ASUS shuts down when I try to OC or TPU it.

[0v32Clocke2]

I just built my system on an ASUS 990X EVO board with an FX-8120, and two 8G dual channel sticks of Corsair Vengeance DDR3. GPU is a HIS IceQ Radeon HD 6950 2G. It is running off of twin 500 Caviars SATA 6.0 in RAID 0.

Anyhow, the build went fantastic, once I figured out how to ignore the external USB drives during boot-up. It works great and scores 5,100 in 3DMark2011.

My problem is that if I switch on the EPU switch or the TPU switch , the PC boots up to a black screen, shuts down, boots up with no beep and just spins the fans. I can only get out by resetting the CMOS. Is this normal?

If I try hitting auto tune from the ASUS software, in Windows 7 64bit, Windows shuts down, then the PC shuts down, then it turns back on and just spins the fans again.

I am in this to learn how to overclock manually, but I wanted to make sure it could auto tune itself, just to make sure everything was OK first.

Any ideas? Thanks, Dave.

[prudhomb]

Just got this board myself, and just started playing with it. I was unsure what the switches were for, if you are overclocking them manually. I left them off. I was able to muck around with my FSB and other overclocking setting manually with out issue.

Additional Comment:

now that IM reading this the EPU may be the slolution to my fan problem (running 100%,) Im going to try that out.

Additional Comment:

just turned on the epu switch, can tell if it did anything one way or the other.

[Mr.Scott]

EPU on is a power saving mode. TPU on allows full VRM adjustments for overclocking.
OP- What PSU?

[0v32Clocke2]

My PSU is an 850W unit. Voltages don't appear to be an issue.

So when you flip the switches on, TPU or EPU , and boot, the PC starts normally? Not mine. I wonder if it's the RAID setup that makes the TPU or Auto Tune not work right.

I thought maybe switching TPU on would change some settings, causing it to boot with faster settings, crash, and try again. Although it seems to be just crashing, and sitting there with the fans spinning when I engage TPU on or Auto tune.

Memory timings and voltage are right at stock.

[prudhomb]

fliped the EPU, it caused no problems either on or off, havent touched the tpu, but I manually OC from the BIOS so I have no need to hit that switch.

can I ask what kind of cpu fan you have??? I have a three pin fan its running 100% all the time driving me nuts, cant seem to find a way to make it voltage controll. Im probalby just going to have to buy a pwm fan.

[Mr.Scott]

Specifically WHAT 850w PSU? They're not all the same, and it does make a difference.

Voltages don't appear to be an issue.

No, but quality, or amperage might be.

[0v32Clocke2]

Here is the PSU I installed.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817152043

RAIDMAX RX-850AE

I am running the stock CPU fan and it is PWM controlled by the motherboard. Idle CPU temps are steady at 37C. I can hardly hear any of the fans running. The two case fans run around 1000rpm and the CPU fan idles around 2100 or so. You can use the ASUS Fan utility to see and tweak the fan speeds. There is one fan connector on the board that is NOT PWM. There is also a CPU fan calibration/test feature in the ASUS AI Suite software.

I am running 12/2011 BIOS. v0901

[prudhomb]

saw the fan test, doesnt do anything for my three pin fan on the pwm header, oh well.

[0v32Clocke2]

I think my stock AMD fan is also a three pin. Try going into the AI Suite/TOOL/EPU and setting the mode to "Auto" or "Max Pwr Saving". Those modes have large effects on my fan speeds. Although, if the fan test can't control your fan speed, then I doubt EPU can either.

Whenever I try the Auto Tune or TPU, crash, and then reset my BIOS to get booted again, I get the "Not Genuine Windows 7" greetings all over again. It is quickly rectified by following Bill's commands, though, it's a PITA.

[Mr.Scott]

Originally Posted by 0v32Clocke2

Here is the PSU I installed.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817152043

RAIDMAX RX-850AE

PSU is mediocre at best, but should at least run your rig assuming it isn't defective, and assuming you didn't load everything on 1 or 2 rails. Same Andyson made unit as an Ultra X4. Efficiency is over rated big time.

[0v32Clocke2]

Separate power rails? I can check that. I will report back later. Thanks that could be an issue.

[Mr.Scott]

Yes, that PSU has 4 34 amp rails. If you're not spreading out your load and are exceeding the amp rating on one or more rails, that can create an overload or cross load issue.
The vid card will draw, that should be on it's own rail. The board and CPU will be on it's own rail. Everything else should be spread out on the remaining 2 rails.

