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Asrock X58 Extreme having random issues.

Z

zshift

Weaksauce
Joined
Nov 13, 2007
Messages
98
I built a PC for a friend using the following components:

Intel Core i7 920
3x Patriot DDR3-12800 9-9-9-24 @1.65V (PVT36G1600ELK)
Asrock X58 Extreme
XFX HD5870
Rosewill 530W PSU (RG530-2) (checked with an Antec PSU tester, all fine, but 5V rail runs at 5.4V, and Hardware Monitor (from cpuid) showed -5V rail at -8.70V with this and two other power supplies)

Western Digital Black 1TB
LG 24x DVD Burner - SATA

Cooler was a Cooler Master Hyper 212 (RR-B10-212P-GP), installed using Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound.
Case was a Thermaltake V9 that had the side panel fan removed because it would not fit with the heatsink installed.

All bios options set to default, unable to check bios version at current time.

When the system was originally installed, my friend forgot to place the motherboard spacers in between the mobo and case, so it was shorting for a bit until I came over and noticed it. It worked fine after the spacers were installed.

Originally the system was paired with 3x OCZ GOLD DDR3-12800 8-8-8-24 (OCZ3G1600LV6GK). The first kit of ram worked great, except one of the sticks was DOA so it had to be RMAd. The second set caused a large amount of memory errors inside and outside of windows, regardless if set at auto or manually setting the clocks and timings, or configuration of memory. Also, memtest 86+ ver 2.11 would fail at random points during test #4, usually with 50-500 errors on stick 1 near 1100-1200MB, and sometimes it would fail near 500MB and 5000-5500MB. It wouldn't always fail on test #4, though, only some of the passes. After this I tried the Patriot sticks and it worked only when set to Auto, not when using the XMP profile (1600MHz, 9-9-9-24 timings, 1.65V), which caused prime95 to fail almost instantly. Same results with manual settings for clocks, timings, and for voltages set to 1.654V or to auto. Setting to auto for all settings gave no errors after 1 hour.

This computer was for a friend, and I didn't have much time to start overclocking, so I told them to try using the EZ OC setting in the bios to overclock to 3.8GHz. I assumed this should be fine if he runs prime95 and makes sure there are no errors. He calls me after 27 min of p95 running without errors, after which the system shutoff and won't turn back on at all. System was cool to the touch immediately after shutting down, and pressing power button does nothing. I walked him through resetting the CMOS jumper, pressing "reset CMOS" button on back, then I told him to set jumper to clear, remove CMOS battery, remove all RAM, disconnected and switched off the PSU, held power button for 5 seconds, waited 15 minutes, and put 1 stick of RAM in the first slot, inserted battery, and it still would not post.

I then asked him to take the mobo out of the case, thinking it might have been a short. Still no post with bare mobo, but lights and fans would start up for half a second before becoming unresponsive again. He also reseated the CPU without luck.

I'm going to his place to check everything tomorrow, but I wanna know if there as anything in specific that anyone can recommend I check? I'm bringing my own psu, psu tester, but I don't have spare DDR3 ram or and i7 920 to test with. Could it be PSU, MOBO, or CPU? Please, any advice at all would be highly appreciated.

Thank you.
 
I would lean towards Mobo as you mentioned installing it without standoffs. Making an assumption here that it was powered on this way at least initially since you said it worked fine after the standoffs were added. Shorting electronics doesn't necessarily lead to immediately obvious damage (that preferable tho, makes it easier to find the problem:D )
I would bring every part you can, just in case, and know good RAM and CPU would be preferable, but somewhat of a moot point as you don't have extras (I have a spare 1366 yet either, hopefully soon tho:p ).

Good Luck, I hope it's something simple that was just overlooked.
 
Still no post with bare mobo, but lights and fans would start up for half a second before becoming unresponsive again.
Click to expand...

I know you tested the PSU but that is kinda a classic PSU failure symptom.

Did you test it under load?

A replacement PSU may get you to boot but all those other RAM failures is probably something else.

First thing to do is get it to boot.

It's just a bummer all the way around that those missing standoffs could have killed the MB.
 
