i7-2600K weird issue (RAM?)

[LastGreyWolf]

Hi there, so I have a weird problem, that I haven't encountered before.

I have Asus P8Z77-V mobo and ran with i5-3570k on 4,5GHz (1,25v, nice temps) with 2x8GB DDR3 2133MHz RAM for about a year. Now, I got ma hands on a i7-2600k very cheaply, so went for it (because threads, new games etc.).

Problem is - I switched the CPU, reset the BIOS into default settings, only set XMP profile on memory and went into windows to test, if CPU is good at stock speed. I got about 2 or 3 BSOD's and after that the memory in BIOS switched to "profile 2", aka 1600MHz. After that I can get into windows, browse in Chrome etc.. So I ran stability and stress tests - prime95, OCCT. Problem is - with memory on 1600MHz they can run for an hour without an issue, even longer - but when I hit "stop", the system freezes and I have to go for hard reset. It doesn't matter how long the test runs (10 minutes, 30 or 90..). I found some older forums, where similar things were described as memory controller issue on Sandy Bridge CPU's. But nothing helped (giving the RAM not 1,5v, but 1,55v; then turning XMP off and putting 1600MHz manually, putting 1333MHz manually etc.). I didn't try any gaming or anything, because no test will actually pass - they run without an issue (the temps are all in the mid 50's after about an hour and half in prime), but when i stop them - freeze.

Has anybody ever encountered anything like it? Because everything worked okay with my Ivy i5 (good temps, prime for hours and hours tested, RAM set at XMP), so there should be nothing wrong with mobo or the RAM. Also the BIOS is the newest version from the start - didn't touched that.

Is the CPU gone? Does it need a jolt of volts somewhere for the IMC (read about that in some OC posts about Sandy)?
I have never hit a problem like that, so any insight would help.

Thanks in advance

[scottyseng]

16 minutes ago, LastGreyWolf said:

-snip-

While odd, it's possible that windows didn't like the sudden change of CPU?

 

Otherwise I have this board and no issues at all with a sandy bridge in my bro's PC. I have the V-Pro myself currently, running 2700K at 4.9 GHz with 1600MHz RAM.

 

That or the IMC really hates you. I would try at stock RAM settings and see if it's still sable.

[LastGreyWolf]

3 minutes ago, scottyseng said:

While odd, it's possible that windows didn't like the sudden change of CPU?

 

Otherwise I have this board and no issues at all with a sandy bridge in my bro's PC. I have the V-Pro myself currently, running 2700K at 4.9 GHz with 1600MHz RAM.

 

That or the IMC really hates you. I would try at stock RAM settings and see if it's still sable.

Well, the 1600MHz I tried is actually the stock CL9 setting for that RAM (It's Kingston HyperX, rated 2133Mhz, but the stock JEDEC is at 1600) and it does crash at point, where I stop the test, not sooner

Otherwise - I was thinking about reinstalling Win10, but since it is a pain in the *** and the problem seemed more HW related, I did not yet. (Aka, I really shouldn't have put so many things on that 500 GB system SSD )
 

[scottyseng]

1 minute ago, LastGreyWolf said:

Well, the 1600MHz I tried is actually the stock CL9 setting for that RAM (It's Kingston HyperX, rated 2133Mhz, but the stock JEDEC is at 1600) and it does crash at point, where I stop the test, not sooner

Otherwise - I was thinking about reinstalling Win10, but since it is a pain in the *** and the problem seemed more HW related, I did not yet. (Aka, I really shouldn't have put so many things on that 500 GB system SSD )
 

Well, by stock, I mean default (1333MHz at auto)...Just to make sure.

 

Yeah, if you had a spare hard drive or something you could just use that just to test. I've jumped from my 2500K to 2700K with no issues, but never tried going from ivy bridge back down.

[LastGreyWolf]

4 minutes ago, scottyseng said:

Well, by stock, I mean default (1333MHz at auto)...Just to make sure.

 

Yeah, if you had a spare hard drive or something you could just use that just to test. I've jumped from my 2500K to 2700K with no issues, but never tried going from ivy bridge back down.

Yeah, my mistake, I forgot to write it in the first post - I did try 1333MHz at auto and also with manual timings. Both did the same thing too.

