ASUS P8Z68-V PRO - BIOS freezes/hangs. TRAP 00000030 when booting. Board = Toast?

S

Spare-Flair

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Apr 4, 2003
Messages
7,471
My computer in sig was working happily for months. I last did a BIOS flash about 2 weeks ago without any problem. System was overclocked to Prime stable 5GHz @ 1.425V with 100 BLCK and 50x multiplier. Nothing out of the ordinary. Pretty safe settings except 1600MHz XMP ram @ 1.65V.

Last night I installed Windows 7 on a new SSD and Battlefield 3 for the first time. Ran it for about an hour and shut down properly. Might have gotten a little hot in my machine with Crossfired cards that don't expel all the heat out the back. I do have triple 120MM exhausts on the top however.

Upon reboot, I'd get to the Windows boot phase but the system would hang with a black screen of death TRAP 00000030 EXCEPTION or a TRAP 000000CC EXCEPTION. I attempted to go into the BIOS but it's the new type of BIOS with a GUI and mouse interface. It would hang within seconds or sometimes as soon as I clicked on anything with the mouse (if it would even go into BIOS at all).

I tried a CMOS reset (verified it was cleared, got a message at POST indicating settings were cleared) but the BIOS still hangs and freezes almost as soon as I can get into it. Left it unplugged all night and with the BIOS clear switch and battery out with the same results.

I'm stumped as to what I can do now. I cannot access any BIOS settings, they should be on optimized/safe defaults anyway due to the BIOS being cleared. Once I try to get into the BIOS it hangs. If I plug in an optical drive, it will automatically boot that first but it will similarily hang on the "Windows is loading files" bar (no TRAP EXCEPTION).

I cannot boot into anything and I cannot edit the BIOS. CMOS clear has no effect on the issue. What can I do at this point? I have replaced the RAM with brand new and verified sticks with the same results. It's either motherboard, CPU, or PSU at this point. Anyone hear anything about BIOS freezing before? It posts normally without any error beeps. It won't boot from any storage properly (hangs) and I cannot access the BIOS (hangs).

Is my board toast?
 
Last edited:
Discount all devices except keyboard, monitor, and major PSU connections (24-pin ATX, 8-pin EPS12V). Also remove your video card as well and use the onboard video ports.

See if you can access the BIOS and if not, sounds like the board could be faulty.
 
normally, the xxxxxx30 trap message is pretty straightfoward: RAM, or bad RAM then corrupting bios.

However you have several complicating factors:
1.425V 5GHZ 24/7
16GB RAM
Dual vid cards
New SSD
New bios loaded
New game loaded

To start with the basics:
There are 4 red LEDs on mobo:
RAM, VGA, Boot device, CPU
Are any of those constantly on?

The Qcode will stop at a number - what is the number?
F6 means start of bios recov

Putting in all new RAMs is not a test. You need to try a single stick of 1066 or 1333 1,5V in B2 or then B4, then while holding the "ON" button constantly

I would hope you didnt flash @ 5Ghz? Anything >4.4-4.5 is very dangerous. After flash, did you allow flasher to do all its reboots until Win 7 welcome screen, or did you just go right into bios after you thought it was done?
This is good, since we will be able to test the CD bios ez recov mode.
 
oh goodie...

ive had good luck with ez-recovery, im interested in other peoples experience...

As a side note, on the P67, it looks like they changed the default PEG to PCIe 1st on 2103, im sure they've done the same to Z68 so maybe no longer a need for an old-ass PCI video card in order to avoids a blind-flash of ez-recovery...
 
I'm not sure how safe 1.65v is, even though this is supposedly the maximum supported DDR voltage, it's still highly recommended to use 1.5v Ram unless you're benching. Combine that with 16 GB fo 1.65v Ram, I'd be pointing directly to RAM first, and to try with 1 stick. Not familiar wtih cisco guy's method as I don't have that board. And yeah as cisco said, there are several complicating factors here, in addition to you possibly flashing the Bios at 5 ghz? (always a huge no-no).

If you're lucky, maybe it's only a Ram dimm dying. If you're unlucky, could be the CPU IMC dead because of high vcore+high DDR voltage, made worse that you were using 16 GB...

could be a combination of high ddr3+high vcore+4 sticks or Ram...
 
cisco guy said:
normally, the xxxxxx30 trap message is pretty straightfoward: RAM, or bad RAM then corrupting bios.