Last edited:
<quote>Hi,



Your problem seems like some where on the mainboard short. Please try to diagnose mainboard with the troubleshooting guilde below. If you still can’t get the system to P.O.S.T. Please let us know so we can issue you a RMA # for replacement. Thank you for your time.



Try to find out if the mainboard will give you any beep code. Try to test the mainboard outside of the computer case. Remove all the devices that connect it on the mainboard. Only device need to connect on the mainboard is the Processor and Processor cooling fan, and make sure all the power connector are fully plug in 12V rail connector (4pin / 8pin), and 24(20)pin ATX power connector. If you do hear the beep code like 1 long beep and follow by 3 short beep. Please insert 1 single memory module, and go ahead insert the video card to the PCI-E slot. Below is the troubleshooting guide. If you still can’t get the problem resolve please give us a call at 909 590 8308.



1 Short Beep

One beep is good! Everything is ok, that is if you see things on the screen. If you don't see anything, check your monitor and video card first. Is everything connected? If they seem fine, your motherboard has some bad chips on it. First reset the SIMM's and reboot. If it does the same thing, one of the memory chips on the motherboard are bad, and you most likely need to get another motherboard since these chips are soldered on.

1 Long, 3 Short Beeps

You've probably just added memory to the motherboard since this is a conventional or extended memory failure. Generally this is caused by a memory chip that is not seated properly. Reseat the memory chips.

1 Long, 8 Short Beeps

Display / retrace test failed. Reseat the video card.
</quote>

From Asrock tech support that I emailed yesterday. Seems like it's probably a short, but I'll double check that in a bit.

As for the PSU, 530 is definitely enough. That psu provides about 20A on each of the 4 +12V rails, which more than satisfies the requirements for the GPU. There's only one hdd and one dvd drive, so that barely adds much, and I went to http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp to check it all, and it recommended 510W when considering overclock. As for the PSU handling well under load, I'll check that tonight as well. The overclock wattage may have been more than I estimated, which could have killed the PSU (hopefully that's all because that would be the cheapest to replace).

Thanks for the support, I'll update again after I've check it all out.
 
and the psu calc was used with 3877MHz cpu, 1.4V, 100%TDP, 100% system load.

with standard 85% for each load, recommended was 458W
 
I found my psu tester. When I plugged it in, +12v rail 1 and 2 showed 12.2v, 3.3 rail showed 3.4v, -12v showed -11.9v, and 5v showed 5.3-5.4v. The 5v rail seemed high to me, but the psu tester wasn't giving me any errors or warnings like it usually does when a psu is bad. Also, I'm not really sure how to test the psu at load with the equipment I have. Do these results seem acceptable?
 
Wow, I am having the same problem by doing the exact same thing, I set it to EZ overclock 3.8 and after a few mins of running prime95 I smelled something burning, so I immediately shut p95 off and my CPU temp went back to normal, however after about 10 more seconds my system just shut off and refused to turn back on again. I immediately assumed it was the power supply and replaced it, however it still will not boot and like zshift's friend when i press the power button, my computer will just flash on for a fraction of a second and then turn off again (It does nothing after the first time I press power button unless I turn the power supply off and on again). I am in despair.

System:
Intel i7 920 @3.99 GHz (3.8 ez oc preset with 21 multiplier)
Asrock x58 Extreme
Corsair XMS 3x2GB (6GB Kit)
2xATI HD 5850 CrossFire'd
Corsair 750W power supply (first one)
Thermaltake 850W power supply (new one)
Windows 7 x64
 
Pretty close to the same systems except...
a few mins of running prime95 I smelled something burning,
Click to expand...

He said his was cool after shutdown.


Looks like both you guys have RMAs in your futures.
 
I just sent mine in for RMA today with NewEgg. I don't really know exactly what happened to fry the board but from now on I'll try and stay away from the easy OC feature. I didn't personally check any of the values it set, but I know it set the cpu to 1.38 v which should be well within the limits (I believe tomshardware used 1.45 for their OC's). Anyways, back to my old setup until this board comes back =(
 
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