7980XE + Rampage VI Extreme freezing with optimized defaults

[xarot]

Hello,

Today my son had reset the BIOS of my computer with the button on the back panel. On X299 I've never really ran the PC at stock. However, now the PC froze in the UEFI only with safe settings. I went into Windows and fired up Prime95 28.5 with AVX support, the PC freezes after a few minutes. I've been playing with 7980XE OC the last few days with the Rampage VI Extreme and I've only seen this freezing only occurring with cache instability. I swapped the 64GB Corsair RAM kit to another G.Skill 16GB (specs below) kit and the freezing was still there so the RAM was ruled out. When it is freezing, the cache is at stock 2.4 and Asus multicore enhancement is disabled. It seems XMP works fine though, but after all it's not bare stock.

I swapped the CPU now to i9-7900X and it runs just fine so far after 15 minutes. Is there a possible bug in the UEFI when running bare stock or is it time to RMA the CPU? The screen just freezes...no blue screen, nothing and stays there forever. I say again, when I was OCing, it was fine, I could run Prime too and I didn't see any freezing. Even with slightly unstable OC, it never freezes unless the cache is very unstable.

I can try my 7980XE during the weekend with my Strix board I still have and see how it runs. I would guess there will be more 7980XE + Rampage VI Extreme owners soon, so please report if you can test this please. I saw similar occurrence on OCN where an user got freezing in the UEFI too and he concluded it had something to do with VROC I don't use.

UEFI is updated to the latest 0802, when reflashed it. CPU is watercooled with custom loop and temps are not the issue.

Specs:

i9-7980XE
Rampage VI Extreme 0802
Corsair Dominator Platinum 64GB 3200MHZ 8x8GB CMD64GX4M8B3200C16 + G.Skill DDR4 3200 4x4GB F4-3200C16Q-16GRKD
Corsair AX1500i
Intel 750 PCIe SSD 1.2TB + Samsung 960 PRO M.2 under the plastic mobo shield (not used currently)
Asus Strix 1080 TI OC SLI + Asus HB bridge
etc.

[JustinThyme]

rzotti has a very valid point. Its not always about the MOBO and CPU.
OP thanks for answering the questions.

Freeze ups are almost always ram. Have you set the ram manually or XMP?
Have you thinned out the sticks starting with only one (look in the manual it will show you which slot.
Is your OS set up correctly for virtual memory is you are not running a large kit?

Whats getting me here is you were running fine until the CMOS was reset.
I would spend some time in there with a fine tooth comb to see whats going on but also keep an open mind that that could have been pure coincidence and you could drive yourself bonkers chasing a cat under water.

Other things that cannot be ruled out
Corrupted OS
Faulty drive partition or sectors (have you tried installing the OS on the Samsung)
Faulty memory controller on the CPU

You can always contact ASUS and open a ticket. Its best to do it online, it may take longer in between responses but then you have a paper trail. and better chance of escalation if its deemed to be your MOBO.

Something else to keep in mind is this board is brand new, just on the market as is the entire architecture with the chipset and CPUs. Early adopters always get to be the guinea pigs no matter what it is. Sometimes things go flawlessly, others they don't. Yes I wish things had more time to be developed before going to market but we are the driving force behind that. Dont believe me, How hard was it to find an RVIE and 7980XE? Competition between brands is healthy for the market but AMD and Intel are steadily pushing the market too fast. What they don't get is most of the enthusiast market is loyal to one or the other.

[xarot]

JustinThyme wrote:
rzotti has a very valid point. Its not always about the MOBO and CPU.
OP thanks for answering the questions.

Freeze ups are almost always ram. Have you set the ram manually or XMP?
Have you thinned out the sticks starting with only one (look in the manual it will show you which slot.
Is your OS set up correctly for virtual memory is you are not running a large kit?

Whats getting me here is you were running fine until the CMOS was reset.
I would spend some time in there with a fine tooth comb to see whats going on but also keep an open mind that that could have been pure coincidence and you could drive yourself bonkers chasing a cat under water.

Other things that cannot be ruled out
Corrupted OS
Faulty drive partition or sectors (have you tried installing the OS on the Samsung)
Faulty memory controller on the CPU

You can always contact ASUS and open a ticket. Its best to do it online, it may take longer in between responses but then you have a paper trail. and better chance of escalation if its deemed to be your MOBO.

Something else to keep in mind is this board is brand new, just on the market as is the entire architecture with the chipset and CPUs. Early adopters always get to be the guinea pigs no matter what it is. Sometimes things go flawlessly, others they don't. Yes I wish things had more time to be developed before going to market but we are the driving force behind that. Dont believe me, How hard was it to find an RVIE and 7980XE? Competition between brands is healthy for the market but AMD and Intel are steadily pushing the market too fast. What they don't get is most of the enthusiast market is loyal to one or the other.

Thanks for the reply Justin.

