G3258 + MSI Z97 SLI KRAIT failure

Hey,

Well I just changed from a AMD FX6300 and ASUS board on water to a MSI Z97 SLI KRAIT and G3258 20th edition because I picked up some GPU's I planned to run in SLI and my AMD boards chipset wouldn't fire two cards in SLI so after hearing so much about Intel's G3258 running with the FX6300 and essentially Intels only CPU offering that isn't a complete ripoff in my opinion. I decided to switch from AMD all together (which I am kicking myself majorly now for doing) And I am having major problems I am hoping someone can help with before I try to return the MOBO and I guess use the CPU as a paper weight. My problem is in the over clocking, basically a simple break down of what is going on, If I use OC Genie it will boot and throw a BSOD before I see the windows start bar (I tried OC Genie after messing with manual OC settings) and the other problem is simple, if I manually adjust the CPU ratio, ring, voltages or anything and reboot it will fail to boot, and I have to pull the GPU's and clear the CMOS often I have to clear the CMOS several times before it even gets me back to get into the bios, THE ONLY overclock I was able to boot windows in was a CPU ratio of 43 and Vcore voltage set to auto, when it finally booted I pulled up CPUID and my Vcore was at nearly 1.4v OMFG, so I shut down and loaded defaults does anyone know wtf is wrong here? I am very up set at this point, I have basically sworn off MSI as garbage and plan to sell both of my GPU's in spite at this point once I get rid of this board, I don't know what I am doing here, I was running my FX6300 at 4.8ghz no problem and I cant even get .1ghz out of this board? I dont think the chip is the problem either??

Setup
Corsair AX760i
SP SSD 128's X2
WD 1TB HDD
Intel G3258
MSI Z97 SLI KRAIT
MSI GTX670 X2
Win 7 if that makes any difference
Corsair Vengeance 16 gig 4*4sticks

Corsair H100i on the CPU

so how about starting at start please, how does it do at default settings?
I will say this much, you should have learned from amd, don't use msi motherboards.

caddi daddi said:

so how about starting at start please, how does it do at default settings?
I will say this much, you should have learned from amd, don't use msi motherboards.

Click to expand...

It seems to run as you would expect at the default settings, I do see Vcore voltage fluctuations in HWmonitor... This is my first MSI mother board, I have always went ASUS or Gig.

There is nothing THAT wrong with MSI motherboards for Intel. About their worst trait is they tend to bork BIOS easier than others...tons of hate from the AMD side, which is valid. And ironically, those bitching about MSI boards and Intel most have never even used it. I review these damn things people. They are fine outside of that seemingly 'easier to bork a bios' issue which usually only happens with extreme cooling/overclocking.

As far as oveclocking, your first issue was doing it on "auto" or with the OC genie in the first place. Manual is the way to go as you tried. Second, did you update the bios to the latest version? If not I would do that and start over from scratch.

Bios DL page: http://us.msi.com/support/mb/Z97S-SLI-Krait-Edition.html#down-bios


For the overclock you are trying to achieve, you need to touch NOTHING outside of the CPU multiplier and vcore. No ring, no nothing.

EarthDog said:

There is nothing THAT wrong with MSI motherboards for Intel. About their worst trait is they tend to bork BIOS easier than others...tons of hate from the AMD side, which is valid. And ironically, those bitching about MSI boards and Intel most have never even used it. I review these damn things people. They are fine outside of that seemingly 'easier to bork a bios' issue which usually only happens with extreme cooling/overclocking.

As far as oveclocking, your first issue was doing it on "auto" or with the OC genie in the first place. Manual is the way to go as you tried. Second, did you update the bios to the latest version? If not I would do that and start over from scratch.

Bios DL page: http://us.msi.com/support/mb/Z97S-SLI-Krait-Edition.html#down-bios


For the overclock you are trying to achieve, you need to touch NOTHING outside of the CPU multiplier and vcore. No ring, no nothing.

Click to expand...

