Misbehaving BIOS?

GazzaMataz · 25 Jun 2013 at 16:52

I am a bit stumped. I have an ASUS P6X58D-E mobo, an i7 980X CPU, nVidia 460 GTX GPU and 12gb RAM.

Now the problem I have is every once in a while the machine will not boot up, all the noises are heard and all the lights come on. I know when it will work since I hear a distinctive beep which means it sees the GPU and boots, if I don't hear this I know I am in trouble.

Usually the way I have found to fix the machine is unplug the monitors and the two SATA drives. Then switch it on then off again. Then I plug everything back in and it tells me it cannot see a bootable drive and I have to go into BIOS and select the drive with Windows on it since it seems to change all drive priority settings.

Does this seem like faulty BIOS or ropey mobo or both? I have the latest BIOS installed I am puzzled why it does this every once in a while nothing seems to aggravate it.

This machine was an Overclocker custom made machine which was originally set to be overclocked and I had problems with my £D program because of this. I am wondering if the overclocking has cause this booting anomally.

Anyone got any ideas?

wazza300 · 25 Jun 2013 at 16:55

does it do it from a cold boot? 12gb of ram you might need a touch more imc voltage but forget what asus label it as

dram vtt I think not sure

GazzaMataz · 25 Jun 2013 at 17:38

wazza300

Yes it does it from a cold boot. Prime example today, I was using the computer all morning went out after switching it off and then when I cam back an hour or so later it wouldn't boot. Got a 600watt PSU in it I would have thought that would be enough?

wazza300 · 25 Jun 2013 at 17:40

yh psu is fine,its realy to do with running 12gb,you need a lot of cpu imc voltage

you can either add more voltage to imc and or dram voltage or test with just 6gb of ram and see if it still does it from cold

GazzaMataz · 25 Jun 2013 at 20:55

you can either add more voltage to imc and or dram voltage or test with just 6gb of ram and see if it still does it from cold

How do I add more voltage to imc/dram and what is imc? I must admit that I never had this problem until I went from 6gb RAM to 12gb.

wazza300 · 25 Jun 2013 at 21:04

I'm not sure what its labelled as on asus,imc is for the memory controller inside the CPU,dram is for your actual memory sticks,the more memory you have the more imc voltage you'll need,anything from 1.3-1.4v+

If you can take some BIOS pics I can advise you better

setter · 25 Jun 2013 at 21:10

On the p6 x58 de it's known as qpi dram voltage.

Screenshot from my old p6t dlx v2, bios on the x58 de is identical.

Iirc, that was with 12gb of kingston hyperx in a 3x4gb configuration.

GazzaMataz · 26 Jun 2013 at 09:15

Well I quickly read up on these settings from the manual and checked the OV_CPU and OV_DRAM_BUS jumpers, both where set to normal which was a surprise since it mentions that these can cause the machine not to boot.

I haven't yet looked at the BIOS settings but will do today and post a picture but I think that the QPI/DRAM Core Voltages are set to default since I reset the BIOS when I first encountered these problems.

The RAM is 6x2gb Corsair DDR3 XMS3. When I looked this up using CPU-Z I saw Voltages from 1.5 to 1.65 in the Timing Table does this help?

BTW this machine is not overclocked anymore since it caused my 3D app to crash.

GazzaMataz · 27 Jun 2013 at 09:00

Here is a grab of my BIOS under AI tweaker section, as I thought the settings talked about are at their default values. I must admit I am baffled that you have to change voltage setting when installing more RAM. I have had and used many computers and never had to do anything like this when upgrading RAM…

wazza300 · 27 Jun 2013 at 11:02

you need to set qpi/dram voltage to atleast 1.35v,maybe more

last time I ran 12gb at 1600mhz I needed 1.3750v qpi/dram

then set dram voltage o whats printed on the ram either 1.55v or 1.65v

x58 is funny when it comes to memory and auto doesn't always set the right voltage,modern sandy/ivy/haswell rely on a fixed bclk so it much more stable for memory

