Hi Guys,
I've been having some issues with my system of late and was hoping you could help me troubleshoot. First, let me give you as much information on hardware and configuration as I can:
- Cooler Master COSMOS II Case
- Corsair AX 860i PSU
- ASUS Rampage V Extreme (BIOS 1701)
- i7 5930k
- 4x4GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 2800
- ASUS GTX 980 STRIX (1x)
- 2x 500GB Samsung EVO 850 SSDs (individual, 1x OS and programs / 1x (non-video) libraries)
- 1x WD Black 2 TB
- 6x WD Black 4TB (4x RAID0 + 2x RAID0)
Everything at stock clocks, RAM set to 2666MHz, XMP disabled. The plan is to start OCing in two or three years when it'll cause a noticeable difference. Really tried to futureproof here, so I'll just have to upgrade the GPU in the foreseeable future.
Plugged into the Mainboard:
- 3x 120mm BeQuiet SilentWings 2 (3pin set to DC)
- 1x 140mm BeQuiet SilentWings 2 (3pin set to DC)
- 2x 120mm Enermax (PWM, set to DC (Because I want to be able to completely stop them))
- BeQuiet Dark Rock 3 Pro (Set to PWM), previously Cooler Master V8 GTS
- previously 200mm Cooler Master Megaflow front intake fan (Now connected to PSU)
- Case front panel stuff (HD Audio, Q-connector things, 1x USB3, 2x USB2, 1x eSATA)
- Previously Corsair Link Dongle (Decided I'd rather have additional USB2 ports)
Peripherals:
1x Steelseries Merc Stealth Keyboard (Uses back panel USB2 + mic and headphone jack)
1x Logitech G700 (Uses 1x back panel USB2 for cable and 1x front panel USB2 for transmitter)
1x unused Roccat bungie USB2 hub (back panel USB3)
1x Printer USB2 plug (back panel USB3)
1x currently unused WD Elements USB3 plug (back panel USB3)
1x Display (GPU DP)
1x AV Receiver (GPU HDMI)
OS: Windows 7 Pro (64bit)
OK, I think I got everything.
When I first built this system I had some boot problems (fans rapidly turning on and off, then failing to load windows, going to "Overclocking failed") but those resolved themselves rather quickly and it's been running stable for about three months now.
The mainboard features two dead RAM slots, which I don't need anyway, so I figured I'd RMA it when it's convenient, or if additional problems surface. (It'd take them a month to repair/replace/refund, so... yeah...)
When putting everything together, I didn't realize the fan header controls would be grouped together (1a+1b ect.), so I just plugged them in rather randomly. This has been bugging me, so a week ago I decided to group them correctly, according to their position in the case.
I moved the front intake from the case fan controller to the PSU, rearranged the case fans into their correct groups, turned on the computer and had a mild heart attack. Lights turned on, fans spun up, turned off, spun up, turned off... had to kill power via PSU switch and tried again. POSTed fine, froze on "Resuming Windows" (I had stupidly forgotten the computer was hibernating, not shut down). "Overclocking failed"... went into the BIOS and noticed everything was reset to default (Did I do that?) Changed the fan controls to DC/PWM where appropriate, set RAM to 2666 again, save&exit.
The next few days, the system would have trouble booting. Sometimes pre-POST on/off loop, often freezing on resuming/starting Windows (I first thought it was only on resume, but was soon proven wrong), but when windows finally started, it was always stable. Benchmarks, stress tests, boinc, you name it.
Since then, I have randomly lost power (like someone pulled the plug) once while Windows was running. Once about a second after login (not reproducible). I experienced one freeze when I turned on the receiver while a video was already running (not reproducible).
I figured this would be a good time to exchange my mainboard, plus the CPU cooler while I was at it (The V8 made a very annoying chirping sound). Since I didn't want to wait out the RMA procedure, I bought a replacement, planning to RMA my board once I installed the new one.
Took everything out, wiped the CPU clean, got ready to transfer it to the new board, unpacked the new board, noticed they sent me a used one with fingerprints and scratches all over, invented new swear words, vowed to always unpack and check new hardware upon arrival from now on, put the new CPU cooler on the old board, rewired everything, put the GPU into the first PCIe lane, since it was no longer blocked by the V8's plastic casing, prayed to Stendarr, and turned the system on.
On/Off loop, Overclocking failed, starting windows freeze, successful boot. Since then (Yesterday) I had no more trouble booting, but I had another loss of power. Mainly to test the new CPU cooler, I ran BOINC (GPU computing always enabled, 100% CPU uptime) first at 25% CPU load for ten minutes (25°C) then 50% for ten minutes (33°C), then 75% (41°C) for half a minute - power loss.