Will try to find some old spare drive or maybe RAM, but I got rid of some old sticks for a friend, cause they were useless for me.

And yeah, never tried it before either. I wanted to go for 3770k but prices are insane here, almost double that of 2600k...

[scottyseng]

Just now, LastGreyWolf said:

Yeah, my mistake, I forgot to write it in the first post - I did try 1333MHz at auto and also with manual timings. Both did the same thing too.

Will try to find some old spare drive or maybe RAM, but I got rid of some old sticks for a friend, cause they were useless for me.

And yeah, never tried it before either. I wanted to go for 3770k but prices are insane here, almost double that of 2600k...

Okay yeah, you either have a busted CPU or windows might be messing with you. You already tried remounting the CPU just for good measure?

 

Ah, I know that pain. I jumped on the 2700K because I wanted some more speed (but DDR4 pricing was insane at the time) and got it cheap. 3770K still sell for $150+ which is nuts to me. On my friend's old PC here (2500K), we opted to upgrade to Ryzen since the band aid fix of 2700K / 3770K is still costly (We need to buy new RAM anyway)

[DildorTheDecent]

Went from a 3570K to a 2700K on a Z77X-UP7 and reinstalled windows for good measure.

 

Was still able to push memory to 2200MHz CL9 thankfully.

 

Definitely reinstall Wndows.

 

(maybe that 2600K is buggered tho)

[LastGreyWolf]

Well, I did doublecheck everything when I was changing the CPU, but if the new windows installation (found a small older HDD to wipe and use) won't work, then I will take CPU, RAM and reseat it all and try again.
Since I'm doing it in case and don't have much space around right now, I do hope, that Windows is the issue.
 

[BiG StroOnZ]

When putting in a new CPU, always make sure to reset CMOS.

 

Other than that, try playing with VCORE and DRAM voltages (increasing them). It could be possible that the memory needs more volts to run properly (for instance my 2133MHz memory needs 1.65v for stability).

 

You also might want to take a look through this Overclock Guide, as there might be some settings that could help with stability that you aren't aware of:

 

https://www.overclock.net/forum/5-intel-cpus/1198504-complete-overclocking-guide-sandy-bridge-ivy-bridge-asrock-edition.html

[LastGreyWolf]

Well, so I put an older drive there, wiped it, got fresh Win10 on it and the "freeze on stop" problem has vanished.

Stock CPU with 1600Mhz was okay in prime, so I went for 2133MHz XMP - some workers stopped after about 10 minutes, I gave it 1,65v then and it took about 30 minutes for some to stop after that. However, I stopped the test, PC went to sleep and froze on waking up. Then failed to post with MemOK flashing red. I held it long enough to reset - then it got to POST and BIOS went back into defaults again.

CMOS was cleared by the mobo manual - power cord off, then jumper from 1/2 position to 2/3 for like 10 seconds and then back.

Now I'm trying to add a little VCCSA voltage - a friend got back to me and since there is no vccio/qpi option on this mobo, I'm trying that. Otherwise I have no idea, what will I do.. (probably reseat it all again, but.. well)

[BiG StroOnZ]

1 hour ago, LastGreyWolf said:

Well, so I put an older drive there, wiped it, got fresh Win10 on it and the "freeze on stop" problem has vanished.

Stock CPU with 1600Mhz was okay in prime, so I went for 2133MHz XMP - some workers stopped after about 10 minutes, I gave it 1,65v then and it took about 30 minutes for some to stop after that. However, I stopped the test, PC went to sleep and froze on waking up. Then failed to post with MemOK flashing red. I held it long enough to reset - then it got to POST and BIOS went back into defaults again.

CMOS was cleared by the mobo manual - power cord off, then jumper from 1/2 position to 2/3 for like 10 seconds and then back.

