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DDebbil

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Everything posted by DDebbil

  1. I'm bench testing a P9X79E-WS motherboard, however it seems to have some electrical issue, in that the system crashes whenever the board is pressed either on the right hand RAM banks or in other locations in the upper right corner (around the onboard power and reset buttons). It may then refuse to start again until unplugged/the BIOS is reset. The other components (including RAM, PSU, CPU etc) have been verified working with other boards. Just wondering if anyone can suggest something that might be causing this issue before I write it off as faulty.
  2. I'm trying to test out an i7 4790K, but the only cooler I have to test with is a CM Hyper TX3 (92mm), and unfortunately I don't have the stock fan, so I'm using another 92mm I had around which sounds like a jet engine (must be doing a good 3000rpm). Even with the fan going mental, the CPU is reaching close to 80C stock clocked on the nastiest part of Prime95 balanced test. I've tested a lot of chips and never seen one get this hot with 'ok' cooling at stock clocks. I'm sure the seating of the cooler is ok. Should I be worried or is this normal?
  3. Meaning atop a sheet of anti-static material on the desk. I did try an alternate PSU with the same effects. The RAM has been put in the correct lane populations according to the manual, and different RAM tried. I've tried re-seating cables but again no luck. I don't think it's a BIOS or driver issue (some of the problems occur pre-POST, while some occur randomly when the system has been working/detecting things previously). I tried reseating both of those cables but with no luck.
  4. I'm trying to test a batch of motherboards (all same model), which were sold to me as working, but they ALL seem to have problems. I'm using my usual test bench setup, i.e. with the motherboard atop anti static on the desk (not in a case), and pretty much all the boards are exhibiting what look like intermittent electrical faults, which cause booting issues *sometimes*, maybe ports to not work *sometimes* and so on. Sometimes a board will work but then when it is moved a couple of inches, it stops working on the next boot. Again I have this down as an electrical fault where there is something loose or close to shorting, and moving the board can trigger the short. But I'm starting to doubt myself. Is there something I could be doing wrong here?
  5. There was never any overclock. It's a bizarre message it throws out when it's misbehaving.
  6. I'm trying to test an ASUS P9X79-E WS motherboard, but it is throwing out intermittent faults when I change the SATA port used to boot and the PCI-E slot used for the graphics card. Occasionally, the board is refusing to start the graphics card or starts it but seems to crash upon loading Windows, and will then display an 'overclocking failed' message on next boot. Just now, it seemed to do the same, but on the next boot, there was no display and the Q-Code LED readout was not showing anything at all, and the board could only be brought back to working by clearing the BIOS.This thing is doing my head in because it seems to work fine for 10 boots with different SATA and PCI-E slots and I think "Oh it's working after all", but then it will do this faulty behaviour again.Can anyone suggest anything that I can do here?
  7. So you think it's within the window of normality for a 580?
  8. I'm trying to rehab an old GTX580 that was found to be running super hot (massive thermal throttling). I found that the heatsink was completely clogged, so I cleaned that out and repasted the GPU for good measure. But it's still running hot - low 40s celcius idle and around 90C full load on a test bench. Is this within the realms of normality for a 580 or should I be looking for other issues?
  9. Ok well - turns out the chassis intrusion jumper was randomly missing from this motherboard.
  10. That's very odd - I'm testing several of these boards in the same circumstances and none of the others are throwing a chassis intrusion error. Just this one (all with BIOS reset to defaults).
  11. I couldn't find the jumper, but there is a setting in the BIOS to switch off chassis intrusion detection. My worry is why it's giving this readout. Some kind of electrical fault, I assume?
  12. I'm trying to test a P9X79E-WS, however I can't get very far because it's throwing out a chassis intrude fatal error immediately upon posting. I can't find anything in the manual about this to fix it. I've tried resetting the BIOS but that didn't help. Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance.
