UnOfficial Asus Rampage II Extreme Thread

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Originally Posted by skypx

I had a long discussion with Asus tech support today about the cold boot issue. Unfortunately they are unaware of the problem, so I guess it's up to us to find what's causing the problem. My computer specs are in the sig below and if we could work together to get this issues solved we may be able to present our findings to Asus for a fix. Thanks.

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It's not very likely that we will find any sort of a solution, or for that matter a cause. I do not have multitudes of boards at my disposal (infact I have only one) and I had two i7 940 CPUs. Now just one. I have no testing equipment either besides a DMM. But, it is worth a shot I guess...

My specs are as follows, if anyone is interested...

Core i7 940
Corsair Dominator XMS3 1600MHz 8-8-8-24-2T (rating at 1.65V)
Rampage II Extreme, Revision 2.01G, 0804 BIOS
Antec TruePower Quattro 1000W, 80+ Certified, 72A on four 12V rails
Generic NVIDIA video card...
Generic hard drives...
Logitech USB keyboard and mouse
Triple-boot, Ubuntu Linux, Windows XP Pro SP3, and Vista 64-bit

There it is...now let's hear others...

Very nice tread , i will follow closely :)

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Originally Posted by RamGuy239

Any idea if the "Thermalright HR-05 SLI / IFX" will fit on this board?
I see it's easy to swap of that annoying northbridge heat-pipe that is blocking for my Asus Xonar audio card!

Any idea if I can swap it with a HR-05 SLI / IFX? That would make things both cooler and making my Xonar HDAV1.3 Deluxe fit perfectly!

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Ramguy, I have an hr05 and I could try it when my second loop components come in I change my NB cooler so I could use my x-fi titanium!!:D

Looking forward too see how it goes!! *fingers crossed*

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Originally Posted by dejanh

Yeah, see, I have been on the AMD boat for the last 12 years so I have no idea how anything worked in the Intel world. Core i7 is my first Intel build since 1996. The cold boot is sure annoying though. I am just curious to see if there is some parallel that can be drawn between the cold boot and the crappy OC requiring a ton of voltage on certain boards. After all, cold boot is indicative of a power problem of some sort, and having to provide a lot of power to make OC stable and/or not being able to stabilize it at all could also be indicative of a power problem. :shrug:

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honestly man... i think my coldboot issue is more of a warm up thing.

kinda like how a car sometimes needs to be warmed up in the winter.

mine simply wont run until i have let it sit on for a few mins to warm up. sounds odd but i did some experimenting and if i attempt to boot and it does nothing i leave it for about 3-5mins then hit reset and it boots up fine no problems. if i mess around and try to force it to post then i end up loosing my bios settings and it still takes a few mins to get it to post anyways.

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Originally Posted by fitseries3

honestly man... i think my coldboot issue is more of a warm up thing.

kinda like how a car sometimes needs to be warmed up in the winter.

mine simply wont run until i have let it sit on for a few mins to warm up. sounds odd but i did some experimenting and if i attempt to boot and it does nothing i leave it for about 3-5mins then hit reset and it boots up fine no problems. if i mess around and try to force it to post then i end up loosing my bios settings and it still takes a few mins to get it to post anyways.

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That's preicsely it. That's what mine does. I've never had issues with it not booting. It will just hang during the boot process. If I leave my PSU switch on it fires right up, but if I shut the PSU off and totally power it down, I would sometimes get hangs at DET RAM, and VGA BIOS. I've never had a complete failure to boot though.

I suspect there might be some BIOS fixes and Chipset Drivers on the way. We'll see...

Well, I got 4.1ghz(actually 4.095 in everest) stable on prime 40 16 hours, 20x195, 1.4125v bios(1.40 actual underload), 1.35 vdram/qpi, 1.6706 Ram voltage, everything else auto.... If I increase vdram.qpi to more than 1.375, core 2, and 4 will fail randomly after 10 hours of prime 95, unless I increase voltage to 1.49! This only happens during the large ffts which usually mean memory issues, but it passes memtest with any setting I choose......

Is it safe to buy this board? There seems to be SO many issues with this. I don't really want to buy a mobo which wont boot up when it's cold. Also, evga and gigabyte boards seem to be more stable and overclock better. Some ppl here need like 1.58 v when ocd to only 4ghz. I really would like to have this but it would be stupid to buy if i already know there will be issues. Does anyone here with corsair hx1000w psu have problems with cold booting?

Please tell me ur opinions so i can finally hit that "buy" button.

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Originally Posted by dejanh

It's not very likely that we will find any sort of a solution, or for that matter a cause. I do not have multitudes of boards at my disposal (infact I have only one) and I had two i7 940 CPUs. Now just one. I have no testing equipment either besides a DMM. But, it is worth a shot I guess...

My specs are as follows, if anyone is interested...

