Maximus Formula, Det Dram hangs, PC8500 ram, NB voltage and YOU!

gallahant said:

Hello guys. My first post here and unfortunately i have the det dram problem.

I use Maximus Formula together with 2 sticks of transcend 1200mhz ddr2.

From the day i lowered my NB voltage i get the det dram hangs after a cold boot.

The reason i lowered the NB voltage was because on auto i was gettings reading in windows of 1.63-165v and asus probe reported NB+SB temps at high 60's ! The NB heatsink was very hot to touch, in fact i got burned by it.

Even now that i lowered the NB voltage to 1.33v the temps are still high pushing in the mid 50's. I know the "low" voltage is maybe the reason for the dram hangs but i dont want to burn up the motherboard by setting the voltage back to auto.

Do you guys think i may have gotten a defective board or that the heatsinks are badly installed? I dont want to take it off and reapply thermal paste as i am afraid i may rip apart something.

All my other temps are normal for the ambient temp here. Even my overclocked gpu with its fan set at very low rps , idles at 45C.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give!

Click to expand...

that is exactly what I was going through. i found a happy medium by setting the NB to 1.49, and the NB temps stay in the low 50s.

If I run my ram at 900 it can lower it to 1.35, but when I put it back up to 1100 I need the 1.5. You could probably get away with the 1.5 also. Give that a-go, if the temps are still hot, add a small fan, and its amazing how the temps come down.

When I was running 1.65 V through the NB, the temps were in the high 60s, so I bought an antec spotcool fan, and it ran around 55 then, the pinfin design is nice, but your case needs good airflow for it to work. I use water cooling and I dont have any fans blowing across the board, Just out of the case. So the spot fan fixed it right up

I have a huge chieftec case, but i need some fans for sure. I will try upping the nb voltage in small steps and test it. Of course it will take me a week or so.

I dont want to think what will happen in 2 months when it gets hotter here. Maybe i can fry the NB and rma the board

EastCoasthandle said:

This should give you an idea how I mounted it. A 1 1/2" wood screw should work. If that's too much use the cool spot instead. That works just as good IMO but I wouldn't mount it to the MB itself :shadedshu

Click to expand...

DONT mount it to the mobo. I did that and it actually caused a DET DRAM hang!!!

It was putting tension on the mobo and it must have been grounding it out or something. IDK, never firgured it out. I did however show all my problems right here on this thread.

I just screwed mine in through a fan that was at the rear of the case. That worked well

I cant mount anything to the SB heatsink as my 9600gt is just a few milimeters on top of it.

I should mention that i use only the 4-pin 12v connector. Do you think that is necessary to use the other 4 pin?

if you have a SATA DVD drive... unplug it and see if that helps any. the ICH9R has s problem with ATAPI <---> SATA traslation and can cause the system to hang on various different things.

the way to solve this problem is to get a SATA ---> IDE convertor and plug the SATA DVD drive into the IDE port of your board.

i have NOT had ANY memory problems SINCE i solved the above mentioned problem. i have been able to run my ram all the way to 1260mhz without any DET_RAM hangs.

fitseries3 said:

if you have a SATA DVD drive... unplug it and see if that helps any. the ICH9R has s problem with ATAPI <---> SATA traslation and can cause the system to hang on various different things.

the way to solve this problem is to get a SATA ---> IDE convertor and plug the SATA DVD drive into the IDE port of your board.

i have NOT had ANY memory problems SINCE i solved the above mentioned problem. i have been able to run my ram all the way to 1260mhz without any DET_RAM hangs.

Click to expand...

I have a SATA DVDrw and it has not given me any issues, at least not yet....

No issues with a SATA rom here either.

Ok, i have news. My det dram hangs went away by upping the FSB Termination Voltage from 1.31 to 1.33v.

I suppose it is relater to the ram isnt it?

Im running my E8200 at 400x8 and with 1.31v reported in probe for the NB (1.29 in bios), it is stable.

Try the newest maximus bios 1006 You can get trough asus uppdate or here http://seanet.com/~keeper/MAXIMUS_FORMULA_1006.ROM taken from asus uppdate.

Why i only see 1004 beta in asus website? Is 1006 official?

Yes i think bios is official i found it on asus forum and they got it from asus uppdate.

I would like someone to post here using this bios and confirms that everything is ok, before i risk it.

I would try it but i have no cpu.Ill get my cpu next month.They have used the asus uppdate tool but from what i understad its risky flash a asus board in windows.I have used Abit boards and flashed them allways in windows and never failed a flash ." I upgraded to 1006 using "ASUS Update V7.13.04", no problem at all" Try using usus update if it can find the bios (1006) from the uppdate and i dont know if its same as abits uppdate you can just download the bios and use AFUDOS and Alt-F2!