I don't hate MSI I bought the board after all so I cant hate them never used one of their boards in the past.. I updated bios both ways first with liveupdate and then through a USB flash drive, the bios is showing the newest version. As far as OC Genie I never wanted to run that, I was simply trying to see if that would even work.

and as far as overclocks not working, if I go in and change the CPU ration to 43 and Vcore to say 1.2 leave ring voltage and ratios the same and don't touch anything else. I cant even make it to the windows screen..

I dont want to turn this into a MSI hate discussion obviously some people get them to work, I just want to get this fixed..

I wasn't directing that comment to you. I have been seeing people mention that a few times on this forum and have just about had it considering half the people mentioning it have no idea what they are like on the Intel side. If they want to continue to talk trash about it, my PM box is always open!!!

Anyway... so latest bios is in. Good! Have you tried reseating the CPU in the socket? sometimes that can cause some wonky behavior. Any chance you can test the CPU out in another board?

I can re seat the CPU and try again, this is my first G3258 the above ratio and voltage should be somewhat stable correct? Also, I have AMD stuff sitting around nothing to test this CPU on, Im kicking myself for switching to Intel I have always had poor results with them, but water under the bridge just trying to get me going now as I already have the stuff now...

Should be.. but maybe you received a dud overclocker? Try 1.3v and 43x...

Well, update. I re seated the CPU and used up the last of my thermal paste. ANY adjustment made to voltage ratios and cpu ratios results in no post still. I called MSI and spoke with them, they say they will replace the board for free, but they say they do not see a problem that points to a faulty board, I told them about BIOS locking up and the voltage fluctuations and they said its fine and normal on defaults my Vcore goes from .804 to 1.127 seems like a massive fluctuation on a stock clock or any clock for that matter. I am going to see if newegg will just return this instead of replacement, at this point I think MSI is just a dishonest company, I believe the statements about my situation being normal is false. I will likely swap back to AMD since I dont ever have problems that route..

Well, newegg went ahead and refunded for the board and gave me a new tube of thermal paste, Should I order another z97 board from asus or asrock? or go back to the FX6300 and get a 990fx chipped board??

lpmfg said:

Well, newegg went ahead and refunded for the board and gave me a new tube of thermal paste, Should I order another z97 board from asus or asrock? or go back to the FX6300 and get a 990fx chipped board??

Click to expand...

http://www.asrock.com/mb/intel/Z97 Extreme3/index.asp?cat=

I sugges the ASRock Z97 Extreme 3 personally. It's a great entry level board for about the price of the Krait. And is SLI compatible.

Step 1, set everything in bios to default

Step 2, set memory profile to XMP1

Step 3, boot windows, run P95 blend for a couple of hours, make sure system is stable

Step 4, go into bios, set CPU multiplier to 44, vcore to 1.4V (this is fine for short periods. I've had mine higher. It's fine)

Step 5, P95 blend for 20 minutes. If no crash/fail, Step 6. If crash/fail, reduce multiplier to 43, repeat

Step 6, Assuming Step 5 was successful, go into bios, reduce voltage slightly,

Step 7, P95 blend for 20 minutes. Pass? Repeat Step 6

Step 8, Keep repeating step 6 and 7 until you find the lowest stable voltage for 4.4Ghz. If that voltage is low enough that you have some overhead, try for 4.5Ghz, and so on, and so on.

Somewhere between 4.6 and 4.8 you'll need to start tweaking all sorts of other things to get stability, but your odds of getting that high on Haswell before hitting a voltage wall are low.

Possible issue: Vcore in windows much lower than you're setting in bios? Use Load Line Calibration (LLC). Gradually ramp it up (usually ranges from 1-5) until you'r getting as close as possible in Windows to what you put in the bios.

A couple of thngs...

1. MSI is not a dishonest company. Your logical to get to that conclusion is inherently flawed at best (they have not lied or mislead you in any way). Voltage fluctuations like that are normal if you have power saving features on, and you do.
2. This is not an Intel thing either. This is, to those with a level head, a 'one off' situation.
3. I wouldn't go back to AMD.

Snag a different board and give that a try if this experience, for whatever reason, soured you on MSI as to not give them another chance.

I have to admit I don't get that thinking and its prevalent in a lot of people. One bad thing happens and then shun a company... SMH...

EarthDog said:

A couple of thngs...

1. MSI is not a dishonest company. Your logical to get to that conclusion is inherently flawed at best (they have not lied or mislead you in any way). Voltage fluctuations like that are normal if you have power saving features on, and you do.
2. This is not an Intel thing either. This is, to those with a level head, a 'one off' situation.
3. I wouldn't go back to AMD.

Snag a different board and give that a try if this experience, for whatever reason, soured you on MSI as to not give them another chance.

I have to admit I don't get that thinking and its prevalent in a lot of people. One bad thing happens and then shun a company... SMH...

Click to expand...

They are dishonest in saying that my problem is normal, if it was normal I wouldn't be posting here, I mean really its normal to have start your computer five or more times before it even posts? its normal for the bios to crash 50% of the time ?? How many times did it take you to start up your computer today? If you had to try several times would you say there was a problem? Its really simple, say its a bad board or something is wrong, apologize and make it right. Simply saying everything sounds normal but we will exchange boards is not much of value, if this is normal then I dont want exchange, I want my money back and a different board that performs to what I and the majority of people consider normal, like a computer that you can turn on without having to clear the cmos several times for a start..

Well, I am surprised that they CSR said that. But remember, one CSR doesn't make the company either.

I would imagine, as I said earlier, this is a one off. I would imagine your second board would be better...assuming the mobo is actually the issue in the first place.

lpmfg said:

They are dishonest in saying that my problem is normal, if it was normal I wouldn't be posting here, I mean really its normal to have start your computer five or more times before it even posts? its normal for the bios to crash 50% of the time ?? How many times did it take you to start up your computer today? If you had to try several times would you say there was a problem? Its really simple, say its a bad board or something is wrong, apologize and make it right. Simply saying everything sounds normal but we will exchange boards is not much of value, if this is normal then I dont want exchange, I want my money back and a different board that performs to what I and the majority of people consider normal, like a computer that you can turn on without having to clear the cmos several times for a start..

Click to expand...

If you want to avoid customer service Bullspit from your mobo manufacturer go with Gigabyte or EVGA. They're almost never jerks to their customers. You can get an entry level Gigabyte board for about the price you payed for your MSi. You won't get the nifty looking black and white theme, but you'll get a warranty that you can actually trust. ASRock, ASUS, MSi, though they usually make a good product (ASRock and ASUS in particular), can have problems. And often, ASUS especially, will just make up a reason why the problem is your fault. If you blow a mosfet on an ASUS board they go "Oh, I'm so sorry you blew up a mosfet. Better buy a new board" whereas Gigabyte and EVGA will promptly replace your board.

Even with a top tier company like EVGA handling your issue, though, I seriously doubt they would give you a refund inside your warranty period. Refunds are really something that has to take place at the retailer level within the return window (15-90 days usually). Actual OEM's do not issue refunds. I suppose it's possible that MSi would take your Krait and some additional money from you and offer you a higher tier board but that seems extremely unlikely to me.

I think you may be in a "Frame the bad board and put it on your wall, buy a new board" situation.

Theocnoob said:

If you want to avoid customer service Bullspit from your mobo manufacturer go with Gigabyte or EVGA. They're almost never jerks to their customers. You can get an entry level Gigabyte board for about the price you payed for your MSi. You won't get the nifty looking black and white theme, but you'll get a warranty that you can actually trust. ASRock, ASUS, MSi, though they usually make a good product (ASRock and ASUS in particular), can have problems. And often, ASUS especially, will just make up a reason why the problem is your fault. If you blow a mosfet on an ASUS board they go "Oh, I'm so sorry you blew up a mosfet. Better buy a new board" whereas Gigabyte and EVGA will promptly replace your board.