However you have several complicating factors:
1.425V 5GHZ 24/7
16GB RAM
Dual vid cards
New SSD
New bios loaded
New game loaded

To start with the basics:
There are 4 red LEDs on mobo:
RAM, VGA, Boot device, CPU
Are any of those constantly on?

The Qcode will stop at a number - what is the number?
F6 means start of bios recov

Putting in all new RAMs is not a test. You need to try a single stick of 1066 or 1333 1,5V in B2 or then B4, then while holding the "ON" button constantly

I would hope you didnt flash @ 5Ghz? Anything >4.4-4.5 is very dangerous. After flash, did you allow flasher to do all its reboots until Win 7 welcome screen, or did you just go right into bios after you thought it was done?
This is good, since we will be able to test the CD bios ez recov mode.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your input and suggestions. I did not flash @ 5GHz. I did it two weeks ago successfully and ran without any issues.

This is the full error code:
img20120103012717.jpg


The "boot device" LED is constantly lit which led me to believe it was a drive or drive controller issue. I tried many HDDs and SSDs and optical and USB drives and all unplugged to no avail. The issue persisted. The PSU and Videocard have now been ruled as as culprits as well. The RAM was replaced with 1333MHz 1.5V sticks and the issue was the same.

I cannot get into BIOS recovery. That also hangs. Cannot boot off any CD media. It hangs too. All this despite successful post. It led me to believe that the issue is the CPU.
 
Falkentyne said:
I'm not sure how safe 1.65v is, even though this is supposedly the maximum supported DDR voltage, it's still highly recommended to use 1.5v Ram unless you're benching. Combine that with 16 GB fo 1.65v Ram, I'd be pointing directly to RAM first, and to try with 1 stick. Not familiar wtih cisco guy's method as I don't have that board. And yeah as cisco said, there are several complicating factors here, in addition to you possibly flashing the Bios at 5 ghz? (always a huge no-no).

If you're lucky, maybe it's only a Ram dimm dying. If you're unlucky, could be the CPU IMC dead because of high vcore+high DDR voltage, made worse that you were using 16 GB...

could be a combination of high ddr3+high vcore+4 sticks or Ram...
Click to expand...

Thank-you. I had read the stories about 1.65V and 1600MHZ ram before but I assumed this was not a big issue as so many people are doing this and my board defaulted the ram to 1.65V in the first place when the settings were on AUTO. In the future I will force it to 1.5V and 1333MHz to comply with Intel spec on the 2500K.

At this point, I think you are correct and that the CPU's integrated memory controller is toast rather than anything else.
 
Its not the cpu mem controller
If so the CPU light would be on
I think you misunderstood, I need the Q-code double number on the mobo readouts that it stops on
You need to get some good 6G cables with metal latch (I use OKGear from NE), a can of contact cleaner and a can of compressed air, test with a wiped spinner drive in Intel port #1. Spray some stuff in SATA ports (dont overdo it). blow it out with air, then take cable end and hold down metal clip and rapidly plug and unplug the cable .
Anyways thats what I do when I get the boot device LED.
For some reason, bad connection to boot device just shuts everything down
This is another one of my aggravations with these boards - those mobo SATA recepatcles are just so flimsy for contact, and also are easily cracked because they are right angle. They should be twice as thick, or stronger graded plastic.
 
Last edited:
cisco guy said:
Its not the cpu mem controller
If so the CPU light would be on
I think you misunderstood, I need the Q-code double number on the mobo readouts that it stops on
You need to get some good 6G cables with metal latch (I use OKGear from NE), a can of contact cleaner and a can of compressed air, test with a wiped spinner drive in Intel port #1. Spray some stuff in SATA ports (dont overdo it). blow it out with air, then take cable end and hold down metal clip and rapidly plug and unplug the cable .
Anyways thats what I do when I get the boot device LED.
For some reason, bad connection to boot device just shuts everything down
This is another one of my aggravations with these boards - those mobo SATA recepatcles are just so flimsy for contact, and also are easily cracked because they are right angle. They should be twice as thick, or stronger graded plastic.
Click to expand...

