ASUS M4A79XTD EVO board - boot issues

[ziggmark]

Hello all,

I have an ASUS M4A79XTD EVO board with a HDZ955FBGIBOX (Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition AM3 125W) CPU and GSkill F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ (2x2GB) ram kit. I have been dealing with what I believe is the Cold boot issue that has been mentioned on this forums. Once the PC has been running for awhile after numerous program crashes, and a few BSOD, it tends to stabilize and then run fine until I shutdown the PC for a few hours.

I have run Memtest 86+ for 14 hours without a single error. But the one time I ran Memtest on a cold boot I did receive a whole string of errors, so then I tested each memory module individually and did not receive an error. I have tried moving the RAM to different slots, no change.

I went into the BIOS and set the RAM setting to DDR1600, 9-9-9-24, 2T, 1.5V (I think, I will have to verify that I just don't want to reboot as I've finally stabilized again). So far, the instability continues.

Is there any other troubleshooting I can/should do?

[Grimmett]

http://www.gskill.us/forum/showthread.php?t=5062

Hey Ziggmark,
Try the steps listed on the thread above if you have time. Did you Memtest each stick individually from a cold boot? I bet anything you'll find a bad stick if you do this. I'm in the process of testing my second stick..giving it 30 more minutes to cool off. My first stick already failed from a cold boot, but was totally stable when warm.
If you can do without your memory for a couple weeks, I would send it all back and have them test your replacement RAM before they ship it to you. If you need your computer up and running, you could try pinpointing which stick is faulty at cold boot and just RMA that stick.

Good Luck!

[ziggmark]

I ran a cold boot Memtest 86+ v4.00 this morning with both sticks in place and it didn't find any errors.

I ran another cold boot test this evening on just one stick and while that didn't find any errors either is seems like memtest has the memory at 200MHz (DDR400) / CAS: 9-9-9-24 / DDR3 (64bits). Even though in the Bios its set for DDR1600 (perhaps its supposed to work that way ... idk)

Anyway right after the test I booted up into windows and it blue screened right after I entered my password on the welcome screen.

So, I guess I will setup the system tonight with the other stick in place so I can cold boot test that one tomorrow morning.

[Grimmett]

Zigg,
You're probably better off just RMA'ing and saving yourself the headache. It sounds like you're having the exact same problem as many others are. I haven't heard from anyone if their replacement RAM is actually working or not. I hope it is, and that G. Skill has figured out what's causing these problems for so many people. I'm sending my RAM out today.

Good Luck!

[ziggmark]

Well I cold booted with the other stick only this morning and I got one error on test 7 for each pass (2 passes) so 2 errors total.

The crazy thing is ... I left the computer off all day and when I got home from work I ran the cold boot test again for 2 passes and it did not return any error. The only difference is that this afternoon I was forced to enter the bios setup before I could run the test. ??? Though I didn't save any of the settings and I just exited so I don't think that would make much of a difference.

I might just RMA both sticks as suggested, though I'm not sure I can do without my main PC for a week or 2

[ziggmark]

RMA'd memory worked, no more lock-ups or crazy bluescreen reboots. However, I seem to have lost the ability to enter sleep mode with the new memory. I even tried reinstalling windows 7 but that didn't work either.

The computer will try to go to sleep but just ends up completely powering down. When I turn the computer back on it will go through the full bootup process and then when control is passed to windows it will say "Resuming windows" and come back up to the last known state ... but this whole process takes just as much time, if not more, than just shutting down the computer and then booting it up.

I'm just curious if anyone had any thoughts to what could be preventing it from sleeping. It never had a problem with sleep with the old memory, but never sleeps right with the new memory.

[GSKILL TECH]

See if you have the latest BIOS for the motherboard.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[ziggmark]

Thanks for the reply, I am running the most recent bios version for this board. v 2102.

Any other thoughts would be most appreciated.

[kamalmawa]

Check your PSU Voltage Rails using a Multimeter..

[ziggmark]

I was finally able to get a hold of a multimeter and was able to verify the voltages. The 12V rails were between 12.1 and 12.25V the 5V's were at or above 5V.

Any other ideas or maybe I can provide additional information that might be of assistance?

[GSKILL TECH]

Did you try raising CPU-NB Voltage +0.1V for DDR3-1600?

You can also try DDR3-1333 8-8-8-24 1.50V and that should work fine.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[ziggmark]

I did some experimenting and it seems the problem is my power supply after all. I ripped the power supply out of one of my other computers and connected it into my system and the computer goes into and comes out of sleep mode without any issue.

My Theory is that there is something with the 5V standby supply. Which I thought I tested with the multimeter, but I guess maybe I should have had the meter connected while I put the computer to sleep.

So, now to find a replacement for this OCZ (OCZGXS700) 700W supply... hopefully its under warranty

[GSKILL TECH]

Oh alright, keep us posted on the results!

Thank you
GSKILL TECH