Asus Maximus Formula SE X38 - Living Review.

[lethial]

@clunk:

I am sorry to be troubling you with this first post, but I am wondering if you can elaborate a bit more about your experience with the Asus boards destroying your RAM please?

I have just replaced my broken P5K with a Asus blitz Formula. However, I couldn't get my system to pass memtest86+ no matter what I try. I previously had a stable OC with my E6600 and Crucial Ballistix PC-8500 2x1GB.

I have even tried a new set of 2x1GB Ballistix, and I still get errors in memtest no matter what I do. I have tried every stick one by one, and I have tried every slot, and I have not even started OCing yet

I suspect that maybe I have a faulty board with shitty mem-controller. I say that because I noticed that if I try to run the memory in Dual Channel setup, the number of errors increases dramatically.

I really hope my board didn't somehow fry my memory

thanks

And btw, thanks for the awesome site!

[Clunk]

Welcome to the forums lethial

I can't be 100% sure that the Maximus killed my RAM - lets get that out of the way first.

The last time I had a board behave like this, was the Commando, and that ended up taking out several sets of RAM (I think 5 in all ), the symptoms are identical in every way.

Random errors on the LCD poster.
PC will not restart, it needs to be reset by unplugging at the wall (or the back of PSU) - this is every single time, and last time it happened, I spoke to enermax because my PSU was making a weird beeping sound for a split second on startup, and on shutdown, and they said that the commando had something new in the power circuitry that wasn't compatible with the Galaxy PSU, and so the PSU wasn't supplying enough voltage during a restart.

The commando (all 3 of mine) also overvolted the RAM in a similar way.

My suspicion is that the BIOS is just really really flakey, and that is the problem, but I am going to enquire about the PSU on Monday, just to rule it out.

I haven't tried 4x1GiB yet, but I will do in the next couple of days

Just on the off chance..have you enabled the memory remap function?

[Nick L]

Clunk, did you have any difficulty removing the N-S Bridge’s pipe from the board?
Mine “seems” to be attached with adhesive, I am sure I have not overlooked any of the attachment pins and the four screws holding the thing on. I removed every pin I could find and still no go. 

[Clunk]

Yep, you need some kind of leverage..I used some small angled pliers, closed and went along one edge levering them under it and it just popped off. If you do it that way, it's worth putting something on the board in case you slip

[Nick L]

Thanks for the info. I hoped that would be the case. i'ma gona dress her up like a two dollar.... and go for it!



Thanks again Clunk,
It came off with a little pop! and the confindence you gave meh

[Clunk]

Good luck

[lethial]

Originally Posted by Clunk

Welcome to the forums lethial

I can't be 100% sure that the Maximus killed my RAM - lets get that out of the way first.

The last time I had a board behave like this, was the Commando, and that ended up taking out several sets of RAM (I think 5 in all ), the symptoms are identical in every way.

Random errors on the LCD poster.
PC will not restart, it needs to be reset by unplugging at the wall (or the back of PSU) - this is every single time, and last time it happened, I spoke to enermax because my PSU was making a weird beeping sound for a split second on startup, and on shutdown, and they said that the commando had something new in the power circuitry that wasn't compatible with the Galaxy PSU, and so the PSU wasn't supplying enough voltage during a restart.

The commando (all 3 of mine) also overvolted the RAM in a similar way.

My suspicion is that the BIOS is just really really flakey, and that is the problem, but I am going to enquire about the PSU on Monday, just to rule it out.

I haven't tried 4x1GiB yet, but I will do in the next couple of days

Just on the off chance..have you enabled the memory remap function?

Thanks for the info! As for the memory remap, I have not touched that setting, so it is indeed ENABLED. I don't see any harm in it is there?

Also, I am having a heck of a time trying to pin down what the problem is... I have already switched to another brand new set of crucial PC-8500, and I get memory error on the very first memory block everytime I try to run the memtest86+ on dual channel mode...

So my guesses are:
1) my CPU is bad... But I have tried underclock it too! And the only thing I could think that could somehow mess up the CPU was that it fell out of the socket when I was replacing the P5K while forgetting that the CPU was still in there

2) My mobo is bad... Again the Asus Blitz Forumla that I got is brand new, and the shipping packaging was very well done. The only thing I can think of here that I might have screwed up is that I pressed the "cmos clr" button while the system was powered up and booting. But from what I read in the manual, that looked like to be a supported mode of operation. The weird thing is that the default "enable clr cmos button" jumper was disabled, as opposed to enabled, by default I guess someone at the asus factory didn't read the memo? :P

3) all my 4 sticks of Crucial memories are bad... I am always very careful handling them, but I must have some how messed them up... Speaking of the memory settings, on the Maximus mobo you got, you have those DDRII_REF voltage settings right? any idea what they are? And since the crucial ram run on 2.2V, by setting it I will get a red colored text for DRAM Reference Voltage setting apparently the BIOS thinks that 1.104V is too hi? (according to the bios, the DRAM voltage is 2.24V)

Oh and I have disabled "transaction booster" and enabled "loadline calibration"

[Clunk]

It's unlikely, but not impossible that all of your sticks are bad, but at this point, I would say it is something else....poor BIOS is my guess.

CPU could be bad, but again, its not that common - I dont think it's that (yet).

One thing to try is turn off legacy USB...it might not be the cause of your actual problems, but it could be causing the errors in memtest.

So...I reckon, the flakey BIOS is giving you the RAM problems, and possibly legacy USB is causing the errors - But it's all speculation...I will try 4x1GiB today and let you know.

P.S. the loadline calibration didnt do anything on mine.

[lethial]

oh I am not trying to use all 4 memory sticks at once. I get mem error even if I try every stick one by one I am no stranger to OC, but this is the first time that I had so many hardware happening at once, and this is the first time that memtest failed so fast on every memory that I tried...

[Clunk]

Ah I see.

Do you have another board to try, or can you test the memory in someone elses board?