Leadtek Nforce problems

[druga runda]

I've just got this board, the Leadtek twinforce bundle, and an xp 1600+CPU.

I've put it in, it booted fine, all drivers installed etc.... and it is stable once on at default settings. (100 FSB)

But sometimes even at normal 133FSB - and straight if I try to OC even to 138 FSB - windows do not want to load.

There is a stop error: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL (the error is the same at normal 133FSB or with FSB upped)

After it happened the first time at 133 mhz I have switched to APIC. Under ACPI I had 7 resources sharing IRQ 11. After switching to APIC there are 4 at IRQ11 and 3 at IRQ12. All the integrated stuff including the gfx card at 12??? Even though there are other unused IRQ's.

Anyway... reading around a little bit this sems to be memory related. My memory is PC2100 Crucial. 2x256 MB. The newer stick I haven't used, the older stick was runnning happily at 147 FSB the newer one I haven't used much jet as it produced memory errors in the ECS board so I had to take it out from that board.

There is no corruption now it sems as I had the board working for a while now and running a few 3Dmark tests... no problems , however the board doesn't want to overclock at all - with loading errors sometimes at normal 133FSB speed.

I have put the sticks in 2nd and third memory slot and leaving the first one empty. - could that be the possible reason.

Anyway - the system as it is now
XP-1600+
Leadtek Nforce 415
integrated sound and LAN
Leadtek GF4ti4200 64MB at 300/565
Western Digital 800JB 7200 rpm 80GB hdd 8MB buffer
Maxtor 40 GB 7200 rpm HDD
Toshiba DVD
Hewlett Packard CD-RW
Crucial 2x256 MB PC2100 ram
550 W PSU


- and the last - after swithcing to APIC the board doesn't want to shut down automatically. It gets to some "You can shutdown Win2000 now" screen in default VGA resolution. WHen I have to press the button for 5 sec for the PC to shutdown. Not a big deal, as all devices shut down properly, still - it used to shut down well when before the switch to APIC. (to switch I used the Win 2000 disc, chose the upgrade) and after pressing F5 once the setup starts, I chose Standard PC HAL) and left the install to finish.


Any help appreciated

;)

--- by the way the Gfx is fine, I have jumped from 6150 on the GF3Ti200 default to 9050 on this setup default 133FSB (however now I am using 40.41 drivers for a few hundred points extra).

I was able to get 7250 on the old system overclocking to 147FSB, and the card to 225/515. (that was with 1500+ XP)

Sofar the gfx got to 300/565 for "only" 9450 3 d marks... but I need to test a bit more to see what is going on. For the beginning I'd like to figure out this IRQ/memory problem and how to fix it.

[druga runda]

just to add a couple of details

I installed the new 1.13 Nforce drivers and IRQL stop error, etc.. problems went away :D ( ok windows still shuts down in this weird way still)

So ... on I went, and at 147 FSB oc, the system boots fine, but when running 3D mark it threw me out to desktop after first game, anyway, I though tius might be my main memory... and it was, i took out one stick of DDR, and now i have run the test.

GPU is now at 305/585, and fsb OC is 147 which gives me 1554 mhz. 3d mark score is 10402 at default.

However when I try to overclock to 149 FSB - the sytem doesn't post and I have to reset the Bios.

That is a bit abrupt - to me... I'd expect at least a windows lock before no-post, for just a 2 FSB increase.

The CPU is AGOIA 0210, and people have been taking those to 1800 mhz +... so I don't think this is it, and memory.. is crucial???

any ideas, I have options in the bios to give some extra volts 0.1 and .2 to AGP and to memory, plus up to 0.125 to the CPU (taking it to 1.875) , and a few steps in between.


--- oh yes the Windows is Windows 2000 pro SP3.

Any ideas?

[Ascario]