Again, thanks for your help. These boards are indeed a little finicky and I have an older revision as well. I don't think that the LEDs are not all-encompassing indicators of system faults. In this case, the CPU was able to POST properly and so the LED was not on. However, whatever the damage was to the memory controller, it would cause the system to lock-up soon after post.

I checked and rechecked all the SATA connections as per your suggestions and the issue persisted.

I went out and bought a new CPU and it booted instantly on CMOS reset with no problems. Went back to the old one and TRAP 00000030 exception right away. Plugged in new CPU and it worked perfectly again. That points to IMC damage. The boot device issue must be a separate and non-related issue. I still get that LED from time to time but the system boots normally. Everything is back up and running again. It's frustrating that so many manufacturers default the memory profiles to 1600MHz and 1.65V when the Intel spec for the 2500K does not support this and this lead to the CPU dying most likely due to some instability on a strange reboot cycle. I only started running a fully populated 4 sticks of ram a few days ago and that was probably a contributing factor to IMC damage. Another reason to stop trusting "Auto" (in addition to how Auto treaks BCLK) for anything and take control of all the parameters that you can control manually with a working knowledge of them so the system behavior is more predictable and easier troubleshooted.
 
Last edited:
well, I'll be damned
I would always look at CPU itself as very last thing to go bad, no matter how badly abused.
And i have found the LED indicatots to be very good predictors
Based on your testing, looks like cant be anything else, like HSF mounting shorting, pinching mobo etc.
Oh well, live and learn, have to readjust my thinking about this.

In passing, (I always try to learn from these things) you still have not mentioned the Q-code showing when mobo hangs. And curious, you never used the OC tuner in bios even once? And if you are game, I would be curious also if you sprayed some CC on "bad" CPU pads and brushed when wet with toothbtush if that changes anything
 
cisco guy said:
well, I'll be damned
I would always look at CPU itself as very last thing to go bad, no matter how badly abused.
And i have found the LED indicatots to be very good predictors
Based on your testing, looks like cant be anything else, like HSF mounting shorting, pinching mobo etc.
Oh well, live and learn, have to readjust my thinking about this.

In passing, (I always try to learn from these things) you still have not mentioned the Q-code showing when mobo hangs. And curious, you never used the OC tuner in bios even once? And if you are game, I would be curious also if you sprayed some CC on "bad" CPU pads and brushed when wet with toothbtush if that changes anything
Click to expand...

Ahh, sorry. I could not provide you with a Q-Code error because my board is the P8Z68V-Pro and not the Deluxe and there is no Q-Code display.

I never used the OC Tuner in BIOS but I did run the auto level up in the AI Suite desktop software out of curiosity a few times but it always resulted in a BCLK I was not comfortable with. Those would not be permanent and are lost on every reboot so it should not have created my issue unless it caused some strange memory fault upon shut-down and caused damage to the IMC. I did not have any contact cleaner but did use isopropyl alcohol to clean pads in case but I could not detect anything with my naked eye. If I had another spare test rig to further troubleshoot the dead CPU I would gladly do so but I needed to rebuild my system for work purposes.

My only disappointment is that my old CPU was a Malaysian manufactured CPU and the new one is a Costa Rican CPU and it runs 5-10° hotter. I've forced the RAM to 1333MHz with relaxed timings and manually enforced 1.5V so I never have this issue again. I was surprised that it was the CPU as well but it makes sense to me considering where and when the system was locking up and the exception codes that were coming back seemed to be memory related errors but swapping many sticks of RAM had no effect.
 
Last edited:
O.K. thnx for input anyway
AI Suite "brief experiment" is interesting
Good job in figuring it out.
This would have driven me nuts, since "CPU bad mem controller" isnt even on my radar. Those guys on xtremesys run 1.675-1,7V all the time with 16-32-64GB RAM on X79
Have a nice day!
 
The reason I immediately suspected IMC problems is because the other poster above said that "Trap" usually referred to memory issues and that you were running 1.65v with 4 sticks of Ram with a nice dose of vcore. I'm glad it's fixed, though. I think 1.59v is the highest you should go with a 1.4v+ vcore. But this was for 1333 mhz memory; I'm really not sure how higher speeds adversely affect the IMC with all of this stuff going on at once.

And about the XS guys, remember most of those people are benchers. Many of them don't run those extreme settings 24/7, and/or they have access to (or just keep buying) lots of cpu's and spare hardware.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top