Upgraded HTPC build adventures

[captain_video]

I just upgraded my HTPC with an Intel DH57DD motherboard, 6GB of 1333 DDR3 RAM, and a Core i5-670 CPU.  I have three extenders attached to my HTPC and was having issues with pixelation and generally poor performance on the main HTPC and extenders.  My family was not happy so I figured an upgrade was warranted.  I recall reading that mikinho had a similar setup that sounded like it was his favorite HTPC while he was evaluating the Ceton tuner so I figured it was a good baseline to follow.

I upgraded the hardware and had Win7 preinstalled on a new hard drive before swapping out the components yesterday.  I finished updating the software and added Media Browser and a few other utilities and tweaks.

The real fun came today while my son and I were watching football.  He’s a Redskins fan and I like the Ravens and both teams are carried locally via CBS and Fox, respectively.  The picture on both channels was coming in beautifully with no pixelation, stuttering, or freezeups that we were used to seeing.  Suddenly, the HTPC just choked and we lost picture and the HTPC just started beeping at me.  This kept up until I rebooted. 

This process repeated itself several more times during the games followed by a few expletives on my part.  I checked the diagnostic codes to see what the beeping meant and it appeared to be a memory issue.  I shut down the PC after the games ended (both teams won – yaaay!), reseated the memory, and booted back up.  I then performed a memory check, which required another reboot to run.  The diagnostics check passed so I’m hoping that reseating the DIMMs fixed the problem.

I have enough issues with the family griping about switching from set top boxes to a single HTPC for distributing the TV signal.  I was frustrated enough, but you can imagine how much fun it was to keep hearing what a great idea it was to switch to my current setup.  My HTPC has four ATSC tuners and a Ceton InfiniTV 4.  I can deal with the issues, but it’s hard when everyone else has zero patience.

I can definitely see an improvement in the picture on both the main HTPC and the extenders so I’m leaning towards thinking I made the right move.  Unfortunately, there appears to be a few demons I still need to exorcise before it obtains acceptance by the family.

The wife has her own cable box in the bedroom so she’s all set.  My son is living at home so I figure if he wants a box in his room I’ll be happy to point him to the Verizon store where he can rent one for himself.  Personally, I’m a happy guy with a great hobby.

[Mike Garcen]

Are you running Memtest86 on those dimms or just the standard Windows recovery memory test? I’d recommend it just to make sure your RAM is OK.

Sounds like a worthwhile upgrade though 🙂

[mikinho]

What kind of memory are you using?  The DH57DD, as with most Intel boards, is fairly picky with memory.  It has to be 1.5V, dual channel or quad channel is recommend, etc.

[captain_video]

I’m using Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1333 dual channel SDRAM (2x2GB and 2x1GB, models TW3X4G1333C9A G and TW3X2G1333C9A G, respectively).  They’re both rated at 1.5V.

I just uninstalled the Sapphire graphics card to allow for better cooling between the CPU and the Ceton card.  I only installed it because the output of the Intel HD graphics resulted in severe overscan.  I have since found out that I can adjust it to fit the display.

I generally prefer full-sized ATX boards because it allows me to spread out the components for better air flow.  I’m using a Noctua NH-C12P cooler for the CPU and it’s huge.  I had to go with a low-profile cooler due to the height of my Silverstone case.

I was using the Windows memory checker but I’ll give MemTest86 a try and see if it tells me anything new.

 

[mikinho]

I’m a big fan of the NH-C12P if you have room for it.  The down blowing 140mm fan is great for the DH57DD since the memory voltage regulator tends to get hot (though I suspect some error on the board with reading the temperature.)

Please keep us updated whether the reseating has helped.  My full review of the DH57DD will be published soon.

Btw, Do NOT upgrade to the latest BIOS.  On many systems the Intel MEI firmware will fail to update and will turn the fans into mini-jet engines.

[captain_video]

The Noctua cooler is nice but it does take up a lot of room.  I picked it mainly because it was highly rated at silentpcreview.com.  It was also the only top rated cooler that wasn’t as tall as a skyscraper.

Reseating the memory didn’t appear to help, although subsequent errors never produced the three beeps indicative of a memory failure.  Instead, the PC either simply locked up or it shut down with no error indications at all.

I decided to give MemTest86 a try and it showed that the 2x2GB DIMMs were definitely the culprit.  The test hung when I tried to run it with all 6GB installed.  I then tried it with just the two 2GB sticks and it caused the PC to reboot after just a few seconds into the first test.  Repeated attempts yielded the same result.  The two 1GB DIMMs tested perfectly after three complete passes.

I’ve already RMA’d the 2x2GB DIMMs back to Newegg.  I originally asked for replacements but then I discovered that the same DIMMs are now on sale with free shipping and a $10 rebate.  I’m hoping my revised request to Newegg to change to a refund instead of replacement DIMMs is honored.  Besides, I would have probably bought a new pair regardless of the price because the turnaround time for replacements could take weeks whereas I can get them overnight with a new order.

[mikinho]

I doubt this is the case but I’ll ask anyways.  Do do have them in the proper channels (i.e. same color modules) for the pairs?

[captain_video]

Now I’m stumped.  As I previously indicated, I ran MemTest86 on the two 2GB SDRAMs and it failed.  I returned the DIMMs to Newegg and ordered another set of the exact same memory sticks.  They were kind enought o revise my RMA request to a refund instead of replacement DIMMs.  I received them today and installed them as before.  Before starting up Media Center I decided to run MemTest86 first to make sure the new memory was good.

To my surprise, the memory failed the test again and caused the PC to reboot at exactly the same spot (Test 0, 28% complete).  I swapped positions between the 2GB sticks and the 1GB sticks with the same result (i.e., DIMM channels 0 and 1).  I ran the test again with just the two 4GB sticks and it failed at 40% of Test 0.  I then tried it using a three DIMM configuration (two 1GB sticks in DIMM slots 0 and one 2GB stick in channel A of DIMM slot 1).  I got the same result as with the two 2GB sticks (failure at 40% of Test 0).  For some reason this motherboard does not like the 2GB SDRAMs even though they appear to meet the required specs. 

I’m not sure what to do with this now.  Is the problem with the memory or could it be the motherboard?  There’s a good chance that the 2GB sticks are fine but simply not compatible with this board.  I’m not sure how Newegg is going to feel about me returning DIMMs that may otherwise test perfectly good.  It’s just too coincidental to have two identical pairs of DIMMs test bad in exactly the same way.

[captain_video]

Yes.  I tried it with the two 1GB DIMMs in DIMM slots 0 (the blue slots) and the 2GB DIMMs in DIMM slots 1 (the black slots).  I’ve also tried it with them switched to the opposing slots.

Mike – since you’ve tested this board firsthand, which SDRAMs did you use?

[mikinho]

I initially used 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 Desktop Memory Model CMV4GX3M2A1333C9.  I ran into an interesting issue with that which I have in my pending review.  What I found was that the pairing of modules matter.  So if paired module A w/ C it would work properly at full speed; however, if I paired A w/ B (from the 2nd kit) it would not work unless I down clocked it to 800MHz.  After speaking with a Corsair technical “expert” I was told that while it was rare for dual channel memory to exhibit this behavior it did happen though typically with higher-end kits.

The memory was stable for ~6 months but I ended up swaping it for 8GB (2x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 Desktop Memory Model CMX8GX3M2A1333C9.  I needed the 2GB sticks for an embedded project so swapped it around.

[captain_video]

That’s very similar if not almost the exact same memory I’m using that’s failing MemTest86, except they’re 2GB DIMMs instead of 4GB.  The specs and model appear to be identical, except for the capacity. The latency and voltage are the same as yours.

The question now is what do I do next?  I could get another pair of 1GB DIMMs, but I’d like to bump it up to at least 6GB.  I’m wondering if I should contact tech support at either Corsair or Intel or both to see what they would suggest.

I liked it so much better when you could go out and just buy another pair of DIMMs when you wanted to increase your capacity.  Memory comes in so many flavors these days that it’s extremely difficult to find some that matches your system unless you have a list of recommended DIMMs from the motherboard manufacturer.  The Intel board has no such list associated with it and I couldn’t find any specific recommendations on their website either.

[captain_video]

Update:  I received two more 2x2GB Corsair DIMMs the same as the ones I was trying to use previously.  Unfortunately, I ended up with the exact same result as before.  The two new DIMMs failed MemTest86 at exactly the same spot as the previous pair.  When I tried to install just the 2x2GB DIMMs by themselves, MemTest86 would cause the PC to reboot right after starting the first test.

I checked the Corsair website and they suggested trying to run the DIMMs at a lower speed so I tried it at the 8X multiplier instead of the default 10X setting.  No luck at 8X so I then tried 6X.  This time I totally lost video and was literally flying blind.  After much trial and error I realized I could set the CMOS jumper to the Configuration setting and I finally got video.  I reset the memory clock setting to 10X and rebooted.  I have since removed the 2x2GB DIMMs and will probably send them back to Newegg.

Newegg had a sale on a pair of 4GB Mushkin DIMMs that appear to be compatible so I ordered a set.  I’m hoping this time I’ll get things working as they should.  If not, I may have to consider replacing the motherboard.  One other option is to reinstall the original MSI K9A2 Platinum motherboard I was using and try to find some larger DIMMs for that setup.  I really don’t want to go that route because I saw a definite improvement in playback with the Intel setup.  I had far less pixelation in the recordings and live TV.

[captain_video]

I just installed 8GB of Muskin DDR3 1333 DIMMs and the first thing I did was run MemTest86.  The test hung at the 4% mark of the first test.  Either this motherboard is super picky about the memory you use or the board itself is bad.  Media Center is running fine for the moment with the new RAM but the real test will come on Sunday when I’m watching the football games.  Lots of live action seems to tax the system the most.  I’m just not sure if I’m willing to sit through another Sunday of consrtant hangups and reboots during the Ravens game.

FWIW, the two 1GB sticks of Corsair memory I was using had been working flawlessly and they both passed MemTest86 with flying colors.  The bad news is that I kept getting low memory errors with Media Center running.  2GB is definitely insufficient for my setup.  Unfortunately, there’s no guarantee that getting another pair of 1GB DIMMs would work based on problems using DIMMs from a different production run.

[mikinho]

What BIOS version on you running? I’m not suggesting updating your BIOS yet as the latest BIOS version can screw up fan control via a bad Intel MEI firmware update.

[captain_video]

I’ll have to check the BIOS version when I get home from work.  I was thinking about upgrading it but I think the 8GB of Mushkin memory is going to work out.  If it continues to work I probably won’t do anything with the BIOS if I can avoid it.

I had tried to run MemTest86 with the Mushkin installed but it hung up right away.  I was originally using version MemTest86 version 3.5 and I found that there was a newer version 3.5a posted the day after I initially downloaded it.  Unfortunately, I got the same results using 3.5a with both the single CPU setup and the experimental multiple CPU options.

I noticed on the memTest86 main menu that there was an option to run the older version 3.4 so I decided to give it a try.  This time it ran without a problem, at least up through test 06 where I had to terminate it to get the extenders back online.  This makes me think the latest versions of MemTest86 still have a few bugs.  Either that or it doesn’t like my motherboard and memory combination.

In any case I seem to be back up and running.  I’ll let you know it goes after the weekend.

[Author]

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