Widescreen Gaming Forum

there is no way the power bar or overloaded circuitry would cause this problem, the load he is running would not cause it to excede the ratings

the 10A limit is for safety and doesn't mean that the world will self destruct if it is exceded.

A good extension cord would be 1.5mm^2 (x3) and therefore would allow 15A/16A easily, a ring main (2.5mm TE wired in a ring both to from the consumer unit) in England is rated with a 32A breaker.

There COULD be a PSU problem, but it is more likely to be the RAM, as we had already established that DIMM 2 was dodgy. However.... a couple of related issues, how is the BIOS battery for voltage? lots of the BIOS settings seem to be completely different to settings that software is reporting, which is very odd IMO. And it could be a faulty motherboard with regards to memory slots/ memory power phase.

RAM shouldn't hold charge after power has been removed, so that shouldn't really explain why it works sometimes and not others.

_________________
P8Z68-V Pro | 2600K | HR02 | HD5850 | 2x4GB Vengeance LP | 128GB M4 + 6TB | X-Fi > HD595 | AX850 | Tai Chi | PB278Q | G110 + Deathadder 2013
P8Z77-V | 3570K | Mugen 2 | HD5850 | 2x4GB Vengeance LP | 500GB | X-750 | Fractal R3 | U2212HM | G110 + G400
P8H77-I | G860 | 4650 | 2x2GB XMS | 320GB | CX500 | Prodigy | T22B350EW | MX518
DC3217IYE | 1x4GB Vengeance | 64GB M4 | TX-42VT20E

how is the BIOS battery for voltage?

I have no idea actually. Never really thought this far... where do I check? BIOS?

lots of the BIOS settings seem to be completely different to settings that software is reporting

Please clarify? All I can come up with currently is the 3.2GHz(x24) mention at first boot. Which is strange, but likely appeared after the BIOS was flashed. Hence it is probably not related to the initial issues.

And it could be a faulty motherboard with regards to memory slots/ memory power phase.

RAM shouldn't hold charge after power has been removed, so that shouldn't really explain why it works sometimes and not others.

If all else fails, I'll be RMA-ing the MoBo along with the RAM. Before that I do want to ensure that the PSU is working correctly. If it does, there is little else that could cause it.

On a side note:

My pc case is currently standing on the floor. Which comes with its share of static and dust. Anyone know of a small type of 'table' on which I could put it something like 10cm above the floor? Wheels would be a nice addition.

if your outlet socket is grounded properly static should not play a role at all.

and for the BIOS problems I was meaning how randomly it showed 4GB RAM, not 6GB, the flashing problems and then the odd multipler.

and yeah, best way to check the battery, although the chances of it being the cause is very slim is to take it out and use a multimeter on it. Or just buy a brand new one and slot it in.

I had a machine (K8 MSI shit board) that now has BIOS problems every time it loses mains power (switched off at night) becuase the BIOS battery is shit. It's back in England, so it's not causing me problems anyway!

_________________
P8Z68-V Pro | 2600K | HR02 | HD5850 | 2x4GB Vengeance LP | 128GB M4 + 6TB | X-Fi > HD595 | AX850 | Tai Chi | PB278Q | G110 + Deathadder 2013
P8Z77-V | 3570K | Mugen 2 | HD5850 | 2x4GB Vengeance LP | 500GB | X-750 | Fractal R3 | U2212HM | G110 + G400
P8H77-I | G860 | 4650 | 2x2GB XMS | 320GB | CX500 | Prodigy | T22B350EW | MX518
DC3217IYE | 1x4GB Vengeance | 64GB M4 | TX-42VT20E

there is no way the power bar or overloaded circuitry would cause this problem, the load he is running would not cause it to excede the ratings

I second that & the rest of his post.

ho and by the way
when estimating max input current take max rated Wattage & divide by efficiency
so 750W with an efficiency of 80% (for example) means a draw of 937W

It's Monday again! And that means glitch time.
Well, seems the BIOS update didn't cut it. It was displaying 4GB again at first. This time I managed to hurry into the BIOS setup though, so Windows did not boot and crash, resulting in system restore, etc.

Anyway, once in the BIOS, I looked up which memory channel was missing: Channel C. (I'm glad I could actually see that.) Now the middle DIMM of the three was the one that failed memtest. Bummer, I thought at first, but then I checked the MoBo manual: Left = channel 0, Right = channel 1, Middle (2) = channel 2. Bingo, so it is that DIMM which failed. Unless I'm making a mistake assuming 0 = A, 1 = B and 2 = C.

For next week I plan to switch the DIMMs at channel 1 and 2. Just to see which one fails this time.
If it's channel B, then the RAM goes RMA and I should be done.
If it's channel C again, then I'll be checking the PSU the week after that. If all is well with the old PSU, then the new PSU will go RMA. If issues remain with the old PSU, then the MoBo is most likely at fault and I'll be RMA-ing both the MoBo and the RAM (just in case, and to let the guys at Alternate figure some things for themselves).

You'll understand that I'm hoping for Channel B to fail next week. All in all, I should have this whole thing sorted within a month from now.

And if none fail next week, then erm... I think I will crash then.

I'd seriously think about RMAing the RAM. But with a channel going missing on an i7 system it could be RAM, CPU or mobo. :( And hit it with all the RAM in with memtest for... I dunno... 10 passes? Usually if RAM is bad it tells you pretty fast, but I've not had memtest give me errors with an i7 system... given the integrated memory controller on the CPU it might manifest differently?

I've done memtest per chip, and the middle DIMM has failed it at first, right at the first pass already. When I retried later, it didn't fail anymore. Maybe because it's had power recently...
It's not utterly bad, it just needs too much time to get started it seems. Very strange, yet it is what I'm experiencing.

That said, it should fail in channel B next week if it is indeed faulty as I suspect. That should be all the proof I need to RMA the memory alone, without any adjoining components (which require a lot more work to get prepared for RMA). If channel C fails again, then the MoBo is more likely to be at fault. Or the CPU, as you mention, but I'm still keeping that as an unlikely.


Toughest bit is that it takes a week for anything to manifest itself again, unless I voluntarily leave everything off for an extra day. And I don't really want to do that. Besides, formally speaking I have 2 years to figure it out.

What joy, it did the trick again today. And it's Tuesday!

Either it's a coincidence, or I had it off for just long enough, or the problem's slowly getting worse.

Of course, I had not switched the DIMMs yet, since I hadn't expected this (but I was ready to stop the boot with the DEL button, so no harm done once again). First thing I did now was turn the thing off, unplug, and switch the DIMMs. The supposedly faulty one is now on channel 1 (B). With luck (or lack of it, whichever you prefer), it'll fail again tomorrow and I'll know more sooner than anticipated.
And no, after the switching it went straight to 6GB. There was a sparkle of hope that the relatively quick unplugging would cause the failure already, but alas, it did not.



And the keyboard programmable buttons didn't work again right at startup. However, simply restarting the profiler software brought it back, so I'm still going with software issue on this one.

hum I wonder something....
maybe you could try the "total power off reset technique"

on some systems (mainly old ones but you never know) it could happen that some resident power could be stuck inside some component (don't know how to say it better in english)
and doing the following could resolve it : 0-shut the computer down 1-unplug the power 2 - press the power ON button continuously as if you wanted to power on your computer for 10seconds 3 - release the button, replug the power & continue as usual (for laptops you need to add to step one the removal of the battery)

In your case, maybe, just maybe it could simulate like the computer was off for a longer time than it really was

and to be extra sure it would probably be better to unplug power rather than just turn off the computer power supply switch