D0 I920 and Gigabyte EX58 UD5 issues.

The only thing I can do now is just send the mobo, RAM, and processor back for testing...

I am going to have a mess around with various different BIOS settings myself, but I personally can't see me having any success, this thing is *****D and thats all there is about it!!!!

I get really paranoid when things go wrong like this... I start thinking that the people I purchased the hardware from knowingly sold me dodgy goods..

I really thought that I was going to install this new PSU and fire up my system and for everything to be working perfectly...
 
Hmmm, just noticed something different about these crashes...

When Prime fails, it is now reporting this message:


FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4

Hardware Failure Detected, consult stress.txt file.

WTF does that mean exactly??

This is while trying to run a blend test if that counts for anything???

::edit::

OK, with the new XMS3 1333MHz RAM running @ 1066MHz, it appears to be running Blend Torture test fine.. But I don't want my RAM running below its rated speed, if I wanted 1066MHz RAM I would have bought some...

I just checked the date when I was given the RMA number from OcUK for my CPU, and it was 21 days ago today, so I am going to spend the entire night trying to get it stable with the Blend test with the RAM at its rated speed by trying different BIOS settings, and if I can't manage to get it up and running, then I am stripping this rig down and shipping off the CPU tommorow...

If however, there are no problems found by whoever tests the hardware, then I am going to have to return the mobo and RAM to the other e-tailer..

Why oh why didn't I just buy an OcUK overclocked bundle instead of buying the components separately?!?!

I used to love putting my own systems together, but this one has changed all that... I am beginning to hate the darn things!!!:mad:
 
Last edited:
OK, I think I have got it now...

I re-installed the Dominator memory, and I have loosened up the RAM timings in the BIOS to 9, 9, 9, 26, 2T, and I changed a few of the advanced timings as well, and then fired up Prime and started a Blend test, and it went perfectly for 1 hour without any problems at all...

I know I will need to test longer to properly test for stability, but I think this might just have done the trick...

I will leave it running overnight with these settings to see whether it is stable or not...

When it was BSOD'ing earlier today it would happen only when running the Blend and Large FFT torture tests, and it would crash as soon as the test started running, but if I chose a Small FFT run it ran perfectly..

Anyway, I will run a Blend test overnight, hopefully it will still be going in the morning...

::edit::

Forgot to say, I also raised the QPI/VTT voltage up to 1.455v, it was people at Corsair who recommended playing around with this setting, and they said anything from 1.3v to 1.65v is considered safe...

I really hope that I have nailed this problem once and for all... Only time will tell...

As far as RMA'ing everything back for testing, I will give it a couple more days to see how things are with these looser timings, and if I still get problems I will ship them off... I will give it until Monday, paying for them to be shipped off isn't a problem.. I wont bother returning the PSU or RAM to get the cash for that... I will be holding onto them, as the RAM will go towards my Fiancees new rig, and the PSU will stay in my case, as it is a really sweet looking piece of kit!
 
Last edited:
Forgot to say Plec, but yes, that testing was with the Be Quiet installed...

Well, those settings didn't do the trick after all, I let it run overnight, but it locked up my PC after 1 hour 30 minutes...

I am going to give OcUK a phone and double check whether the RMA number I was issued is still active, and if it is, I am going to ship the processor off, as someone else did suggest that it may very well be the memory controller in the CPU that is damaged...

If however that gets returned with no faults found, then I guess I will have to rip out the mobo as well...

Thanks for all your help Plec...
 
I have already shipped the CPU off Plec.. I wish that I had decided to try this before I pulled the CPU out of the mobo...

Although with the stress this PC has caused me already, I personally think returning the goods to the seller for proper testing is the best idea, because I am on the verge of cracking up because of the hassles it has caused me!!!!

The CPU should arrive at OcUK shop tommorow morning as I sent it off on Special Delivery which cost me £7.60, which I thought was insane because it is only a tiny little package...

I could have sent it for £5 or thereabouts, but it wouldn't have arrived until Monday morning, but I want it to get there as fast as possible..

