Has anyone seen this problem and solved it ?

[GreenClocker]

Here I am thinking I have a nice, cool and stable overclock and I am stumped by this problem. I can run for days (weeks) and even load test my rigs for 24 hours (intelburn and memtest) and my system will not crash. Temps are good too.

At odd times, when I power up from a cold boot I get this message...


When I press "any key", it forces me into the bios where I see the failsafe (default) values are active however the BIOS settings are as per my OC settings. When I enter into the settings page within the bois, the following message appears...


If I do not touch anything, select "Save Settings and Exit", my PC boots fine with my prior overclocked settings. PC will then run fine this way for a few days and then the problem repeats it self at some random startup.

Another big symptom of the problem:
I am running a Gigabyte X58A-UD3R board (rest of my system below) and anyone familiar with the board knows that there are a few blue LEDs on the board to indicate the percentage that the BCLK is oc'd.

On a normal boot when I press the power button, the blue LEDs...
- initially pulse ON for approx 0.5 second, then
- turn OFF for 1 second, then
- turn ON for 2 seconds, then
- turn OFF for 1 second, then
- turn ON and stay ON for BIOS post. (there is a tick noise made from the internal pc speaker at each step)

When the bios boot error occurs, the blue LEDs...
- initially pulse ON for approx 0.5 second, then
- turn OFF for 1 second, then
- turn ON for a fraction of a second and then the entire system shuts down for 2 or 3 seconds followed by the boot with failsafe parameters loaded in the bios (per above).

Here is another twist... when I press the power button (on a cold boot) and wait until memory spec posts, I then press the power button for a bios soft-off shutdown. When I then power up again, this same bios error occurs. This scenario repeats itself everytime I do this experiment.

Has anyone ever had this error occur ? How did you fix it ? I will try anything.

I have already tried removing the DDR3 memory, relocating all hardware, tried booting with only one memory stick, tried reseating the CPU, tried loosing my memory timings, have updated the BIOS to the latest. Nothing works!
My voltmeter does not indicate any PSU issues. And my UPS supply to the PSU is very beastly (also tried without the UPS).

My bios settings:

Advanced CPU Features [Press Enter]
CPU Clock Ratio............................: 21x
CPU Frequency .....(Ghz)...................: 3.8 
Intel(R) Turbo Boost Tech..................: DISABLED
CPU Cores Enabled..........................: ALL
CPU Multi Threading........................: ENABLED
CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E)....................: DISABLED
C3/C6/C7 State Support.....................: DISABLED
CPU Thermal Monitor........................: DISABLED
CPU EIST Function..........................: DISABLED
Bi-Directional PROCHOT.....................: ENABLED
Virtualization Technology..................: DISABLED


Advanced Voltage Control [Press Enter]
>>>>CPU Voltages
LoadLine Calibration.........................: STANDARD
CPU Vcore....................................: 1.275 (also tried 1.3V)
QPI/VTT Voltage..............................: 1.195 (also tried volts up to 1.3)
CPU PLL......................................: 1.80
>>>>>MCH/ICH Voltrage
PCIE.........................................: 1.5
QPI PLL......................................: 1.2
IOH Core.....................................: 1.2 
ICH I/O......................................: 1.5 
ICH Core.....................................: 1.1  
>>>>>Dram
DRAM Voltage.................................: 1.66 (also tries 1.68V)
DRAM Termination.............................: 0.83 
Ch-A Data Vref...............................: AUTO at 0.75
Ch-B Data Vref...............................: AUTO at 0.75
Ch-C Data VRef...............................: AUTO at 0.75
Ch-A Address Vref............................: AUTO at 0.75
Ch-B Address Vref............................: AUTO at 0.75
Ch-C Address VRef............................: AUTO at 0.75


Uncore & QPI Features [Press Enter]
QPI Clock Ratio*...........................: 36x 
QPI Link Speed* ......................(Ghz): 6.51 
Uncore Clock Ratio.........................: 16x  
Uncore Frequency......................(Mhz): 2896 
Isochronous Support........................: ENABLED
Advanced Clock Control [Press Enter]
>>>>>Standard Clock Control
Base Clock (BCLK) Control*.................: ENABLED
BCLK Frequency (Mhz)*......................: 181 
PCI Exxpress Frequency (Mhz)...............: 100
>>>>>Standard Clock Control
CPU Clock Drive (mV).......................: 800
PCI  Express Clock Drive (mV)..............: 900
CPU Clock Skew (ps)........................: 0
IOH Clock Skew (ps)........................: 0
Advanced Dram Features [Press Enter}
Performance Enhance........................: EXPERT
Extreme Memory Profile (X.M.P.)............: DISABLED
System Memory Multiplier (SPD).............: 8x
Memory Frequency (Mhz).....................: 1448 
DRAM Timing Selectable (sPD) ..............: AUTO
Channel Interleaving............................: AUTO(6)
Rank Interleaving................................: AUTO(4)


