P8P67 Mobo issues?

[camalbitboy]

Hi All,

I have an issue with my new system that I am hoping someone may may have a fix for.

I ordered an ASUS P8P67 motherboard, 2500k processor, Vantage ALC cooler and win 7 64 bit from Scan. I also ordered 4gb of Crucial ballistix 1600 memory from Crucial direct.

I was reusing an OCZ Vertex 2 60GB ssd and 2 X 460GT's, corsair 850W psu, coolermaster stacker case also purchased from Scan a while back, and some SATA storage drives.

The build went well, Windows installed fine and activated and i was wowed with my new pcmark scores, memory was set to 1600 through xmp and all was good. Left it installing my steam games overnight.

Next day found the system had hung, rebooted, but then I noticed that my memory was running at 1333 rather than the rated 1600. I went into bios and in advanced setting selected the xmp profile which set the correct timings and voltage, I also disabled epu and disabled q-fan on the cpu (so the vantage got full power).

The system wouldn't reboot, it just hung with the red light by the memory lit up. I tried the memok button next to it, no difference, still hung. tried bios defaults, tried to reset the bios with the jumper, no difference. removed everything bar the ssd, dvd drive and 1 gpu, still no difference. Reseated the memory, no luck. Tried 1 stick at a time and discovered that one of the sticks would boot into 1333 but not the other. Figured this was the issue and RMA'd the memory and bought new sticks.

Got replacement memory the next day, slightly diff sticks this time, installed it and booted to 1333 fine. rebooted set xmp profile and booted to 1600 fine. All was good i thought. Installed the ballistix memory util that shows memory spd and temp, and the asus pc probe2 software, again reporting my memory correctly. Spent the eve gaming a happy man.

Next day I get a bunch of failed boots, and failed overclock messages when i get past the first bit.
I can boot to windows with default bios settings at memory 1333. If I set xmp profiles I always get the memory error light on and it hangs. If I set the memory manually at 1600 and 1.65v I can boot to windows but pcprobe2 cannot report memory spd, ballistix util reports unsuppotred mother board now but cpuz does show memory at 1600.

Again I have tried to reset bios, popped the battery, done the jumper etc etc. tried one stick at a time and even done a clean windows install but I still get same issues. As I happen to have not posted back the other memory i even tried the good stick from that, and same issue. Tried with each of the gpus's and even an old 8800GT i have lying around. Have run windows memory tool, intel cpu tool and they both came back with no errors.

Last night i got a message saying that I was running a fake copy of win7. Tried to verify it online again but still same message. Will double check that i have the right key entered later, but I wonder if windows verification thinks this is already registered to a different motherboard hence the error, as in, has something about the motherboard changed (failed) causing windows to see it as a differnet board, and the ballistix tool to think this motherboard isn't supported?

So what do you advise as the next step as I am stumped? I doubt its the memory this time (in fact I suspect the MB of killing the first set of memory), cpu is unlikely, PSU unlikely as I have one of the most highly recommended psu's, doubt its the SSD as have done a clean install and the problems are prior to windows loading.

Is it time to RMA the MB?

Any thought appreciated.
Cheers
Cam

[kalniel]

I would suspect CPU primarily, socket pins secondarily.

[Tattysnuc]

Hi All,

I have an issue with my new system that I am hoping someone may may have a fix for.

Is it time to RMA the MB?

Any thought appreciated.
Cheers
Cam

Just a few thoughts quickly...

Have you tried the mem ok? function on the board? Sounds like it's incompatible memory to me.

Also, what version of the UEFI are you on? Is it up to date? Which sockets on the board are you using? Black or Blue? I'm using Blue....

I would advise, clear CMOS settings and start from the beginning without any overclock (you probably aren't overclocked, but best to make sure)

Failing that, as Kalniel said, it might be the CPU - if the pins on the mobo are not making good contact you can have probs with memory. I doubt that though because if they don't make contact, you don't see sticks of memory, not some speeds are available, while others are not, in my experience.

[camalbitboy]

Just a few thoughts quickly...

Have you tried the mem ok? function on the board? Sounds like it's incompatible memory to me.

Also, what version of the UEFI are you on? Is it up to date? Which sockets on the board are you using? Black or Blue? I'm using Blue....

I would advise, clear CMOS settings and start from the beginning without any overclock (you probably aren't overclocked, but best to make sure)

Failing that, as Kalniel said, it might be the CPU pins on the mobo not making good contact. I doubt it because if they don;t make contact, you don't see sticks of memory, not some speeds are available, while others are not, in my experience.

Mem ok doesn't rescue the system from xmp profile set up. It has recovered from manually set 1600 memory, bringing it back at 1333 or lower.

I was using Black memory slots primarily, but i have used blue. I will test again more thoroughly with Blue tonight.

I have cleared the cmos and started from scratch (once even with a fresh install of windows) a few times now with no OC in place, doesn't seem to help. As soon as I try altering the memory to the correct speed it will start acting screwy. In fact even at 1333 asus probe 2 isn't reporting the memory spd and the Ballistix mod utility says its an incompatible mobo so its acting up before i change anything at all.

