ASRock 980DE3/U3S3, FX-8350 and BIOS 2.00 problem
Printed From: ASRock.com
Category: Technical Support
Forum Name: AMD Motherboards
Forum Description: Question about ASRock AMD motherboards
URL: https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=3396
Printed Date: 22 Dec 2024 at 9:43am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.04 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: ASRock 980DE3/U3S3, FX-8350 and BIOS 2.00 problem
Posted By: Mxyz Sxyz
Subject: ASRock 980DE3/U3S3, FX-8350 and BIOS 2.00 problem
Date Posted: 08 Sep 2016 at 5:10am
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Hi, I use 980DE3/U3S3 mobo since about 3 years. At first it came with BIOS 1.40, so I got the problem with not fully disabled IGP and "!" in Windows Device manager next to IGP device. I updated the BIOS to 1.50 to solve this, than to 1.60 - latest at that time. And on all of them my Phenom II 1100T worked just fine. But recently I decided to upgrade my PC a little and bought FX-8350 CPU. That was initial period, so no overclock was done. I also added another 2x4 GB memory set. Still everything worked just fine. And then I went to ASRock website and checked for newer BIOS for my mobo. And I have seen this:
So I though "OK, I changed CPU, so maybe some CPU compatibility upgrade would be good option". And I flashed my BIOS with v 2.0. And that was a mistake. Since that moment I got: - Lot's of : A fatal hardware error has occurred. Component: AMD Northbridge Error Source: Machine Check Exception Error Type: HyperTransport Watchdog Timeout Error Processor APIC ID: 0 and similar system logs; - lots of : FAILURE_BUCKET_ID: X64_0x124_AuthenticAMD_PROCESSOR_BUS_PRV BUCKET_ID: X64_0x124_AuthenticAMD_PROCESSOR_BUS_PRV in memory dumps; - several 0x00000124 bluescreens; - a lot of highly annoying resets - no blue screen, no error, just an immediate "go to POST screen" events, like someone just pressed the reset button. After trying to reflash BIOS again with ROM version 2.00 (just in case something wasn't 100% correct at first time) I spent 3 days on checking RAM in various configs, cleaning all mobo slots with compressed air, checking CPU (examining cooling on mine mobo, stressing at friends mobo), checking PCI-E graphics and it's slot, etc. As last resort I downgraded my BIOS back to "last stable version" which was 1.60 for me and.... everything has gone. 5 hours - no restart, no error. On 2.00 it was impossible to work more than half an hour without a restart. BIOS version 2.00 is faulty, at least when tied with 1333MHz 4GB PDP RAM sticks dedicated for AMD (no matter 2 or 4, in 1st or 2nd channel) and with FX-8350! While I was digging on google, it turned out, that "0x124_AuthenticAMD_PROCESSOR_BUS_PRV" means most probably problem with Radeon GPU, rather than AMD CPU. But I was telling myself - how this can be Radeon GPU if I exchanged HD7750 to GTX 750Ti over 2 months ago? And today I recalled, that 980DE3/U3S3 uses 760G chipset, with in-BIOS disabled IGP. My conclusion is that again, ASRock failed to properly disable IGP in BIOS (similarly to what we had in version 1.40). Was it the same problem in 1.70 so it was taken down from the website? I would like to see some ASRock's official comment on this. |
Replies:
Posted By: wardog
Date Posted: 08 Sep 2016 at 5:30am
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I'm not Official ASRock but ..... Your 0x124 is most likely heat related. Specifically the VRM section if I were to guess. Try this to test. Yea, I know. It reqs 2.00. Place a high air flow fan directing it over the VRM area next to the socket and I'll bet you get longer than 0.5hrs runtime. Too, what processor cooling are you using? Water cooling by chance? Otherwise I'd highly suggest copying your post into the Support Request form at http://event.asrock.com/tsd.asp" rel="nofollow - http://event.asrock.com/tsd.asp |
Posted By: Mxyz Sxyz
Date Posted: 09 Sep 2016 at 4:54am
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I use Noctua HN-U12P. Which allows flawlessly run Prime95 for more than an hour - which is not a success itself, but you should compare this with 0,5hr and crash for no reason, without any load, when BIOS is 2.00. By the way - I plan to change NH-U12P to Noctua NH-C14/C14S. To have top-down cooling, as mentioned on motherboards description page. |
