Ok, have spent quite a few nights and 24 of the last 32 hours at my bench looking into the DFI NF4 M/B, sorting it out and looking into among other things possible issues that could explain SDS (sudden death syndrome), Vmem issues, and VCore peculiarities. Have sorted the hows of the MB fairly well, got a ton of data and notes, and a few "hunches".

In the pursuit of answers, I need some input from anyone that has been through the SDS syndrome with this MB. A "questionare" follows below. Your help in the form of answers to the Qs would be greatly appreciated. Once I finish this up and get it organized, I'll be posting what I've found. Hopefully along the way save some people some problems.

One tidbit I'll provide now is I would suggest you do NOT use any Vmem setting that is closer than 0.2V to your 3.3V supply rail in the 3.3V jumper config (i.e. if your 3.3V rail is 3.3V, don't go above 3.1V, if tweaked to 3.4V+ the 3.2V setting is ok, if it droops to 3.2V under load, don't use above the 3.0V setting, etc.).

I would kindly ask that posts be mostly limited to the questionaire responses Thanks in advance!


Questionaire

1) In or Out of a chassis? (If in chassis, type of standoffs)

2) 4 lights or 3 lights on when dead?

3) 5V or 3.3V Vmem jumper position?

4) What was Vmem set to?

5) What was Vcore base voltage set to?

6) Were you using VID special? If so, what % setting?

7) What was Vcore startup voltage set to?

8) Type of memory used at the time? (TCCD, BH-5, UUT, etc.)

9) FSB setting at the time?

10) Multiplier in use at the time?

11) Processor type in use at the time (i.e. 3200+ Winnie or FX-55 or 3200+ NewCastle or Venice or ???)

12) What was the last thing you did just before it croaked? (Changed VMem, Vcore, lost your lucky rabbits foot, ???)

13) Did you notice if the Vmem good LED was lit (between DIMM slot 2 and 4-pin 12V cnx)

14) Air, water, or phase-change on the CPU?

15) MB jumper position settings (any you remember)

16) What else was hooked into your system (PS2 mouse, USB this, PCI that, Gfx card)

17) Power supply make/model being used?

18) Did you notice if the Standby Power LED was lit after it died (just to the right of the diagnostic LEDs)

19) Did you have all of the MB power connectors hooked up?


[/end of questionaire... do you feel like you just took a test? ]

Short form answers are fine (even better). If there are things you don't remember or didn't notice, no sweat, but the more complete the better Even if you only remember half of them, half full is better than empty!


Example answer:

In, 3, 5V, 3.6V, 1.6V, 110%, Auto, UUT, 250Mhz, 14x, 4400+ Venice (lol), Changed setting xyz in BIOS, On, Air, ???, PS2 KB & 74G Raptor & 6800U, Zippy 650W, the what?, just 24p & 4p.


Oh, and if you've had some other unusual experience regarding Vmem or Vcore post it up... same Qs to answer, just add a brief "When I do this, everything tanks".


Thanks for all answers and condolences on the losses.

/me grabs a cup of java and heads back to dungeon