltage up to that level. And you may find that helps with stability. There is a second kind of DDR3, which is rated for stable operation at 1.35V. But that is not an issue at the moment, as I see in the KHX2133C11D3K4/16GX spec "JEDEC standard 1.5V" There's no particularly good reason to run a 1.5V RAM at 1.4V. To reach 2133, the Kingston datasheet says they used 1.65V when they were testing it. To reach 1333, 1.5V was the test voltage. If you contacted Kingston and claimed the memory was bad, and then told them you were testing at 1.4V, they'd tell you to use at least 1.5V. They only accept that a memory is bad, when you test at the same level they did. HTH, Paul |
#17
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New Build PC Spontaneously Reboots Sometimes Before OS Load
Damaeus wrote:
But this is my first Asus board. I didn't realize it was going to be so damned picky! You selected a real enthusiast board. Not a $100 wonder with no BIOS settings. While Asus do a good job of selecting automatic parameters for things, you have to realize that with an enthusiast board, they expect the user to review all the settings. Or at least the major settings. The coloring scheme (green=normal, yellow=slightly out of spec, red=dangerously high) is there to help you recognize what is nominal and what isn't. Some things are not handled by automation, such as JEDEC SPD entries which lack a voltage setting. And that means, even with "full Auto", the voltage on the DIMMs might be wrong. With the availability of 1.35V and 1.5V DIMMs, there might be situations where they'd want to try for 1.35V. But I'm not aware of anything in the regular SPD table, that tells them what to use. Unless, that is, JEDEC has added code points for both kinds of RAM (they should have, but I haven't downloaded a JEDEC spec lately). It could be, that Kingston made a mistake when coding the SPD, and entered 1.35V in there. Maybe that would account for an abnormally low VDimm. When the spec sheet from Kingston says 1.5V. What JEDEC likes to specify, is only the "normal" voltage. If there are two kinds of memory chips, they'd have a coding for the normal value. Like setting a bit to zero means it's a 1.35V chip, setting a bit to one means it's a 1.5V chip. JEDEC "doesn't do overclocker data", so there should be no way for JEDEC to say in a table "turn it up to 1.65V now". JEDEC considers there is just one voltage operating point, for a given memory chip. And thus, the SPD table lacks expressive power. And that's why XMP was added (to some products) as an informal solution. JEDEC would be aware of the existence of these ideas, but hasn't rolled all of the ideas into the "official" standard. There are several voltages that are going to be in the same vicinity of the BIOS setup, so be careful you're looking at the right one. There could be a separate voltage for the "uncore" memory controller block, as well as a voltage that feeds the I/O pads on the memory chips (VDimm). Even if you don't know what they mean, use the color scheme to review them. If you have questions (like, you spot another one in yellow), post back with the details. I have the "poor relative" of an Asus enthusiast board. It's an enthusiast board, with half the enthusiasm removed :-) Some of the chips are removed, and the board is about $200 cheaper. I've only had to adjust one voltage on there, to solve a stability problem. And in my case, it didn't have "the color scheme" to warn me. I took a guess, and got lucky on the first try, bumping one of the settings up. Apparently my Northbridge was a little grumpy, and a tiny change in voltage made it work "good as new". That's the fun of these things. Before all this enthusiasm took place (when far fewer regulators were adjustable), there was really nothing that needed adjustment. Now, a lot of the regulators have VID codes, and they can be programmed. Which is both a plus and a minus. It's a plus, when you can adjust a voltage and avoid RMA warranty proceedings on a motherboard. It's a minus when you don't really want to be adjusting such things. Paul |
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New Build PC Spontaneously Reboots Sometimes Before OS Load
In news:alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt, Paul posted on
Fri, 11 Jan 2013 09:31:00 -0500 the following: Damaeus wrote: Yes, thanks. I've already got a couple of floppies created for it. I'm wondering if I should run the 64 version or the regular version. It says to run the 64 version on "64-bit platforms", and I do have a 64-bit processor and 16GB of memory, but the operating system is only 32-bit. Which disk should I use? Either version should work. The last time I used it, there was only a 32 bit version, and the behavior was, it was mapping 2GB chunks at a time, and running the test on each chunk. Then it would move on to the next chunk. So it seemed even the 32 bit version could do the job. Thanks. I'll give one of them a whirl. I don't know anymore what the program runs under. I embarrassed myself in a web forum by referring to it as DOS, and someone rather condescendingly told me that Memtest86 has nothing to do with DOS. Okay, so DOS is gone. But the command prompt sure behaves like DOS. Maybe DOS could be the command prompt's nickname. Anyway, I was under the impression that Memtest86 runs without Windows, but apparently some kind of operating system must load, even if it has no GUI, to allow Memtest86 to operate. Maybe I knew more about computers when DOS was around than I do now. Heh. By the way, DDR3 nominal voltage is 1.5V, and the XMP profiles for your memory include operation to 1.65V. As long as you check and 1.65V is OK with an AMD processor, you could probably use a voltage up to that level. And you may find that helps with stability. Yes, when I first had this problem and went to 2133 MHz and 1.65 volts, that ran for quite a while. It even got me to the Windows 8 product key