Originally posted by druga runda
The CPU is AGOIA 0210, and people have been taking those to 1800 mhz +... so I don't think this is it,
Don't assume things like that. Every CPU is different. Heck, i remember a while ago, on [H] they tested 2 XP2200's (i believe) that differed only by one number (first part number ended with 22, second with 23 if i'm correct), so basicly they were twins. :)
However, when it came to overclocking, the first one would go way up to the 2Ghz mark and above, while the second one couldn't even reach 2Ghz. Steppings, weeknumbers, ... those may give you some indication on the overclockability of the particular cpu, but they guarantee you nothing!
and memory.. is crucial???
Well, if your one stick has been giving problems in another board, it doesn't surprise me one bit that it has issues with the nForce board as well. nForce is very picky when it comes to memory. You won't be putting OEM's in that baby! :D
Micron chips (the one Crucial uses on its sticks) have been validated by nVidia for use in their boards, so if the memory stick isn't the problem, it might be the Leadtek board.
Of course, it's hard to find out as the boards are virtually inexistent here in Europe. :( Reviews of the board are also very sparse
any ideas, I have options in the bios to give some extra volts 0.1 and .2 to AGP and to memory, plus up to 0.125 to the CPU (taking it to 1.875) , and a few steps in between.
Upping the voltages if an overclock isn't 100% stable is always a good idea, provided you have adequate cooling (which you probably have otherwise you wouldn't even consider overclocking! :D). It's pretty limited, which is probably due to chipset limitations (that 415D gets damn hot!).

Are you still having problems running at normal (FSB = 133Mhz) speed now? You mentioned a weird shut down? Anyway, there should be no need to up voltages while running at normal speeds.
--- oh yes the Windows is Windows 2000 pro SP3.
The OS is most unlikely the cause of these problems. So never mind that. ;)

[druga runda]

Ok... here is the update...

thanks for response Ascario ;)

The weird shutdown is gone now, ... reason being I have made a Win 2000 reinstall - that weird shutdown issue appeared because of my switch from ACPI irq management to APIC. ( the valid method but had this effect). One more effect APIC switch had that UT2003 demo did not want to run anymore. It was coming up with a Application Error straight, not even safe mode wanted to start.

Switching user profiles, or uninstalling and reinstalling UT demo did no good.

So I thought that a windows reinstall was in order.

What I am amazed that with only the default Nforce + the detonator drivers use so little resources. Now when I boot up (with zone alarm only as a startup app, ok and default volume, and usb windows stuff), I have only 57 MB of memory used :eek: after startup.

wow, before on my ecs with the nic card, and soundblaster live + the sis drivers it was around 90 MB mark.

So now after reinstall (with APIC chosen straight) the shutdown issue is no more, and UT I didn't have time to try, but I guess it will work as it did work initially on the first windows setup with this board.

As for overclocking - the IRQ issue was gone with the current 1.13 Nforce drivers from Nvidia site (it was here with the default Leadtek drivers :confused: )

As I said the board now comes on to 147 FSB with one stick, two sticks make it unstable at that speed. It can boot but not run the whole £D Mark session.

149 FSB and the no post screen at all :(

The card was oc'd to 305/585 and it might go even higher :D

so my only question is when upping the FSB for just 2 mhz the board doesn't want to post, and two down I can run 3D mark and it appers stable (Ok I didn't run it long there, but I did spend a few hours on the net, and that 3D mark run which should mean it is at least farily stable at 147 FSB, and than 149 - no post.

That seem to me like possible mobo problem, maybe some bios setting and the like, and not neccessarily the CPU going over the top, as I would expect it to crash in tests because of overheating with just a 2 mhz difference - if it was the problem, the same with memory. When having two sticks it did crash, so that was obvious, but with one stick, no problems again at 147FSB. I would at least expect the post screen and than problems when trying to load windows (like a freeze, for CPU maximum, or problems with benchmarks when there is CPU/memory load, artifacts for the memory, and freezes for the CPU problems)

Other than than now running at 133 FSB, stable as a rock so far, and all together in 3D the new package makes me jump from 6150 on the old setup to 9141 (after putting the memory sticks to slot 1 and 2 to take advantage of Dual channel DDR) - 100 pts extra worth in this case. (opposed to 9040 reported above ) So that is a cool 50 % increase in 3D marks which is nice, I didn't expect so much to be honest.

The max OC with old setup was 7225, and with this one around10400 so far so I am not dissapointed in that department either by the card.

The only question now remains about that no post screen when I go to 149 FSB. Just curious, I might post this on a few other boards as well to see if there is something easy that I am missing.

Anyway, normally I will not run the whole setup at those speeds, as it shortens life expectancy and I don't really need that boost to have the best gaming experience ;), however it is interesting to see how far can I push this setup.

And the last - yes there doesn't seem to be any proper/ busy messageboard that I could find about Leadtek motherboards, generally people only have their Gfx cards. That is kind of a problem, but well for the price I bought the whole thing it is still great, as the board and gfx card work.

[SavagePaladin]

Most nforce boards have problems with overclocking, from what I've heard.
The leadtek one supposedly had issues with pc2700, but I don't actually know. Maybe that was early on, maybe not