Rampage IV Extreme - Intermittent Shutdown Problems

[mikeblunt2020]

Hi all, I was wondering if you could offer me any insight. I just recently obtained a R4E board. I'm running a 3960X @ 4.7 on it, with some slight adjustments to VCore, VCCSA, clockgen filter, etc. All the standard tweaks that most people seem to be making on this board.

The system is rock solid stable with one exception. Intermittently, it fails to shudown gracefully (it effectively hangs at a black screen without actually powering down). After this occurs, when it comes back up it gives the "overclocking failed" message. Note that this does not always happen, as it frequently shuts down properly. It seems to happen more frequently when I bring the system up from sleep mode and then power it down quickly thereafter. Also note that the system always goes to sleep and wakes up properly - the intermittent shutdown hang is the only problem I am currently experiencing.

Has anyone else experienced anything similar? Any suggested tweaks that I can make?

I should note that I do have all the CPU power saving options on (speedstep, C1E) and would prefer to leave them on if I can find a solution that enables me to.

Thanks for your assistance.

[mikeblunt2020]

OK, got the new 4x4 Dominator GT 2133 kit installed. unfortunately the sleep and shutdown issues seem to persist. This is both happening at my OC (4.7 on CPU, 2133 on memory) as well as at both stock CPU and memory speeds.

Not really sure where to go from here... I will say the system is rock solid stable, I can stress test all day without any crashes or instability at both stock speeds and at the overclock -- the only issue is that the system doesn't power down on shutdown properly sometimes, and also either doesn't power down into sleep state and/or restore from sleep state intermittently.

Something really strange happened a bit earlier today also. I brought the computer into a sleep state, it powered down and the power LED started flashing like it successfully entered sleep. I walked away for a minute or two, came back, and the computer power was running again - although the system was inaccessible like it tried to wake from sleep unsuccessfully. Checked the Windows event logs again and not seeing anything of interest.

Not really sure where to go from here...any additional thoughts?

[GetMax]

I have the exact same problems.

I had this issue when I used dual channel memory and I also have it with quad memory. Sometimes after wake-up the cpu stays downclocked at 1200mhz. Only a restart can fix that. It only happens sometimes and I can't reproduce the problem. This occurs both with stock speeds and when OCed. I've tried manually adjusting voltages but had no luck. Waking up from sleep mode makes the board act weird. Sometimes when I wake it up and use it for 10 min or hours (it's always different) the cpu sensor locks itself at 40 degrees C and my fans keep spinning at high speed to cool it.

I really didn't want to but I had to turn sleep mode off and stop using it. I have no problems at all when I avoid using sleep mode altogether.

[mikeblunt2020]

GetMax, thanks for the info. This sounds realy similar to my problem. I just resumed from sleep (successfully) and my CPU readings are all locked at 91C on each core (this isn't accurate).

Is this a BIOS bug? I'm running 1202. Or is it possible I have a bad board?

[HiVizMan]

Nope neither simply put while you think your ram is stable it is not. There are heaps of threads about this very issue and 99% of the time once you have your RAM rock solid stable the sleep issue is fixed. Trial and error to get it right

[mikeblunt2020]

Still not sold on this being a RAM problem, how can a RAM problem cause all of my CPU core readings to read 91 C after resuming from sleep?

[HiVizMan]

The ram not being 100% stable might (note the use of the term might) prevent your system from actually powering down correctly.

Look I am not invested in the cause being one thing or another. What I am invested in is finding a fix for your problem.

[mikeblunt2020]

What settings do you think I should be looking at tweaking? Also note that I noticed this behavior at stock CPU and lower memory clocks (1333 and 1600) in addition to my current OC of 4.7 and memory at 2133.

[HiVizMan]

Is there any way you can find out what your CPU temp is during sleep mode. It is possible to do so using the OC key.

What I am trying to make sense of is the extreme temp at start up. Your temps are normal under load you see. But after start up that is the issue. So if you have the OC up and the overlay running you will be able to see the temp of your CPU while in sleep.

Maybe the cores are still pulling power for some reason while the rest of the system is powered down.

Or

The cooler pump might be taking far to long to wake, that is one possible reason.

But why is that happening? That I do not know.

[mikeblunt2020]

I checked my CPU temp during sleep and it is at normally ambient temps. Yet, when the box comes back from sleep it still registers all cores at 91C (clearly incorrect), and multiplier is locked at 12x. I even brought down the clock ratio to 39 (3.9ghz) instead of 4.7 and the same problem remains.

Any ideas?

[HiVizMan]

All cores adjustable in OS set in BIOS, or is it set on auto?