GazzaMataz · 9 Jul 2013 at 10:52

you need to set qpi/dram voltage to atleast 1.35v,maybe more

last time I ran 12gb at 1600mhz I needed 1.3750v qpi/dram

then set dram voltage o whats printed on the ram either 1.55v or 1.65v

x58 is funny when it comes to memory and auto doesn't always set the right voltage,modern sandy/ivy/haswell rely on a fixed bclk so it much more stable for memory

Cheers wazza300, I will check this out :-)

GazzaMataz · 14 Jul 2013 at 21:02

It's flipped out again but I didn't change the voltages. I took out 6gb RAM and it still didn't boot... Then I took all the RAM and it didn't squeak like it should do when no RAM present. So I put all the RAM back booted pushed the DVD eject button as it booted and it was fine???

If I up these voltages I won't damage my computer will I? I also noticed that it said that the over locking setting aren't working and I either need to set the BIOS manually or use defaults??? Something isn't right...

wazza300 · 14 Jul 2013 at 21:16

You mean the oc has failed msg? That's normal if it crashes just pop back into the BIOS and setup the oc again and save/exit

And no you won't damage anything with those settings

GazzaMataz · 15 Jul 2013 at 18:36

Just been looking through the manual and the QPI/DRAM Core Voltage setting seems straightforward whereas it states that setting the DRAM bus voltage to more than 1.65v may damage the CPU. My memory is 1600 1.65v so now I am nervous about setting that value... If it kills my puter I won't be happy right in the middle of a big project...

wazza300 · 15 Jul 2013 at 18:53

dram bus voltage is fine at 1.65v

for gigabyte boards I had to set to 1.66v and it was fine for years

setter · 15 Jul 2013 at 21:36

1.66v on asus boards too, the increment rises only go up in two's. I ran an ocz kit at 1.66v for years, it finally gave up the ghost a few weeks ago, shame as it was a cracking reaper kit.

tipes · 15 Jul 2013 at 22:52

Had to set my X58 Giga to 1.66v for ram too. You will be fine at a setting of 1.66V. Might want to check the ram timings are also set correctly as the x58 chipset was very fussy about ram and settings. Had a 980X myself - great cpu.

Mark

GazzaMataz · 16 Jul 2013 at 09:35

Well I have taken the plunge and set QPI/DRAM Core Voltage to 1.35 and DRAM Bus Voltage to 1.65 although it went up in .02V increments it went from 1.64 to 1.65 with the message 'According to Intel CPU SPEC, DIMMS with voltage setting over 1.65V may damage CPU permanently!!'

Now I am worried, I only just bought this CPU and it's great, don't want to shag my system just yet…

Actually, having a little look on the web I don't think I should have Corsair XMS 1600 1.65v memory in my computer anyway, I think that was installed to allow for overclocking which caused it to crash my 3D app and cause my boot problems. I can buy some 1.5v memory which is below that safety limit of 1.65v so I might get 12gb RAM in 3 x 4gb DIMMS. That sounds better :-)

12gb kit Ballistix

What do you reckon peeps?

wazza300 · 16 Jul 2013 at 10:11

Stick with the ram you have!!! Set to 1.65v dram and see if it fixes the issue

Trust me you won't damage the CPU or limit its lifespan in anyway,I ran my x58 memory at that voltage and its designed to run at 1.65v,I still have the memory nearly 4 years on and its all working fine no errors

GazzaMataz · 16 Jul 2013 at 11:08

Thanks Wazza, it tripped out on me again this morning before I committed to the changes you recommended so I took three sticks of memory out and it booted OK with 6gb RAM although I had to reset the boot order again.

Just out of curiosity I snapped these from CPU-Z, it is showing the Voltage as 1.5V??? and the XMP-1600 as 1.65V I don't understand the last bit - I am more of an animator than techy :-)