  13. I had an Alienware 17 R2 a few weeks ago that I had to return because the cable that runs inside the machine from the power jack to the motherboard had previously melted and been replaced, with the result that the bottom case plastic that sits directly below it was also partially melted (the seller didn't mention this until I got it). Last week, I bought an Alienware 15 R2, and when that turned up, I noticed the same localised blistering on the lower case plastics, and when I opened it up, sure enough, the DC cable looks like it has been very hot, and the plug where is goes into the motherboard has discolouration and maybe partially melted. So now I'm thinking this is a design fault with this generation of Alienware laptops. I've done some googling around, and other people have definitely had this issue, so I'm surprised it isn't being officially called a design fault. I'm wondering if anyone here has one of these laptops and has experienced the same thing?
  14. I just found my old thread - what a joke! They just told me to do the same thing that I'd already done over and over again - a process which had already caused the motherboard to become a brick. From what I can tell, it seems their Windows BIOS update utility officially does not work for this motherboard (despite the fact that it is on the support download page for the board), and they do not provide BIOS files that are compatible with the onboard M flash update utility either. They seem to think it's reasonable to ask users to go through some convoluted rigmarole to update the BIOS (which may or may not actually work).
  15. I'm trying to get some help with a motherboard firmware upgrade which isn't working, but the MSI forum seems to be designed to cause fury. I can log in, but when I click on the 'forum' button, suddenly I'm a guest again and can't start threads. Then when I click 'register', I'm logged in again, so I click on the forum button again and i'm a guest. Not only that, but you have to enter BS quantities of capchas and other puzzles all the time, and also I seem to recall last time I had a similar issue, the admins were extremely rude and I ended up with a bricked motherboard. Am I doing something wrong here?
  16. I'm trying to get a new old ASRock Fatal1ty Z97M Killer motherboard, but the PCI-e slots aren't behaving themselves: when I put a graphics card in the top slot, the board will not read anything (e.g. a sound card) in the middle slot. Then when I move the graphics card to the middle slot, it won't read that either unless I reset the BIOS. Then it picks up the graphics card in the middle slot but won't pick up anything in the top slot, and if I move the graphics card back there, it needs another BIOS reset to get it to start reading from the top slot. The board is running the latest BIOS. Anyone have any ideas what the issue might be?
  17. Both motherboards have the latest BIOS. Resetting the BIOS prior to changing RAM settings didn't help - I still cannot input anything but 'auto'.
  18. I've been trying to set up a Ryzen-based system, but having all kinds of trouble with the RAM. The first motherboard I had (MSI X370 Gaming Plus) wouldn't run any memory settings other than 'auto' (including manually setting 2133MHz), with any of the three RAM kits I have, including one that's on the QVL. Thinking it was some weird motherboard issue, I bought an Aorus X370 Gaming 5, which worked OK for about 24 hours before that has also slipped into the same behaviour - no memory settings other than 'auto', including manually setting the same clock as auto, will boot. Both motherboards are running the latest BIOS, and all other settings are stock. The only thing in common is the CPU. Does my CPU have a defective memory controller?
  19. Auto LLC is what produces the 1.32V. Medium was between auto and high for vdroop.
  20. I got an Aorus AX370 Gaming 5 to replace the MSI X370 Gaming Plus that refused to run any RAM setting but 'auto' (another thread about that somewhere on here), however this one has a different and almost equally frustrating issue: Whereas the Gaming Plus was excellent at overclocking my R7 1700 despite its (doubled) 4-phase VRM, keeping the voltages rock solid pretty much regardless of load, this Gigabyte cannot keep them anywhere close. For 3.9Ghz, I have it set to 1.4V vcore, which yields an SVI reading of about 1.385 without load, but under Prime95, this is dropping to around 1.32V in the most power hungry bits - which then causes the machine to lock up. Even with LLC set to 'high' it is still dropping to 1.337V on some parts of Prime95 and locking up (based on the Gaming Plus, this CPU needs about 1.34-1.35V SVI to hit 3.9GHz stably). I am running the latest BIOS. Any ideas what to do about this?
  21. Hm - the latest BIOS did improve the POST time a bit, but it's about 10-12 seconds before the top two LEDs go out, and another few seconds before the screen comes on.
  22. I think for dual channel you need one stick in the A channel and one in the B channel.
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