Asus P4R800VM Board Freezes with AV/S Bracket

  • Thread starter Thread starter BrianEWilliams
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BrianEWilliams

I have been trying to fix a problem since I built this system last
summer. When capture video, either with a TV tuner card or through
Premiere with a firewire card, the system will have a hard freeze, and
I have to power it off to regain control. I am running XP Pro.

At first I blamed the Snapstream software I was running 24/7, but then
I had it freeze once when I hadn't loaded the Snapstream BTV 3.5
software. Last night I got serious (finally) about finding out what
the problem is. I took out the Hauppauge 250BTV board, unplugged the
Firefly USB remote, uninstalled all software except for Premiere 6.0,
and the system kept freezing. I took out the newer ATI video drivers
and it still froze.

Finally this morning, I thought I would disconnect the Asus AV/S
bracket which enables TV out. The system is still capturing without a
freeze much longer than in the past. I will let it run a couple of
hours, but I think I might have found the problem. The mainboard is
the Asus P4R800VM, with one stick of 512mb memory.

I am posting this on the chance that it might help someone else. I'll
follow up with a final summary after I rebuild the system without the
AV/S bracket to see if I can finally use the Snapstream software
without system crashes. I suppose the solution then is to buy an AGP
card with TV out so I can watch on my TV. Sort of a waste since that
is why I bough the Asus P4R800VM motherboard in the first place.

---------------------------------------

Well, as I was proofreading this post, the other system crashed. So
much for the AV/S theory. This is my first homebuilt system, and it
will probably be my last. Headaches like these aren't worth the couple
of hundred dollars I saved.
 
The memory is Kingston 512MB PC3200 DDR DIMM. It is the last thing I
can think to check. I'll buy some memory from Staples, and if it
doesn't fix the problem, I can always return it.
 
BrianEWilliams said:
The memory is Kingston 512MB PC3200 DDR DIMM. It is the last thing I
can think to check. I'll buy some memory from Staples, and if it
doesn't fix the problem, I can always return it.
Click to expand...

Try memtest86 from memtest.org using the current stick of memory.
Use the Prime95 (mersenne.org) "torture test" option, after that.
Prime95 sometimes identifies memory problems that memtest86
doesn't find (like speed related problems with the memory).

I don't believe the BIOS on that board has enough memory adjustments
for you to adjust your way out of trouble. That is one reason I
recommend always downloading the manual for a board, before you
buy. On boards that support manual timing settings, you can
relax the memory timings a notch, and retest with the above two
tools.

Did you look in the manual concerning memory selection ? It says
it takes single sided PC3200 memory in a dual channel configuration.
And, that is telling you the memory controller on the Northbridge
really isn't happy running fast memory. I am willing to bet that
some PC2700 memory would be better for this board. The reason for
that recommendation, is if a board doesn't have the proper adjustments
in the BIOS, buying a stick of RAM with slower values set in the
SPD chip on the DIMM, is the only way to get the board to
"slow down". (And no, the "slow CAS" setting is not the same
thing. It doesn't change the clock rate.)

I was going to suggest setting the CPU FSB clock to a lower
value, but I see in the manual, there isn't even an
option to reduce the CPU clock.

A generic comment on microATX boards with built-in graphics -
it seems that at least a couple of chipsets have a problem
running fast memory with integrated graphics at the same
time. Either there is too much electrical noise in the package,
for the number of power and ground pins on the Northbridge IC,
or there is some problem with running memory and graphics
controller asynchronous to one another. One solution to
this, is to use a separate graphics card, like a FX5200.
That is about the cheapest card I can think of, that will
offer about the same performance as the built-in graphics.

Personally, I would stick with full sized ATX motherboards,
as you'll find they tend to have more full featured BIOS
in them. The microATX are designed for system builders
making cheap PCs for a business setting - say a system builder
needs to build 100 "Walmart boxes" - the microATX is the
way to go. A system builder can afford to experiment with
different memory sticks, until they find a combination that
works. For a home builder, doing such experiments is a pretty
expensive way to build a single system. And that is why,
a fully featured BIOS is essential (CPU clock setting, DRAM
clock setting, numeric DRAM CAS and other manual memory
settings, Vcore, Vdimm, Vagp settings and so on). On
microATX boards, the P4P800-VM has the best BIOS features
that I've seen, as it offers some memory setting options.
See Pg.56 of this manual, for an example of what your board
is missing:

ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS/mb/sock478/p4p800-vm/e1188_p4p800-vm.pdf

HTH,
Paul
 
Paul,

Thanks for the great info. Asus claims that my memory is compatible,
but what you wrote further reinforces my suspicions that it is a memory
problem. I have another memory stick that I can swap to see if that
fixes the freezing problem, BUT while I was screwing around with
everything, the motherboard died with a CMOS checksum error.

Don't ask me how I killed it, I am just GOOD! It would not get past
the BIOS screen and could not boot off a floppy. I just RMA-ed it
back to Asus, and I'll see how the new board runs. Luckily it was not
my main computer.

Brian
 
BrianEWilliams said:
Paul,

Thanks for the great info. Asus claims that my memory is compatible,
but what you wrote further reinforces my suspicions that it is a memory
problem. I have another memory stick that I can swap to see if that
fixes the freezing problem, BUT while I was screwing around with
everything, the motherboard died with a CMOS checksum error.

Don't ask me how I killed it, I am just GOOD! It would not get past
the BIOS screen and could not boot off a floppy. I just RMA-ed it
back to Asus, and I'll see how the new board runs. Luckily it was not
my main computer.

Brian
Click to expand...

When my friend's PC went dead, she wanted a cheap but stable one.
I built for her a new PC with this microATX board, an Aerolus 5700LE
graphic card, 512 MB of RAM, and a Celeron 2.6 GHZ.

Everything went nicely, even faster than her dead PC. It is stable too;
though I would prefer a full ATX board as Paul said.
 
I built a system for my Dad with this motherboard and he took it home with
him to the U.K.
It has never been stable and I recently sent him 2 new sticks of 3200 memory
hoping this would fix it for him.
It hasn't.
I chose this motherboard for the fast DDR2. Now I regret it.
Maybe 2700 memory would fix it. Maybe
The board is sold as supporting 3200 though.

I have suggested he return the board to ASUS before it is 12 months old.
Can anyone tell me where to send it to in the U.K.?
and
what does RMA mean?

thanks in advance
steve bunn
 
I think RMA means something like Return Merchandise Authoritization.
Basically, you have to get an RMA number before they will take back the
product.

When you say not stable, is he getting something like I had, a freeze
in the middle of doing something?
 
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