Weird display issue (Z68 Extreme7 Gen3)

[Kerdal]

Please read the entire thing before judging.

I'm having a weird display issue since I built my new computer.

EDIT : It happens randomly but mostly when the vid card is stressed. It can last less than a second, sometimes as long as 45 minutes. Turning the monitor off and then back on sometimes help. In some cases it starts flickering somewhat fast (5-10 Hz) at various intensity and it can keep doing that for an hour. Switching the monitor from 1 vid card port to another sometimes help (reset the issue for a few minutes) but it's never a complete fix.

Image of the issue : http://imageshack.us/f/846/issue.jpg/
(it's too big to display directly in this forum)

BTW, sorry for the poor quality, had to use my cellphone camera.

EDIT: I'm not using Virtu or the iGPU

At first I suspected the video cards so I tried pretty much everything : connecting to a different port in both cards, swapping the cards, using only 1 card, etc. but the problem always came back. I also tried it on my older computer and I can't reproduce the problem. Rig details are below.

I swapped the 570s from #1 with the 280s from #2. Still no problem with rig #2 and problems with rig #1. This kinda rules out the video cards and the monitor because the problem would be on both systems.

In both cases, the computer has been tested and is considered stable with Prime95, superpi, memtest, intel burn test, 3dmark 11 (for the 570s), 3dmark vantage (for the 280s). Temperatures and voltages were monitored during all tests except memtest and were well within specs.

The issue has been seen in :
Battlefield 3, Dragon age 2, Mass Effect 2, Starcraft 2, Fallout New Vegas, Sword of the Stars 1 & 2 and even windows while it's idle.

For all intents and purposes the softwares on both machines are identical (same drivers (latest), fresh windows install except the various games, etc.)

This leaves 3 major differences between the 2 kits : CPU, mobo and RAM. As I said before, both systems were fully tested and are stable.

What am I missing here? How can I fix this?

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Thanks,
Kerdal

Rig #1 (with the problem)
MOBO: ASRock Z68 gen3 extreme7 (tested and seen with bios 1.0, 1.21, 1.30)
CPU : Intel Core i7 2600k (stock and oc to 4-4.4GHz)
CPU Cooler : Corsair H80 sealed loop water cooling kit
RAM : 4x4GB Corsair Vengeance 1600Mhz class 8
Vid card : 2x EVGA GTX 570 Superclocked
PSU : Corsair HX1000
ODD : Blu-ray drive LITE-On iHOS104-08
HDD :
1x WD Velociraptor 10000RPM 600GB
2x WD Black 2TB WD2002FAEX
SSD :
1x OCZ Vertex 3 240GB MAX IOPS (boot drive)
1x Patriot Pyro 120GB (40gb used as cache (SRT) for Velociraptor, 60GB usable, not setup yet)
1x OCZ Vertex 120GB
Monitor : DELL WFP3007 30" 2560x1600
Keyboard : Logitech G510
Mouse : Razer Lachesis
Case : Fractal Design Define XL with Noctua fans everywhere

Rig #2
MOBO: EVGA 790i FTW
CPU : Intel Core2Quad Q9550 (OC'ed to 3.6GHz)
CPU Cooler : Noctua Heatsink with fan (don't remember the exact model, doesn't matter)
RAM : 2x2GB Patriot PVS34G1333LLKN 1333Mhz class 7 (1.8V)
Vid card : 2x EVGA GTX 280 Superclocked
PSU : Corsair TX750
ODD : Blu-ray drive LITE-On iHOS104-08
HDD :
2x WD Black 1TB WD1001FAL
1x Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB
SSD :
1x Intel X25-M 120GB
Monitor : DELL WFP3007 30" 2560x1600
Keyboard : Logitech G510
Mouse : Razer Lachesis
Case : Coolermaster Cosmos S with Noctua fans everywhere

[SaphireX]

Re: Weird display issue (Z68 Extreme7 Gen3)

My best guess is that some of your CPU pins may not be making good contact with the socket solders ie: perhaps socket burning similar to what afflicted some of the FoxConn 1156 sockets manufactured. Although the pin mapping for the LGA 1155 is very different than the LGA 1156 there is speculation that socket burning is possible with socket LGA 1155...

Or....the PCie slots on the board are defective.

I would try connecting your monitor to the onboard Intel iGPU's DVI or Display port (remove your 570's -- that way you don't need to install Virtu) and see if the flickering still happens. If it does that seems to point more at the CPU and/or socket. If it does not then the more likely "suspect" at this point would be the PCie slots...

Just my thoughts

Please post back on what testing using the iGPU revealed

SaphireX

[Kerdal]

Re: Weird display issue (Z68 Extreme7 Gen3)

I'll try tonight but I don't think the iGPU will be able to drive the 2560x1600 monitor.

[Kerdal]

Re: Weird display issue (Z68 Extreme7 Gen3)

Well... as expected the iGPU isn't capable of dual link so I was limited to half the monitor's resolution (1280x768). Aside from the obviously laughable performance, no the iGPU didn't exhibit the same problem than the video cards. I guess this narrows it down to the PCIE slots or the NF200 chip.

Thanks for the suggestion.
Kerdal

[wazza300]

Re: Weird display issue (Z68 Extreme7 Gen3)

have you tried pm'ing tsd-emily for a custom/modified bios to try? tell her your graphic card make/model same for your mb,seen alot of users needing a bios update/custom bios to run their graphic card/cards properly

[Kerdal]

Re: Weird display issue (Z68 Extreme7 Gen3)

I AM running a custom BIOS right now. Last time she checked my thread and sent me a custom bios (after I pm'ed her my email adress of course). Well see if she can supply another version.

EDIT: I'm talking about my previous thread related to issues with keyboard and mouse in UEFI and slow boot.
EDIT2 : Issue was also there using the original bios and 1.3

[wazza300]

Re: Weird display issue (Z68 Extreme7 Gen3)

will if that bios she sent you fixed your keyboard issue chances are another ones needed to fix your gpu,tell her or supply if you can your current bios so that the keyboard fix doesnt get left out when trying to solve your gpu problem

[Kerdal]

Re: Weird display issue (Z68 Extreme7 Gen3)

will if that bios she sent you fixed your keyboard issue chances are another ones needed to fix your gpu,tell her or supply if you can your current bios so that the keyboard fix doesnt get left out when trying to solve your gpu problem

At this point, I couldn't care less about the keyboard issue, it's a minor inconvenience that can be bypassed by using a legacy keyboard I keep around for times like this. I'll try PM'ing her.

[Kerdal]

Re: Weird display issue (Z68 Extreme7 Gen3)

I guess I'll have to wait and see... "ASRock TSD - Emily has exceeded their stored private messages quota and cannot accept further messages until they clear some space." Oups.

[Kerdal]

Re: Weird display issue (Z68 Extreme7 Gen3)

I finally got an answer from the tech support, they suggested I flash the L1.01 BIOS and use the XMP profile for my memory. No luck, I still get the same problem. Oh btw, interesting observation : The "preview" settings in the DRAM config that appears in auto or XMP mode are wrong for my memory, it displays 1333Mhz 9-9-9-24 instead of 1600Mhz 8-8-8-24. When in windows, CPU-Z detects 1600 8-8-8-24.

[wazza300]

Re: Weird display issue (Z68 Extreme7 Gen3)

there abit slow in helping you,you need someone to look into the bios side of things