The thing is I don't for certain this didn't occur before the CMOS was reset, because on first boot I just enabled XMP like many do. After the CMOS reset I noticed it freezes at stock but not at XMP obviously. I think freezing in the BIOS will rule out the storage issues. Now it is freezing very often when I go to BIOS to look at the different settings. Also I have tested with two RAM kits that have different density too...my 64GB kit is in the R6E QVL and the second is not but it was designed for X99 and R6E G.SKILL QVL doesn't have any 16 GB kits for some reason.

I was one of the early adopters on X299 already. SLI didn't work and my first 7900X was nothing to write home about. Both have been RMAd once now and all is good. 🙂

I was going to RMA the 7980X but swapped back in my 7900X to test some more. Now I got to freeze once in Prime95. No clue anymore. I am starting to suspect the board now. It could also be something that the board needs to be drained from power after saving BIOS settings, this was a feature on X99. I haven't tried this much yet. As I recall from the past...we have always had some issues on Rampage boards but some could be worked around.

I will swap parts into my Strix X299-E board and try to replicate the issue. That board has been very solid, but it lacks the options for VRM cooling with the 7980XE and awkward spacing for SLI. Also thinking of grabbing the Rampage VI Apex and another RAM kit to test, although I don't really like the looks of the Apex.

[JustinThyme]

deleted double post.

[xarot]

@Raja@ASUS should I try filling in the bug report you have posted as sticky? I am thinking if this could be done since there are not many users with 7980XE and R6E, at least not yet. Or too early/hardware specific issue for that?

[Aysberg]

I am running also a 7980XE + Rampage VI bios 0802 combo, OS (W10) is on a Samsung 960 EVO NVME plugged into the onboard M.2_1(Socket 3). Tested the system with 3200 CL 14 TridentZ modules and had freezes really often*, changed over to an older RipJaws Kit and it seemed stable but isn't. Had a freeze after 56% memtest.
I am running everything on stock with optimized defaults and RAM clocked to 1066, so not even XMP.

System just freezes where it was, screens stay on, no reboot, no bluscreen, just the desktop or whatever was running. I think the power light on my case turns off, while the HDD led is on permanently.

Never had a faulty CPU and I had the idea the RVIE was delayed to fit the 7980XE first place.

*during boot, entering desktop, in game, during memtest - no visible pattern load or idle.

[rovian]

Aysberg wrote:
I am running also a 7980XE + Rampage VI bios 0802 combo, OS (W10) is on a Samsung 960 EVO NVME plugged into the onboard M.2_1(Socket 3). Tested the system with 3200 CL 14 TridentZ modules and had freezes really often*, changed over to an older RipJaws Kit and it seemed stable but isn't. Had a freeze after 56% memtest.
I am running everything on stock with optimized defaults and RAM clocked to 1066, so not even XMP.

System just freezes where it was, screens stay on, no reboot, no bluscreen, just the desktop or whatever was running. I think the power light on my case turns off, while the HDD led is on permanently.

Never had a faulty CPU and I had the idea the RVIE was delayed to fit the 7980XE first place.

*during boot, entering desktop, in game, during memtest - no visible pattern load or idle.

Exactly like my issue, I'm sure many people are facing this issue, it's pretty annoying and random, sometimes system fails to boot due to Memory Detection failure! please fix this Asus!

[Mappi75]

I wondering a litte because i got a Trident Z 128GB 3.200Mhz CL14 / 7980XE and dont have such problems.

Using a Samsung 960 Pro near the graphic cards slot (not the dimm slot).

[Raja]

If it goes away when you increase memory related voltages (DRAM voltage and SA voltage), or relax memory timings, then it's memory instability. I'd try that at stock settings so you get some indication of where it's coming from. You can use fewer memory modules, relax memory timings, and try different voltages to see if that impacts it.

[Aysberg]

Raja@ASUS wrote:
If it goes away when you increase memory related voltages (DRAM voltage and SA voltage), or relax memory timings, then it's memory instability. I'd try that at stock settings so you get some indication of where it's coming from. You can use fewer memory modules, relax memory timings, and try different voltages to see if that impacts it.

Did a memtest run over night, with 1.25v instead of the 1.20v and the system was running for 6 hours. I think this is more or less stable.

Anyway, I am only running 2 modules out of four and a MB should be stable on defaults without any tweaking 😞

PS Did another run with default voltages and changed the settings you suggested for VROC (DRAM timing section>IO Control Pre-Emphasis) and the system seems stable too.

Have no 4x16GB kit at the moment, so I cannot say if this will work in my final everyday setup.

[xarot]

I ran GSAT for 1 hour today with the RAM kit I use with my 7900X at stock settings on R6E without errors. On 7980XE I cannot even start GSAT before it freezes. I already tried 1.0 V VCCSA, it doesn't go even that high with XMP and relaxed tRFC, but I'll try to loosen the primary timings and increase DRAM voltage.

I guess I'll open a local ticket to ASUS too.

EDIT:

I input the settings that were suggested to another issue here: http://www.overclock.net/t/1637027/asus-rampage-vi-extreme-x299-owners-club/820#post_26395928

After this, I was able to run Prime95 28.5 for one hour and then I stopped it. I tried GSAT but the process ceased to do anything, but the OS worked normally. So it seems it is related to BIOS issues.

When can we expect a new BIOS to fix to this issue?