Rog Zenith II Extreme Alpha stuck on "Memory Test"

[David Petrofsky]

Actually no - MB_SOC is 0.89.  I had it written correctly on paper but transcribed it on here wrong.  Post edited

[David Petrofsky]

I have confirmed that VCORE is not shorted to ground - just not outputting any voltage (or 1 mV, which might just be the margin of error of the meter)

[David Petrofsky]

I was about to pull everything off to put in board #2 and then I thought, why not test the voltages on the power supply connector. 

 

The voltages on the pins (with the plastic tester clip attached) match the chart for version 2.0 at https://www.smpspowersupply.com/connectors-pinouts.html

 

However, in the manual for the board, it shows a totally different pinout for 24-pin power (EATXPWR).  It didn't even occur to me that such an expensive PSU would have a totally different 24-pin connector as I thought PSUs were pretty standardized by this point.  I don't see anything in the mobo manual or psu manual about this situation - is it a totally incompatible supply or is there some kind of adapter, jumper, extra cable, etc. I need to connect?

 

This is the PSU: https://www.newegg.com/evga-supernova-220-p2-1200-x1-1200w/p/N82E16817438029?Item=9SIA0ZX4R45455

 

[David Petrofsky]

Oh nevermind that last part...I have to reverse it because it's from the perspective of the board.  Duh.

 

Edit: I take it back - the tester from evga is shorting the 3rd and 4th pin while eatxpwr guides online say to short 4 and 5.  The PSU and mobo are using different pinouts for power.

[David Petrofsky]

ok I think the PSU voltages are fine after further research.

 

I put the CPU, cooler, and RAM on board #2 and plugged in the PSU to it.  I got the exact same result as board #3.  I also updated the BIOS just to make sure it was an equal test, and got the same result before and after the update.  I also tested the voltages on board #2 and got pretty much the same results as board #3 to within a mV or so.

 

I did not bother plugging in the GPU because I do not believe the system is going far enough into the sequence to care about that.  I can try it just for the hell of it but I'm pretty sure it won't make a difference.

 

So I guess at this point I don't know much of anything...because both motherboards could be bad, or the cpu or ram could be bad, or both, or one motherboard is bad plus one of the other things.  

[David Petrofsky]

omg I think I might know the problem....if true then on the one hand I feel stupid but on the other hand, I was just following what the manuals said and the manuals shouldn't assume you're an experienced system builder.

 

So I noticed there was a persistent red LED that did not correspond to the QLED in the manual.  I found that it corresponded to extra 8-pin power.  The evga psu manual said the 24-bit pin was the motherboard power and the 8-pin cpu power was "optional: only if you will do EXTREME OVERCLOCKING or use TWO CPUs."  I took that to heart and thought since I was using 1 CPU and not overclocking at all, this connection would do nothing.  The Asus manual also did not mention needing this - just shows a bunch of power connections and says basically "here are the power connections - use what you want."

 

So I decided since they went through the trouble of putting a red LED for that, maybe it was needed after all.  So I connected it to board #2, where my CPU is right now, and it went past that step and showed a bunch of other things on the OLED screen, stopping at HDD (which makes sense since I don't have any storage of any kind mounted right now).  I'm going to move the CPU back to board #3 and see what happens.  I'll test the RAM and GPU on board #2 first.

 

I would also point out that the error message "Memory Test" is wildly inaccurate and misleading for what the problem was.  Why couldn't the OLED just say "no CPU voltage" or something?  And why does the evga manual flat out lie to me?  haha

[Guest]

42 minutes ago, David Petrofsky said:

omg I think I might know the problem....if true then on the one hand I feel stupid but on the other hand, I was just following what the manuals said and the manuals shouldn't assume you're an experienced system builder.

 

So I noticed there was a persistent red LED that did not correspond to the QLED in the manual.  I found that it corresponded to extra 8-pin power.  The evga psu manual said the 24-bit pin was the motherboard power and the 8-pin cpu power was "optional: only if you will do EXTREME OVERCLOCKING or use TWO CPUs."  I took that to heart and thought since I was using 1 CPU and not overclocking at all, this connection would do nothing.  The Asus manual also did not mention needing this - just shows a bunch of power connections and says basically "here are the power connections - use what you want."

 

So I decided since they went through the trouble of putting a red LED for that, maybe it was needed after all.  So I connected it to board #2, where my CPU is right now, and it went past that step and showed a bunch of other things on the OLED screen, stopping at HDD (which makes sense since I don't have any storage of any kind mounted right now).  I'm going to move the CPU back to board #3 and see what happens.  I'll test the RAM and GPU on board #2 first.

 

I would also point out that the error message "Memory Test" is wildly inaccurate and misleading for what the problem was.  Why couldn't the OLED just say "no CPU voltage" or something?  And why does the evga manual flat out lie to me?  haha

Not all post codes are actually error codes. Most are posting indicators, your system just happen to hang at "memory test" however this isn't an indicator of failing the test, that's just where it's at during post. 

 

Fast Boot disables a lot of post up tests and you won't see as many codes with this feature enabled. 

 

And yes, there are a few boards that require all cpu power connectors to be plugged in. Seems like you just simply found out the hard way. 

[David Petrofsky]

Yup...works now with all 3 power cables connected. All 256 GB of RAM running @ 3600 MHz, all 3 SSDs show up in BIOS.  I ran out of thermal paste mid-application so one side of the cpu is a little thinner.  Maybe it will spread out favorably.  I will order more paste just in case.  For now, idle temp is 49c, though I don't know the individual core temps, maybe that one side of the cpu is hotter.

