A7N8X Del NF2 / 9800pro instability

[Red Dog]

how I got my A7N8X Deluxe/9800pro stable.

My system,

xp2400 @ 11x202 fsb =2230mhz aggressive
A7N8X DEL bios 1002a Demulous Uber
2 x 512mb pc 3200c2 xms corsair in dual channel 2,3,2,6 sync
9800pro built by ati. cat 3.2
win xp sp1, dx9a

the system was rock solid with a ti4600. when I got my 9800pr I did a fresh xp install, but I was experiencing random lockups, black screens, blue screens (not bsod), monitor sync loss, etc.

to resolve all of the above issues I had to,

1)disable agp 8x support and fw in the mobo bios.
2)run smartgart and select retest all, reboot.
3)run smartgart and make sure 4x is selected and fw are disabled. reboot.

I lost about 200 points in 3dm2k3, down to 58XX~ from 6045.

cpuid shows 4x, no Fw, no SBA

now the system is rock solid and runs like a bat out of hell.

[Kombatant]

Originally posted by Red Dog
how I got my A7N8X Deluxe/9800pro stable.

My system,

xp2400 @ 11x202 fsb =2230mhz aggressive
A7N8X DEL bios 1002a Demulous Uber
2 x 512mb pc 3200c2 xms corsair in dual channel 2,3,2,6 sync
9800pro built by ati. cat 3.2
win xp sp1, dx9a

the system was rock solid with a ti4600. when I got my 9800pr I did a fresh xp install, but I was experiencing random lockups, black screens, blue screens (not bsod), monitor sync loss, etc.

to resolve all of the above issues I had to,

1)disable agp 8x support and fw in the mobo bios.
2)run smartgart and select retest all, reboot.
3)run smartgart and make sure 4x is selected and fw are disabled. reboot.

I lost about 200 points in 3dm2k3, down to 58XX~ from 6045.

cpuid shows 4x, no Fw, no SBA

now the system is rock solid and runs like a bat out of hell.

The funny thing is that the only problems that i see reported with nForce2 motherboards are for Asus boards... coincidence? Mine for instance is so stable sometimes i wonder if it's a MS OS (XP Pro) i'm running :D

[TODDF]

Most of the internets 9800pro benchmark systems were using the Asus A7N8X del nf2 motherbored and i didnt see them having any problems ?

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NDQ4

[Kombatant]

Originally posted by TODDF
Most of the internets 9800pro benchmark systems were using the Asus A7N8X del nf2 motherbored and i didnt see them having any problems ?

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NDQ4

Most of the benchmark systems don't have any problems anyway ;)

[SnakeEyes]

I had the same problem with my A7N8X Dlx / 9700Pro, and after countless driver swaps and bios changes in order to try to find the solution, the final fix was similar to yours, but easier to implement:

By dropping the card to AGP4x, I'm perfectly stable again. But it's not necessary to do all that you did to accomplish it. Just move the slider in the SmartGart tab from 8x to 4x and reboot. I left fast writes on (I had experimented with it on and with it off without fixing the problem at 8x). As far as I know, SBA is still on too (never really noticed the last time I looked at the SmartGart tab, and I'm on my work PC right now).

[TODDF]

im was going to buy the A7N8X Del NF2 / 9800pro... should i reconsider?

does this happen to everyone?
and does droping it to 4x affect performance?

[SnakeEyes]

I haven't noticed any performance drops because of the change, only stability increased. In fact, now that I've done that, I find that I can overclock things a bit higher, and even with my overclock not quite so high as the highest I've had it (for the CPU), I've actually got slightly better framerates / scores in my benchmarks. (Part of this is because my video card itself clocks higher due to new cooling I put on it)

I'd personally love to run at 8x with no problems, but I don't see any downside to not running at that setting.

[Red Dog]

you dont notice any real world performance loss, just the stability gain.

Im still running 202 fsb / memory sync/ dual channel so Im happy.