# Asus M3A78-EM video problem/delay problem



## coolpurplefan (Sep 15, 2008)

http://img185.imageshack.us/my.php?image=utscreen1nl0.jpg

http://img391.imageshack.us/my.php?image=utscreen2nx8.jpg

http://img391.imageshack.us/my.php?image=utscreen3rl6.jpg

These are photos I took of a problem where the images appear slowly block by block. Also, when I click on something, there seems to be a delay. It doesn't do the same with my older computers.

Asus M3A78-EM (latest BIOS), AMD X2 5400+, OCZ Special Ops RAM.


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## vladimirb (Mar 31, 2008)

Hello there...
What make/model is your graphic card???
Do you have on-board graphic card or an extra PCI-E one???
This could be graphic card problem or you do not have installed graphic drivers properly...


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## coolpurplefan (Sep 15, 2008)

It's integrated HD3200 (780G chipset).

I'm kind of thinking drivers and I'm preparing a new DVD with the drivers on the Asus website right now (instead of the one that came with the mobo).

But, I'm kind of wondering if it had anything to do with having cool&quiet enabled. I think it was. In any case, I'm going to check that. But, I have to say it also kind of delays for a second when I click on something.


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## coolpurplefan (Sep 15, 2008)

I just used the drivers from the Asus website and I scored 972 in 3DMark06. The highest score out of 16 similar systems was 2137. Something seems very wrong here. Anyway, the SM 2.0 was 305 and the SM 3.0 was 375 while the CPU score was 2021.

If I was to guess that the CPU is OK but the RAM might be chocking, how can I test the RAM to see if they're slow?


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## vladimirb (Mar 31, 2008)

Hello again...
You can test RAM with MemTest86+

http://www.memtest.org/

You have PCI-E graphic card...
Borrow from a friend and test your PC with PCI-E graphic card...


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## coolpurplefan (Sep 15, 2008)

vladimirb said:


> Hello again...
> You can test RAM with MemTest86+
> 
> http://www.memtest.org/
> ...


I appreciate the fact that you're trying to be helpful. But, I'm wondering if anyone knows if there is a BENCHMARKING program I can use to test the RAM, not the stability.

I'll explain what I mean. Inside the 3DMark06, I got a CPU score of 2021 with my 5400+ while I saw a benchmark result on hardforum where someone with a 5600+ had a CPU score of 2076. So, this means my CPU may be running normally.

HOWEVER, I ran Orthos for 3 and a half hours without any errors. I don't need to know the stability, I need to know the SPEED.

Every time I click on something, there seems to be a delay. And something is slowing down my 3DMark06 score by half. I'm trying to find what's slowing down my machine.


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## coolpurplefan (Sep 15, 2008)

OK, I've done some tests with Sisoft Sandra. I took 2 screenshots of that and also 2 screenshots of my RAM settings.

http://img113.imageshack.us/my.php?image=2ndramtestko7.jpg

http://img113.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ramtestscreen2px4.jpg

http://img227.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screen1tf6.png

http://img392.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screen2jb1.png


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Can you give us a screen shot of CPUZ Memory and SPD tabs for all banks of ram?


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## coolpurplefan (Sep 15, 2008)

OK, I've done some tests with Sisoft Sandra. I took 2 screenshots of that and also 2 screenshots of my RAM settings.

http://img113.imageshack.us/my.php?image=2ndramtestko7.jpg

http://img113.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ramtestscreen2px4.jpg

http://img227.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screen1tf6.png

http://img392.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screen2jb1.png


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Well Ok then


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## coolpurplefan (Sep 15, 2008)

http://img219.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cpuzcpuko5.png

http://img227.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cpuzramua6.png

OK, it says DRAM frequency is 200 MHz. I tried...
-setting to 400MHz, 4-4-4-15 and 2.1volts = computer crash, BIOS resets
-setting to 400MHz and 4-4-4-15 = computer crash, BIOS resets
-setting to 400MHz and 2.1volts = computer OK (but the 5-5-5-15 timings remain)

However, even though my 3DMark06 score and my Sisoft Sandra RAM benchmark score went up, the 3DMark06 score is only marginally higher.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Is the Ram on the QVL for the MB or Does OCZ have a configuration utility that shows this Ram will work on your board?
Try running MemTest 1 stick at a time for 2 passes see if you get any errors


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

If this is the Ram you have> http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/memory/ocz_ddr2_pc2_6400_special_ops_edition Your setting the timings too low and the voltage too high.


