hp57 Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 The system described in my profile was built last week and has been giving me a few problems. Intel says the next step is to RMA the motherboard but I wanted to dig a little deeper to rule out PSU issues before shipping the board back. I'm seeing 2 symptoms, which still occur even whether I run with 1, 2, or 4 sticks of RAM, and 1, 2 or 4 HDDs. CPU temperatures are consistently 32-39; the PSU is barely warm with 2 sticks of RAM and 2 HDDs, sometimes a little warmer with the system loaded up. (HSF is stock Intel.) I'm running Ubuntu 9.04/64-bit, but the symptoms occur with Ubuntu 9.10 64-bit beta and with Solaris. The symptoms are: 1. Occasional single beeps from the motherboard, indicating memory refresh errors. I get a few of these per day; I've had 2 in the last 15 minutes. 2. On OS restart (in Ubuntu, via selecting "Restart"), the BIOS displays the usual splash screen and then generates the following message: "The system BIOS has detected unsuccessful POST attempt(s). Possible causes include recent changes to BIOS Performance options or recent hardware changes. Press 'Y' to enter BIOS Setup or press 'N' to cancel and attempt to boot with previous settings." If I type 'N' the system boots normally. If I type 'Y' and exit the BIOS without changing anything, it also boots normally. The board was delivered with the earliest available BIOS (3206) but I've updated it to the current version (3822) - same symptoms. At this point, is there any chance I have either a too-small PSU or a defective unit? Any other troubleshooting suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yellowbeard Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 There is a quick PSU test listed in the PSU section here. However, based on what you posted, your problem does not sound power related and your PSU is more than enough power for your listed system spex. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hp57 Posted October 15, 2009 Author Share Posted October 15, 2009 Today's AnandTech includes an article on problems with P55 MBs using Foxconn sockets. Basically the CPU pads may not make good contact with the socket. The article discusses this in the context of overclocking, and includes some impressive pictures of damaged product, but it sounds like the sort of thing that could account for intermittent failures with normal settings. In particular, my processor shows the same sort of bad contact as pictured in the article. The board has been RMA'd, but it will be replaced with another DP55KG, so who knows what will happen. The article is at http://anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3661 I'm posting this here because Intel tech support at first tried to blame the PSU for these problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees RAM GUY Posted October 16, 2009 Corsair Employees Share Posted October 16, 2009 Thanks for posting that link. And please do let us know how you both make out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quark Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 I have the same problem on CentOS 5.3 64 bit. On OS restart (in CentOS, via selecting "Restart"), the BIOS displays the usual splash screen and then generates the following message: "The system BIOS has detected unsuccessful POST attempt(s). Possible causes include recent changes to BIOS Performance options or recent hardware changes. Press 'Y' to enter BIOS Setup or press 'N' to cancel and attempt to boot with previous settings." If I type 'N' the system boots normally. If I type 'Y' and exit the BIOS without changing anything, it also boots normally. I also upgraded the BIOS to the latest version but the same problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees RAM GUY Posted October 26, 2009 Corsair Employees Share Posted October 26, 2009 I would RMA the MB and let us know how you make out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hp57 Posted October 29, 2009 Author Share Posted October 29, 2009 I've had the new motherboard in for a few days now and refresh errors are gone. The restart problem is still there, but seems to be a documented Linux problem (doesn't happen on Win 7); who knows, maybe they've fixed it in the latest kernel. The PSU? Great (obviously). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees RAM GUY Posted October 30, 2009 Corsair Employees Share Posted October 30, 2009 Can you try and different version of Linux? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hp57 Posted November 1, 2009 Author Share Posted November 1, 2009 The restart hang problem happens on Ubuntu 9.04 and 9.10. I believe I also checked it with Fedora 11 and OpenSolaris before shipping the first board back. 64-bit versions only. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees RAM GUY Posted November 2, 2009 Corsair Employees Share Posted November 2, 2009 How about RED Hat or Mandrake or one of the many other version of Linux? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hp57 Posted November 2, 2009 Author Share Posted November 2, 2009 How about RED Hat or Mandrake or one of the many other version of Linux? Just Fedora, as mentioned. Gotta figure this is a kernel issue, not distro-specific, although there may be some user-level workaround. I checked the kernel boot code, whatever was latest as of a couple weeks ago, and didn't see any specific hacks for this board (and the Intel documentation doesn't suggest that it would require any, although I may have missed something). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees RAM GUY Posted November 3, 2009 Corsair Employees Share Posted November 3, 2009 If you can get your hands on a Copy of one of the Pay for use Distro's like Red Hat or Mandrake I would try it and see they sometimes do hacks not specifically mentioned especially for High End Server MB's. Just a thought from some experience with other server MB's and Linux Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hp57 Posted February 2, 2010 Author Share Posted February 2, 2010 In case anyone is interested, the most recent DP55KG BIOS (4507) seems to have fixed this problem. (The documentation in the release notes seems to suggest that the problem only occurs when certain (unspecified) HDDs are connected to SATA port 4 or 5. I saw it with just one drive connected, to the first port.) People who have far too much time on their hands are invited to investigate why the problem never occurred in Windows 7. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hp57 Posted February 2, 2010 Author Share Posted February 2, 2010 Meanwhile, HX650W PSU still humming along, case looking very clean thanks to some cabling assistance from Corsair. What a pleasure to have products and people like this to deal with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yellowbeard Posted February 2, 2010 Share Posted February 2, 2010 Thanks for the feedback and we're glad to hear a BIOS update resolved it. Much easier and less expensive than an RMA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.