Dual core tricks

[Jakal]

Alright, an acquaintance of mine had a computer custom built for him.

ABit AB9 Motherboard
Intel Core Duo 6600
1Gig ram

That's about all I know,
and probably as much as he knows. He lives in Aussie land, and like I said.. an acquaintance.

Anyway, he's having trouble gaming with the pc, and probably due to the dual cores. He's updated all the drivers and Windows. I even found a registry fix that is supposed to help. I've emailed M$ for their hotfix, and am waiting on a reply.

When he tries to play games they either don't load, crash on startup, or crash shortly after startup. I don't know any other symptoms that he has. I found the registry addition on M$ website. Emailed for the hotfix. Even checked the Intel site.

I know AMD went through some of the same things when their dual cores came out. I would have expected Intel to pick up on the fact that there's issues. Alas, they haven't and haven't released a hotfix, that I know of.

Anyone running an Intel Core Duo? If so, and know of a fix please let me know. He'd be greatly appreciative.

I'll try to answer any questions and help as much as I can.
Thanks guys.

 

[b1lk1]

Sounds like the ram is either not compatible with the motherboard, or he's overclocked it and runnings something too fast. Even if it is running stock, he needs to run some stability tests. I have an E6400 and have not needed ANY patches/fixes to run games normally. Even games that uses to not run right on my 165 Opteron without that patch run fine on the E6400 with no patch. Something else is wrong and I almost guarantee it is the memory.

 

[Jakal]

Everything is at stock speeds. He just had the money and was basically talked into this pc. From what I know, he's only got 1 stick of ram. I was thinking he had 2 sticks of ram, but was wrong. I'll have him run memtest and check that. Just thought about it.. could be that since it's not running on dual channel. I'll update later.

 

[b1lk1]

With what you are describing, it is just very unstable and I would have to blame the memory because Core2Duo has proven to be picky with memory, and some motherboards are worse than others. Single channel shouldn't matter, just make sure it is getting the proper voltage as well. That is another common C2D problem, the mobo gives only a default 1.8-1.9V and some memory needs 2.0V+ to run.

 

[Jakal]

[01:49] <+TheLastRoboKy> No idea. Could be anything.
[01:53] <+TheLastRoboKy> It could even be the goddamn memory being faulty.
[01:55] <+TheLastRoboKy> But how do you test THAT?
[01:56] <+Jakal> one stick at a time
[01:56] <+Jakal> or memtest
[01:56] <+Jakal> if you're overclocked any then it'll show quick
[01:56] <+Jakal> hold on I'll get you a link
[01:58] <+Jakal> http://www.deathspawner.net/etcetera/download/MemTest.zip
[01:58] <+TheLastRoboKy> I have only one stick
[01:58] <+TheLastRoboKy> So it's a booting thing is it?
[01:59] <+Jakal> well 1 stick?
[01:59] <+Jakal> you can test the ram with that but that surprises me
[01:59] <+TheLastRoboKy> 1gig

[02:05] <jakal> helo
[02:05] * ChanServ sets mode: +v Jakal
[02:07] <+TheLastRoboKy> yo
[02:07] <+TheLastRoboKy> I wish I had a blank disc so I could run memtest, arghbfsbgfb

[02:11] <+TheLastRoboKy> If I can run memtest, it would explain a lot.
[02:11] <+TheLastRoboKy> I mean, if it is the memory that's good.
[02:12] <+Jakal> run memtest 500+ mb
[02:13] <+TheLastRoboKy> huh?
[02:14] <+TheLastRoboKy> oh wait, this is different
[02:14] <+TheLastRoboKy> okay, brb, shutting all else down.

[02:18] <+TheLastRoboKy> It found well over 20 errors within the first minute.
[02:18] <+TheLastRoboKy> It's the RAM.
[02:18] <hoagie> ah.
[02:19] <+TheLastRoboKy> Like, 2.2% tested and I had 17 errors
[02:21] <hoagie> holy shit

Last night's conversation. Due to my inebriation, I forgot I had him test it. He told me today that he had set the ram for a faster speed. So he set it back to default and everything is fine. He is getting another stick of ram for dual channel, also.
</hoagie></hoagie></jakal>