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## Kalim (Nov 24, 2006)

coolpurplefan said:


> http://img185.imageshack.us/my.php?image=utscreen1nl0.jpg
> 
> http://img391.imageshack.us/my.php?image=utscreen2nx8.jpg
> 
> ...


There's a problem with your GPU.
Install these drivers if you're on 32b: http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=xp/integrated-xp

That'll delete any older ATi ones itself. Then reboot and see if the video (and GPU performance) gets better.


coolpurplefan said:


> I just used the drivers from the Asus website and I scored 972 in 3DMark06. The highest score out of 16 similar systems was 2137. Something seems very wrong here. Anyway, the SM 2.0 was 305 and the SM 3.0 was 375 while the CPU score was 2021.


SM2 and SM3 score is lower than it should be. You're probably using drivers that are too old, so check what you get now.

You won't get 2000 odd points in 3DMark'06 using a dual-core and HD 3200/HD 3300. You need a quad-core for that.

Also choose 800 for RAM in BIOS, it should work especially if it lets you change the tRFC -- set it to higher than 105ns.


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## coolpurplefan (Sep 15, 2008)

wrench97 said:


> Is the Ram on the QVL for the MB or Does OCZ have a configuration utility that shows this Ram will work on your board?
> Try running MemTest 1 stick at a time for 2 passes see if you get any errors


QVL? Well, the configurator on the website did not include my RAM. But, someone on hardforum told me they could reprogram the RAM if I had a problem.
What do you click in MemTest to make it run?



wrench97 said:


> If this is the Ram you have> http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/memory/ocz_ddr2_pc2_6400_special_ops_edition Your setting the timings too low and the voltage too high.


After I was able to set the memclock value to 400MHz (giving me the 800MHz speed), OCZ changed their mind and told me I could run 5-5-5-15 with 1.8 to 1.9 volts. So, that's what I did.



Kalim said:


> There's a problem with your GPU.
> Install these drivers if you're on 32b: http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=xp/integrated-xp
> 
> That'll delete any older ATi ones itself. Then reboot and see if the video (and GPU performance) gets better.
> ...


I tried CAT 8.8 and CAT 8.9 and it's still around 1200 on 3DMark06. The results say that 2137 maximum is from 16 SIMILAR SYSTEMS. Remember, they have like 6 million tests on file.

I'm too scared right now to change tRFC. However, I will do try some more things. One thing I did try was a 1080p file (Quicktime movie trailer) on my 2 older computers and this machine. The old machines with the X1650XT and Geforce 6600 with single core 2.4GHz Athlons did not play the file very well. The new machine did though which is the main reason this rig was built in the first place. I STILL want to try more things because I'm convinced something is chocking my system. After swapping parts and a video card, maybe I'll also look at all the various BIOS settings.

Do I still need to install a chipset driver if I want to install a video card? This seems confusing.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

You burn memtest to a disk and boot with it, It will run automatically

What happens if you set the memory to auto?

First you get the system stable then change one setting a littie at a time until the system becomes unstable then back it up to stable.

Yes you need the chipset drivers regardless of whether or not you have a video card if you don't have them installed now do so as that will also cause a sluggish system.


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## coolpurplefan (Sep 15, 2008)

wrench97 said:


> You burn memtest to a disk and boot with it, It will run automatically
> 
> What happens if you set the memory to auto?
> 
> ...


Good grief. I looked at the AMD website and don't know where to find the 780G chipset driver alone. Where do you get it? Is it only in the integrated motherboard video driver?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Motherboard manufacturer's web site is the best place to get them.

http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=M3A78-EM


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## coolpurplefan (Sep 15, 2008)

OK, I'm doing a memtest right now. How can I tell when it completed the test and what the result is?