validation screen, where defaults did nothing of the sort. There is a second kind of DDR3, which is rated for stable operation at 1.35V. But that is not an issue at the moment, as I see in the KHX2133C11D3K4/16GX spec "JEDEC standard 1.5V" There's no particularly good reason to run a 1.5V RAM at 1.4V. To reach 2133, the Kingston datasheet says they used 1.65V when they were testing it. To reach 1333, 1.5V was the test voltage. If you contacted Kingston and claimed the memory was bad, and then told them you were testing at 1.4V, they'd tell you to use at least 1.5V. They only accept that a memory is bad, when you test at the same level they did. I'll go into the BIOS and get a screenshot of what the voltage and timing looks like now, then I'll try boosting it to 1.5 volts if it doesn't turn red on me. So far it hasn't rebooted with it set back to automatic. I'll see what the voltage says since I saved and didn't go back into the BIOS to see what the new reading was. Damaeus |
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New Build PC Spontaneously Reboots Sometimes Before OS Load
In news:alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt, Paul posted on
Fri, 11 Jan 2013 09:52:32 -0500 the following: Damaeus wrote: But this is my first Asus board. I didn't realize it was going to be so damned picky! You selected a real enthusiast board. Not a $100 wonder with no BIOS settings. Yes, I thought Abit had a lot of configuration options. Asus seems to have far more, and many things I don't recognize. While Asus do a good job of selecting automatic parameters for things, you have to realize that with an enthusiast board, they expect the user to review all the settings. Or at least the major settings. The coloring scheme (green=normal, yellow=slightly out of spec, red=dangerously high) is there to help you recognize what is nominal and what isn't. Some things are not handled by automation, such as JEDEC SPD entries which lack a voltage setting. And that means, even with "full Auto", the voltage on the DIMMs might be wrong. I'm checking that after I post this message. [snipped interesting information] There are several voltages that are going to be in the same vicinity of the BIOS setup, so be careful you're looking at the right one. There could be a separate voltage for the "uncore" memory controller block, as well as a voltage that feeds the I/O pads on the memory chips (VDimm). Even if you don't know what they mean, use the color scheme to review them. If you have questions (like, you spot another one in yellow), post back with the details. Okay. I have the "poor relative" of an Asus enthusiast board. It's an enthusiast board, with half the enthusiasm removed :-) Some of the chips are removed, and the board is about $200 cheaper. I've only had to adjust one voltage on there, to solve a stability problem. And in my case, it didn't have "the color scheme" to warn me. I took a guess, and got lucky on the first try, bumping one of the settings up. Apparently my Northbridge was a little grumpy, and a tiny change in voltage made it work "good as new". That's the fun of these things. Well, yes. I suppose if I could find the stability point, I'll be happy with it. I'll be happier if I can keep it up and running two days with no reboots....then I'll want a week, then a month. I think my record on my old Fatal1ty board with the bad capacitor was something like 32 (or maybe even 92) days without a reboot using Windows XP Home and I had no stability problems at all. I would only reboot to fix the animation paging problem. THIS motherboard didn't have that problem with the same graphics card, so I at least now know it was definitely the motherboard. And to think it was like that from the first day I got it. Before all this enthusiasm took place (when far fewer regulators were adjustable), there was really nothing that needed adjustment. Now, a lot of the regulators have VID codes, and they can be programmed. Which is both a plus and a minus. It's a plus, when you can adjust a voltage and avoid RMA warranty proceedings on a motherboard. It's a minus when you don't really want to be adjusting such things. Yeah. I went into the BIOS of my friend's DELL and there was just one page of settings and there was something I wanted to adjust but couldn't. I don't remember what it was now, even though it's only been three days. lol Damaeus |
#20
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New Build PC Spontaneously Reboots Sometimes Before OS Load
"Damaeus" wrote:
Boosting the speed to 2133 MHz and timing 11-12-11-30 increased stability for about an hour and a half. Since then I've lowered the speed back to automatic 1333 MHz and automatic 9-9-9-24. I still got a reboot there after about 3.5 hours, but it's strange how it just decided to stop rebooting so quickly with the same timings I had at first. I then enabled an "optimize for 4 GB DIMMs", which lengthens the timing a little to 10-12-11-28, and I can't be sure yet until I run it for more than 3.5 hours, but it seems to have increased the stability some more. Here's what the settings look like with 4GB DIMM settings loaded: http://home.earthlink.net/~damaeus/i...