Maximus Formula weird problems

[fiedes]

Hey there

A few weeks ago I bought myself a complete new system, consisting of:

E6750 Duo
Asus Maximus Formula
2GB PC2-6400 Crucial Ballistix
ASUS 8800GTS 512MB
Antec Phantom 500W PSU

After assembly I installed Vista and was ready to enjoy. Unfortunately the first thing I realized after having installed all drivers etc. was that I was not able to make my Cisco Wi-Fi PCI card work. It just froze on every attempt to install any driver I could get my hands on.

Believing it could just be vista, I installed XP - same thing happened. I then tried disabling possible conflicting hardware in the BIOS, still no luck. Changing between the two PCI slots didn't do anything either. Tried various BIOS versions also.

Ok, so I gave up making the card work..

Then a few days ago my system suddenly rebooted from XP and gave me "BIOS checksum error". Powering off apparently fixed this, but after that it would give this error on boot approx. 1 in every 3 tries, and booting normally in 2/3. My XP installation later suddenly screwed up giving me a constant blue screen on every startup. Even my Vista install on a different partition stopped working, also giving up almost instantly on startup. I ended up reverting to the BIOS on the MOBO cd, and reupdating to one of the newest versions (903), also reinstalling XP. Haven't been home for a few days so don't know how it runs after this BIOS reinstall..

But anyway, after all this text, my question is this: could my problems be due to a bad board?

The place I bought the board charges 50£ an hour for running tests so I would like to know if there is any chance it is broken before I do an RMA. I have no idea of how a mobo works and if it is possible for even a (slightly) damaged board to function properly most of the time but fail periodically.

On the other hand, I don't consider myself a computer illiterate. As such, I have never before not been able to install a PCI card confirmed to be working in other systems to a new system. I also have never experienced the BIOS checksum error that this board threw at me almost straight out of the box.

Thanks in advance,

Søren Lorentzen

 

[chookman]

My thoughts are that it could be RAM... BSOD's are generally either RAM, Hard drive or Drivers. since it was working fine then went bad i would think we could rule out drivers.

pick up memtest86+ and use the bootable cd to test memory... if you come up with some errors you know what your problem is

 

[fiedes]

My thoughts are that it could be RAM... BSOD's are generally either RAM, Hard drive or Drivers. since it was working fine then went bad i would think we could rule out drivers.

pick up memtest86+ and use the bootable cd to test memory... if you come up with some errors you know what your problem is

Ok, I'll try that out.

But what are your thoughts on the mobo giving the "Bios checksum error" only every other or so time, and be otherwise working? Shouldn't it either find the error on every startup or not at all?

 

[badge]

"BIOS checksum error". Powering off apparently fixed this, but after that it would give this error on boot approx. 1 in every 3 tries, and booting normally in 2/3.

BIOS checksum error is related to the MB battery. Replace the battery and do what chookman suggested and run memtest86 and check RAM for errors. BIOS version 907 is the best BIOS version I have tried to date. Solves the temp sensor reading errors for one thing. Use memtest to check for errors and any bad DIMMS, then in BIOS set the memory voltage to Mfg. specs, PC6400 is 2.0-2.1v. Set the memory timings to specs also. If the system continues to blue screen, try one DIMM in slot one only, then try the other. HTH.

 

[Falken699]

Change that PSU for a Corsair. PSU problems are extremely erratic, the garden list of BS ways a wonky PSU can stuff up your system is insane.

Don't let me interfere with what badge is saying. He is correct.

Just get a Corsair (Seasonic) Bro. Even if it fixes nothing but makes you more proud of your PC. You can probably just return your Antec and pay the few $$$ difference. I got screwed on an Antec before, the problems it caused made me go nuts.

 

[fiedes]

Ok then, just finished running memtest, and it came up with a few errors:

Says tests failed at 514.4MB and 918.3MB, how is this interpreted - is one module 1-1000MB and the next 1000-2000MB? Can I directly identify in which slot the broken module sits, in this case would it be the first slot?. I know I could just do the test again with each one, but it's getting late..

I'm actually happy about the RAM returning errors as they're the least complicated component to switch out. On the other hand, can I be completely sure the RAM are at fault or is there still a possibility for this to be caused by my MOBO or even PSU?

I appreciate the help so far

 

[badge]

Well, try each DIMM seperately in Slot 1 and check your system for stability be sure to set the memory voltage in BIOS to 2.0-2.1v. Also adjust the timings to Mfg. specs. If you get the system stable doing this with one of the DIMMS, add the other and check for stability. After applying the correct voltage and timings, run memtest again and see if the errors are still there. If you are still getting errors in Memtest86, RMA the RAM.

Don't know the exact error you are receiving, but you should not get errors running the test. Set the voltage to properly power the RAM and maybe the errors will cease.