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## vladimirb (Mar 31, 2008)

Hello there...
Well, it will run in loops...
Leave it for some time, like 5-6 loops just to make sure your RAM is good...
You do not have the results because memtest86+ makes various test 
[you can see what memtest do when it is testing RAM]
If you have errors on modules, you will have red text-based portion under the testing part of display...
I hope you understood me because my English is lame :laugh:


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## coolpurplefan (Sep 15, 2008)

OK, I found the problem. I installed a video card instead of using the on-board video and the gradually changing images while installing UT2004 finally stopped being blocky. Someone suggested that it was the fact that the memory the on-board video uses is slower than the type of memory used in video cards.

I had higher scores with this setup and the video card than I did with the same video card on another machine. As a matter of fact, I had the top score compared to other similar systems in 3DMark06. I also had better framerates in UT2004 Assault Convoy than I had with another machine with a single core Athlon 2.4GHz and DDR1 RAM (like 60 to 100 instead of 30 to 50).

Anyway, in regards to the RAM, OCZ had told me to use 5-5-5-15 timings, between 1.8 and 1.9 volts and set it to 400MHz in the BIOS (so I get the 800MHz speed). I have 1.85 volts and the rest same as suggested (motherboard only goes down to 1.85 volts). I ran MemTest for 13 passes or over 3 and a half hours for both sticks of RAM one at a time. There were no errors.

I can play 1080p Quicktime movie trailers with the on-board video. And I can also play UT2004. However, the fact that I got 1200 in 3DMark06 compared to 12 other systems that had a maximum of over 2100 gives me the impression the IGP is not working properly. When I tried my X1650XT in that machine and played UT2004 and BF2, it crashed in 5 minutes compared to about 25 minutes in my other machine. (I read setting 4x instead of 8x and putting fastwrite to off solves the crashing problem with the X1650XT although I haven't tried it yet. Maybe I need to find a way to reduce the bandwidth or whatever.)

I tried the drivers that came with the DVD for the motherboard, the Asus web site drivers and the AMD web site drivers with the on-board HD3200.

I'm wondering if anyone can tell me how to disable on-board video to see if that had any impact.

One thing I'm considering right now is looking at all the various settings for the Southbridge speed and Hypertransport speed etc. If the RAM was incorrectly autodetected at 200MHz instead of 400MHz, then maybe something else was incorrectly set.


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## vladimirb (Mar 31, 2008)

Hello again...
You can simply disable on-board graphic card in BIOS...
Run the tests and see how it works...


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## coolpurplefan (Sep 15, 2008)

Ah well. Since I decided I wanted to game with a better video card and since I find the fact that the on-board video uses system RAM which is slower than the RAM they use on video cards, I decided to go ahead and order an HD 4670. That should give me insane frame rates in UT2004 and BF2 (I hope anyway).


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## coolpurplefan (Sep 15, 2008)

For those reading this thread in the future, I've now come to the conclusion that for better HD video, you need either a seperate video card OR if the motherboard has integrated video, then it would be better if that motherboard had sideport memory.


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## Kalim (Nov 24, 2006)

coolpurplefan said:


> I tried CAT 8.8 and CAT 8.9 and it's still around 1200 on 3DMark06. The results say that 2137 maximum is from 16 SIMILAR SYSTEMS. Remember, they have like 6 million tests on file.


Then all is good as it should be.

ORB is known as buggy, furthermore the scores you are saying are only possible with a Phenom quad-core installed in that motherboard. Check all the systems that use an Athlon X2 with a AMD 780G onboard, they don't go anywhere near 1,300. I've had many of these running at the offices to know very well what their capabilities are.



> Do I still need to install a chipset driver if I want to install a video card? This seems confusing.


Only the GPU driver package - it'll have the Southbridge driver too which is all you'll need extra.

Anyway, it looks like your motherboard onboard was faulty. It should no way be like that even under Unreal Tournament 2007 full load.

For gaming, you require an external GPU as of yet - although a very low end can perform good these days with ATI's new releases.


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