I'll try removing the cooler and reseating the cpu again tonight.

[camalbitboy]

Ok sp reseated cpu and cooler and made no difference.

I'm on the B3 version so I'm on the latest bios.

Got one memory stick to appear in the Ballistix utility, but it reported back infinity CAS.... leave it in place reboot and diff results. The same is true with both sticks.

Put in the working stick from the first load of Ram and I can get it to boot, report correctly in ballistix mod utility and probe 2, but will not boot in 1600 whatever I try.

I can't believe that I've got 2 dud sets of ram, so I reckon either these crucial sticks aren't supported on this mobo (not listed on ASUS SQL it turns out, despite Crucial website recommending them for this mobo) Or the mobo is dud.

Do I return the memory and get something from the SQL list, or RMA the mobo and see if the memory works?

Place your bets please ladies and gentlemen, oh and opinions.

[kalniel]

My bet is on the CPU having trouble. But have you tried RAM that's actually supported? IIRC that CPU only supports ram voltages of 1.5V, both your sets require 1.65V. Try a set that's designed to work at rated speeds while getting 1.5V

Whether you've damaged something trying to run unsupported RAM might be another matter - the mem controller is on the CPU and sometimes they are sensitive to voltage changes - equally they can be unstable if they're run at too far a voltage from the RAM. All the more reason to get the right RAM.

[camalbitboy]

My bet is on the CPU having trouble. But have you tried RAM that's actually supported? IIRC that CPU only supports ram voltages of 1.5V, both your sets require 1.65V. Try a set that's designed to work at rated speeds while getting 1.5V

Whether you've damaged something trying to run unsupported RAM might be another matter - the mem controller is on the CPU and sometimes they are sensitive to voltage changes - equally they can be unstable if they're run at too far a voltage from the RAM. All the more reason to get the right RAM.

Hmm I see your point. Looks like its time to swap out that memory.

[camalbitboy]

So do I swap out the memory for 1.5v 1600 or just get some 1333 1.5 stuff so I'm def in spec with the 2500k? Would I see much difference in real terms with 1600 memory bearing in mind I am looking to get a 4.3OC on the cpu.

Cheers
Cam

[kalniel]

1600 doesn't cost any more, and running at 1600 is in spec with a p67 motherboard and that CPU. CPU overclocking has nothing to do with memory speed so don't worry there.

[camalbitboy]

cool, bought;
4GB (2x2GB) Corsair Vengeance DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, XMP, 1.50V
and it should be here tomorrow so will see what happens. i pray its just the memory and nowt else!!

[camalbitboy]

Ok so it was the Crucial memory after all.

After popping in some 1.5v 1600 Corsair from Scan (at their recommendation) it is all working normally. Used the auto overclocker to get to 4.3Ghz (it adjusted my blk to 103 but thats unstable so I dropped it back to 100) and the xmp profile to force the ram at the correct speed.

A 6 hour torture test of Prime 95 and MSI's Kombuster gpu stability test got both GPU's and CPU to 100% and no crashes. GPU's got to 56 and 47, and the cpu to 63 degrees c so not too toasty either.

Just goes to show that Crucials system scanner doesn't recommend compatible memory after all.....

[jonathan_phang]

Just a quick one - what RAM set did you get from scan? I'm pretty much putting together a SB build as well, and pondering over the RAM. I'd read about the fact that it needs 1.5 RAM, but this has also been countered by Clunk in his overclocking guides, and with a lot of people in other OC threads, who seem to have 1.65 RAM.

I was going to go for these, but despite what it says there, if you google the part number, even Corsairs site say that these are 1.65v modules.

Failing that I was thinking of getting these vengance sticks instead.

Despite me thinking that 1.65v will actually be fine (that many people cant all be wrong?) I'd like to err on the side of caution so just interested in what you got.
Cheers

[kalniel]

Clunk is correct and my earlier statement is inaccurate - you don't need 1.5V ram per se, but I would always recommend 1.5V RAM because it seems to be far more likely to work in most motherboards.

If scan advertise them as 1.5V RAM then they will be - I think corsair use the same product code for both, annoyingly, but we ordered this exact kit from scan and it was the 1.5V version, and worked straight off (and it turns out they are actually XMP too, making them even easier to set up).

[jonathan_phang]

So you've actually got the set of RAM that I first linked to? Great. I also want 1.5 just to try and minimise any problems with the mobo that I will be getting and also because they are standard height, so I can maybe get larger coolers too.

In respect to the part numbers, there are A and B variants, and I'm sure that the B variant is the 1.5 version, but on the corsair site I went to they were both listed as 1.65... Either way, will order them from Scan, and if they turn up with different details then I can always return them.

[kalniel]

2x2gb XMS3 1600 cas 9 1.5V, yep. Work great with a vanilla p8p67 and i5 2500k.

[purdz]

Im glad I read this thread ive switched to the 1.5 in my current possible build basket Dont really want to have any problems on install, never really paid much attention to the ram voltages in previous builds so this definitely helped.

For the sake of about £4 extra for 1.5 instead of 1.65 it at least gives me peace of mind