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Retired · ‎09-30-2011

Hello recently my good old Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe had died (would no longer post). As a result I took it as an opportunity to rebuild my gaming rig and came across the Crosshair V. Well the first one arrived DOA it had a 25% chance to POST and each time it didn't it would choose a different piece of hardware to have a conflict with. Well now later my new one arrived. Have not had a single failed POST since working on it since about midnight EST. I hope I can be as detailed in this single post so that anyone who is willing can help me. My specs are:

1100T Phenom Black Edition: 3.3Ghz (had it turbo'd to 3.6Ghz liquid cooling kept it around 38-42C)

6GB (3 x 2GB) Corsair Ram (CM3X2G1333C9) at 1333Mhz a note as this happened until recently it would only run at around 11-1200Mhz or OC'd higher there was no option for 1333. I think after disabling ECC which I didn't know was on my options switched back.

ATI 4890/4870 in crossfire yes I know they are kind of outdated but they still work very well for now. Another thing my 4890 is at x16 but the 4870 card (in the the 2nd and 3rd slots) is x8. I read that increasing the PCI-E frequency a tad like from 100-101 can fix this but that simply restarted the system.

Windows installed on a Caviar Black 1TB got a few smaller drives that used to be main drives.

Ultra x4 1200 Watt PSU

Standard DVD-RW Drive

So after I reinstalled windows because windows can never survive a mobo Migration 😛 and windows booted up fine I believe it may have crashed during installing but that was like 3am so I don't remember clearly. Windows was being very stable installed many apps, games, of course the motherboard drives first. Windows didn't know what to do with the Intel LAN adapter. So after a couple restarts and many application installs later I reboot and everything was still doing fine. This time I decide to hit the 90+ windows updates. Well after this restart things seemed stable but windows started to crash at the exact same problems. Event viewer showed COM something and Service Control Manager had critical failures at the time windows would reboot itself no blue screen was ever shown or recorded. This is why I believe it to be software and not hardware as the culprit seems to be those two services. So I had windows restore to before the 90+ updates and it was running much stabler. However, after finally getting a small nap after staying up all night working on this I power it on, logged in, and went to the restroom. Needless to say I heard my video card fans revert back to pre-OS speeds and sure enough it restarted. SO here I am at a stand still I am currently reinstalling Windows 7 Professional 64Bit. Help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance everyone.

EDIT: When I went to Install Windows 7 I formatted my 1TB partition and went to do a clean install, it reset again.
EDIT2: Windows no longer wants to install will usually crashed followed by BOOTMGR issue.

chrsplmr · ‎09-30-2011

ReFormat.
Even if you have to use a
different machine.

chrsplmr's Links

Retired · ‎09-30-2011

Finally got windows to reinstall. My extra storage 500GB Seagate is no longer picked up by any motherboard (tested it on my brothers). I am unsure whether the removing of the CMOS battery has screwed that up or not (last resort step ASUS tech support tried with me). Windows seems to run and occasionally is stable (had a few crashes) will monitor and post any errors I get from this point forward. Also for those curious I was finally able to install windows by removing a stick of RAM. Its not bad RAM, but the Crosshair V is a dual channel board putting 3 sticks in from what I've read forces the channel to switch to single mode. Again this has got to be the craziest build I have ever done (as far as problems). I think I'm going to buy new RAM these were a gift from a friend that got them from another friend. Tested to work, however, some sites do say they favor intel chips. Anyone have an opinion? As for now I'm running only 4GB I can fill that up quite easily. I've used Corsair before and know them to be good if I do get new RAM whats a good brand and frequency. Maybe a quick answer timings vs frequency of RAM?

Retired · ‎10-01-2011

UPDATE: System is getting more stable with each passing crash at least it seems. RAM seemed to definitely be the issue I require more than simply 4GB on 2 sticks and will proceed to purchase some new RAM today I would like some opinions on good RAM for my board. I printed out the compatible ram list but unsure what I'm going to go for.

Also my two latest crashes I determined was my video card (4890) Temps seem much higher than the 4870 at same fan speeds so while I'm out today I will pick up some compressed air and clean out the caked on dust. Anyone know a good work load temp for the 1100T BE and I think CoreTemp (C) is not working right it claims my CPU at 4GHz is 33-40C on average (IDLE) and I hit the 50's in gaming. In the BIOS its 40-45C before boot and if this is much more correct then I can imagine gaming is 60C+. Only difference which doesn't make sense is the video card fans turn on circulating more air but I have liquid cooling for the CPU anyway. So maybe someone could give me some info on the temps.

Kipper · ‎10-01-2011

Hi Shadow

When I reviewed the CH5 board for the forum; you can look it over here, I found the the Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 memory to find the sweet spot on this board.

Retired · ‎10-01-2011

Thanks Kipper but because of being without a computer for very long I went to my "local" compusa store and picked up the fastest they had. Got 2x4GB Patriot Vipers. Was also happy to see them on the mobo's compatibility list. Anyway I was wondering if you might be able to answer me this. The RAM states is easily able to reach 1600 after some timing adjustments and a steady 1.65V. I am also looking for some good overclocking tutorials I've never overclocked much before especially overclocking RAM. Thanks again.

Kipper · ‎10-01-2011

You might want to start here, and just take things slow and keep notes as you go.

Also go into the BIOS and create an OC profile, name it something like default so you have a good starting point to always fall back on.

Don't forget that you can use a thumb drive, formatted in FAT32, and just press F12 while you are in the BIOS and capture screens of the settings you are working on; I find this very helpful for keep my notes on once I have printed them.

Have fun.

Retired · ‎10-01-2011

EDIT*:Thank you very much I am now having a new issue with my graphics cards. I have seemingly fixed it by removing my 4870. I know the 4870 works with a 4890 as my friend put it in his rig (near identical rig same mobo). I will proceed to try the 4870 Stand alone. I have tried 3 different xfire ribbons in many setups (such as using 1 using two and mixing and matching). To help those willing to help me out the error I get is atikmpag.sys is the culprit via BSOD. I tried reinstalling the driver already and sometimes windows doesn't load stable enough to remove via add/remove programs. Using just my 4890 I booted windows was fine and ran the ati OC test which pasted for once not crashing like before. I have the dmp file I will upload it but I wish to know how to open them myself. I keep being sent in loops on microsofts own pages for dump file reading applications. Nvm even with my 5Mbps upload 400MB would take a while to upload.

Could this be related to my first post that my second card is only (in bios) being run as x8 despite being in the 16/8 slot? Will post back if the other video card is fine on its own as well.

Kipper · ‎10-01-2011

download and run driversweeper to remove the GPU drivers completely, reboot and then reinstall the drivers.

Retired · ‎10-01-2011

Thanks again Kipper an update unless the OC was accidently too high my 4870 by itself had pixelating in rectangles all over and of course lead to a crash and/or restart (this was after driver installed successfully and I hit apply to the somewhat remembered clocks). When I say somewhat remembered clocks it leads me to think drivesweeper is gonna be needed after so many reinstallings of the ati drivers. I've seen the program mentioned alot but I have always been weary of such programs. I will give one last attempt to lower the clocking of that card and see what happens but I think I hit the problem.

EDIT: ok the card might have just been too OC'd cause this time I reinstalled driver (no drive sweeper just yet) set the clocks to what I looked http://www.diamondmm.com/4870PE51G.php and it passed the test no crazy pixels. Also back at 85% fan speed 43C.

The Crosshair V is Giving me grief