MSI RX480 Neo2 mobo stability issues...

[megaspazz]

http://www.msi-computer.ca/product_info.php/cPath/22_39/products_id/43\

Hey guys, been awhile. My new system is acting up during BF2. Specs:

AMD Athlon XP 3500+ (new)
MSI RX480 Neo2 mobo (new)
ATI Sapphire X1800 GTO pci-e vid card (new)
2 x 512M Samsung DDR400 sticks (dual chnl) (stable in my prev. system)
Samsung SP0802N 80G IDE hdd (2M buffer) (new)
Enermax EG465P-VE 460W psu (new)
WinXP Pro SP2, all updates (was fresh install)

What happens is that after a minute or two BF2 locks up in Multiplayer online
and usually ends up in a system restart. The link above mentions possible
system instability with stock BIOS settings for ram, pci-e, etc.
(see paragraph in red)

Can anyone recommend either ram timing settings and/or voltage/
pci-e slot settings to improve my stability in hi perf situations?
Or, maybe the slowish IDE hdd with small buffer is to blame?

(the system IS stable when not playing resource-intensive games, etc.)


TIA,

'spazz

[AllGamer]

try dissabling the build in option that OC the CPU

it should work better without that

:t

[megaspazz]

not OCing right now, everything is stock, right out of the box.
even ram timings in BIOS are set to AUTO and don't say
what they are.


will try other ram types to see if there's much of a diff in stability.

'spazz

[AllGamer]

exactly my point

Auto = OC

set it to a specific number or "standard"

even in ASUS mobo Auto means "Auto OC"

i recall reading the reviews of the MSI Neo2 mobo also has the funtion enabled by default.

[megaspazz]

ok will try it. i did try a 3-5-5-8 timing but that was with the 2 x 512M Samsung
ram strips. maybe the board doesn't like dual channel with that ram?
who knows, but will try the non stock ram settings.

thnx for the help so far! :)


'spazz

[megaspazz]

tried 3-5-5-8 with 2 diff 256M sticks and same crash issue.
disabled bank interleaving with no improvement.

i know a GTO card is a GL that didn't make it through the tests.
maybe the card is a little gimpy...

will try a friend's ram Friday night to see if there's any change.

[AllGamer]

since you mentioned the video card, why don;t you try a different video card instead?

[megaspazz]

trying different ram didn't help. yes- it may be the vid card and i'll have to try it.
took my system back to where i bought the card, psu, etc and they said that
the mobo may be the culprit. i'll see if there's a bios update somewhere out there in the odd chance it helps.

'spazz

[megaspazz]

don't have tons of time to fine tune everything on that mobo
so i bought another and it seems more stable. yay...