I noticed something strange when I removed the CPU from the socket, you know the little contacts on the underside of the CPU?

Well it looks as though some of those haven't been making contact with the socket pins, most of the contacts have a little pin ***** on them where they have been making contact, but there are a few that dont have any marks on them at all, and then there are others which look as though the pins have been right on the very edge of the contact...

But when I look closely at the mobo socket with a magnifying glass they are all perfectly in line and they all look like they are at the same height...

But surely if these pins weren't touching the processor would fail to work completely?

Or would something like this cause the type of problems that I am experiencing??
 
Yeah, you are right man, I am going to just forget about my rig until I hear back from the people here whether the CPU is faulty first before I take any other steps...

I will keep you updated on this thread Plec...
 
Hey Plec, Still no word on my processor as yet, it has been with the OcUK guys since last Saturday, and I called them today to see if there was any news on it, and the guy said that it is still being tested and that it usually only takes them a couple of days to test goods...

Hopefully I will get news sometime in the beginning of next week...

I will let you know as soon as I find out myself..
 
Heres hoping man!!

I am having to use my Fiancees PC atm, and I hate it... I just want my i7 rig working as it should...

I'm going to order myself a Titan Fenrir HSF for my CPU either this week coming or the following week so that I can start having fun overclocking my rig... that is if everything works as it should when I get a replacement processor sent out to me!!
 
Well, thats my CPU being returned to me with no faults found whatsoever...

Said they ran Prime95 and OCCT for several hours with no problem... Needless to say I am ******* raging about this, because I have managed to run both OCCT and Prime for hours on end with the RAM @ 1066MHz...

I really dont know what else I can do here... I have spent £1700 on a rig that doesn't want to work for me...
 
Well, I am even more p***ed off today, as I have just recieved my CPU back this morning and inside the package was a couple of pics of screen shots of OcUK technicians "thourough testing"...

All they did was ran Small FFT's for 2 hours 44 minutes, and 32bit Linpack in OCCT for 2 hours 55 minutes!!!

I made it very clear to them about the problems that I was having, and also how I could run Small FFT's for 24 hours without any issues, and that it was Prime Blend and Large inplace FFT's that caused my problems...

I personally don't class this as thorough testing.. I mean, I did all this myself, and also they had my CPU for almost 2 weeks only to test it for a mere 6 hours on the two tests that I made very clear that I could get it to pass on myself?!?!?!

This kind of defeats the purpose really... I mean if I was the one testing goods that people think are faulty, I would run the tests that the person had problems with, not the ones that they can run without any issues... this has proved absolutely nothing!!!

And I called them up today only to get told by the guy that I would have to send it back yet again for further testing??!??!?

Why cant your technicians do proper testing in the first place instead of messing people around like this???

I personally feel like you are taking the pi$$ out of me here, by not running the tests that I stated were causing the problems for me!!!

Anyway, I am about to rip my rig apart and build it up outside the case with only the essentials hooked up and see how I get on with that...

I thought that you guys would have done better tests that this, especially when I sent about 3 seperate webnotes about the problems that I was having, explaining in detail as to all the problems that I was experiencing with my system...

This will be the last thing I ever purchase from OcUK, I will take my custom elsewhere in future...

Thanks for nothing!
 
LOL@ your comment!!! :D

Well, I am just away to go and setup my PC outside the case, and test my HDD's with different SATA cables to see if it is that which is causing the problem...

About the PSU "kettle" cable Plec, the Be Quiet! PSU doesn't use the normal power cable, it has this really chunky looking lead with a plug that I haven't ever seen before... it looks similar to a kettle lead, but it is chunkier and the pins are different from a kettle lead to....

Although this rig is really stressing me out, I know that I will get this problem sorted one way or another...

I am just trying to stay calm about it all and keep a clear head, otherwise I wont be able to focus when I get round to setting it up outside the case and then I will probably end up making things worse!!!

