Crosshair VIII Hero 5950X black screens giving me fits

[78Staff]

I am about at my wits end on these "black screens" which require hard resetting, ie having to flip power supply power off/on to be able to restart. Tried 3904 and I want to say it got even worse. Back to 3801 and still only stays up for a few days at most.

Most recent was during a file transfer to an ext USB drive, but I can't say that is always the issue. Most times, it just happens while I am not at my computer. Easily occurring one or two times a week. I sit down at my pc and it's just dead. Nothing in event view that would signify any issue...

Specs in profile, never occurred when running a 3900X, only started happening after I changed to the 5950X. Complete windows re-install was performed when the CPU was upgraded. I don't recall if this started happening right away, or in later bios' to be honest. I'm back at 3801, but may go further back if anyone can recall a revision that doesn't blackscreen?

Mem has been checked with Karhu but I'm kicking off another test now... Have also reverted to optimized defaults (usually just run DCOP) for bios to see if that makes any difference.

Honestly, the CH8 has been a disappointment overall... I am considering jumping ship. I've been an ASUS guy forever, but willing to try something else if I can find something that is stable. Don't need OC'ing, just a stable system to work with video and image media, ie Lightroom, Photoshop, DxO, Premier, etc. No games, no OC...

What about the Aorus Elites? Are they stable wtih the 5950X and 4 dimms, or are these issues persistent across the AMD platform in the 5000 CPU series?

[RedSector73]

anoriega211 wrote:
I just read something about AGESA 1.2.0.4 and .5 having issues (https://www.tomshardware.com/news/agesa-1205-bugs-amd-ryzen) and to stick with 1.2.0.3c or 1.2.0.6b (which I just updated to, bios 4002). Maybe these black screens were because of the AGESA version because I remember running fine for months before and these suddenly starting. Could have been when I updated my bios but I never made the connection because the black screens took a while to happen, weren't instantly after.

I'm going to try turning PBO back on now that I'm running the new AGESA. Fingers crossed!

IME, its always to do with SOC voltage supply and/or RAM issue. Once it was a CPU and AMD replaced under warranty, but it also lost half the cores, to never be found again and can't say which issue was present first as they appeared together.

I have never found any AGESA issue caused black screens or fixed them or PBO as a source issue.

[blpphantom]

Well so far I've been able to rule out the GPU, Processor and RAM.

Contacted ASUS CS and they told me to return the board to the retailer (as there is no return and replace facility in the UK?). Sadly I've had to move to a different manufacturer of MB as the retailer "Could not tell me" when they were expecting a new shipment of Crosshair VIII boards...

Running on an x570s Gigabyte Aorus Master now, no issues of black screens but I am getting a "Memory Initialisation Error" post code which I cannot understand as the board supports 3600mhz ram.

[RedSector73]

blpphantom wrote:
Well so far I've been able to rule out the GPU, Processor and RAM.

Contacted ASUS CS and they told me to return the board to the retailer (as there is no return and replace facility in the UK?). Sadly I've had to move to a different manufacturer of MB as the retailer "Could not tell me" when they were expecting a new shipment of Crosshair VIII boards...

Running on an x570s Gigabyte Aorus Master now, no issues of black screens but I am getting a "Memory Initialisation Error" post code which I cannot understand as the board supports 3600mhz ram.

What amount of slots is the RAM taking 2 or 4 ?

[blpphantom]

64gb over 4 slots

[RedSector73]

blpphantom wrote:
64gb over 4 slots

Only used GB boards a little with 1800x before moving to Asus boards but think you will find that the SOC voltage being used may not be enough.
If it is lower than 1.1v, try 1.1v to 1.15v and see if corrects the memory init problem you are having while using DOCP 3600 profile.

[blpphantom]

RedSector73 wrote:
Only used GB boards a little with 1800x before moving to Asus boards but think you will find that the SOC voltage being used may not be enough.
If it is lower than 1.1v, try 1.1v to 1.15v and see if corrects the memory init problem you are having while using DOCP 3600 profile.

I'll be honest the Gigabyte Bios is not as user-friendly as the Asus/ROG one, can't find the soc voltage entry to even check it, let alone change it.

[RedSector73]

blpphantom wrote:
I'll be honest the Gigabyte Bios is not as user-friendly as the Asus/ROG one, can't find the soc voltage entry to even check it, let alone change it.

see if this is helpful
https://www.tweaktown.com/guides/9224/gigabyte-amd-x570-ryzen-overclocking-guide/index.html

Another trick that used to work on Intel CPU's and GB boards, was put two in only (in the correct slots) and get boot with XMP profile, go into windows, then shutdown and add other two back in. Not sure this will work AMD CPU, never tried it or needed too.

[RedSector73]

No problem, SOC of 1.1v should be most stable, my system runs on that without issue and PBO enabled.

[78Staff]

Sorry for the delay in updating, but I've had other things going on for a few weeks. For me, it seems to be resolved. I changed out my 5700XT for a 6800XT, and also setting SOC voltage to 1.1 as discussed in this thread. It's been a few weeks and no black screens to date. Also cleared up an annoying screen wake up bug I had with the 5700XT/drivers.