Hello Guys, new here with the same problem.

I entered just to mention that there is a new bios upgrade "Maximus Formula 1201 Bios" saying "Memory Compatibility".
Maybe is a way to say, fixing the problem with NB or whatever!

I will post my settings later on when i arrive home to see if that helps!

Bye,
Vini

I just got all my new parts in heres the list

Motherboard:
ASUS MAXIMUS FORMULA LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard

CPU:
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8400

Memory:
CORSAIR Dominator 4GB (4 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit TWIN2X2048-8500C5D

Video Card:
EVGA 512-P3-N845-AR GeForce 8800GTS (G92) KO 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI-E 2.0x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card



Problem is it wont see 4 sticks (I get DET DRAM on the LCD Poster)
If i pull 2 it will post but only see DDR-800

i changed settings to this:
Originally posted by EastCoasthandle
Extreme Tweaker
Ai Overclock Tuner : Manual
OC From CPU Level Up : AUTO
CPU Ratio Control : Manual
- Ratio CMOS Setting : 9
FSB Frequency : 400
FSB Strap to North Bridge : Auto
PCI-E Frequency: 100
DRAM Frequency: DDR2-1066
DRAM Command Rate : 2T
DRAM Timing Control: Manual
CAS# Latency : 5
RAS# to CAS# Delay : 5
RAS# Precharge : 5
RAS# ActivateTime : 15
RAS# to RAS# Delay : Auto
Row Refresh Cycle Time : Auto
Write Recovery Time : Auto
Read to Precharge Time : Auto

Read to Write Delay (S/D) : Auto
Write to Read Delay (S) : Auto
Write to Read Delay (D) : Auto
Read to Read Delay (S) : Auto
Read to Read Delay (D) : Auto
Write to Write Delay (S) : Auto
Write to Write Delay (D) : Auto
DRAM Static Read Control: Auto
Ai Clock Twister : Auto
Transaction Booster : Disabled
Relax level: 0

CPU Voltage : 1.350V
CPU PLL Voltage : AUTO
North Bridge Voltage : 1.55v
DRAM Voltage : 2.10
FSB Termination Voltage : Auto
South Bridge Voltage : Auto
Loadline Calibration : Auto
CPU GTL Reference : 0.63X
North Bridge GTL Reference : Auto
DDR2 Channel A REF Voltage : AUTO
DDR2 Channel B REF Voltage : AUTO
DDR2 Controller REF Voltage : AUTO
SB 1.5V Voltage : 1.5

with this setting the board still seeing DDR-800 regardless of which 2 sticks i use and still will not boot with 4 can anyone help?

Follow this:

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3184&p=2

It helped me tune my OC.

under Memtest86 v2.01 it is seeing the FSB:400 DDR1066 5-5-5-15 and gets no errors

so the settings are working but it will not see more then 2 sticks

memnochbcs said:

under Memtest86 v2.01 it is seeing the FSB:400 DDR1066 5-5-5-15 and gets no errors

so the settings are working but it will not see more then 2 sticks

Click to expand...

Are all 4 sticks the same?

Also: what's the required voltage for the 1066 speed (written on the RAM sticks)? Mine are Corsair Dominators DHX CL4 but they work @ CL5 unless i set the timings @ 4-4-4-12 with 2.1 volts.

Finally: make sure your board isn't overvolting the RAM: set the RAM voltage @ the rated volts, reboot and go to BIOS / Power Monitoring (might be under different name): check to see how much more is the voltage of RAM, when comparing to the voltage you set.

yes they are all the same


rebooted after checking settings and running memtest on all sticks and they boot now in 1066 which is what they should

swap them to other slots and it reverts to 800, check settings in bios, and after reboot they boot 1066

however they still wont go past DET DRAM with all 4 sticks in

memnochbcs said:

yes they are all the same


rebooted after checking settings and running memtest on all sticks and they boot now in 1066 which is what they should

swap them to other slots and it reverts to 800, check settings in bios, and after reboot they boot 1066

however they still wont go past DET DRAM with all 4 sticks in

Click to expand...

Did you try the memory sticks with the CPU @ stock speed? When i bought another kit of RAM, i tried starting @ my OCed speed and it would not boot. Turns out the memory must first be "accepted" by the board with the CPU @ stock speed and then you can OC it.

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=58104

If not that, i don't know

just booted with stock settings (all on auto) boots DDR-800

calling corsair now i guess