Posted By: wardog
Date Posted: 09 Sep 2016 at 5:14am
 That will help blow air over the VRMs which IMO are what's heating up and causing this. Hence my suggestion of including a separate fan over them. This board is 4+1 VRM. And even though ASRock states 8-core up to 140W that's a stretch of my imagination being it's 4+1 |
Mxyz Sxyz wrote:Posted By: Mxyz Sxyz
Date Posted: 10 Sep 2016 at 7:28pm
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OK, However I still wait for some more official answer. Or maybe other users thoughts on BIOS 2.00. On 1.60 I can even overclock it a bit and it runs on Pime95 on FPU stress setting with no error for something like an hour (little bit shorter). Still it crashes and there is no bluescreen, just a black screen and monitor is enetring powersave mode and I have to press reset button on the box, however this is still MUCH better than on 2.00 which is unable to run FX8350 underclocked to 3200 longer than half an hour - WITH NO STRESS. Under 1.60 and with CPU underclocked to 3300 it was running 5 hours Prime's FPU stress test and I just cancelled it because I just went to bed... I will try with BIOS 1.80 if there are differences. One nice thing that I have found in BIOS 2.00 was VCC loadline calibration, which really helps, as on 1.60 I observe quite big drops of VCC. On 2.00 enabling "Auto" mode for loadline calibration really lowers voltage drops or even cancels them, but still it does not help against crashes. |
Posted By: Mxyz Sxyz
Date Posted: 03 Oct 2016 at 3:30am
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Hi guys again, I would like to post my full story, after all my investigations, so maybe someone could learn from it. TL;DR version: Never mix different RAM sticks - even if they come from same vendor and even if both series are similar / one is successor of the other. No way. Especially, if you find in your motherboard manual, that sticks must be identical. You must fix this even if you have read this after buying incorrect RAM and even if this will cost you additional money. If you keep incorrect mix of RAM sticks, then be prepared for 0x124 system crashes, WHEA 18, WHEA 19 and WHEA 20 errors. Full version: My father acquired PC which he used for office work. However, he got it from his friend who is a gamer. So PC had FX-8350 CPU, while mine had just Phenom II 1100T. I asked father and he allowed me for CPU exchange. Then I decided to upgrade amount of RAM from 8 to 16GB. As 8GB is cheaper than 16 + you have to do something with remaining old 8GB, I decided to just buy 8GBs and run on 4x4GB sticks. As I couldn't find Patriot G-Series AMD Black Edition sticks, I just bought Patriot G2-series AMD Edition sticks. They are nearly identical - old ones just have higher and thus more problematic heat spreader. Then I said - OK new CPU, how about new BIOS - AIDA says my BIOS is so old... And when I have seen "CPU compatibility upgrade" in description of version 2.00 (mine was 1.60) I just immediately upgraded. And that was mistake. I changed 3 different things at the same time - CPU, amount of RAM and BIOS version. My PC started restarting - just sudden black screen and everything exactly if I pressed RESET button on my box. Plus there were many WHEA errors in system logs (Events 18, 19 and 20). At first it turned out that it's BIOS thing - I downgraded and system became much more stable. But still random crashes occurred. Some of them were connected with 0x124 error logged in System log. I know - you will say "overheating". But no - CPU temperatures in stress were not higher than 65*C, normally about 35-38*C and crashes occurred even while there was no stress, so rather cold. Motherboard was normally about 32-33*C and about 39-41*C in stress. So I started thinking that CPU is faulty. But then I said, OK, but how about RAM? Maybe they aren't that compatible as I thought initially? While all 4 sticks were installed system, they worked in Dual Channel mode. When I just removed the newer G2 sticks and left only my old G-Series ones system couldn't work in Dual Channel. Then I recognized problem from the past. 2 years ago I have found out, that you can't install just any stick in any