Even with a top tier company like EVGA handling your issue, though, I seriously doubt they would give you a refund inside your warranty period. Refunds are really something that has to take place at the retailer level within the return window (15-90 days usually). Actual OEM's do not issue refunds. I suppose it's possible that MSi would take your Krait and some additional money from you and offer you a higher tier board but that seems extremely unlikely to me.

I think you may be in a "Frame the bad board and put it on your wall, buy a new board" situation.

Click to expand...

Well MSi offered a replacement, gave me the ticket number, I called newegg and told them why I didn't want a replacement, which honestly is solely based on the customer support, I mean if they would have said "I know your time is valuable I am sorry and we will correct the problem" or something other then "everything sounds to be working normally" I would have taken a replacement, newegg issued a full refund and replaced the thermal paste I used to troubleshoot the board, which is top notch customer support IMO, I ended up ordering a ASUS ch-z to replace it, but I considered a gigabyte unit for a while. Ive used several of both in the past and have never had a problem that needed customer support, I have heard EVGA is top tier in regards to correcting problems if they arise.

EarthDog said:

Well, I am surprised that they CSR said that. But remember, one CSR doesn't make the company either.

I would imagine, as I said earlier, this is a one off. I would imagine your second board would be better...assuming the mobo is actually the issue in the first place.

Click to expand...

I don't doubt that, if this was the norm for them they would be out of business, I value a business that I feel will supports their customers as I have to in my business, I didn't feel would be help down the road if more issues arise. Like blowing a mosfet or anything else. If the board worked out of the box I would have kept it and been happy, it is good to know in regards to the customer support though, as I will be getting a r9 290 soon and it wont be a MSi product.

lpmfg said:

Well MSi offered a replacement, gave me the ticket number, I called newegg and told them why I didn't want a replacement, which honestly is solely based on the customer support, I mean if they would have said "I know your time is valuable I am sorry and we will correct the problem" or something other then "everything sounds to be working normally" I would have taken a replacement, newegg issued a full refund and replaced the thermal paste I used to troubleshoot the board, which is top notch customer support IMO, I ended up ordering a ASUS ch-z to replace it, but I considered a gigabyte unit for a while. Ive used several of both in the past and have never had a problem that needed customer support, I have heard EVGA is top tier in regards to correcting problems if they arise.

Click to expand...

You ordered a Crosshair V Z to replace an MSi Krait? The Crosshair boards are AMD boards...

Theocnoob said:

You ordered a Crosshair V Z to replace an MSi Krait? The Crosshair boards are AMD boards...

Click to expand...

Switched back to AMD... I will wait awhile and get another intel board when I upgrade GPU's

Hello all! Just installed MSI Z97 SLI Krait and G3258. Updated the bios and I cannot get anything off Auto. It says unlocked in processor info. I used the OC Genie (for SHAME) and all it does is boost the vCore up past 1.2**

Also, running 35-40c on idle, is this normal or did I get a dud?

sowderman said:

Hello all! Just installed MSI Z97 SLI Krait and G3258. Updated the bios and I cannot get anything off Auto. It says unlocked in processor info. I used the OC Genie (for SHAME) and all it does is boost the vCore up past 1.2**

Also, running 35-40c on idle, is this normal or did I get a dud?

Click to expand...

MSi told me that this is normal, if you search much on google there seems to be an endless supply of poor performance from these boards.. Only postive feedback Ive seen is from the people that get them for free to review...

lpmfg said:

Only postive feedback Ive seen is from the people that get them for free to review...

Click to expand...

Probably because it worked fine for them...

While there are shill reviewers out there, most have integrity and would report on trouble. Particularly with major trouble like this. Being a reviewer myself this was disconcerting to read.

Sowderman, try rolling back a bios version. As far as idle temps, that sounds fine, but seeing as how we have no idea of your cooler, ambient temps, case airflow, we can only.guess. if your troubles continue, you will likely want to start your own thread for the best help.