 

I'm going to run memtest for like 24 hours, and then install windows and test the cpu core temps & accuracy.  What is the best tool for that these days?  When I got my last PC 10 years ago it was prime95 but now I hear many derogatory things about that.

[svmlegacy]

9 hours ago, David Petrofsky said:

What is the best tool for that these days

I still use memtest86+. Happy to hear you got it up and running. I hate to do this, but I need to point out this step in the very first post I gave you:

Quote

2. Check if EVERY power cable is connected. Auxiliary power connectors included.

No harm, no foul. Enjoy your machine!

[David Petrofsky]

4 hours ago, svmlegacy said:

I still use memtest86+. Happy to hear you got it up and running. I hate to do this, but I need to point out this step in the very first post I gave you:

No harm, no foul. Enjoy your machine!

Fair enough - it's worth pointing out though that if someone doesn't know they're supposed to connect more cables (in my case the manual actually said not to), that instruction doesn't really tell you to go against the manual.  I would suggest it should have a note in that step like "if your board has 8-pin power connectors try connecting them even if the manual says not to."

 

[Xplo1t]

They memory that you posted will not do you any favors.  Get something with better timings, especially if running 8 sticks and wanting to achieve the 3600 overclock.  

 

 

[David Petrofsky]

2 hours ago, Xplo1t said:

They memory that you posted will not do you any favors.  Get something with better timings, especially if running 8 sticks and wanting to achieve the 3600 overclock.  

 

 

There doesn't seem to be anything with better timings in a size that will max out my RAM, at least on newegg.  Is there one you had in mind?

 

What kind of numbers should I look for in memtest benchmarks, etc. to know whether it is actually a problem or not?

[svmlegacy]

5 minutes ago, David Petrofsky said:

There doesn't seem to be anything with better timings in a size that will max out my RAM, at least on newegg.  Is there one you had in mind?

 

What kind of numbers should I look for in memtest benchmarks, etc. to know whether it is actually a problem or not?

I wouldn't worry so much about it. It's not a problem that will stop it from working normally. We're talking fractions of a difference.

[Xplo1t]

20 hours ago, svmlegacy said:

I wouldn't worry so much about it. It's not a problem that will stop it from working normally. We're talking fractions of a difference.

You no clue what you are talking about.  Trying to run quad channel memory with 8 sticks overclocked is not easy with horrible timings.  You have a Ryzen 3 anyways so not like you have first hand experience with anything high end.

 

Something like this with b-die Samsung memory would be a lot more stable.

 

https://www.newegg.com/g-skill-32gb-288-pin-ddr4-sdram/p/N82E16820232860?Item=N82E16820232860

[svmlegacy]

8 hours ago, Xplo1t said:

You no clue what you are talking about.  Trying to run quad channel memory with 8 sticks overclocked is not easy with horrible timings.  You have a Ryzen 3 anyways so not like you have first hand experience with anything high end.

 

Something like this with b-die Samsung memory would be a lot more stable.

 

https://www.newegg.com/g-skill-32gb-288-pin-ddr4-sdram/p/N82E16820232860?Item=N82E16820232860

OP already purchased the memory. 3600 MT/s is not essential for the machine's operation. Buying a different set might not be an option. I made no mention of the ability to run 3600 MT/s, only that it would function reasonably. Just because I run a R3 in my daily doesn't mean I know nothing.

[indigozebra]

I stumbled on this thread as I faced a similar memtest issue with the exact memory part (https://www.gskill.com/product/165/326/1582267558/F4-3600C18Q2-256GTZN-Overview)

 

I basically worked my way up with 2, 4, 6 and then 8 sticks of ram. Started at 3200 and then up. One thing that I did was to set the DRAM voltage manually to 1.35 instead of auto before switching to 3600. After several attempts, I finally managed to go past POST. Its now very stable. Also updated the BIOS to the latest version.

 

MB Asus Zenith Extreme Alpha II

3970x

256 GB

[AbrarTalks]

On 7/2/2020 at 10:24 PM, David Petrofsky said:

omg I think I might know the problem....if true then on the one hand I feel stupid but on the other hand, I was just following what the manuals said and the manuals shouldn't assume you're an experienced system builder.

 

So I noticed there was a persistent red LED that did not correspond to the QLED in the manual.  I found that it corresponded to extra 8-pin power.  The evga psu manual said the 24-bit pin was the motherboard power and the 8-pin cpu power was "optional: only if you will do EXTREME OVERCLOCKING or use TWO CPUs."  I took that to heart and thought since I was using 1 CPU and not overclocking at all, this connection would do nothing.  The Asus manual also did not mention needing this - just shows a bunch of power connections and says basically "here are the power connections - use what you want."

 

So I decided since they went through the trouble of putting a red LED for that, maybe it was needed after all.  So I connected it to board #2, where my CPU is right now, and it went past that step and showed a bunch of other things on the OLED screen, stopping at HDD (which makes sense since I don't have any storage of any kind mounted right now).  I'm going to move the CPU back to board #3 and see what happens.  I'll test the RAM and GPU on board #2 first.

 

I would also point out that the error message "Memory Test" is wildly inaccurate and misleading for what the problem was.  Why couldn't the OLED just say "no CPU voltage" or something?  And why does the evga manual flat out lie to me?  haha

Hey, So Im having the exact same problem. My PC setup is very similar to yours. I have a TR 3960x, Asus Zenith 2 extreme alpha, EVGA 3090, 8 Sticks of GSKILL RAM and EVGA supernova 1000G+ PSU. So my PC was working yesterday, then I put it to sleep mode. I wake up in the morning, and I encounter exactly what you were. I followed your thread, and I'm kind of confused as to what you exactly did here to make it work?