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Asus p8z68 deluxe & f3-12800cl9d-8gbxl - bios help!!!

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  • Asus p8z68 deluxe & f3-12800cl9d-8gbxl - bios help!!!

    Hi All,

    First post so apologies if I get something wrong straight up

    I am hoping someone can help me with my BIOS settings for this mobo/RAM combo. Some strange things are afoot which I just don't understand and it's driving me insane trying to fix it. Here is the short version of what is happening. Firstly the basics of the rig;

    - ASUS P8Z68 Deluxe (Latest BIOS 3203)
    - G.Skill 2x F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL kits (so 16GB all up)
    - Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz
    - 2x OCZ Vertex II 120 GB SSD's in RAID 0 as the boot drive
    - nVidia GTX480 GPU

    I have had the G.Skill memory running without issue for around 6 months. To be honest, I couldn't tell you if they were in XMP, manual or auto as they just worked out of the box and I never checked. In any case, after returning from a month away from my machine, I switched it on and started receiving an array of various BSOD's and eventually could not even boot. To cut a very long story short, I eventually blew the hard drive away and rebuilt the machine, only to find that again, it would BSOD every time - normally after boot sequence. After this, I started pulling components one by one as a process of elimination until I got to the RAM. Low and behold, once I took out 2 sticks and reduced my RAM to 8GB, everything was fine.

    Clearly there was a timing/voltage/BIOS problem. This is definitely the problem as I am running on 8GB now but after much experimentation, I CANNOT get the 16GB to work again! *VERY* frustrating as it's been fine for nearly a year.

    I have tried the following set ups;

    1. Default XMP - DDR3-1600MHz, CAS 9 9 9 24 (2), DRAM 1.5v, VCCIO 1.125v - FAILURE
    2. AUTO - DDR3-1600MHz, CAS 9 9 9 24 (2), DRAM 1.50v, VCCIO 1.125v - FAILURE
    3. AUTO - DDR3-1600MHz, CAS 9 9 9 24 (2), DRAM 1.55v, VCCIO 1.125v - FAILURE
    4. AUTO - DDR3-1600MHz, CAS 9 9 9 24 (2), DRAM 1.55v, VCCIO 1.20v - FAILURE

    I have read that running these at 1333MHz may help, but I'm no expert so need some solid advice. I should note that these sticks don't appear to be on the approved supplier list for ASUS either, so maybe that's an issue but if they worked for nearly a year then what's up with that?

    I have read several posts on this topic but cannot find a definitive guide to setting BIOS for this combo. Nor can I explain why things have changed so significantly to make this memory stop working all of a sudden. Can anyone help? PLEASE? Huge appreciation for any suggestions or BIOS settings.
    Last edited by syntax3ra; 03-20-2012, 09:11 PM. Reason: Change

  • #2
    Might have had a stick go bad, but first I'd try reseating all the sticks, go to BIOS, disable XMP (won't work with two sets), and try manually setting each of the following (and do manually set - even if it comes up OK in default) 1600, 9-9-9-242T, 1.54 and VCCIO @ 1.15....if that doesn't work try at 1333 8-8-8-24, 2T, 1.5, VCCIO 1.12.....if still no luck would run Memtest on one stick at a time (which can take forever, so may just want to start with say 4-5 passes initially


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

    Tman

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    • #3
      Wow! Thank you so much for your super quick response! I'll give those settings a go this evening and let you know how I go. The thought of running Memtest on each stick makes me shudder though... )

      I have taken all the sticks out previously and swapped them around and re-seated them. I did think that there may be one bad egg in the batch so to speak. Can I ask if there is any difference running at 1333MHz? Again, I am no expert on memory. Thanks again.

