Built new PC, have some glitches

[athos]

I worked with a local store to put together a new PC to replace, if you can believe it, a MacPro. I'm having some glitches though, and I'm not knowledgeable enough to fix them. Before I take the whole thing back, I thought I would ask in case it's something super simple.

The particulars of the system:

- ASUS P5N-D
- 8 GIGS of low profile RAM
- GeForce 8800 GT 512MB of VRAM
- 750GB 7200 RPM Drive
- Quad Core 2.83Ghz Proc

I got it home and the first thing I figured out was that the tech didn't plugin the CPU fan. So it was shutting off within a min of starting it up. Once I figured that out, I discovered that the manual says to not plug in the MB fan if the CPU fan is enabled because it will interfere with the airflow. Fine. So I disabled that.

I did not touch the BIOS. Not sure if I am supposed to, and the manual is pretty non-descriptive as to what each setting will do.

My Vista 64-bit speed scores are 5.9 for everything except memory, which came out as 5.5. That was a little surprising as running Vista on my MacPro got me 5.9's all around.

I went to the nVidia site and applied their latest drivers for Vista64. Yet when I try to run DreamScene, it's choppy. It will go, stop for a moment, then go again. Again, same video card in my mac, that didn't happen with Vista64.

So I get the feeling something is a little "off" and I don't know if should tweak the bios or something else -- I just don't know enough.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Paperdoc]

You say, "I discovered that the manual says to not plug in the MB fan if the CPU fan is enabled because it will interfere with the airflow. Fine. So I disabled that. "

In reading the mobo manual I see that there is a cooling fan supplied for the heatsink on the Northbridge but it is Optional. What it seems to say on page 2-36 is that, if you have installed already a CPU fan cooler system, you should NOT install the optional fan on the heatsink next to the CPU. Note this does NOT say to install the fan and then leave it unplugged. I read it to mean the fan should not even be there, because it will interfere with air flow over this heatsink from the action of the adjacent CPU fan.

On the other hand, it clearly indicates that case fans should be connected to the CHA_FAN1 connector near center-rear of the mobo, and possibly to the CHA_FAN2 connector at the mobo bottom edge. There's also a connector labelled PWR_FAN for the fan in the PSU, if your PSU has a cable for this with 3 pins.

 

[shortstuff_mt]

What are the full specs of your RAM? This seems to possibly be associated with the RAM, but we need a little more info than "8 GIGS of low profile RAM". What brand, model, timings, voltage, etc...

 

[athos]

Okay, well the tech put the thing on -- so how do I take it off without damaging anything? Apparently this tech wasn't very bright.

I'm starting to suspect bad RAM as this thing keeps flashing, getting SVCHOST errors, etc. I haven't found a memory tester for above 4GB, so if anyone could recommend a product I can run, that would be great.

I suspect I may be taking this back to get the guy to make it work better, but I'd rather learn how to do it myself.

 

[shortstuff_mt]

The best way to check for RAM errors is software called Memtest86+. You want to let it run for 8+ hours.

We still need to know the RAM specs to be able to really help.

 

[athos]

Okay, this is the RAM he put in:

Kingston PC2 6400 CL5 240, Part number: KVR800D2N5K2/4G

 

[athos]

Ah ha. Full on blue screen 5 mins ago with MEMORY_MANAGEMENT as the culprit. So, I will be running this back today for better memory, it seems. Any suggestions or should I stick with what I had listed above?

 

[shortstuff_mt]

Is this system overclocked at all? DDR2 800 RAM should score 5.9 on Vista. My guess is that the RAM is running at DDR2 667 speed at a 1:1 ratio with the FSB. A 1:1 ratio is normally what is wanted, but it requires either lowering your CPU multiplier or overclocking for DDR2 800 RAM. If you don't want to overclock you processor you could lower the multiplier to 7 and set the FSB to 400 for a CPU speed of 2.8GHZ (400 * 7).

Your other option would be to choose a different RAM ratio to get your RAM running full speed.

This is assuming a lot. Could you download CPU-Z and post the results for your CPU and RAM speed? That would help diagnose the performance issue without guessing.

 

[athos]

If only I knew what any of that meant. This came pretty stock, so nobody fiddled with the BIOS at all. The fact that I keep crashing and bluescreening suggests bad memory unless you think the speed difference could be contributing?

 

[athos]

Here is what CPU-Z says:

CPU 2.82GHz
Core Speed 2000.2 Mhz
Bus speed 333.3
Rated FSB 1333.3

DRAM frequency: 400.3 MHz
It says that the slots have PC2-6400 (400Mhz) in them

 

[shortstuff_mt]

OK, it looks like the RAM is running at its rated speed. Your next step would probably be to run Memtest86+ to check for memory errors. It's very possible the RAM is defective since you're getting BSOD's.

 

[athos]

Okay, so update: took the system in and got it checked. Memory errors galore. They swapped out the memory for a different brand, same speed. System much more stable.

However...

Still getting 5.5 in the Vista speed checks. That should be higher and now I don't know what to do to get it up to snuff. Any advice?

 

[shortstuff_mt]

I wouldn't worry a whole lot about the Vista score as long as the system is fast and stable. My DDR2 800 RAM gets a 5.9 rating, but that could be because the CPU and motherboard are overclocked and the FSB is 1600MHz which is perfect for DDR2 800 RAM. The higher FSB may be the difference.

 

[athos]

Ah. So much to learn in this world. Thanks for your help, folks!