[0v32Clocke2]

OK I need to see if I can find the pinout at the back of the PSU and run a few more cables to spread out the loads.

[Mr.Scott]

I'm not saying that's what the problem is, but it's a starting point.

[N64link]

Originally Posted by prudhomb

saw the fan test, doesnt do anything for my three pin fan on the pwm header, oh well.

Have you tried speedfan?

[0v32Clocke2]

So....we have progress. First off, my CPU fan is a four pin.

I did have all four internal drives (2 RAID, 2 backups) on one PSU socket. I split them onto two sockets. That didn't help the TPU No POST issue. Then I unplugged the 2 backup drives and optical drive. Still no POST with TPU on. Then I moved my RAM to the other channel. Still no POST. Then I plugged in the 2 Backup Drives, and unplugged the RAID set with the OS on it.

BINGO we have POST with TPU on. Plugged RAID back in, and No POST again. Then, with all plugged in and TPU on, I used the MEM OK button to start the machine, instead of the front pwr button.

With all discs plugged in, powering up the mobo with the MemOK button near the RAM, booted to Windows with the TPU on.

Now it all works. I will try some Auto Tuning.

Additional Comment:

Still boots down Windows, and turns into a box of fans when I try to Auto Tune. Next I hold the power button to force it to turn off and then it won't POST until I use the MemOK button to boot up. When it gets back to Windows, it comes up with a message saying Auto Tune successful 2% gain. All it did was turn up the CPU Bus from 200 to 203MHz.

More comments:
With a stock tune, going into the EZ Setup BIOS screen and selecting anything but the NORMAL, will result in the no POST situation. I think it is either my RAM or, more likely, the RAID controller does not like to play with tuning at all.

[jmossman]

I have that same PSU running my 4P folding machine. I've used it for several different projects and never had any trouble, even running 800W loads. I never actually used it for anything where I used a lot of peripherals tho. When I put it on my 4p, which isn't in a case, somehow the PSU flipped over on it's face, and ran a good 24 hours or longer I estimate. Have no idea how it survived a 670W load with no airflow going thru it. Lot of people told me it was worthless, so it must've wanted to prove them wrong lol.

Oh and as for the effiency, I don't know the real number, but it's using exactly the same wattage as either of my Corsairs do when I hook them to the 4p, so that's impressive enough for me.

[0v32Clocke2]

Yeah I am willing to bet that if i switch to a non-RAID drive setup, I would have no issues. Are there any RAID settings in the BIOS that could effect stability?

Additional Comment:

So....I decided to f around with the BIOS a little. There is a setting for RAID, where I can choose Legacy or UEFI Raid controller. Default was Legacy. When I switched to the UEFI RAID, the PC crashed, and so did my MBR. The RAID set became useless, and I could not rebuild it. In fact after switching back to the Legacy setting, the Mobo would not even let me use the two drives on SATA 1 and 2 as RAID drives. Even after rebuilding the RAID set. Trying to restore a full disc image through Acronis, onto the RAID set became impossible. In my rage, I drifted to BestBuy and picked up an Intel 120G SSD. The original Twin RAID drives will now be just for storage in non-RAID. I also put on a MONSTER Silver Arrow cooler, to take the gaming temps on the 8-core AMD, from 63C to 45C! BIG difference from the stock AMD un-cooler.

SSD ROCKS! soooo much faster all over the place.

However, the system still will NOT tolerate ANY changes to the BIOS of any form without turning into a dark fan box.

Maybe reinstalling the BIOS is a next step? Or maybe getting on the phone with ASUS is a good idea? What do you think??

[indyrocker]

I am also thinking that its your psu. Either that or you got a picky as hell motherboard that doesn't oc at all and I have not had that luck with asus at all, even going to a ddr2 mobo.

[0v32Clocke2]

The instant I click the Autotune button, Windows begins it's shutdown procedure, shutting down software like a normal restart routine. Within 6 seconds the PC is shut down, and attempting to POST again, but it does not POST. I can hold the power button to shut it off. When it comes back to POST, I have to hit F1 to get the EZ bios screen (there is a message "overclock failed"). None of the three tuning buttons in the EZ screen are selected at that point. I MUST pick the middle one (Normal), then save and exit the BIOS screen, or it just repeats the no-POST again. The posting check lights are not indicating that POST is hanging up on any component in particular.

Under normal, stock, settings, I can benchmark and torture test it for ever with zero issues. Very, very stable.