Core i7 940
Corsair Dominator XMS3 1600MHz 8-8-8-24-2T (rating at 1.65V)
Rampage II Extreme, Revision 2.01G, 0804 BIOS
Antec TruePower Quattro 1000W, 80+ Certified, 72A on four 12V rails
Generic NVIDIA video card...
Generic hard drives...
Logitech USB keyboard and mouse
Triple-boot, Ubuntu Linux, Windows XP Pro SP3, and Vista 64-bit

There it is...now let's hear others...

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So far the Corsair Dominator XMS3 1600MHz seems to be the common factor. Is there anyone using Corsair Dominator memory and NOT having cold boot issues?

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Originally Posted by ReVolut1on

Is it safe to buy this board? There seems to be SO many issues with this. I don't really want to buy a mobo which wont boot up when it's cold. Also, evga and gigabyte boards seem to be more stable and overclock better. Some ppl here need like 1.58 v when ocd to only 4ghz. I really would like to have this but it would be stupid to buy if i already know there will be issues. Does anyone here with corsair hx1000w psu have problems with cold booting?

Please tell me ur opinions so i can finally hit that "buy" button.

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I have the Corsair HX1000W PSU and i also suffer from the cold boot issue but it's random, sometime's it boot's directly and sometime's it don't :shrug:

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Originally Posted by skypx

So far the Corsair Dominator XMS3 1600MHz seems to be the common factor. Is there anyone using Corsair Dominator memory and NOT having cold boot issues?

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I have OCZ Gold XTC 3x1GB DDR3-1600Mhz CAS 8 and i have the cold boot issue! There go's you're theory :rofl:

I am not, but i never turn the switch off on the back of my pc for the psu.....I also have that memory!

This is just annoying! It seems to be completely random. Must be the board itself! Well, if this doesnt sort out i think i'll go with evga

no cold boot issues here :shrug:

I'm very happy for you sonofander! Hope everything goes well. But still it's weird... Seems its not PSU nor RAM related issue. Must be the board. Btw what kind of voltage do you need to run at 4ghz and can you do it 24/7?
Has anyone RMAed their board because of cold boot issue?

I would appreciate any help! =)

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Originally Posted by sonofander

no cold boot issues here :shrug:

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Yea, it seems to be completely ramdom. So much for trying to find a fix. :(

It does seem to be very, very random. I think that some of the boards may be faulty. Since I have had it happen two times in a row a couple of days ago, it has not happened again. Definitely had the opportunity to do it as I turn off the comp every night. The ROG light was not blinking either, but it booted just fine.

Btw, the disappearing memory issue, has anybody had that happen? I noticed that at certain settings for Uncore/QPI and DRAM speed memory channels will drop off so instead of 6GB I will sometimes boot with 4GB, and sometimes with just 2GB. I read on the R2E forums on Asus that some people RMAed the board because of this...maybe that's what I ought to do?

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Originally Posted by skypx

So far the Corsair Dominator XMS3 1600MHz seems to be the common factor. Is there anyone using Corsair Dominator memory and NOT having cold boot issues?

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Me. During lunch I will make sure, but I am pretty sure I am not.

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Originally Posted by Aberration

Me. During lunch I will make sure, but I am pretty sure I am not.

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Thanks. I just e-mailed (with a link to this thread) an Asus rep about the issues we are experiencing. Hopefully he will have the time view our concerns.

I just got off the phone with Asus support where I laid out all of the problems seen so far with this board...the list follows...

1. Disappearing memory channels/memory detected incorrectly (e.g., only 2GB out of 6GB get detected at boot). Depending on settings, this can be triggered at will and is not normal. BIOS used does not affect or correct this.
2. Instability at 200MHz BCLK and/or 20x multiplier (but not above or below). Possibly there are more combinations that are unstable with 20x multiplier.
3. IOH voltage is stuck (i.e., cannot be changed and/or there is a huge discrepancy between the set voltage and actual voltage...I'm talking 0.08V or higher). In one example I set the IOH voltage to 1.32V and the actual voltage read only 1.24V, same as when the voltage was just set to 1.24V. I don't think 0.09V is considered acceptable discrepancy. Furthermore, no matter how high I go with the settings (I tried 1.5V) I only got 1.28V max on the board using a DMM. That's a whopping 0.22V difference!
4. Random (cold-boot) no power up after shutdown. Appears to happen for no reason, PSU was ruled out, DRAM was ruled out, BIOS was ruled out, graphics were ruled out, even CPU was ruled out. Requires typically a CMOS reset, complete power cycle, or a wait time before trying to boot after initial failure.
5. Motherboard not rebooting correctly after a BIOS update and requiring CMOS reset to be hit every single time (this is not normal behavior).
6. SLI Configurations not working on all of the boards. I did not try this on my board.
7. ROG light not blinking when the computer is off as it is supposed to but instead staying steady. This appears to have something to do with the cold boot as they seem to happen in conjunction, but I am not 100% sure.
8. No ability to delete O.C. Profiles from BIOS without reflashing the BIOS.

