Asus P4C800-E DLX won't boot!

[Lidberg]

Hi all,

I'm an old hat at overclocking, but mostly I browse the forums only when I need some specific info. This is one of those times. I've built 10-15 computers of my own, the last being an AMD Athlon64 3200+ which is still rockin' hard after a year and a half. Previous to that, I still have 4 of my P4 systems, all successfully overclocked to almost 50%.

System 0 - Abit BP6 w/2x400MHz CPU's oc'ed to 600Mhz (retired)
System 1 - Abit BE7-RAID w/P4 1.8a oc'ed to 2.6GHz
System 2 - Abit IT7-Max w/P4 1.6a oc'ed to 2.4GHz
System 3 - Abit IT7-Max w/P4 2.0a oc'ed to 2.8GHz
System 4 - Abit IT7-Max2 2.0 w/P4 1.6a oc'ed to 2.4GHz

As you can see, I found a good bunch of "a" spec processors that overclock very well.

System 5 - still trying to get this system up and running and losing patience fast!

Asus P4C800-E Deluxe rev 2.00
CPU 1 - P4 Mobile P4 1.6/3.06 SL726
CPU 2 - P4 2.4C SL6WF
CPU 3 - P4 3.0C SL6WU
ZALMAN CNPS 7000-Cu
2x512 Crucial Ballistix PC-4000 RAM
eVGA 6800GS 256MB AGP video card
200GB Seagate
100GB WD
NEC ND-3500A DVD burner
Power supply: 380W Antec True380S

Basically I can't even get this board to post. I bought my first P4C800-E DLX 2.00 on eBay (seller said he was parting out a killer system and the mobo worked flawlessly) and the 3.06 mobile P4 to see how far it could overclock. Well, it would POST and actually install the OS, but I could never get it to hold anything other than 1.6GHz. It would always say "Overclocking failed" and stop. The only thing I could do was hit F2 (or was it F1?) to load defaults and continue on. If I changed the FSB, it would always force me to revert back to stock settings.

So, I bought another P4C800-E DLX 2.00. Everything else is the same. Now, NONE of the CPU's I have will even post. Not even the 3.06 that I KNOW works good. The system turns on but that's it. I've tried the DVI and VGA connectors on my video card, nothing. Tried resetting the CMOS, nothing. Tried known good 300W power supply, nothing. Once, and only once, did I get the female voice to tell me something, but it was so noisy in here, I couldn't make out what it was saying.

I am leery about pulling a CPU from my other P4 systems because all of the HSF setups I used are not stock Intel units. They are the kind that bolt onto the motherboard and I would have to pull the entire motherboard out just to yank the CPU. Not only that, but none of them support 800MHz FSB CPU's, so I can't test anything other than on this motherboard. Is it possible to overtighten the two screws on the Zalman HSF setup?

Does anyone have ANY suggestions? I am at my wits end here. I am ready to ditch this setup and go with a brand new P4 775 setup or maybe another AMD setup. Only thing is, I have a brand new AGP video card and most new mobo's are using PCI-E.

I've searched quite extensively, but all I'm trying to do is get this machine to at least POST.

Thank you,
.:Christian:.

 

[Lidberg]

UPDATE:

OK, I pulled one of the memory chips, thinking it may boot better (I read it somewhere that troubleshooting should be done with one RAM module). Anyways, it at least POSTs now. However, I have noticed a couple of things:

1. It won't boot with a RAM module in either both of the blue slots or both of the black slots, which is a requirement for running in dual-channel mode.

2. It will boot with one module in a blue slot and one in the black slot, allowing me to have 1GB RAM, but not in dual-channel mode.

3. It always gives me an error on bootup "Overclocking failed, press F1 to continue, F2 to run setup". This is with my 2.4C CPU. BIOS settings for CPU are on defaults. I changed the RAM settings to manual - they are set at 2.5/4/4/8 (defaults according to Crucial). However, if I change it to read from SPD, I still get the "overclocking failed" error msg.

4. mobo has 1018 BIOS.

Would an upgraded BIOS help me out any? I have 1023 and 1024 (beta) available here and can flash in a jiffy.

.:Christian:.

 

[Lidberg]

UPDATE:

OK, system seems to be running pretty well now. With the 2.4C CPU, I can o/c it to an FSB of 250-255 before I start running into RAM limitations (RAM is DDR500). I expected that. I changed the CPU/RAM ratio to 5:4 but that didn't seem to make any difference. Increasing the FSB even while increasing the CPU voltage can't keep the system 100% stable.

3DMark05 score=4860.

So I put in my 3.0C CPU. Again, system is very stable. I have been able to o/c it to around 235 FSB before 3DMark05 would start crashing on me in the middle of a run (I have the full version, so it lasts a good 10 minutes or so). Last good run was with a 235FSB.

3DMark05 score=4934.

I know that I have lots more room to go RAM-wise, but my 3.0C seems to be hitting its limits at 235 FSB. I have the CPU volts at 1.600 volts, but MBM reports 1.66. Overall, I'm pretty happy with it, but I'm still going to see how far it will go.

The only thing that is still bothering me is that I can't run the RAM in dual-channel mode. If someone can solve that for me, I'd be tickled pink.

OH yeah, one more thing - I have the eVGA 6800GS AGP video card. I was able to successfully unlock the 4 extra pipes and 1 extra vertex. No artifacts whatsoever!

.:Christian:.

 

[Crashman]

LOL, it sounds like you've done everything except the first thing you were supposed to do: That RAM is supposed to run at 2.8v I believe. Possibly 2.7v, but I'm fairly certain 2.8v.

Also, those boards are crap, I ditched mine with a quickness after it started drooping vCore. That only took about a month of use to crop up.