Rampage IV Black Edition random restart / shutdown / reboot

[Sihastru]

Hello guys!

I know that there are other similar threads, but I am now at the tipping point towards desperate.

I upgraded from a P9X79 (64GB) to a Rampage IV Formula (32GB) and then to the Rampage IV Black Edition (64GB again) and I have the same problem that I see many have with this board, the random restart syndrome. The board suddenly cuts power and then reboots. There is no BSOD, the OS doesn't know what happened to it.

I started with the original BIOS, then updated to 0507 and finally today to 0602 (using the BIOS EZ Flash). Neither of these fixed my problem. But let's start with my config:

Intel 4930K cooled by a Noctua NH-D14
ASUS Rampage IV Black Edition (w/AC4) now with 0602
Crucial Ballistix Tactical 64GB (8x8) VLP low voltage 1600MHz 1.35V 8-8-8-24 2T (XMP 1.3)
2 x ASUS 680 GTX SLI
2 x Intel SSD 330 240GB RAID0
Corsair AX850 Gold

All these reside inside a Silverstone Fortress FT02 B/USB3, so they are very well cooled. I'm using Windows 8.1 Pro x64 with the latest updates.

I know my CPU is a good one since it can do more then 4.8 with very low voltage on air, with very low temps. But whenever I try anything with this board, the system keeps randomly restarting.

All these components worked fine with my old boards (that I sold before upgrading). At stock and overclocked. And they work fine with this board but only if I leave all tweaking settings untouched. The only thing I can change is the BOOT section, where I can setup my RAID0. If I have the audacity to enable XMP @1.35V or @1.5V, the board will randomly restart.

Things I already tried, before and after updating to the current BIOS:

1. Increasing VCCSA up to 1.3, VCORE up to 1.4 to no avail, also messed with VTT
2. Flipping CPU current inrush to Enabled
3. Messing with CPU current capability and other settings related to the CPU power (phase control and so on)
4. Installing only 32GB (4x8) of RAM

Single settings and combinations over combinations of settings. The board doesn't restart only when I apply heavy load, it will randomly restart even at idle.

So, if anyone here found the magic combination of settings to make the board stable please share is with us. It's a bit sad to have the highest tier LGA2011 motherboard and not being able to use it, at least with XMP enabled, dare I say with any small and insignificant OC.

Thanks a lot and sorry for the long post.

[Arne_Saknussemm]

Hi Sihastru...my mind goes immediately to your RAM...Is this one 64GB kit or more than one kit? On the QVL? Do you have any other DDR3 RAM to try....

[Sihastru]

Thanks for answering. I too have suspected the RAM, since it is the activation of XMP that causes problems. But it's strange since it works at 1333MHz (probably SPD) with 1.35V and it works, as I explain further, at 1600MHz if I overclock the system.

Well, I'm sorry to say, but the QVL for this board is not very helpful, since it contains only 3 GSKILL kits and 2 KINGSTON kits that are configured as 8x8GB (64GB). Depending on the location, some of the kits are impossible to find and most of them "feature" very high profile heat spreaders. And that can lead to physical compatibility issues with other components.

Other then that, it has a few quad channel kits of lower density/capacity and the bulk of the list contains dual and triple channel kits (that I find a just a little bit, I don't know... hilarious for a board of this caliber). Maybe I'm a little to harsh on this matter. QVL is QVL... better to have that extra information I guess.

My kit is theoretically 64GB, but in the box they were distributed in two smaller boxes that each had 32GB. They all have the same model number inscribed on each of the modules. So I can't be sure. But I already tried to use only half of the modules, that I marked as all being from one of the smaller boxes. With the same result.

Anyway, reading other forum posts on the internet, I have found that the board can be stable if you overclock your CPU and manually set primary memory timings. It does sound counter intuitive, that a system is stable when overclocked and seriously unstable when at "stock" settings, but I'll take it. I know XMP is technically overclocking, but come on... we're talking about 1600MHz and that's under the 1866MHz official support ceiling. So my XMP settings should be considered underclocking.

So now I am running the CPU @ 4.4 GHz, RAM @ 1600 8-8-8-24 1.35V. I'm using a dynamic Vcore of +0.065, because I want my idle voltage to drop to 0.8V, my PC spends quite some time at or near "active" idle. I've been running the system continuously since yesterday, and there have been no random restarts incidents.

It also passed a few hours of prime95 and a few runs of IBT, so at least from my point of view, since stability is a subjective thing, it is stable.

I messed with a few other settings in the BIOS, if anyone is interested I could make a note of the most important ones and post them here, but when we're talking about overclocking, every system is different.

So I will run like this, perhaps higher towards 4.6-4.8GHz, at least until there are new BIOSes that hopefully improve the stability of the board.

In my opinion, as a guy who has tweaked ASUS' motherboards since the Pentium3 era, there's something wrong with the board. Either it's the immature BIOS, or the "improved and optimized for IB-E trace layout" that ASUS' PR is so proud of has a few quirks and kinks, it remains to be seen.

I wonder if the guys that have no problems with the board have a different revision...?

[Necrosan]

Sihastru wrote:
Thanks for answering. I too have suspected the RAM, since it is the activation of XMP that causes problems. But it's strange since it works at 1333MHz (probably SPD) with 1.35V and it works, as I explain further, at 1600MHz if I overclock the system.

Well, I'm sorry to say, but the QVL for this board is not very helpful, since it contains only 3 GSKILL kits and 2 KINGSTON kits that are configured as 8x8GB (64GB). Depending on the location, some of the kits are impossible to find and most of them "feature" very high profile heat spreaders. And that can lead to physical compatibility issues with other components.

