boothy128

Hi All I have a ASUS P5N-E SLI mobo with 1 GB Corsair XMS2 800MHz RAM and 2GB VData 800MHz RAM I'd like a little more ooomph. Will inserting higher end RAM into this motherboard be beneficial? It states 800MHz as max in the mobo guidebook, however, it also states that it can be overclocked (or 'tuned') to 1200MHz. Will simply inserting 1200MHz RAM work? Will I see much performance gain? Any suggestions which RAM modules inparticular are good? Cheers in advance Boothy ________________________________________________________________________________ Intel Q6600 ASUS P5N-E SLi (BIOS - 1301) 2GB VData 800MHz RAM 1GB Corsair XMS2 800MHz RAM EZCool 600W PSU ASUS V60 Heatsink & Fan 2 x 8800GT in SLI (one BFG OC2 edition, one EVGA OC) 500GB WD HDD (OS & Programs) 1TB WD HDD (Media) LG Bluray / HDDVD Reader DVD RW Optical Drive Vista 32bit Home Prem

Hi All If anyone is interested, the solution turned out to be to change the power supply. When I looked at the mobo connector it was singed in some of the holes, maybe a power surge or something fried it? :s Anyways, Im up and running again (so far!!) Thanks to anyone who commented on this thread Boothy :P

BTW, That pic was taken whilst I was burning a dvd with Windows DVD maker. That will raise the GPU temp. Typically it sits at approx 60deg

Hi Everyone Im still getting my PC shutting down every-so-often, please look at this CPUID HWMonitor readout. Is there anything unusual? http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/8955/cpuidhwmonitor.jpg http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/8955/cpuidhwmonitor.th.jpg http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/8955/cpuidhwmonitor.th.jpg Many thanks Boothy PS Is the GPU running at 70deg an issue? Its factory overclocked

I meant don't tell her about the bonus lol she loves to spend. Up and running a lot better than before. But still not perfect, I started messing with the FSB - I'm trying my first overclock. and then the usual ***system boot error*** and CMOS checksum error (this was after I pushed the overclock a little bit too far and I reset CMOS by removing and resitting the battery) I was wondering, if CMOS checksum error is caused by battery failure (and bearing in mind I changed this battery yesturday) why did it happen again? could my mobo be shorting them out, or would I have shorted it or anything by touching both sides at the same time? I've decided not to OC until I can rule out the underlying issue

Hi, thanks for the input. Amazingly, and I'm genuinely surprised here, the battery seems to have done the trick (I'm waiting for it to turn off as I type this now lol). My housemate has a pretty basic system, its quite a bit older than mine and wouldn't really handle my components very well. I'm not sure if it even has PCI-e! and its PSU certainly couldn't handle 2 graphics cards. I really want to test it further but I'm pretty limited for resources. I'm really torn about upgrading my PC....the dilemma is if I get this one stable then there is no point. If I can't get it stable then I wont be able to sell it and fund the upgrade!! However, I do get a bonus at work tomorrow :D Just don't tell the missus ;)

As a quick note, I am running memtest 86 and it hasnt found any errors as of yet, still on just 74% of pass 1. Anyways, whats notable is that the PC hasn't turned itself off. 42mins in as well. Would being out of windows have anything to do with it?

Thats exactly how I feel Quickly, whilst its running - what can I do to detect any probs? any decent prog that detects hardware faults? Im just about to run a free prog from testmyhardware.com Any ideas? UPDATE: this prog actually pretty much tells me whats in my PC.... not very usefull

Just removed then reinstalled the RAM. PC has turned on, no CMOS message, no ***system boot failure*** message either. It was definately zero signal. The TV said HDMI which is what it does when no signal is being picked up. The HDD weren't being read either (no HDD light flashing on PC case). I hope this battery does the trick. I am still weary however because this is what it loves to do sometimes - it starts up fine then will turn off when you start to relax and think "thats fixed it" Going back to a previous comment, how do I know what my settings in the BIOS are supposed to be? Is there anything that I need to adjust/tweak for better stability. e.g. for SLi, or for using quad core. Anything? Thanks again for everyone who has contributed thus far :D

Thanks for the interest Jelly Bean, all known connections internal and external are A-OK. I have taken this machine apart and put it back together again numerous times just to make sure. Its also been cleaned of all dust. would any photos of the pc innards or videos of what it does when starting help? No beeps at all. In all seriousness, I fix all my friends laptops/pcs on the side. Im stumped here Another detail which I havent mentioned before is that this has been going on for a while, and that sometimes leaving the system uplugged for several hours/days will mean that it will start first time. (at least for a short while) Right now though, I'm getting nothing

UPDATE: They sold the battery next door. Bought and inserted it. PC powers up, no HDD lights, no image on screen / beeps or any indication of activity. Fans spin and the HDD are spinning because I can feel them vibrate. Back to square one I believe :( Any other ideas?

Excellent, we're getting somewhere. Ill wait for my housemate to free up his comp and then borrow his battery. In the meantime ill se if the local shops sell them. Is it possible that this is the root cause of my problems? The PC was delivered to me in Jan 08 I think, which is how old the PSU will be. Slightly off topic - I read that my CPU would act as a bottleneck when playing games, considering that I have 2x8800gt in SLi. True? It never runs at 100%, not even when transcoding Vids. Not a real issue atm though, seeing as though I'll need to get it running stably first!

Hi, thanks for replying I haven't no, its probs 2yrs old, is this enough time to run out of juice? I dont have a new one lying around. Will using my housemates work just to test it in the meantime? he will have a different mobo to be, but I imagine the battery will be the same, correct? Also, is there any risk of shorting out his battery or anything like that? I dont want to mess his PC up! Cheers

Right, just as suspected - the PC turned itself off again after only maybe 15mins. This time during system rating. This is the 2nd time it has turned off during system rating. However, seing as though it is only the first consistancy I've spotted since this started out of dozens of shut downs I'm not getting excited. Just reset CMOS again to see what happens... got "CMOS checksum error - loaded defaults" and it started without the usual ***system boot fail message***. Then it restarted back to the ASUS logo screen, and turned off....sigh

Thanks for replying, In the last 10mins I turned it on and got the ***Warning: System boot fail*** Your system last boot or POST interrupted. Please enter setup to load default and reboot again. Press F1 to continue, Del to enter setup I went into BIOS, loaded setup default and then used EZFlash 2 to update BIOS to 1403. It rebooted and I got the exact same message as above. I have reset the CMOS before and this sometimes helps in the short run. But I always end up returning to this same prob. Upon loading the setup defaults again, it has booted to windows. For now at least. It is unquestionable that it will turn itself off again in the next couple of hours however as this is always the case. I have been though this same loop several times in the past weeks Any further suggestions, poss hardware related? Cheers P.S. If you want me to go into BIOS and get you any info, no probs (hopefully)