capella48
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Thursday, December 10, 2009 1:36 PM
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OK, I have tried a lot of testing, no joy.
I built my system in Jan 2009 with an i7 920 and the E758, 6Gb Corsair Dom 1600, Thermaltake heat sink, 950W PSU, GTX 260 vid card, running Vista Home prem 64 bit
It has run fine since then, but in the last month it has failed to post on code 68 from time to time, recently it hard fails. And recently I have gotten system freezes and BSODs, code 7F and code 1A.
After some testing, I found removing one 2Gb stick from slot 5 made everything run fine again. (Using 4Gb of memory)
Temps: mobo avg 23C cpu avg idle 32C
Tests: Prime95, OCCT, memtest86, all tests come back clean on multiple passes.
Bios: Flashed E758SZ2Z. All Bios settings for testing at Bios default.
So I think it comes down to the memory controller on the cpu chip, or the E758 memory slot, or something in between. It has been suggested I swap the CPU chip, I do not have a spare. It has been running undisturbed for 10 months, so I can't think there are any bent pins.
Is there a way to test the memory controller verses the motherboard slot? Can the memory controller run normally on two (2Gb) sticks and not three if it failed?
Is there anyway to isolate this problem without a spare i7 920?
Right now I have no idea if this issue is motherboard or CPU chip based. But I find it strange that when I add the third stick it fails to post on code 68 every time. Each stick was tested with memtest multipass one at a time.
Thanks in advance for any help on this,
Mike
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Knud
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Re:Post Code 68
Thursday, December 10, 2009 1:42 PM
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(postcode 68 = B8 in fact)
Although it seems very unlikely, please check the cpu socket for any damaged/bent pins. Its best to rule everything out, even if it seems obvious.
Also check if there is any dust in your slot 5. Did you already try to swap the memory around? Does that help? (use all 3 sticks, but swap them around)
Any chance you can borrow a kit from a friend to test perhaps?
Main rig: CM ATCS 840 | X99 Krait | i7 5820K @ 3.8 Ghz | EVGA GTX 1080 FTW LAN Party rig: ATCS 500 | P35 m/b | QX6850 @ 3.3 Ghz | EVGA GTX 670 FTW | Antec H20 620
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frhodes2421
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Re:Post Code 68
Thursday, December 10, 2009 1:48 PM
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Swap memory around but use the other channels perhaps? I assume you just switched the ram in the same 3 slots? What about the other 3? Just throwing ideas out...
Main: I7 3770 Overclocked 4.4 //8g // EVGA GTX 980Ti // Monitor: Overlord Tempest // G19 // Intel 120g ssd // Naga Epic Mouse 4 other rigs//1 home built server// with too many parts to name here :)
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capella48
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Re:Post Code 68
Thursday, December 10, 2009 2:53 PM
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Each stick was tested by itself in slot 1 with memtest86 for 5 passes.
The system functions fine with any 2 sticks in slots 1 and 3, I have not tried any other slots than the base 3 (1,3,5), I did not know what effect it would have. At this point I have to think the memory has no issues.
As to dust, possible, I will look into that again. The sticks were reseated during testing, but I will vacuum the slots and retest.
The CPU and memory was tested with Prime95 for over an hour on default setting with no errors when the system was new. I point this out because removing the CPU for inspection is not a simple thing. I have to remove the motherboard from the case to get to it, because the heat sink cannot be removed with the motherboard in the case. The CPU has not been touched since installation.
I will remove it, if need be for inspection, but would like to eliminate any other ideas first. I do not have access to another i7 chip.
Mike
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y3vgeniy
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Re:Post Code 68
Thursday, December 10, 2009 3:02 PM
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Did you move from 1 case to another by any chance? Or made any changes to even smallest detail? Something that might not even seem like it matters- easily might.
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capella48
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Re:Post Code 68
Thursday, December 10, 2009 3:42 PM
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The system was moved from one room to another, so the wall power changed. There is a UPS on the input side and that did not change. The router and all are the same. The box has only been opened for inspection and cleaning of dust, the system was very low maintenance. In fact I had to relearn a lot of things to get this far, it has been so long since I was inside it.
I did vacuum slot 5, it did look clean before though, I added the 3rd stick back and tried a boot, which worked. I am running OCCT now while typing this, no errors so far, core temps 52C under medium dataset at 100%. Motherboard is 41C, which is kinda high as idle is 23c, but the side is off, so one fan is out of the mix. The problem has been intermittent, with bsods and freezes, then the inability to post. But the system is stable with 4Gb. It is used mostly as an office machine running MS Word and MS Excel, also for playing TF2, Farcry2, and Evony. Each app having far different demands. I am just not sure what toi make of it.
Mike
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capella48
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Re:Post Code 68
Friday, December 11, 2009 7:57 PM
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And to close this out, for the moment.
Success?
I did disassemble the system and look at the CPU chip and socket. There was no discoloration, and the pins looked fine. However in the process of disassemby I did notice a lot of dust in the fans and nooks on the motherboard including the CPU chip socket area. The room is not air conditioned, and during the Summer pollen does get in. The case has 5 fans, and a lot of air moves through it. It was taken apart, vacuumed. And reassembled and posted the first time out.
Now we just have to see if it stays up. However with all this testing and inspection, there is not much else that can be looked at if is does not stay up.
Thanks for the replies. And I finally figured out how to activate the memory XMS profile so not all for nothing
Mike
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