Now I'm trying to add a little VCCSA voltage - a friend got back to me and since there is no vccio/qpi option on this mobo, I'm trying that. Otherwise I have no idea, what will I do.. (probably reseat it all again, but.. well)

 

Do you have the newest Motherboard BIOS? Version 2104 2013/09/16 4.4 MBytes - P8Z77-V BIOS 2104

 

It is actually supposed to improve system stability:

 

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/P8Z77V/HelpDesk_BIOS/

 

https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1155/P8Z77-V/P8Z77-V-ASUS-2104.zip

 

It also seems that there is a Firmware update as well:

 

https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1155/MAXIMUS_V_EXTREME/IntelME81_Updating_Tool_V10001.zip

[LastGreyWolf]

3 hours ago, BiG StroOnZ said:

 

Do you have the newest Motherboard BIOS? Version 2104 2013/09/16 4.4 MBytes - P8Z77-V BIOS 2104

 

It is actually supposed to improve system stability:

 

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/P8Z77V/HelpDesk_BIOS/

 

https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1155/P8Z77-V/P8Z77-V-ASUS-2104.zip

 

It also seems that there is a Firmware update as well:

 

https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1155/MAXIMUS_V_EXTREME/IntelME81_Updating_Tool_V10001.zip

Yes, I have written it in the first post, that the BIOS was the newest one since I got that mobo about a year and half ago.

Not sure about the Firmware, but that seems to be just a update tool.

Anyway, adding VCCSA did not help. After that I tried to find stability again at stock CPU and 1600MHz RAM, but after a freeze during Prime95 I started looping and couldn't even get to Win. After few restarts I didn't even get to POST, so I cleared CMOS again, because the MemOK button on mobo didn't work. It repeated itself, so I finally lost all patience and put my i5-3570k and SSD back again.

Guess what - loaded my OC profile, ran prime95 for 2,5 hours now and no error whatsoever. The CPU either really hates my RAM or si simply broken.

I will borrow an OEM intel board from a friend with 2 4GB sticks of old A-data 1333MHz RAM in it and try the 2600k at stock there to see what it does, cause right now I've been at this for almost 3 days and need my PC actually working.

Will post what it did in the other mobo, but feel free to write if anything else comes to your mind about this. I might try again, if I'll have the time and the CPU won't fail in the other mobo

[BiG StroOnZ]

17 minutes ago, LastGreyWolf said:

I will borrow an OEM intel board from a friend with 2 4GB sticks of old A-data 1333MHz RAM in it and try the 2600k at stock there to see what it does, cause right now I've been at this for almost 3 days and need my PC actually working.

Will post what it did in the other mobo, but feel free to write if anything else comes to your mind about this. I might try again, if I'll have the time and the CPU won't fail in the other mobo

I'm starting to get a feeling as to why you got this "2600k for very cheaply" 

 

Could be a lemon, or has serious degradation issues. Being that you retried everything with your previous setup, and had success. That really is the only thing I can think of. Maybe try getting your money back (if possible) and picking up a different 2600k, or a 2700k or even better, a 3770k.

 

If it is a matter of severe degradation on the 2600k that you currently have (due to heavy overclocking abuse), it might take some serious VCORE to make it stable, even with clockspeeds that would otherwise not be considered very high for the voltage needed. e.g. 1.30-1.35v for 4.0-4.2GHz.

[LastGreyWolf]

23 hours ago, BiG StroOnZ said:

I'm starting to get a feeling as to why you got this "2600k for very cheaply" 

 

Could be a lemon, or has serious degradation issues. Being that you retried everything with your previous setup, and had success. That really is the only thing I can think of. Maybe try getting your money back (if possible) and picking up a different 2600k, or a 2700k or even better, a 3770k.

 

If it is a matter of severe degradation on the 2600k that you currently have (due to heavy overclocking abuse), it might take some serious VCORE to make it stable, even with clockspeeds that would otherwise not be considered very high for the voltage needed. e.g. 1.30-1.35v for 4.0-4.2GHz.

Thankfully, my faithful 3570k works still fine, so mobo and RAM is okay.

And yeah, the price wasn't like suspicious, but great anyway. It just seemed like the guy moved into a new flat, started a family, got a notebook or something - he was giving away more things - I got a cooler, and older Radeon GPU and even older mobo for almost nothing. But yeah, it could be, that it was a cheat and I got screwed

Will however try to run it in friends mobo or try to get the money back. (Which I'd be lucky to get I guess).

And I was trying to get 3770k for about half a year. But the prices are insane on these, they cost around 3000 CZK and you can get Ryzen 5 2600 for about 4500 any time. The 2600k's are a lot cheaper - around 1800 CZK, which is why I went that way.