-crosshair.jpg I've seen some memory brands that overclock their modules (by the spec they sell at). You are led to believe the memory module is rated for those specs but those are actually overclocked specs advertized for the product so they can charge you more. When they claim the unit has been tested at the overclocked values, that's not true. They have not been "burned" for hours to test stability nor has every unit been tested but just a sample. http://www.kingston.com/dataSheets/K...1D3K4_16GX.pdf "Each module kit has been tested to run at DDR3-2133 at a low latency timing of 11-12-11 at 1.65V. The SPDs are programmed to JEDEC standard latency DDR3-1333 timing of 9-9-9 at 1.5V." Sounds fishy to me. They're saying that the modules have been programmed with an SPD that has the memory run at a slower speed hence the tighter timings yet they "test" then to run at the higher speed (and looser timings). Sure sounds like they've taken DDR3-1333 modules and are selling them as overclocked units. The chip maker says the product is rated for 1333 at CAS9 but Kingston is overclocking that spec and claiming (and hoping) the product works at 2133 CAS11. Try to get the hardware working by not overclocking anything. You can play with overclocking later where you decide if you want stability along with continuous usability or speed at the expense of usability. Is there decent airflow over the memory modules? Sometimes cables, especially the flat IDE ones, are incorrectly oriented perpendicular to the airflow instead of parallel to it. Of course, with your external table fan blowing into the case, it's that airflow direction you need to cool the memory cards. While I was in there grabbing that screen shot, I noticed that the voltage was set to manual at 1.4, and it was in yellow. I reset that to automatic. I'm not sure yet how that'll affect stability. These overclocked units at the 2133 clock require 1.65V. They're overclocked. They need more power. They'll expell more heat. Even at the module spec'd 1333 clock rate (what the chip manufacturer rated for the module, not what Kingston decided to "test" and claim a higher but overclocked rate), the modules are spec'ed at 1.5V. You said 1.4 was wrong but didn't mention what voltage the "automatic" setting used. You know, I really hate changing these DIMMs out. Of all the pieces I put together in this thing, DIMMs are the scariest because the slots are so tight. It takes considerable pressure to get them to snap into place, and it always sounds like there's sand in the slots. They're clean, of course, but it sounds so nasty sticking them in there that I'm afraid that swapping them out too much might do more harm than good. I haven't experienced what you describe except with memory cards that were a misaligned on the punchouts (used to polarize the card in the slot bracket). I've had to use a small round rasp on the cutouts so they slide over the slot bracket okay. Yep, it was a manufacturing flaw. Without the rework, there would be too much torque on the PCB and bracket retention. Before doing that, however, I make sure the card is FULLY seated to see if the side cutouts will then align okay. I remember once having to rework the cutouts. In every other case where they were tough to get in, it just required a bit more jostling, jiggling, and pushing to get the cutouts to align. Typically it's just push in, push back, and click. The "sand" noise could be the edge of the PCB for the cutouts scraping past the nubs in the slot bracket. If these come with a folder-over heat plate, have you made sure they are centered and not partially overlapping the side cutouts? Are these just the cheap and worthless fold-over aluminum plates put on just for looks or are they the ones that extend beyond the top of the memory card with fins (which often results in problem in spacing with other components)? From http://www.legitreviews.com/article/2030/1/, it looks like its just the non-functional plate used for marketing glitz. Those just slide over and are held by friction, don't have good contact since the inside is painted or is unpolished, and no thermal paste is used plus they provide little additional surface area for cooling than for the chip tops themselves (and the lack of thermal paste and good surface contact means poor heat transfer so the added surface area of the plate is ineffective). I usually hear one beep when booting, and that's all. In the manual, one short beep means: One beep is good. I have metal screw-in studs that go into a metal case. I asked about using washers in my last build and someone told me that those washers aren't needed because using metal screws in metal studs "grounds" the motherboard to the case. It looks like the printed circuits steer clear of the mounting holes. If you think I should have washers in this thing, I can get some and put them in. The holes in the mobo for the standoff screws might have a grounding pad so, yes, you want the screws to contact them. Shorting happens when flathead screws are used with oversized heads. The heads obviously have to be bigger than the hole to hold the mobo but I've seen some folks use really large headed screws which reached beyond the grounding pad on the mobo. Also, not all mobo mounting points have grounding pads. It's not the metallic standoffs that short something away from the hole. It's using too-large headed screws. Did the mobo come with a packet of standoffs and screws? If so, and if no phenolic washers were provided then you don't any assuming you're also using the screws provided in the hardware kit. Or were you salvaging the screws and maybe the standoffs out of a junk box? Where there is a grounding pad around a standoff hole is where a screw should contact it. That is what connects chassis ground to circuit ground. Make sure the screw head does extend outside the grounding contact. Not all mounting holes for the standoffs will have grounding contacts. Make sure the metallic screw doesn't contact any foils, components leads, or jumper wires next to those holes. |
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Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Gigabyte 7VAXP - upgraded cpu & ram - now pc hard reboots when trying to load windows | DAN | Gigabyte Motherboards | 9 | April 19th 05 11:13 PM |
PC spontaneously shutting down | Carver Lee | Homebuilt PC's | 19 | August 22nd 04 12:46 PM |
PC spontaneously shutting down | Carver Lee | General | 18 | August 21st 04 05:25 PM |
New build problem. System freezes/reboots | iplom® | Homebuilt PC's | 7 | December 30th 03 02:17 PM |
Sponteneous Reboots during OS load | markjen | Asus Motherboards | 1 | October 23rd 03 05:44 AM |