Asus Z9PE-D8 WS: ECC Errors, when RAM Hot ==> BIOS Self-Refresh issue?

[celemine1gig]

Hello Passmark-team,

I need some Input from the experts.
My two Asus Z9PE-D8 WS Mainboards were nearly costing me my nerves. I have several CPUs (Sandy- and IvyBridge, both ES and Release Version CPUs) and also several Reg ECC RAM kits.

With all RAM Kit and CPU combinations I get the following behaviour on my Z9PE-D8 WS boards:
- Tests usually start without Errors.
- After a certan amount of time (let's say maybe half an hour), ECC Errors start to appear.
- So far, no BIOS Settings could influence this behaviour.
- When I changed RAM yesterday, I realized that it was really HOT (I'd say 60°C+)
- Then I added 140mm fans that would also directly cool the RAM ==> Test ran overnight for nearly 10hours without a single ECC error!


What do you think:
Could this be a self-refresh issue at high RAM temperatures?

BTW, on a Intel S2600CP2, the same combination(s) of RAM and CPU(s) have no issues at all (besides the BIOS EFI optimized boot topic).

Thank you very much in advance!
Best regards,
celemine1gig

[David (PassMark)]

Real test would be to remove the fan and see if errors start to reappear. If so, that would be pretty conclusive. Either RAM is too hot (over specifications), or there is an fault condition that appears when the RAM is hot (but within specifications)

[celemine1gig]

You were right to ask me to retest with the standard heatsink fan combination, without much ventialation around the DIMMs. Result is, that the system still runs without ECC erriors. I don't really know why, but it could be certain combination of BIOS settings, that causes the misbehavior on that board. As I said, the Intel S2600CP2 is MUCH easier to work with, because it is far more predictiable in BIOS settings and their actual results.