      Comment


      • #4
        At 1333 w/ CL8 it won't have quite the bandwidth of 1600, but am guessing that is where it was initially since you didn't set anything, the mobo prob defaults to 1333 @ 9-9-9-27 or so, but since the sticks are native 1600/CL9 they should run fine at 1333/CL8 which gives a performance increase. And yes Memtest is a pain, that's why I suggested just a few passes, if you run the whole thing on each stick it can take most of a day or night per stick. When you rebuilt,did you pull the CPU? If so may won't to pull it again and check to see if any bent pins in the socket. Just have a feeling from the sounds of things, maybe a power spike and it may have gotten a stick or two also


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

        Tman

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        • #5
          It seems to default to 1600 curiously enough. So, 1333/8 is actually faster? I didn't realise. Understood re MemTest. No I didn't pull the CPU - but v.good advice. Thank you. I'll get onto those settings you provided.
          Cheers again.

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          • #6
            No, 1333/8 is near same performance, 1600/9 is better as it provides a little more bandwidth


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

            Tman

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            • #7
              Hey Tman,
              Success! Those 1600 timings seemed to work. I have been stable for several hours without issue. I ran memtest for around two hours with no errors as well, so it seems to be all good.

              Some odd things though:

              1. The mobo reports an "AO" message (Q-code LED readout on these boards to show system status) - this means "IDE Initialization has started". There have been reports on the internet that this is a BIOS bug with ASUS. I upgraded the BIOS to the latest version which is this buggy one apparently. Not sure what this means or what to do about it as rolling back seems stupid.

              2. Related to the above apparently, is the fact that WINDOWS now reports installed memory as 16GB (15.9 usable) in the system properties which is something I haven't seen before.

              Both of these things seem memory related. Not sure if you know anything about them?

              In any case, thank you very much for your prompt assistance.

              Comment


              • #8
                the 15.9 useable is simply that the mobo has reserved a bit of DRAM for other things, which is no real problem, the IDE Initialization message is something to do with the Harddrive(s), what are you running in the way of drives (mechanical/SSD? how many? any RAID setups? it may be a driver issue


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

                Tman

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                • #9
                  Seems right. I'm running two SSD's in RAID 0 for the boot drive (using an onboard Marvell SATA RAID controller which is part of the mobo)

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                  • #10
                    Am guessing then that the RAID is set up under IDE, or if under AHCI, then it's initializinf the IDE as a secondary, which shouldn't be a problem either.


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

                    Tman

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                    • #11
                      RAID is set as AHCI.
                      Do you know why it would be initializing the IDE as a secondary? Or what that even means? I realise that this is outside your support category, sorry. You do seem to knwo your stuff so I thought I'd ask while I have you here )

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                      • #12
                        The BIOS is going to want to initialize IDE mode as generally it's the default, (you'd be surprised how many people set up SSDs under IDE mode), so when your system sees the RAID it immediately looks to it first for the OS and then fires up IDE in the event you have any actual IDE devices or SATA mechanical drives that are set up under IDE mode. Would have to check your manual, but if you are under a MArvel controller there's prob another controller (Intel chipset) on the mobo also


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

                        Tman

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                        • #13
                          Yep, that makes sense too. I have two other hardware raid controllers from HighPoint (currently not installed due to recent rebuild but installing them today), and they don't play nice with Intel's Matrix RST software raid. It is way too complicated/fragile to set this along with the RocketRaids. The marvel is super stable and works so I'll leave it alone and live with the mobo's annoying LED message. I may hunt around the BIOS to see if there is a way to disable/fix it there.

                          Thanks again so much Tman. Your support just made me a G.Skill customer for life. Extremely rare to find such great support from suppliers/manufacturers these days. Super refreshing. Cheers.
                          Last edited by syntax3ra; 03-21-2012, 04:21 PM. Reason: Spelling

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                          • #14
                            Well, I too am a Gskill for life type, one of the reasons I come out here is to help keep up w/ all the hardware, but have been using primarily GSkill DRAM for years unless a customer request something different. If you'd like you can offer comments to my thread below:


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

                            Tman

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                            • #15
                              Yes I've just posted there for you. Nice one mate. Thanks again.

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