980x + Rampage III Extreme = BSOD....Why?

[teknic111]

My system’s specs…

Intel I7 980x @ 3.33GHz
Asus Rampage III Extreme
Corsair HX1000W Power Supply
6 Gigs Muskin Redline
EVGA GTX 480
Sound Blaster X-Fi
Intel x25-m 80gig SSD
1.5TB SATA 3.0GB/s HD
Windows 7 64-Bit

I built this system one year ago and upon the build everything worked great. After about six months, I noticed my computer would crash every other week or so. These crashes always happened when my computer was idle. As time went on the crashes became more frequent. It is now at the point where it crashes every 20 minutes!

I have swapped out every piece of hardware, except for the power supply and CPU, and the problem still exist. Even performed a clean install of Windows.

The odd thing is I can get the system to run stable by overclocking it!! What does that mean?? Does this point to a faulty power supply or faulty CPU?

Any advice you guys can give would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

 

[skipsneeky2]

im gonna say replace the cmos 3.3v battery and maybe take out a stick of memory see if possibly you got a bad module try also maybe removing any add in cards like soundcards i remember working on a machine with this issue and he had a bad printer card ,yeah i know his rig was from like 2001 but still his server and if the issue goes away add each item back in till the problem arises

 

[skipsneeky2]

nice specs also btw like the mobo im using this crappy msi and the thing cant clock for shit heck i cant boot if i try and get a 3.3ghzs clock but you boot if you rock some clocks,wish i was that luck man

 

[teknic111]

I've done all this and the problem still persist. The only things I haven't changed is the CPU and power supply.

 

[SolMiester]

When you say crash, are you talking BSOD, freeze?....this could be a driver issue!

 

[mfenn]

If overclocking "fixes" it, you might not be getting enough voltage to the CPU. Try going into the BIOS and bumping the Vcore a bit.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

You swapped everything out, right? cept what you said.. ok, did you try booting off a HDD rather than the SSD??? That' pattern is something very similar to how my first Vertex LE died.

 

[Davidh373]

You see, there's this magical point where spending TOO much makes your computer complete garbage

 

[Davidh373]

In all seriousness though, reset you BIOS, take out all the RAM you can and test each individual stick.

 

[teknic111]

When you say crash, are you talking BSOD, freeze?....this could be a driver issue!

I'm talking BSOD. This is no driver issue. I even had it BSOD on me while booting off the Windows 7 setup CD.

If overclocking "fixes" it, you might not be getting enough voltage to the CPU. Try going into the BIOS and bumping the Vcore a bit.

I think you are right on with this. The real question is- why isn't the system running stable when I load the "optimal settings" choice in the bios? What would cause the need to add more Vcore? There must be a hardware fault somewhere.

You swapped everything out, right? cept what you said.. ok, did you try booting off a HDD rather than the SSD??? That' pattern is something very similar to how my first Vertex LE died.

Yes, I swapped out everything, except the PSU and CPU. Even got another motherboard through an ASUS RMA. I tested Windows 7 from both the drives, with the other unplugged, and still couldn't find the problem.

In all seriousness though, reset you BIOS, take out all the RAM you can and test each individual stick.

I did all this. Even went as far to buy all new memory (Upgraded to 12gigs)...Problem still persist!

 

[Campy]

What BSOD message does it give you? Also, have you tried a different brand of RAM?

Remove everything non-essential; sound card, use only 1 stick of RAM etc. try different RAM

 

[teknic111]

Yes, I have tried Muskin and Kingston. I Also did try testing with all non-essential hardware removed. No luck!

Here's a report from WhoCrashed...

On Tue 5/24/2011 6:25:30 PM your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\052411-11278-01.dmp
uptime: 00:56:04
This was probably caused by the following module: hal.dll (hal+0x12A3B)
Bugcheck code: 0x124 (0x0, 0xFFFFFA800ACF3028, 0xB2000000, 0x30005)
Error: WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR
file path: C:\Windows\system32\hal.dll
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: Hardware Abstraction Layer DLL
Bug check description: This bug check indicates that a fatal hardware error has occurred. This bug check uses the error data that is provided by the Windows Hardware Error Architecture (WHEA).
This is likely to be caused by a hardware problem problem. This problem might be caused by a thermal issue.
The crash took place in a standard Microsoft module. Your system configuration may be incorrect. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver on your system which cannot be identified at this time.

 

[somethingsketchy]

If the issue "might be caused by a thermal issue", might be worth pursuing an RMA on the motherboard (northbridge/southbridge) or the processor if possible.

It could be the northbridge is overheating and eventually the system will BSOD. Do you have stock cooling (heatsinks) or are you liquid cooling?

 

[teknic111]

I already did RMA the motherboard. The problem was present on both boards. Also checked all temps. Everything is in normal ranges. Like I said before, the only things that haven't been thoroughly tested are the PSU and CPU. I think my next step is an RMA on the power supply, and if that doesn't work, I'm going to RMA the CPU.

 

[mfenn]

I think you are right on with this. The real question is- why isn't the system running stable when I load the "optimal settings" choice in the bios? What would cause the need to add more Vcore? There must be a hardware fault somewhere.

Well, the BIOS only has very limited logic as to what "optimal settings" are. It can't be programmed for every condition. The need to add more Vcore (which you should probably confirm before RMAing the power supply) is likely due to the CPUs burnt-in VID being too low. That could be due to any number of things, but most likely would be caused by a period of high-voltage overclocking.

 

[teknic111]

I understand that the logic is limited as to what the optimal settings should be, but it should be able to set setting that would run the CPU stable. If not, I am thinking there is a fault in the CPU, and perhaps that should be RMA'd.

The more I think about this, I am leaning toward the CPU being faulty, opposed to the power supply. After all, has anyone ever heard of a faulty power supply that would run an overclocked system stable, and not a system running at stock speeds?

I also want to point out that the CPUs burnt-in VID can't be low due to overclocking, because the system was never overclocked prior to this problem arising. What other conditions could cause this problem?

 

[mfenn]

I understand that the logic is limited as to what the optimal settings should be, but it should be able to set setting that would run the CPU stable. If not, I am thinking there is a fault in the CPU, and perhaps that should be RMA'd.

"Should" rarely equals "does". You have a Rampage III Extreme, which is a tweaker's motherboard. Those are notorious for having all sorts of quirks. It could very well be a design flaw in the mobo and/or BIOS.

The more I think about this, I am leaning toward the CPU being faulty, opposed to the power supply. After all, has anyone ever heard of a faulty power supply that would run an overclocked system stable, and not a system running at stock speeds?

It is also possible that the PSU's 12V rails are low enough that the VRMs have a hard time generating the correct output voltage (without a manual boost). It's a long shot, but measure your 12V rails with a multimeter under load.

I also want to point out that the CPUs burnt-in VID can't be low due to overclocking, because the system was never overclocked prior to this problem arising. What other conditions could cause this problem?

The fact that your problem seemed to slowly creep up over time does suggest that the problem is a faulty CPU. Silicon chips can degrade over time for all sorts of reasons: stress, design flaws, poor materials, etc. However, I wouldn't be comfortable saying that it is 100% without-a-doubt the CPU.