Anyway, my board is going for an RMA as soon as Asus verifies advanced RMA stock for shipping to Canada. Hopefully, the new board will have no problems. If Asus forums are any guideline I am in for some good times, at least in terms of the memory issues. There have been a couple of individuals there that had this issue, RMAed the board, and the replacement worked flawlessly. I do hope!

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Originally Posted by dejanh

I just got off the phone with Asus support where I laid out all of the problems seen so far with this board...the list follows...

1. Disappearing memory channels/memory detected incorrectly (e.g., only 2GB out of 6GB get detected at boot). Depending on settings, this can be triggered at will and is not normal. BIOS used does not affect or correct this.
2. Instability at 200MHz BCLK and/or 20x multiplier (but not above or below). Possibly there are more combinations that are unstable with 20x multiplier.
3. IOH voltage is stuck (i.e., cannot be changed and/or there is a huge discrepancy between the set voltage and actual voltage...I'm talking 0.08V or higher). In one example I set the IOH voltage to 1.32V and the actual voltage read only 1.24V, same as when the voltage was just set to 1.24V. I don't think 0.09V is considered acceptable discrepancy. Furthermore, no matter how high I go with the settings (I tried 1.5V) I only got 1.28V max on the board using a DMM. That's a whopping 0.22V difference!
4. Random (cold-boot) no power up after shutdown. Appears to happen for no reason, PSU was ruled out, DRAM was ruled out, BIOS was ruled out, graphics were ruled out, even CPU was ruled out. Requires typically a CMOS reset, complete power cycle, or a wait time before trying to boot after initial failure.
5. Motherboard not rebooting correctly after a BIOS update and requiring CMOS reset to be hit every single time (this is not normal behavior).
6. SLI Configurations not working on all of the boards. I did not try this on my board.
7. ROG light not blinking when the computer is off as it is supposed to but instead staying steady. This appears to have something to do with the cold boot as they seem to happen in conjunction, but I am not 100% sure.
8. No ability to delete O.C. Profiles from BIOS without reflashing the BIOS.

Anyway, my board is going for an RMA as soon as Asus verifies advanced RMA stock for shipping to Canada. Hopefully, the new board will have no problems. If Asus forums are any guideline I am in for some good times, at least in terms of the memory issues. There have been a couple of individuals there that had this issue, RMAed the board, and the replacement worked flawlessly. I do hope!

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Thanks for the report dejanh. Hopefully our issues will be resolved quickly.

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Originally Posted by sonofander

no cold boot issues here :shrug:

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No cold boot issues here

Guess I am one of the lucky ones for once. I installed the board with my i940, 6 gigs of corsair 1600(non-dominator), and tri-gtx 280s. After about three reboots I had it running at 191 x 21 on air with ht and it has been stable+prime stable for almost a week now. No cold boots, no bsods, no errors, and no start up trouble. :eek:

Voltages are cpu 1.32, pll is 1.81, and qpi/dram is 1.39

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Originally Posted by marleyman

No cold boot issues here

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OT: How do you like the CoolIt Freezone Elite on your i7? Does it do a good job keeping the temps down? I noticed you are using a very mild overclock...

Also, where did you get the mounting plate for it?

Um, Guys, my computer won't boot. I was running fine at 4.1 and decided to start working back on my 4.3 stable hunt. I reset, went into bios, changed the multiplier to 180 x 24 with the following voltages:

vcc = 1.475
QPI = 1.375
PLL = 1.86
IOH = 1.20616

also, tried the memory @ 1804, with an UNCORE of 1804 and QPI of the lowest, I think 4600?

So, the bios screen hung, I powered off, powered back on and nothing happens. The lights on the mobo are lit, but the LCD says welcome and just starts counting. No DET MEM, nothing...

What are possible causes? More importantly, SOLUTIONS?

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Originally Posted by bmilos

Um, Guys, my computer won't boot. I was running fine at 4.1 and decided to start working back on my 4.3 stable hunt. I reset, went into bios, changed the multiplier to 180 x 24 with the following voltages:

vcc = 1.475
QPI = 1.375
PLL = 1.86
IOH = 1.20616

also, tried the memory @ 1804, with an UNCORE of 1804 and QPI of the lowest, I think 4600?

So, the bios screen hung, I powered off, powered back on and nothing happens. The lights on the mobo are lit, but the LCD says welcome and just starts counting. No DET MEM, nothing...

What are possible causes? More importantly, SOLUTIONS?

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Did you try to clear CMOS? Also try this, flip powerswitch off and wait till all the power is off the board. Then flip it back on and see if it will boot ;)
If that is the case then you're experience the cold boot issue! Still no boot then move the jumper on the mobo to BIOS#2 :up: