Crossfire Blues, Flatulent Speakers

Posted 01/10/2008 at 10:27am | by Maximum PC Doctor

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Shut it Down! Shut it All Down!

I had an Asus Striker Extreme and upgraded to 4GB of RAM and a C2D E6850 CPU. After this upgrade, my computer wouldn’t shut down. I thought the problem might be with the motherboard, so I bought an Asus Maximus Special Edition. Well, the rig still does the same thing.

Every time I put 4GB of RAM into my computer, after about one hour of usage, it will either not install any programs or it will shut down. Since the activity light constantly blinks, it seems that the computer can’t access the hard drive. I have to manually turn off the computer every time I’m done using it. If I just install 2GB of RAM, everything is OK.

The Doctor believes that there are three possible problems: Potentially, the motherboard is allergic to the RAM you purchased. Each motherboard vendor specs certain modules to work in a board. In general, most two-DIMM systems will work fine even if you don’t use RAM from the manufacturer’s recommended list since two DIMMs is less of a load on the chipset. When you run four DIMMs, however, motherboards and chipsets can get a little more finicky, especially if the DIMMs are not matched.

The issue may also be related to how the board is reading the SPD chip on the modules that tell the BIOS how to configure the RAM. The Doctor has seen many problems related to performance memory that is not properly recognized by motherboards. You should go into your BIOS and manually set your memory timings to something a little more conservative. It’s also quite possible that you have a bad DIMM. Test your RAM with memtest86+ (www.memtest.org); it should let you know if one of your sticks is going haywire.

A CrossFire motherboard might look similar to an SLI mobo, but that ATI logo will crush your SLI-themed dreams.

Crossfire Blues

I recently built a new rig. It consists of an Asus P5K mobo, 2GB of Corsair RAM, an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, and two Nvidia 8600GT videocards. I remember checking for SLI compatibility, but I must have misread something! Unbeknownst to me, the P5K isn’t SLI-ready, it’s CrossFire-ready.

I spent the money on two graphics cards, not to mention the SLI connector, and am looking for a way to fix this. Unfortunately, I have no clue as to where the receipt is, so a return is unlikely. Is there any other way to solve this, short of buying a new motherboard?

The Doc has no cure for your ill, Kurt. AMD apparently helped HP develop a prescription for running two Radeon cards on an SLI motherboard, so there’s probably a way to run two Nvidia cards on a CrossFire mobo, but neither AMD nor Nvidia are keen on letting folks know how to do it. Such freedom of choice would clearly benefit consumers, but neither company sees it as being in their financial interest.

Where's the Beano?

My younger brother got a new computer for his birthday. It works great for most things (Knights of the Old Republic II won’t run properly, but we already diagnosed a videocard incompatibility issue), but it has an unusual quirk: Every once in a while when the computer shuts down, it farts.

I’m serious. At the exact instant the computer finishes shutting down, the speakers (which are pretty old) emit a noise not unlike what escapes from a whoopee cushion. It doesn’t affect anything, and the speakers work fine otherwise, but I was wondering what could cause this.

Unfortunately, the Doctor doesn’t have much of an answer for you—this question has stumped even me. Perhaps the noise escapes due to an electrical surge that occurs as the PC powers down.

The speakers are the most likely culprit. Have you tried using different headphones or a different set of speakers? This would help you determine whether your problem stems from your admittedly old speakers or your computer.

If it’s the computer, and the noise is truly bothering you, start mixing up your components to isolate the problem. Install a new power supply. Or try switching to onboard audio (if you’re running a soundcard) and see if that fixes things.

No matter the solution, isolating the problem is the first–and most important–step you can take when dealing with an unknown issue. That said, the Doctor is willing to bet that your speakers are the source of your cybernetic flatulence. He used to have the same problem when he connected his computer to an amplifier, which the speakers were then hooked up to. But he digresses; check those speakers!

The Doctor reminds you that the weighted internet page you are reading cannot speak. In the event that the weighted article does speak, the Doctor urges you to disregard its advice. Only the Doctor need give you advice for your computer woes, and only after you send your problems to doctor@maximumpc.com.