I will say it again, thanks so much for being here with me through this Plec, you have been really patient, and a lot of help to..

I will keep you updated man...

And dont worry, it hasn't got to the stage of me completely losing it... yet!!!

And I dont drive neither, so you're safe enough!!!! :D
 
Last edited:
Forgot to say as well, but when I opened the box to check my processor, it took out the piece of foam stuff to find that the CPU was still covered in TIM...

Maybe this isn't that big of a deal, but I would have preferred my items to be returned to me in the condition they were when I shipped them back in the first place... not covered in AS5!!!!
 
OK, I have spent the entire day tinkering with my rig, I decided not to rip the mobo out of the case, and instead I just disconnected all front panel switches/USB/Firewire cables, and also disconnected all case fans, and just left my boot drive connected and began testing at stock CPU frequency and the RAM running @ 1600MHz with all timings/advanced timings set manually, and Vcore, QPI/VTT, and DRAM voltages set manually to..

I booted into Vista and began a Blend test in Prime95, and it stopped running after 1 hour because of some errors, my system didn't BSOD, freeze or reset itself, Prime just stopped running...

I tried loosening up RAM timings as well, but the same thing kept happening...

So I decided to lower the CPU multi to 19x and raise Bclk to 160, I also dropped the DRAM voltage from 1.655v to 1.58v and QPI/VTT @ 1.395v, giving me a 3GHz overclock with my RAM running @ 1600MHz..

Booted into Windows and began Prime Blend Test again, and it has now been running for just over 5 hours without any issues...

I don't know exactly why it seems to be stable now, but I would have thought with the DRAM voltage being set lower than what it supposed to be I would have experienced even more instability, but this doesn't seem to be the case at all...

It will be left running this Blend Test overnight, and I will then spend the whole weekend testing my rig with these current settings to see whether this isn't just a lucky run or not, but if it starts misbehaving once more over this weekend then it will be getting torn apart again and the mobo will be getting shipped back to the retailer for proper testing...

@boldenc, thanks for the tips, but I am interested to know if there really is any need to save and exit the BIOS after making each adjustment???

I personally would just change all those settings at once, and save and exit after making all my adjustments... What difference would it make by making one change, saving and exiting, then re-entering the BIOS making another change, saving and exiting and so on??

Am I missing something here?

Anyway, hopefully I have finally found stable settings for my system.. I really want to get myself a new HSF ASAP, because I would love to have my rig running @ 4GHz.. my chip can reach 4GHz no problem at all with only 1.200v, but my Zalman cooler just isn't able to keep the chip cool at this frequency...

I might manage to buy a Titan Fenrir next week hopefully!!
 
Well, the problems are still present.. although they dont seem to be happening as often as they were before...

I am just going to leave it as is for the time being until I can get a new RMA number for the mobo to have it shipped off for proper testing...

When I decide to do my next big upgrade again, I wont be purchasing items from different retailers, I will make sure that they all come from the same source... infact I will probably just buy a mobo/ram/cpu bundle when I do another build, because I dont ever want to experience anything like this again!!!
 
Well, the mobo has definitely had it.. for some strange reason the 1st DIMM channel has packed in on me..

I noticed today when I restarting my system after Prime crashed, I pressed TAB so that I could see the POST screen instead of the Gigabyte Splash Screen, and it was only seeing 4GB of RAM...

At first I thought that one of my modules was dead, but I removed the Dominators and installed my XMS3 3GB set, and the same thing happened, it would only recognize 2GB of my RAM...

I then shutdown my rig and pulled the power cable out, and removed 1 stick from the 3rd memory channel, and started up again, but it would only recognize 1 stick of RAM..

So I shutdown yet again, and put the stick back into the 3rd channel and pulled the stick that was in channel 1 out of the system and booted up again and this time it recognized both sticks... I then tested each stick of RAM out in the 2nd and 3rd white slots on my mobo and they all work fine....

