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[ Asus Rampage V Extreme ] Strange Issue/s ( Insights needed )

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williamo

New Member
Joined
Mar 12, 2015
Hi ! Okay, so this isn't my first Asus build. In fact , it's my 6th. Back in the day, it seemed as if I could actually speak to an engineer at Asus when something very technical came up. It appears those days are over. I have two very unusual problems with a new build I put together and I'm looking for insights as to how I can troubleshoot what's going on. First, I'll list the two issues, then I'll list my hardware. Thanks in advance !

So, first off. The rig runs very well, whether I overclock it or not. Games, 3d Animation, Photoshop, everything runs great. I've stressed tested it and run it for hours with no issues. Not a single crash or bsod.

The catch is, I can't use "Restart". If I attempt to restart ( software installs / the restart command, or onboard button ) , the post stops at code 78 or 79 and the vga light goes on and stays on. If I "Shutdown" ( or hold the power key for long enough that the system shutsdown ) everything works fine. It's crazy, it's one of my most stable builds, but I can't restart. I can only shutdown. Sleep works fine. It's as if everything needs to power cycle to come up properly.

The second issue is with the onboard intel LAN port. One the system has come up, if I install the drivers for the LAN port it works just fine. Until shutdown the system. On the next boot, Windows indicates that there is something wrong with the port ( yellow question mark ) If I re-install the drivers, it works fine, until the next reboot.

I believe both of these issues "could be" related to the boot sequence / post / power up. Weird huh ? Maybe the LAN port isn't getting enough juice at post ? I don't know enough about voltages ( onboard ) to know how to troubleshoot it. For the time being, I'm just using a PCI Lan port to avoid the issue.

As much as I love Asus, they were not helpful. Period.

Here's my hardware config :

The CPU-Z link : http://valid.canardpc.com/dhd4mq

and

- Motherboard -

Asus RAMPAGE V EXTREME
BIOS American Megatrends Inc. - 1103 - 01/28/2015
North Bridge Intel Haswell-E rev 02
South Bridge Intel X99 rev 05

Intel Core i7-5930K CPU @ 3.50GHz
Threading 1 CPU - 6 Cores - 6 Threads ( I turned off hyperthreading, it doesn't really matter )
Frequency 1197.14 MHz (12 * 99.76 MHz)
Architecture Haswell-E/EP (22 nm)
CPUID / Stepping 6.F.2 / 6.3F (M0)
Microcode 0x000002D
Max. TDP 140 Watts
Voltage 0.727 Volts

Water Cooled with Intel ( asetek ) I know, I know...

Memory : 32768 MB
Type -2128 - Quad Channel
Frequency 1064.2 MHz (1:16)
Timings 15-15-15-36
Slot #1 ModuleCorsair - 8192 MB (17100)
Slot #2 ModuleCorsair - 8192 MB (17100)
Slot #3 ModuleCorsair - 8192 MB (17100)
Slot #4 ModuleCorsair - 8192 MB (17100)

Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4 DRAM 2666MHz C16 memory kit for DDR4 Systems (CMK32GX4M4A2666C16)

( Not on their "Approved List" but there are no mem errors, it passes metests, and Corsiar says it's fine )

OS Lives on a SSD Drive

Crucial M550 256GB SATA 2.5 Internal Solid State Drive CT256M550SSD1

Power Supply

EVGA SuperNOVA 1300G2 ATX12V/EPS12V 1300W 80Plus Gold Power Supply 120-G2-1300-XR

VGA

ASUS STRIX-GTX970-DC20C-4GD5 Graphics Cards STRIX-GTX970-DC20C-4GD5


Windows 7 Ultimate Edition 64-bit
Windows Subver SP1 (Build 7601)
 
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79 error or bd or something else what isn't telling you exactly what is happening is usually caused by some instability. In most cases it's something with memory timings or clock but can be something else. If you are overclocking then set everything at stock with memory @2133 ( or simply spd/auto ) and check if it's acting the same.

If it's only showing VGA error then check card in different pcie slot or try to set manually pcie 3.0 for graphics.

There is new BIOS for this board but I'm not sure if it's going to help.

I have no idea what about LAN card as I have no issues on my board using Win7 or Win8. Can try new BIOS or different drivers.
 
Hey, thanks for your thoughts. I did try the card in slot 3, same behavior. I did try the new bios, no difference. I suppose that if 78/79 is a red herring, than the VGA light is probably as well.
 
My board is usually showing 79 code when I overclock something too high or when I set too tight timings or too high CPU clock/too low voltage. If it's memory then you can also try to set Rampage Tweak 1 - 1st option on the memory timings list.
I assume you don't have any other graphics card to check it.

ASUS support is usually useless just because their 1st line of contact has only general knowledge about popular issues and looks like most of them barely know how computer works. There is no other support available for end users and even their contact list is limited to simple form on which noone ever answered me.
 
Thanks again. Tweak 1 didn't change anything. It's weird, I can get the board and memory up to 4.5... so long as I use "shutdown" and not "restart". I do think it's a timings issue of some sort, but it's running the corsair at the right timings and voltages. Setting it to XMP 2.0 works, but produces the same results; i.e. shutdown works, but no restart.

I did come across someone that had the LAN problem and just got their board replaced and it all worked fine. I found that there was a later version of the driver for LAN , but it didn't make much difference. The LAN can't get it's range of memory at boot time ( it can after boot if I disable / enable it ) So, again, things point back to the memory.
 
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As I said, don't use XMP profile just set auto @2133 and all timings also at auto. If it make any difference then start to play with manual settings like declared clock +timings manually and everything else at auto and disabled XMP.
 
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