Channel A Timing Settings Sub Menu [Press Enter]
>>>>>Channel A Standard Timing Control
Cas Latency Time.............................: 7
tRCD.........................................: 9
tRP..........................................: 7
tRAS.........................................: 24
>>>>>Channel A Advanced Timing Control
tRC..........................................: AUTO
tRRD ........................................: AUTO
tWTR ........................................: AUTO
tWR..........................................: AUTO
tWTP.........................................: AUTO
tWL..........................................: AUTO
tRFC.........................................: AUTO
tRTP.........................................: AUTO
tFAW.........................................: AUTO
Command Rate (CMD) .....................: 1
>>>>>Channel A Misc Timing Control
B2B CAS Delay................................: AUTO
Round Trip Latency...........................: AUTO
Channel A Turnaround Setting [Press Enter]
>>>>> Channel A Reads Followed By Reads
Different DIMMs..............................: AUTO
Different Ranks..............................: AUTO
On The Same Rank.............................: AUTO
>>>>> Channel A Writes Followed By Writes
Different DIMMs..............................: AUTO
Different Ranks..............................: AUTO
On The Same Rank.............................: AUTO


Channel B Timing Settings Sub Menu [Press Enter]
>>>>>Channel B Standard Timing Control
Cas Latency Time.............................: 7
tRCD.........................................: 9
tRP..........................................: 7
tRAS.........................................: 24
>>>>>Channel B Advanced Timing Control
tRC..........................................: AUTO
tRRD ........................................: AUTO
tWTR ........................................: AUTO
tWR..........................................: AUTO
tWTP.........................................: AUTO
tWL..........................................: AUTO
tRFC.........................................: AUTO
tRTP.........................................: AUTO
tFAW.........................................: AUTO
Command Rate (CMD) ..........................: 1
>>>>>Channel B Misc Timing Control
B2B CAS Delay................................: AUTO
Round Trip Latency...........................: AUTO
Channel B Turnaround Setting [Press Enter]
>>>>> Channel B Reads Followed By Reads
Different DIMMs..............................: AUTO
Different Ranks..............................: AUTO
On The Same Rank.............................: AUTO
>>>>> Channel B Writes Followed By Writes
Different DIMMs..............................: AUTO
Different Ranks..............................: AUTO
On The Same Rank.............................: AUTO


Channel C Timing Settings Sub Menu [Press Enter]
>>>>>Channel C Standard Timing Control
Cas Latency Time.............................: 7
tRCD.........................................: 9
tRP..........................................: 7
tRAS.........................................: 24
>>>>>Channel C Advanced Timing Control
tRC..........................................: AUTO
tRRD ........................................: AUTO
tWTR ........................................: AUTO
tWR..........................................: AUTO
tWTP.........................................: AUTO
tWL..........................................: AUTO
tRFC.........................................: AUTO
tRTP.........................................: AUTO
tFAW.........................................: AUTO
Command Rate (CMD) ..........................: 1
>>>>>Channel C Misc Timing Control
B2B CAS Delay................................: AUTO
Round Trip Latency...........................: AUTO
Channel B Turnaround Setting [Press Enter]
>>>>> Channel C Reads Followed By Reads
Different DIMMs..............................: AUTO
Different Ranks..............................: AUTO
On The Same Rank.............................: AUTO
>>>>> Channel C Writes Followed By Writes
Different DIMMs..............................: AUTO
Different Ranks..............................: AUTO
On The Same Rank.............................: AUTO

If you have seen this error in the past, PLEASE share.

 

[Fr@kt@L]

IMO flash up your bios to some high version and this will fix your problem, this happened to me few times, some bios bug, flash

 

[GreenClocker]

IMO flash up your bios to some high version and this will fix your problem, this happened to me few times, some bios bug, flash

Problem occured with original bios as well as the latest bios (which is 4 revs later).

Any other guesses ?

 

[Jorlain]

It's an instability problem of some sort. I used to get the same exact error with my UD4P. I tuned back my OC a little bit instead of being picky with it, and now everything seems to be fine.

 

[GreenClocker]

I just updated to a recently release BIOS update and the problem still exists. Still hunting for a solution. Could my GPU settings in my bios cause this problem ? What PCIExpress freq should I be set at ? What about PCI voltage ?