Gigabyte X58A-UD3R Endless Reboot Loop - LGA1366

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kylesullivan

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Hi Hardforum-

It's been a long time since I've been on here. I decided to resurrect a water cooling project from years ago and try my hand at OC'ing my i7 950:

Specs:
CPU: i7 950
MOBO: Gigabyte X58A-Ud3r Rev 2 latest bios FH
Ram: 3x2gb Supertalent 8-8-8-24 DDR2000
PSU: Corsair 750tx
Vid card: Diamond Radeon 5850
Cooling : Heatkiller 3.0, mcp655, custom loop

This comp isn't used 24/7, i'd say about 10% of the time as I have stored it during two moves and only turn on to do some casual gaming. The cooling before the water was the stock (lapped) cooler that did a TERRIBLE job; i couldn't even go to 100% load without it throttling as it would easily hit 100C (I think removal and reinstallation of the stock cooler for lapping reduced the pressure). It was run at stock speeds/auto voltages for the majority of its life.

After what appeared to be a successful first day (passed prime 95 at both 4.0 and 4.1 and load temps were in the 50's C), I shut down the computer and went to bed. The vcore was 1.296 in cpuz/hwmonitor, I think i had VTT around 1.3 and QPI around 1.8, but I can't fully recall.

I went to boot up this morning to do some tinkering and it won't even get to the post screen. The video card fan spins up and the phase (red) and NB phase lights (green) are lit up. It continues to 'restart', the only evidence I have is that the GPU fan speed changes.

I've tried to reset CMOS but after doing some google searching it appears that X58 boards including this one seem to have this problem and there is not a known fix (that i've found YET).

Hopefully I am wrong, though! I was hoping to make this comp last a bit longer.

Any input/advise is appreciated!

Kyle
 
UPDATE - strange developments. It started to POST to flashed bios settings but behaved strangely. Initially it was flickering inside the BIOS, eventually it let me change settings (just changing drive order) and went to windows. After in windows for about 10 seconds the screen would go blank/freeze. The phase LEDs are off on the mobo now.

It won't be stable in windows; but at least shown some life. The video drivers crashed but recovered; this was evident by vertical lines and then windows recovered. This has happened before and appeared after I went to displayport on my 5850 instead of the DVI port (new monitor is 2560x1440)

I de-clocked to 20x133=2666 and ran prime95 for about 30 seconds and then the screen went white and it stalled. Before it froze the volts (auto) were at 1.12 (CPUZ and HWMonitor) and the load temp was 38C (20C idle). I'm going to shut it off for a while, there seems to be multiple levels of instability (still am glad I can get to the BIOS)
 
UPDATE - strange developments. It started to POST to flashed bios settings but behaved strangely. Initially it was flickering inside the BIOS, eventually it let me change settings (just changing drive order) and went to windows. After in windows for about 10 seconds the screen would go blank/freeze. The phase LEDs are off on the mobo now.

It won't be stable in windows; but at least shown some life. The video drivers crashed but recovered; this was evident by vertical lines and then windows recovered. This has happened before and appeared after I went to displayport on my 5850 instead of the DVI port (new monitor is 2560x1440)

I de-clocked to 20x133=2666 and ran prime95 for about 30 seconds and then the screen went white and it stalled. Before it froze the volts (auto) were at 1.12 (CPUZ and HWMonitor) and the load temp was 38C (20C idle). I'm going to shut it off for a while, there seems to be multiple levels of instability (still am glad I can get to the BIOS)
Try checking your CPU pin socket if you got a bend CPU pin.
Be careful in removing the CPU.
 
I suppose that could be the case, I"ll reinstall the CPU and check that out

Interesting, a post Bent pins causing no post? (UD3R) , "It won't boot up if pins are bent,it sometimes boots and you have missing memory"

I did notice that my BIOS is only showing 6143MB memory; I can't recall what it was before but believe it was more.
 
6144/6143 is correct for 6GB of RAM.

Kinda sounds like a bad power supply or possibly a bad power connection.

You could also try cleaning the pads on the CPU with a pencil eraser as well as the pads on the RAM sticks, and also on the video card. It is possible that they have gotten oxidized and are not getting a good enough connection.
 
This is kylesullivan; old account activated. I'll clean off all components and check pins this weekend.

I am wondering about the motherboard to expansion card mounting. When I go to screw down the video card into the case, the holes don't align, maybe 1/8" off, so the video card isn't as securely in the PCI express socket. Is this troubling? I've had this happen on several mobo's/cases so am not sure; I just assumed not all cases were square
 
I ripped apart the computer and did find a bent CPU pin on the motherboard. I did my best to straighten it out with a needle and reinstalled the rest of the computer
Bent:
bentpin1.JPG
bentpin2.JPG
bentpin3.JPG

Unbent:
unbentpin1.JPG
unbentpin2.JPG
unbentpin3.JPG

2 Tests-
Test 1 last night with GPU screws installed - unstable, one boot to bios, crash in bios, then constant reboot
Text 2 (ongoing this morning) - unscrewed GPU screws as I noticed to screw them down the card starts to pull on/out of the PCI-express slot
Pics:
radeonscrews1.JPG
radeonscrews2.JPG

Has anyone seen instability from the expansion cards pulling out of the slots when screwed down? I have a thread on this here: Graphics/System Instability due to case? Antec-900

Here's a link of my current Prime run and temps/voltages (all stock)

1-5hourprime_post_cpupin_nogpuscrews.jpg
 
just finished 8 hours prime95

Next question:
  1. Do I mod the video card to not flex the mobo/PCI bus when I screw down the baseplate or
  2. do I screw down the baseplate to flex it and retest?
 
I ripped apart the computer and did find a bent CPU pin on the motherboard. I did my best to straighten it out with a needle and reinstalled the rest of the computer
Bent:
bentpin1.JPG
bentpin2.JPG
bentpin3.JPG

Unbent:
unbentpin1.JPG
unbentpin2.JPG
unbentpin3.JPG

2 Tests-
Test 1 last night with GPU screws installed - unstable, one boot to bios, crash in bios, then constant reboot
Text 2 (ongoing this morning) - unscrewed GPU screws as I noticed to screw them down the card starts to pull on/out of the PCI-express slot
Pics:
radeonscrews1.JPG
radeonscrews2.JPG

Has anyone seen instability from the expansion cards pulling out of the slots when screwed down? I have a thread on this here: Graphics/System Instability due to case? Antec-900

Here's a link of my current Prime run and temps/voltages (all stock)

1-5hourprime_post_cpupin_nogpuscrews.jpg

just finished 8 hours prime95

Next question:
  1. Do I mod the video card to not flex the mobo/PCI bus when I screw down the baseplate or
  2. do I screw down the baseplate to flex it and retest?
What is your chassis? how come it does not fitted the card?
What is your VGA card?
The motherboard PCI slot spacing is base on standard PC spec.
Maybe try to check other vga card or chassis rather than forcing on fitted card.
 
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