Also I tried having 1 stick of RAM in the blue slot on the first channel and the other 2 modules in the white slots on the other 2 channels and again it wouldn't see the stick installed on channel 1, but when I moved the stick from the blue slot in channel 1 to the blue slot on channel 2 it would pick up all 6gb but only in dual channel mode obviously...

It is strange though, because in the memory tab on CPU-Z it says that there is 6GB (or 3GB with my other set of RAM) installed on my system, and also in the basic information screen in Vista it also says there is 6GB installed, but on the POST screen and also in the Performance tab in Task Manager they both only see 4GB with my Dominators and 2GB with my XMS3 set...

Anyway, I am just about to go and try booting it up with only 1 module installed in channel 1 to see what happens..

What would cause 1 of my DIMM channels to pack in like this??

I am going to give the e-tailers a call and tell them about this problem so that I can get a replacement mobo sent out to me... what a PITA!!!
 
Last edited:
Oh, I forgot to say Plec, I tried testing with optimized defaults in the BIOS, and with the RAM running @ 1333MHz and 1600MHz, and sometimes it will run for a few hours before it BSOD's, other times it will just lockup my system forcing me to restart, and then the next time it will reset itself...

Pretty much the exact same issues I have been experiencing all along TBH...

I know this might sound weird, but I am actually happy that I have lost a DIMM channel on this mobo, because at least now I know that there is an actual hardware problem with the mobo and it isn't down to bad BIOS settings that is causing instability...

I think this mobo has been flaky from the very beginning, and this has been what is causing all these problems I have been having with my system...

Anyway, I will let this be a lesson to myself... never again will I purchase my components from different e-tailers, when I start my Fiancee's i7 build, I will probably just buy the overclocked 4GHz bundle from here tbh...

Also, I must apologize for my comments yesterday, I was just really angry, and I shouldn't be complaining about the technician leaving AS5 on my CPU's IHS... I was just looking for a way to vent my anger, and I am really sorry for being an A$$!!!

At least it saved me using some of my own AS5!!! :D
 
I am fairly confident that it is the mobo now after the DIMM channel dying... I wonder what caused it to fail like this anyway??

I tested out my system with just one stick installed in channel one, and it wouldn't POST, and the POST code LED display on the mobo read "b9"... it usually goes through a sequence of codes if it is going to POST successfully...

So it is definitely dead thats for sure.. like I said, I now believe that this mobo was flaky from the very beginning, at least now there is actually some physical damage for me to point my finger at!!!!

Will be shipping the mobo off tommorow, so hopefully I wont have to wait to long for a replacement one...
 
HeHe.. :D

Like I said, I am sooooo glad that I now have something physically wrong with my rig now, as it was so annoying when I didn't know what was causing the problems...

You are probably right enough in that the DIMM channel was probably suffering the entire time I had this rig up and running, and all my stress testing finally put it out of its misery!!!

I sent the e-tailers a lengthy e-mail explaining everything that I had done with my system and all the problems that I had been experiencing with it to, so I am kinda hoping that this will help aid a speeder RMA process, though they have told me that it could take up to 10 days for my replacement mobo to be sent out to me, which is reasonable enough IMO...

At least it wont take them long to see what the problem is now that the 1st DIMM channel has died...

I can't wait for my replacement to get shipped out though, so that I can start enjoying my new build!

This rig has been a huge learning experience for me I must say.. I have probably built around 20+ systems over the last 10 years for friends, family and myself, and every single one of them has went smoothly, from building them to installing the OS and any applications or games...

And all of those builds I have done prior to this one has used budget components, never spending more than £1000 all in, whereas this one I have spent around £1800+ (including monitor, keyboard and mouse, and the 2nd set of RAM I bought for testing purposes) and it has been the trickiest system out of them all!!!

Though, had the motherboard not been flaky from the beginning I wouldn't have had the problems that I encountered in the first place...

Thanks so much for being here for me Plec, you have been ever so helpful and I can't thank you enough for that...

I hope that if you ever have any problems with any of your future builds that I can be of assistance to you...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom