Asrock 939 Dual VSTA problems??

[Biodoid]

A while back I got this mobo and X2 3800 which worked fine for a while then I started to experience random lock ups and power offs (see other posts somewhere on here) I knew it couldn't have been the temps as they were all fine. So I guessed it was the cheap psu I had which was kinda old so I upgraded to a dual rail 600w dual core + sli certified one which seemed to cure the lock ups and power offs or so I thought when I had some more random power offs (can happen while gaming or just surfing). Then I guessed it was memory checked the 2 gig I had with memtest and it came back with no errors so I looked up the part number on the chip and it seems the Hynix D43 chip is known as \"Intel Chips\" cos Intels love them which would explain why they worked fine on my P4 setup. So I bought some Crucial ram (after using compatability scan and a few emails to support to make sure they are 100% compatable with mobo). Now here is the strange thing everything has changed apart from mobo and cpu yet I've still had a couple of power offs since installing new ram (tried auto settings and manual settings in bios).

The question is have Aria had any problems with these mobo's being returned/faulty cos thats all I can think of now other than cpu but that seems fine. Plus I know Asrock have discontinued these boards now only a few months of them being released. The only reason I chose the board was to keep my agp card for time being with the option to go pci-e when needed..It is starting to get on my nerves now at first I put up with it but after spwnding more money replacing parts that might not needed to be replaced and the fact sometimes it switches itself off at the wrong time while in middle of doing something or part way through a game you just spent ages trying to get a space in server :(


Oh and sorry for the long post

[mac124]

A chap from another forum i use had one of those boards for the exact same reasons you did and had nothing but problems with it (can't remember exactly what the symptoms were) but he traced it to a overheating northbridge if i recall, as in to hot to touch. In the end he had to rma it and got a \"proper\" pcie mobo and bit the bullet and go pcie on the cheap till he could afford a decent gfx card.

[bazzaric]

I had loads of problems with my mobo, it was just freezing all the time. I have replaced it with a DFI Lanparty, and all is good in the world!! It was a shame because I bought my whole setup new and it took me months to swap everything out and do all necessary tests!

[Biodoid]

:( and with it being skt 939 it's going to be hard to find something good thats cheap now unless I try a bay somewhere :roll: unless someone has a 939 mobo that supports X2 with an agp slot then when I get some more money after xmas then get pci-e card and board..probably spent about £200 replacing psu/memory trying to solve the problem but the strange thing is when I fill the 4 ram slots with one 512 ddr400 stick and three 256 ddr333 sticks I never had it switch itself off only if I use the 2gig kit in either dual or single channel mode (had memory voltage on auto,low,normal and high but made no difference)

If it is just an overheating northbridge would changing the stock passive heatsink to an active one make a difference, if it would then it would save all the hassle of having to rma the mobo find a new one and install windows and all the other stuff I have on drives

[mac124]

Might be worth a try but i believe it maybe obscured by the agp gfx card lookng at pics of the board so you would need a low profile one, give it a feel see how hot it is, be carefull though.

[Biodoid]

I took the heatsink/fan of an old 5200 vid card I had stuffed away but h/s was to big to fit (cpu sockets/hs was in the way) so I took the active cooler off the gigabyte P4 mobo I had before upgrade which fitted the space perfect but the mounting holes were on oppositye corners to the ones on mobo :( then came the blue peter idea :lol: take the fan and grill off the gigabyte cooler and mod the passive one thats on the mobo now to see how it goes..if it works then cool I will buy a proper northbridge cool (like the one I put in the wishlist section) 8)