Other then that, it has a few quad channel kits of lower density/capacity and the bulk of the list contains dual and triple channel kits (that I find a just a little bit, I don't know... hilarious for a board of this caliber). Maybe I'm a little to harsh on this matter. QVL is QVL... better to have that extra information I guess.

My kit is theoretically 64GB, but in the box they were distributed in two smaller boxes that each had 32GB. They all have the same model number inscribed on each of the modules. So I can't be sure. But I already tried to use only half of the modules, that I marked as all being from one of the smaller boxes. With the same result.

Anyway, reading other forum posts on the internet, I have found that the board can be stable if you overclock your CPU and manually set primary memory timings. It does sound counter intuitive, that a system is stable when overclocked and seriously unstable when at "stock" settings, but I'll take it. I know XMP is technically overclocking, but come on... we're talking about 1600MHz and that's under the 1866MHz official support ceiling. So my XMP settings should be considered underclocking.

So now I am running the CPU @ 4.4 GHz, RAM @ 1600 8-8-8-24 1.35V. I'm using a dynamic Vcore of +0.065, because I want my idle voltage to drop to 0.8V, my PC spends quite some time at or near "active" idle. I've been running the system continuously since yesterday, and there have been no random restarts incidents.

It also passed a few hours of prime95 and a few runs of IBT, so at least from my point of view, since stability is a subjective thing, it is stable.

I messed with a few other settings in the BIOS, if anyone is interested I could make a note of the most important ones and post them here, but when we're talking about overclocking, every system is different.

So I will run like this, perhaps higher towards 4.6-4.8GHz, at least until there are new BIOSes that hopefully improve the stability of the board.

In my opinion, as a guy who has tweaked ASUS' motherboards since the Pentium3 era, there's something wrong with the board. Either it's the immature BIOS, or the "improved and optimized for IB-E trace layout" that ASUS' PR is so proud of has a few quirks and kinks, it remains to be seen.

I wonder if the guys that have no problems with the board have a different revision...?

I now seem to be in the same boat as you.
Went from the RIVE to this and have also been getting the dreaded reboot.
I also get the feeling because I bought an open box item (actually a refurb according to the packaging) ASUS wants nothing to do with honoring the warranty.

Looks like it is time to send this back to newegg, as the only folks I've seen that have 'solved' this problem have been through multiple RMAs.

Seems like a hardware fault is what is going on here.
Hopefully if I buy a NEW board it doesn't arrive with this same set of problems.

Moral of my story: Stay away from newegg openbox items. $75 savings is not worth losing 3 years of warranty if that is really the case. (For what it's worth, only bought the open box because it was all that was available at the time, and from scouring other forum posts ASUS seemed to offer full warranty on these items at least in the past. Love how a couple of days can change things as it's now back in stock!)

Edit: New board ordered, or 'boardered' if you will.

[day_khabar]

Guys I highly recommend take close pictures of your motherboard from every corner and cpu socket pins before sending it to Newegg for rma, recently they tried to screw me and blamed me for a damage board and refused my rma for R4BE. After several arguments with the supervisors for a week or so
They came back and told me that after close inspection my board wasn't damaged and approved my rma. Just a thought from my bad experience.

[Sihastru]

Hi guys!

@Necrosan: I am sorry to hear about your problems with the board, my board was new/retail. Because there are so many reports of this problem, I think that this could be blamed more on an immature BIOS then on a hardware problem. So I am willing to ride it out with my board as it is now, at least for a few more BIOS iterations. If they don't fix it in a couple of months then I think I will send the board back to the store.

@day_khabar: This seems more of a shipping/newegg problem, and less of a ASUS problem. I'm glad that in the end you sorted things out. We don't have newegg where I am now, the only way to send a board back is to personally take it to the store. So no shenanigans like that are possible.

@Raja: Thanks for the suggestion. I will reset the BIOS and try it out and will report back.

[Raja]

Set CPU Current capability to 170%. If that does not fix it the issue lies somewhere deeper.

[Sihastru]

Raja@ASUS wrote:
Set CPU Current capability to 170%. If that does not fix it the issue lies somewhere deeper.

Sorry it takes a bit longer for me to respond, but testing for this problem takes time. It does help, the restarts are less frequent, or at least they seem to be less frequent, it's hard to draw a conclusion when the problem we're trying to fix has a random aspect to it. In fact the restarts seem to be a lot less frequent as I increase the current capability.

But... starting with 130%, the phase control goes automatically to extreme, and the setting cannot be changed, so all CPU phases work at full tilt all the time. Does this mean that some of the phases on the motherboard are malfunctioning?

[Raja]

Sihastru wrote:
Sorry it takes a bit longer for me to respond, but testing for this problem takes time. It does help, the restarts are less frequent, or at least they seem to be less frequent, it's hard to draw a conclusion when the problem we're trying to fix has a random aspect to it. In fact the restarts seem to be a lot less frequent as I increase the current capability.

But... starting with 130%, the phase control goes automatically to extreme, and the setting cannot be changed, so all CPU phases work at full tilt all the time. Does this mean that some of the phases on the motherboard are malfunctioning?

1) Default OCP is 140% on Auto. Don't use anything lower.
2) No the phases are not malfunctioning.
3) Increase OCP further - it will be less random to test this if you run a stress test like Prime instead of waiting for the system to restart while doing normal tasks. Try 170% or 180%.
4) If you are overclocking the CPU - then start afresh, don't copy voltage settings from any other board to this one as the regulation and LLC is different.

-Raja

[Sihastru]

I did say before that the only way to stabilize the system was to overclock it. But since you got involved in this thread, I've loaded setup defaults in order to test the values you're suggesting. So no overclocking.