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Another ASUS M4A79XTD EVO & F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL BSOD / Freeze Issues

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  • Another ASUS M4A79XTD EVO & F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL BSOD / Freeze Issues

    First off thanks in advance for the help you provide here, I bought my parts below about a year ago and have been dealing with this issue for just about the entire time. It's inconsistent and sometimes cause minor irritation and other times major frustration. My setup is as follows:

    ASUS M4A79XTD EVO latest BIOS
    AMD Phenom II 955 C2 black edition (thought I ordered C3 but never chkd when arrived)
    G.Skill Ripjaws F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL (4GB in 2 x 2GB sticks)
    Antec 850w Quattro Quad Rail power supply
    ASUS Radeon HD 5850 EAH8550 Direct CU TOP 1GB Video card
    3 x WD 500GB drives (2 in RAID 0, 3rd as backup)
    Windows 7 Pro 32bit

    All my clocks are stock, mainly because I could not get enough stability to feel comfortable in starting to OC. Unlike many others I do not seem to have any cold boot problems. Sometimes it would freeze and rebooting cleared everything out and onward I went. Other times the fault would be quite hard and corrupt my RAID and require me to restore from my backup. After this latest hart fault about a week ago I have finally had enough, I am finally getting tired or trying to restore 300GB of data every couple of weeks and decided to figure out what the hell is going on.

    After reading probably 100+ posts in here and equally as many on the web in other forums here is what I've tested. As a preface I use memtest86+ for my benchmark and Win 7 gaming as double check.

    Slots Speed Timing Voltage NB Result
    A1, B1 1600 9,9,9,24 1T auto auto Fail
    A1, B1 1066, 1333, 1600 9,9,9,(24-27) 1T & 2T 1.5 1.1-1.18 Fail
    A1, B1 1066, 1333, 1600 9,9,9,(24-27) 1T & 2T 1.55-1.65 1.1-1.20 Fail
    A1, B1 1066, 1333, 1600 8,8,8,27 1T & 2T 1.5-1.6 1.1 Fail
    A1, B1 1066, 1333 11,11,11,30 2T 1.5 1.1 Fail
    A2, B2 1600 9,9,9,24 1T auto auto Fail
    A2, B2 1066, 1333, 1600 9,9,9,(24-27) 1T & 2T 1.5 1.1 Fail
    A2, B2 1066, 1333, 1600 9,9,9,(24-27) 1T & 2T 1.55-1.65 1.1-1.20 Fail
    A2, B2 1066, 1333, 1600 8,8,8,27 1T & 2T 1.5-1.6 1.1 Fail
    A1, A2 1066, 1333, 1600 9,9,9,24 1T & 2T 1.5 1.1 Fail
    A1, A2 1066, 1333, 1600 11,11,11,30 2T 1.5 1.1 Fail
    A1 1333, 1600 9,9,9,24 1T 1.5 1.1 Stick 1 Pass
    B1 1333, 1600 9,9,9,24 1T 1.5 1.1 Stick 1 Pass
    A2 1333, 1600 9,9,9,24 1T 1.5 1.1 Stick 1 Pass
    B2 1333, 1600 9,9,9,24 1T 1.5 1.1 Stick 1 Pass
    A1 1333, 1600 9,9,9,24 1T 1.5 1.1 Stick 2 Pass
    B1 1333, 1600 9,9,9,24 1T 1.5 1.1 Stick 2 Pass
    A2 1333, 1600 9,9,9,24 1T 1.5 1.1 Stick 2 Pass
    B2 1333, 1600 9,9,9,24 1T 1.5 1.1 Stick 2 Pass

    I'm sure I'm missing a couple in there but I could not in any case where both sticks were in where there was not some error posted in memtest. When I ran just 1 stick (didn't matter) which one in ANY slot there was not memtest error after several full passes. This is backed up by playing some games like Civ5 for hours, this mind you freezes at some point every single time with 2 sticks. Some games like L4D2 and FalloutNV rarely freeze and can go days but eventually they all do. Watching movies will do it and sometimes just sitting there at the desktop will BSOD.

    I filled out my RMA form and sent it in this weekend and I'm waiting for a response but I'm honestly not convinced the memory is bad. I've seen so many posts where this and similar mobo's (like the EVO's) are having problems with other ram, others who are having no troubles. There are also so many people having obvious trouble with the 955 C2. Anyone of these could be the culprit in my opinion. Does anyone have suggestions on how to narrow it down further? I really don't want to have to just start buying new components trying to fix this but I can't have this machine so unreliable for much longer.

    Thanks for the help and suggestions.
    Steve

  • #2
    I feel your pain, nothing more frustrating than random freezing/BSOD's...harder to troubleshoot.
    We have seen numerous complaints with the ASUS EVO and Ripjaw combination.
    To make matters worse, you have the C2 955, with a weak IMC versus the C3 Stepping.