of 2 DC slots (A1+A2 or B1+B2). You must install them in correct order. The truth is than later it turned out that there is no order rule. If DC is not working, it is enough to randomly put out and then put back stick from either B1 or B2 slot. Yes, you read correctly - to have Dual Channel working, you need to just remove the RAM stick and put it back in the same place - no other handling was necessary. Of course on system powered down. So, I did the magic and my old G-Series RAM started working in DC. At first there were no crashes. But then one occurred. So I put all RAM sticks back to mobo. Interesting - for a longer time there were no crashes. So I connected 2 things - when I removed new sticks old ones were not working in DC, so something was bad with them. For the moment, when I started from old sticks working in DC and added 2x new sticks from G2 series everything was quite OK. But of course not so long. So I left only newer sticks (G2 series) in A1+A2 slots. I performed different Prime tests (Blend / Max power / Max heat) for 12 hours without problem. My CPU reached 74*C and my mobo reached 50*C. It last for nearly an hour and no crash! All under topdown cooler (Noctua NH-14C). By the way - it gives higher temperatures than my old NH-U12P, which is NOT a topdown as suggested for 8 cores CPU on 980DE3/U3S3. So topdown cooling suggestion is not 100% correct... Finally - we ca be now clear - it was all about incorrect mix of RAM sticks. So 0x124 is not only about overheating or about faulty CPU. It is also about incorrect mix of RAM sticks. Same goes to system errors WHEA 18, WHEA 19 and WHEA 20 which were frequently logged in my system shortly before most of crashes. They have all gone on "G2 series only" RAM configuration. But this is not the end of the story. This is my 3rd motherboard since my old GA-7N400 PRO2 Rev 2.0 died. My first mobo for Phenom II was other Gigabyte - GA-890GPA-UD3H Rev. 2.1. What was really annoying on this mobo was the fact, that I couldn't use hibernation because whatever I did (deleting hiberfile.sys, disk defragmenting, etc.) it was always giving me 0x411 error when going back from hibernation. Always. I thought this was just the mobo problem. But today I am about to say, that this was old G-Series RAM problem and that they are faulty, despite memtest prooved them to be OK. I've read a bit about 0x411 error (which I have also recently found in System log) and it seems it must be RAM issue. This is something that I would like to point out for any user who may read it in future. The past 0x411 errors connected with necessity of trick with reinstalling of RAM sticks in the same positions as they were just to enable Dual Channel tells me, that it must be something with RAM sticks itself. Plus there is one more thing about that old Patriot G-Series RAM. They were sold as 1333MHz sticks. But they didn't contain a 667MHz profile - their highest frequency set automatically was 1066MHz (533MHz profile). So they were totally different from Patriot G2 series sticks, which had 667 profile and were detected as 1333MHz automatically. So guys be careful with Patriot RAM. I will perform more tests with newer BIOS (probably 2.00) in "G2 series RAM only" config and I will post back results here. But no matter what tests will show I am about to return FX-8350 to my father (where it worked with no problems) and I think I must start saving money for a new PC. Maybe this time it will be my first Intel? Who knows... |
Posted By: Mxyz Sxyz
Date Posted: 24 Oct 2016 at 8:21pm
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Just to let you all know: finally, after going back to my father's PC it turned out that this FX 8350 has physical flaw. There was something wrong with 7th core (6th when taking into account APIC numbering) . It turned out that my father also had lots of WHEA 19 errors, but as he uses Windows 7, it is less problematic. As I observed on my own PC - Windows 7 seems to be more robust to this kind of errors. I disabled last cluster in this processor (7th and 8th core) and we will observe if any more problems / logged errors will occur on my father's PC. Still there is also something with the BIOS 2.00 - it was also more prone for poblems with faulty FX than version 1.60. |