Booted up fine, decided to run some stress tests to rule out culprits. Tested PSU with OCCT, good results, stable voltages, no power loss. Ran Memtest with all available RAM for an hour, no errors. Ran Prime95 on heat mode for a few hours, temps stable at ~55°C, no power loss.
I don't think it's a software issue because of the boot and handshake issues
I don't think it's the PSU, because a) The green self-check=OK light is always on b) OCCT test
I don't think it's the RAM, because a) MemTest results b) seems like a weird cause
I don't think it's the CPU, because a) That's always least likely b) Prime95 results
I don't think it's the GPU, because a) No issues with 3DMark Firestrike (12000 points) b) OCCT GPU test fine
I suspect the mainboard, because a) Two dead RAM slots from the start b) I've since learned of some severe USB3 controller issues with ASUS x99 boards, which could weirdly explain the boot issues at least c) red qleds during boot, cycling between CPU, VGA and Boot device, then resting on boot device during windows handshake freezes. I can't imagine the SSD is causing this.
What I can't figure out for the life of me is how I could have caused this mess by rearranging some case fans. I was careful, but I guess I could have touched something I shouldn't have.
Rampage V mainboards are currently not in stock with any retailer in Switzerland, but I plan on ordering another replacement as soon as they are, and see if that one fares better. Despite this negative experience, I still trust ASUS the most, since I've never had any problems with any of their products before.
I know this turned out to be a very long description, but I thought it would be a good idea to give you as much info as possible up front, even if some of it turns out to be irrelevant.
Thank you all for reading, and thanks in advance for any advice you may be able to offer.
UPDATE: Ran BOINC at 75% for two hours without issue. Did several reboots, hard, restart and hibernate wakeups without issue, then got a BSOD upon login after a hard reboot, restarted too quickly to read what it said, working fine again after the subsequent boot.
I noticed my front panel eSATA port no longer works, USB does, but with noticeable interruptions (cursor jumping, "PC link" light on RAID Station flickering). These both worked fine a week ago and I'm certain I plugged them in correctly yesterday.
Is there any chance it's something other than the mainboard by now? Am I missing something obvious?
I've been having some issues with my system of late and was hoping you could help me troubleshoot. First, let me give you as much information on hardware and configuration as I can:
- Cooler Master COSMOS II Case
- Corsair AX 860i PSU
- ASUS Rampage V Extreme (BIOS 1701)
- i7 5930k
- 4x4GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 2800
- ASUS GTX 980 STRIX (1x)
- 2x 500GB Samsung EVO 850 SSDs (individual, 1x OS and programs / 1x (non-video) libraries)
- 1x WD Black 2 TB
- 6x WD Black 4TB (4x RAID0 + 2x RAID0)
Everything at stock clocks, RAM set to 2666MHz, XMP disabled. The plan is to start OCing in two or three years when it'll cause a noticeable difference. Really tried to futureproof here, so I'll just have to upgrade the GPU in the foreseeable future.
Plugged into the Mainboard:
- 3x 120mm BeQuiet SilentWings 2 (3pin set to DC)
- 1x 140mm BeQuiet SilentWings 2 (3pin set to DC)
- 2x 120mm Enermax (PWM, set to DC (Because I want to be able to completely stop them))
- BeQuiet Dark Rock 3 Pro (Set to PWM), previously Cooler Master V8 GTS
- previously 200mm Cooler Master Megaflow front intake fan (Now connected to PSU)
- Case front panel stuff (HD Audio, Q-connector things, 1x USB3, 2x USB2, 1x eSATA)
- Previously Corsair Link Dongle (Decided I'd rather have additional USB2 ports)
Peripherals:
1x Steelseries Merc Stealth Keyboard (Uses back panel USB2 + mic and headphone jack)
1x Logitech G700 (Uses 1x back panel USB2 for cable and 1x front panel USB2 for transmitter)
1x unused Roccat bungie USB2 hub (back panel USB3)
1x Printer USB2 plug (back panel USB3)
1x currently unused WD Elements USB3 plug (back panel USB3)
1x Display (GPU DP)
1x AV Receiver (GPU HDMI)
OS: Windows 7 Pro (64bit)
OK, I think I got everything.
When I first built this system I had some boot problems (fans rapidly turning on and off, then failing to load windows, going to "Overclocking failed") but those resolved themselves rather quickly and it's been running stable for about three months now.