    Have you tried running 1333MHz with CL8 timings?
    From what I've seen, the EVO doesn't handle OC'ed memory very well.
    Besides, there's little performance difference between this speed and 1600MHz@ CL9 timings.
    Also, try running the modules in the outside slots, it puts less stress on the IMC.
    AMD Phenom II X6 1090T@ 4.2GHz
    Corsair H50 Hydro (push/pull intake fans)
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula
    2x4GB G.Skill RipjawsX@ 1975MHz, 9-10-9-28 (2T)
    SLI: 2x EVGA GTX 570's@ 902/1804/2032
    Creative SB X-Fi Xtreme Gamer
    Corsair HX850W Modular
    Cooler Master HAF 922 (200mm side fan)
    2x Win 7 Home Premium (x64)

    Comment


    • #3
      Had the same problem

      I had the exact same problem with the motherboard in question. It would not operate properly in dual channel mode, but was fine in single channel mode. (I'm not sure if you tried two sticks in a different coloured slot, that might work) I sent back the motherboard for RMA and the issue was fixed.

      If I were you, I'd RMA the board.
      http://valid.canardpc.com/cache/banner/1632558.png

      Comment


      • #4
        Thanks for the fast response, I too am leaning towards the mobo and or the CPU. I've tried running 2 sticks in the outside slots and got the same errors with a bunch of different timing and speed settings. the only way it was stable(ish) is to run a single stick. I just got a call from my wife a few minutes ago who has informed me that the computer just hard reset the BIOS. She is getting the green ASUS screen and it's trying to boot from the wrong HD so the bootmgr error is coming up. I've never had that happen before and it did this with a single stick in slot A1. Mind you she was on it for 2+ hours this morning with no troubles. Sigh.

        Steve

        Comment


        • #5
          It's possible that your Win7 installation has become corrupted as well.
          When was the last time that you re-formatted versus doing a restore from a backup?
          Two things: completely clear the CMOS and if your bios allows it, run in "Ganged" mode.
          AMD Phenom II X6 1090T@ 4.2GHz
          Corsair H50 Hydro (push/pull intake fans)
          ASUS Crosshair V Formula
          2x4GB G.Skill RipjawsX@ 1975MHz, 9-10-9-28 (2T)
          SLI: 2x EVGA GTX 570's@ 902/1804/2032
          Creative SB X-Fi Xtreme Gamer
          Corsair HX850W Modular
          Cooler Master HAF 922 (200mm side fan)
          2x Win 7 Home Premium (x64)

          Comment


          • #6
            I've considered that and in the past year I've fresh installed Win 7 probably 5 or 6 times. I'd say 25% of the time when it freezes and or crashes it was destroying my Raid 0 and in the beginning I was just reinstalling all over again until I vetted out every major backup program on the market. I still can't find one that works like Time Machine for Macs... I'm going to have a look at it when I get home, I'm already dreading the RMA process as I took a peak at it on ASUS's site and it looks cumbersome so far.

            Surprisingly I have not heard anything from G.Skill RMA department so far and I submitted it Friday evening.

            /shrug

            Steve

            Comment


            • #7
              OK I have a little update, not liking to be defeated so to speak I tried a few more things last night in an attempt to isolate a component as the culprit. I reinstalled both sticks of ram in slots A2 B2 and let the BIOS run on auto settings (1333 9,9,9,24 1T) for the ram. I then opened the side of my case and put a 10 in fan about 15 inches from the ram and turned it on high. I then proceeded to run a series of tests. I thought of doing this because what I was seeing typically is that the errors we usually happening further in to the testing to a point and that the ram could be heating up a lot. Windows memory test came back clean, prime 95 torture test ran for about an hour while with no troubles. Then finally memtest86+ ran clean for 2 cycles (went to bed I was to tired) with no trouble. It's never done that with both sticks in .

              I've asked my wife to try an play here game this afternoon (Civ5 on DX11) with this fan on and let me know how it goes. She typically can't play for more than 45-90 minutes with out a freeze or crash so I'll keep my fingers crossed. If this is the case and things run smoothly I'm assuming that it confirms my ram needs to be exchanged because at all stock levels it should not heat up so much that it starts faulting out. My CPU has a Corsair H50 water cooler on it and see's @ 38c in normal usage and 44-48c under normal load so it's not throwing extreme heat into the case (also because of the remote radiator it's dumping that heat out the back of the case.

              I'll update this thread as I learn more.

              Steve

              Comment


              • #8
                How's the airflow in the case? How about temps on NB/SB etc?


                Pls offer comments on support I provide, HERE, in order to help me do a better job here:

                Tman

                Comment


                • #9
                  Sorry for the long delay in an update on this but I have solved my issues, finally. Not wanting to be down while parts were sent off for RMA work I order a new motherboard, new ram, SSD drive and bangin new case. First to arrive was my Gigabyte GA-890FX-UD5 motherboard. First thing I did was benchtest this, seriously plugged the CPU, power supply, video and ram in this. Booted off a USB stick to run memtest and low and behold the Gskills ram passed the tests over and over again. When the new ram came in (OCZ platinum AMD CAS7 edition) it actually seemed to run OK in the old motherboard...for a while then it got hot like the ripjaws and too started to error. Out comes the motherboard and boxed it waited for almost a week to get a RMA # and off it went.

                  Thanks for all the help and suggestions, I wanted to post my results so anyone else seeing the same results I did, yank this POS board out and send it back.

                  Steve

                  PS, funny thing after the new mobo everything in the pc seems to run smoother, the CPU dropped 5 deg C idling. I think that the original mobo was just taxing on the components uselessly.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Could well be, have seen a number of issues w/ ASUS MB QC over the last couple of years...and their support has declined also


                    Pls offer comments on support I provide, HERE, in order to help me do a better job here:

                    Tman

                    Comment

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