Intel D975XBX (Bad Axe)

[RJ]

Will the Bad Axe II be able to support the newer graphic cards? I noticed that the ATI 3870 card has a PCI Express 2.0 spec, and our motherboard is listed as a PCI Express 1.1 spec as are the current Nvida cards. Not another AGP 2X, 4X, and 8X incompatibility issue. I snooped around Intel and did not see anything about compatibility. What do you guys think?

[Sandog]

Yes it will, the cards are backwards compatible. I ran two HD 3850's in my BA2.

[emgarf]

Link below...

Sigmatel* (IDT*) 92XX Driver

cheers,
emgarf

[Sandog]

Waaazzzzzuuuuuuupppppp

I got a new case that I am very pleased with, the Antec Sonata Plus with 550W NeoPower PS. I like this case better than my current Antec case which is why I bought it. Smaller, looks better, no front door, and has everything I wanted. I am going to run 3 Tri-Cool fans from Antec on medium and not have to listen to changing fan noise. I also got the Zalman CNPS8700 NT coming, it has the same fan as the CNPS9700 NT that I have now and I never hear it running unless OC'd and under load. Speaking of under load,
been playing with the BA2 OCing again. Intel has been slow to make OC boards and the BA2 still isn't a great OC board. I think they got the message though and hopefully are jumping in with the X48. I've always had issues with setting memory bus and timings and posting. It's a game to get it to work properly so I get past post. Never been able to see speeds much past 300MHz FSB but I am at 333 now (x10 mult.). I read a good article on the Asus X48 Premium board here:

AnandTech: ASUS ROG Rampage Formula: Why we were wrong about the Intel X48

This is a good article so far that goes into an FSB strapping explanation.
AnandTech: ASUS ROG Rampage Formula: Why we were wrong about the Intel X48
You want the tRD as low as possible to.

[TQ]

An interesting looking board. We might have to look at upgrading the game machine this year (I just ordered a hi-perf 2x2GB DDR2 kit from Mushkin for a stupidly cheap price) and this ASUS would fit the bill nicely.
I'd be able to add a Quad-Core and still have an upgrade path that included DDR3.

[crabber]

Are there two seperate drivers available? One with the Intel Audio Studio and one with the IDT GUI? I just want to make sure I am getting it correct. It seems I was using the IDT and had tons of trouble, I now use IAS and things seem to be working better. I just want to be sure this new driver is not for me?

[cameraman]

Turned my computer off last night and it won’t boot this morning. Nothing but fans running at full speed and the lights blinking on the two DVD Drives. No BIOS screen no keyboard or mouse, notta. Where do I start?

[Sandog]

Originally Posted by cameraman

Turned my computer off last night and it won’t boot this morning. Nothing but fans running at full speed and the lights blinking on the two DVD Drives. No BIOS screen no keyboard or mouse, notta. Where do I start?

If it is still not posting you need to set the BIOS jumper to 2-3 and get back in. Check your memory settings and voltage.

[Sandog]

Originally Posted by crabber

Are there two seperate drivers available? One with the Intel Audio Studio and one with the IDT GUI? I just want to make sure I am getting it correct. It seems I was using the IDT and had tons of trouble, I now use IAS and things seem to be working better. I just want to be sure this new driver is not for me?

I installed the new audio driver and it killed my IAS. Dolby Master Studio sounds pretty good but I like the IAS GUI. I think Intel is not partnering with Sonic Focus any longer.

[cameraman]

Originally Posted by Sandog

If it is still not posting you need to set the BIOS jumper to 2-3 and get back in. Check your memory settings and voltage.

I took two of the four memory sticks out, still nothing. Swapped the two pairs, the ones I had taken out with the remaining pair in slots 0; all is good running on two. Put the remaining two in slots 1(4 stcks); nothing. Sounds like I've got some bad memory. If they are matched pairs I'm assuming Corsair will replace them both?

Thanks.

[tiberius69]

Similar issue to cameraman. My BadAxe2 bluescreened XP Pro and attempted to reboot. 3 beep POST code. Only lights and fans. Several power-off cycles got the same results. I pulled the video card and RAM. 3 beep post code. Re-installed the RAM. No beeps, no post, but no video card yet. Re-inserted video card. No post, no beeps. Tried another video card with the same lack of results. I can get the 3 beep post error code if I pull both sticks of RAM. Reseated all the power connections and unplugged everything else. Set the BIOS jumper to 2-3. Lights and fans only. Pulled the BIOS jumper and tried a floppy drive BIOS recovery. Same as before. Lights and fans. It dosen't access the floppy at all.
I'm dragging it into the office tomrrow so I can try and get Intel support on the phone during the day and try some different RAM and test the RAM and video card in another machine.

Any ideas ??? I'm wide open to any suggestion that might get this thing to post again.

Thanks in advance.

[TQ]

Originally Posted by cameraman

Turned my computer off last night and it won’t boot this morning. Nothing but fans running at full speed and the lights blinking on the two DVD Drives. No BIOS screen no keyboard or mouse, notta. Where do I start?

If it's running hit your reset/reboot button. My Bad Axe 1 does this all the time when I start it up cold. I just hit the reset button and all is well.
I did enjoy a successful cold start yesterday after installing a Mushkin 4GB memory kit. Kind of surprised me, as I was expecting the usual cold start behavior.

[TQ]

Originally Posted by cameraman

I took two of the four memory sticks out, still nothing. Swapped the two pairs, the ones I had taken out with the remaining pair in slots 0; all is good running on two. Put the remaining two in slots 1(4 stcks); nothing. Sounds like I've got some bad memory.

Yet it had been running fine up 'till yesterday? I don't believe I've ever had memory just go bad on me.

[tiberius69]

Originally Posted by tiberius69

Similar issue to cameraman. My BadAxe2 bluescreened XP Pro and attempted to reboot. 3 beep POST code. Only lights and fans. Several power-off cycles got the same results. I pulled the video card and RAM. 3 beep post code. Re-installed the RAM. No beeps, no post, but no video card yet. Re-inserted video card. No post, no beeps. Tried another video card with the same lack of results. I can get the 3 beep post error code if I pull both sticks of RAM. Reseated all the power connections and unplugged everything else. Set the BIOS jumper to 2-3. Lights and fans only. Pulled the BIOS jumper and tried a floppy drive BIOS recovery. Same as before. Lights and fans. It dosen't access the floppy at all.
I'm dragging it into the office tomrrow so I can try and get Intel support on the phone during the day and try some different RAM and test the RAM and video card in another machine.

Any ideas ??? I'm wide open to any suggestion that might get this thing to post again.

Thanks in advance.

Solved!

I'm using a 2 Gig OCZ memory kit OCZ2N1066SR2GK. I recall when I purchased it that it was spec'ed to run at 2.1v. I've been getting away with running it on "auto" for just short of a year. I did get occasional BSODs, but they weren't frequent enough to warrant tracking down.

I used a pair of 533 MHz sticks to get the thing to post and set the memory timings and voltage manually and now all appears well. I guess it dosen't pay to be lazy AND run "designer" RAM LOL

[cameraman]

Originally Posted by TQ

Yet it had been running fine up 'till yesterday? I don't believe I've ever had memory just go bad on me.

Yes, it was running fine on 2 ea. Twin2X2048-8500C5D (4Gb) and just would not start the next morning. Fans would run at full speed and the DVD lights blinked and nothing else. The pair originally in slots 0 seem to be the problem since after removing them and swapping the pair that was in slots 1the system runs as before. Putting the presumed bad pair back but this time in slots 1, the system would not start. They are on the way back to Corsair so I'll get verification soon.