The mainboard features two dead RAM slots, which I don't need anyway, so I figured I'd RMA it when it's convenient, or if additional problems surface. (It'd take them a month to repair/replace/refund, so... yeah...)
When putting everything together, I didn't realize the fan header controls would be grouped together (1a+1b ect.), so I just plugged them in rather randomly. This has been bugging me, so a week ago I decided to group them correctly, according to their position in the case.
I moved the front intake from the case fan controller to the PSU, rearranged the case fans into their correct groups, turned on the computer and had a mild heart attack. Lights turned on, fans spun up, turned off, spun up, turned off... had to kill power via PSU switch and tried again. POSTed fine, froze on "Resuming Windows" (I had stupidly forgotten the computer was hibernating, not shut down). "Overclocking failed"... went into the BIOS and noticed everything was reset to default (Did I do that?) Changed the fan controls to DC/PWM where appropriate, set RAM to 2666 again, save&exit.
The next few days, the system would have trouble booting. Sometimes pre-POST on/off loop, often freezing on resuming/starting Windows (I first thought it was only on resume, but was soon proven wrong), but when windows finally started, it was always stable. Benchmarks, stress tests, boinc, you name it.
Since then, I have randomly lost power (like someone pulled the plug) once while Windows was running. Once about a second after login (not reproducible). I experienced one freeze when I turned on the receiver while a video was already running (not reproducible).
I figured this would be a good time to exchange my mainboard, plus the CPU cooler while I was at it (The V8 made a very annoying chirping sound). Since I didn't want to wait out the RMA procedure, I bought a replacement, planning to RMA my board once I installed the new one.
Took everything out, wiped the CPU clean, got ready to transfer it to the new board, unpacked the new board, noticed they sent me a used one with fingerprints and scratches all over, invented new swear words, vowed to always unpack and check new hardware upon arrival from now on, put the new CPU cooler on the old board, rewired everything, put the GPU into the first PCIe lane, since it was no longer blocked by the V8's plastic casing, prayed to Stendarr, and turned the system on.
On/Off loop, Overclocking failed, starting windows freeze, successful boot. Since then (Yesterday) I had no more trouble booting, but I had another loss of power. Mainly to test the new CPU cooler, I ran BOINC (GPU computing always enabled, 100% CPU uptime) first at 25% CPU load for ten minutes (25°C) then 50% for ten minutes (33°C), then 75% (41°C) for half a minute - power loss.
Booted up fine, decided to run some stress tests to rule out culprits. Tested PSU with OCCT, good results, stable voltages, no power loss. Ran Memtest with all available RAM for an hour, no errors. Ran Prime95 on heat mode for a few hours, temps stable at ~55°C, no power loss.
I don't think it's a software issue because of the boot and handshake issues
I don't think it's the PSU, because a) The green self-check=OK light is always on b) OCCT test
I don't think it's the RAM, because a) MemTest results b) seems like a weird cause
I don't think it's the CPU, because a) That's always least likely b) Prime95 results
I don't think it's the GPU, because a) No issues with 3DMark Firestrike (12000 points) b) OCCT GPU test fine
I suspect the mainboard, because a) Two dead RAM slots from the start b) I've since learned of some severe USB3 controller issues with ASUS x99 boards, which could weirdly explain the boot issues at least c) red qleds during boot, cycling between CPU, VGA and Boot device, then resting on boot device during windows handshake freezes. I can't imagine the SSD is causing this.
What I can't figure out for the life of me is how I could have caused this mess by rearranging some case fans. I was careful, but I guess I could have touched something I shouldn't have.
Rampage V mainboards are currently not in stock with any retailer in Switzerland, but I plan on ordering another replacement as soon as they are, and see if that one fares better. Despite this negative experience, I still trust ASUS the most, since I've never had any problems with any of their products before.
I know this turned out to be a very long description, but I thought it would be a good idea to give you as much info as possible up front, even if some of it turns out to be irrelevant.
Thank you all for reading, and thanks in advance for any advice you may be able to offer.
UPDATE: Ran BOINC at 75% for two hours without issue. Did several reboots, hard, restart and hibernate wakeups without issue, then got a BSOD upon login after a hard reboot, restarted too quickly to read what it said, working fine again after the subsequent boot.
I noticed my front panel eSATA port no longer works, USB does, but with noticeable interruptions (cursor jumping, "PC link" light on RAID Station flickering). These both worked fine a week ago and I'm certain I plugged them in correctly yesterday.
Is there any chance it's something other than the mainboard by now? Am I missing something obvious?
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