Bad Hardware prob or something else??

[tweak13]

I just finished building a new PC with an e8500 and a maximus II formula, I wanted to run prime95 just for a few hours out of curiosity with everything set at auto except RAM speed set to 1066mhz and voltage in the mobo before I started to OC. Problem is I can't even go an hour before one of the cores gets an error! Is there a problem with the hardware? Temps never got past 51C in Real Temp. I have 4GB of GSkill RAM, Voltage was set 2.01, turned it up to 2.0912 (closest to 2.1 without going over - 2.1 is the rated max on this RAM) and the system ran worse so to speak with a fatal error on my second core within 2 minutes in prime95. Ran Memtest86 for a couple hours - ran through all test rounds at least twice, no errors at all.

Whats going on here??

 

[kubes]

Have you tried flashing your bios to the latest and greatest?

 

[tweak13]

Have you tried flashing your bios to the latest and greatest?

I had thought it was the latest and greatest. I will have to check BIOS version and asus website. I'll repost in few hours.

Anyone else with an idea?

 

[tweak13]

Updated BIOS to latest and greatest. Settings set the same - auto everything except RAM @ 1066mhz @ 2.091V

Different fatal error at 17 minutes in - No better than before.

 

[kubes]

What's the fatal error your getting?

 

[tweak13]

What's the fatal error your getting?

I beleive it was something along the lines of
Fatal error - Rounding was expected less than .4 ......

 

[kubes]

You might want to try bumping up the voltage to your cpu a little bit.

 

[tweak13]

You might want to try bumping up the voltage to your cpu a little bit.

I'll give it a whirl and repost after I get off work - but find it funny auto wouldn't set enough voltage since auto usually over compensates.

 

[kubes]

I'm shooting in the dark on this one. A common solution to fixing the prime95 core errors is to increase the voltage slightly.

 

[tweak13]

Well I tried to up the voltage slightly and then a lot more (but safe). Results seemed even worse. Both cores received errors in about 15 then 30 seconds.

Core 1
FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4

Core 2
FATAL ERROR: Resulting sum was -2.XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX, expected: 7.XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

So any verdicts? Warranty the CPU and MOBO??

 

[kubes]

Gosh to me it seems like a CPU. but i could be wrong about it. Its weird that everything seems fine except for running prime 95. Maybe another poster might have an idea? I think it could also be a bios setting i'm missing but gosh i'm not sure sorry 🙁

Its seems like you have a fairly decent idea of what your doing if your running prime95 in the first place so I doubt its something stupid.
Thinking about it some more it could be the psu? What PSU do you have and are you plugging in only a four pin 12v+ apdater in for your cpu or using an 8?

 

[tweak13]

Gosh to me it seems like a CPU. but i could be wrong about it. Its weird that everything seems fine except for running prime 95. Maybe another poster might have an idea? I think it could also be a bios setting i'm missing but gosh i'm not sure sorry 🙁

Its seems like you have a fairly decent idea of what your doing if your running prime95 in the first place so I doubt its something stupid.
Thinking about it some more it could be the psu? What PSU do you have and are you plugging in only a four pin 12v+ apdater in for your cpu or using an 8?

Well im just as baffled as you so don't feel bad.

I have been getting BSOD's here and there but that really still isn't telling me which piece of hardware it is. Out of just wanting to eliminate RAM as being any case I ran MemTest86 for about 4 hours more with no errors.

I disabled any power saving in BIOS.

I'm using a 4 pin for the CPU.

It's an ABS Labs (Tagan) 800W PSU.

I supposed I could attempt to warranty replace both MOBO and CPU unless I can get my hands on a different CPU to test with.

Sigh 🙁 this would be the third bad MOBO i've got from ASUS in less than 6 months. Might be time to move to a different company.

 

[kubes]

Have all three of these MOBO's been using the same psu? Something doesn't seem right if your blowing boards like that.

 

[tweak13]

Have all three of these MOBO's been using the same psu? Something doesn't seem right if your blowing boards like that.

How would I be able to test it? Or even prove something is wrong to get a warranty out of it?

Would something like this work to test or is there anything easier?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16899705003

 

[kubes]

Ya that'd work perfectly. That thing is pretty slick, I think i might even grab myself one of those lol. I have a multimeader that i ussualy use.

I'm not sure though if that's your problem. Just saying it seems odd. I mean Asus can make a bad board from time to time, but i highly doubt you got three bad boards in a row. I don't know if the other boards had simlar problems or what, just saying it seems odd.

 

[tweak13]

Ya that'd work perfectly. That thing is pretty slick, I think i might even grab myself one of those lol. I have a multimeader that i ussualy use.

I'm not sure though if that's your problem. Just saying it seems odd. I mean Asus can make a bad board from time to time, but i highly doubt you got three bad boards in a row. I don't know if the other boards had simlar problems or what, just saying it seems odd.

I know a place that will test my PSU for free, I'm going to take it there in the mean time while I wait for my tester.

***BUT***

I dont think the PSU or the MOBO is the problem

I borrowed an E4400 CPU from someone and its been running for over 2 hours now without a problem!

To me it sounds like the E8500 CPU I have - has an upset failure.

Thoughts?

 

[kubes]

ya, that's what i'd lean towards as well. I really don't think its the motherboard. I'm assuming you haven't damaged any of the pins or allowed any of the thermal paste to leak around the edge of the cpu?

Might be worth your time to try reseating your cpu one more time into your mb and see if u still get the problem. I'm guessing you might have got a chip that was cut in a bad part of the wafer or something. It does happen.