List of Motherboards with issues when running MemTest86 in multi-CPU selection modes

[keith]

Due to a number of users having issues with certain motherboards (UEFI BIOS) not being able to run MemTest86 using CPU selection modes other than Single CPU (ie. Parallel, Round Robin, Sequential), we have compiled a list to track the motherboard model and BIOS versions with problem firmware. This list shall be updated as more motherboards with buggy firmware are discovered, or if there is an updated BIOS available that fixes the problem.

If you are having similar issues with certain CPU selection modes and your motherboard is not on the list, please post the following details so that we can add it to the list:

• Motherboard model number
• BIOS version
• CPU
• Summary of the issue you are experiencing

Update from Supermicro (Jan 4/2019):

Background

On certain older Supermicro chipsets, there is a known issue with the UEFI firmware's multiprocessor implementation. The possible symptoms of this issue are the following:

• Hang on MemTest86 startup during multiprocessor test
• Hang when running tests in PARALLEL CPU mode (Tests 2-13)

To workaround the UEFI firmware bug, one or more of the following actions can be performed:

1. Run in Single CPU mode
2. Add the motherboard to the blacklist to disable multiprocessor support

Problem cause & BIOS fix

According to the Supermicro BIOS team, the root cause of the problem was found to be in the EFI_MP_SERVICES_PROTOCOL implementation.

It is believed to be related to "WakeUpAP" timing. "Start-up IPI sequence"(IOAPIC) is sent to all processors (excluding itself) when "WakeUpAP" is hooked by MPServices. The possible cause could be the previous core is still busy but the next core has been called at the same time.(Each CPU has its own capability)

A fix has been implemented and is currently being verified with Intel, and will likely be applied to the next firmware update.

At the moment, the fix applies to the following motherboards:

• C7X99-OCE-F (Latest affected revision: v2.1a)
• C7X99-OCE (Latest affected revision: v2.1a)
• X10SRA (Latest affected revision: v2.1a)
• X10SRA-F (Latest affected revision: v2.1a)

We are confirming whether this fix applies to other motherboard models as well.

Motherboard	BIOS version	CPU	Notes
ASRock 970M Pro3	1.30	AMD Phenom II X6 1090T BE	Freeze on Parallel, Sequential, Round Robin. Freeze on Single for all CPUs except CPU0 Reference
Asrock 970 Extreme3 R2.0	1.6 to 2.2	AMD Phenom II X2 550	Freeze on Parallel, Sequential, Round Robin. Freeze on Single for all CPUs except CPU0 Reference
ASRock P67 Extreme6	?	?	Parallel runs fine (4 passes without problems) Freeze on Sequential after test 1 (after CPU core switch) Reference
HP 15-ab153nr	F.13	AMD Quad-Core A10-8700P APU	Freeze on Parallel, Sequential, Round Robin. Especially CPU1 on Test 3 Reference
Gigabyte GA-Z97MX-Gaming 5 (1.0)	F4	Intel I7 4790K	Freeze on Sequential, Round Robin when cycling through the CPUs. Eg. 0 -> 1 -> 2 -> ... n -> 0 -> 1 [Freeze] Reference
Gigabyte GA-Z170MX-Gaming 5 (rev. 1.0)	F4 & F5e (BETA)	Intel i5-6500	[Single] Runs fine on CPU0, all other CPUs goes to start the test and restarts right away [Parallel] Runs on CPU0 but says "[CPU Error] Could not start CPU 1-3" [Round Robin] Immediately restarts on first test attempt [Sequential] Same as Round Robin Reference
Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming 7	F6	Intel i7-6700K	[Single] Runs fine on CPU0, all other CPUs goes to start the test and restarts right away [Parallel] Runs on CPU0 but says "[CPU Error] Could not start CPU 1-7" [Round Robin/Sequential] Runs the first 3 tests on CPU0 then restarts maybe the moment it tries to go to the next CPU Reference
Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming GT	F6 F7	Intel i7-6700k	[Single] Runs fine on CPU0, all other CPUs goes to start the test and restarts right away [Parallel] Runs on CPU0 but says "[CPU Error] Could not start CPU 1-7" [Round Robin/Sequential] Runs the first 3 tests on CPU0 then restarts maybe the moment it tries to go to the next CPU Reference
Gigabyte GA-Z170X-UD3	F6	Intel i5-6600K	Cannot switch BSP to another CPU other than 0 Cannot start any APs in parallel mode. Reference
Gigabyte GA-Z170-HD3P	F5	Intel i5-6600K	WhoAmI failed Cannot start any APs in parallel mode. After updating the motherboard firmware to F20 (Release Date Nov 9, 2016) MemTest86 ran in multi-core mode.
GA-H170-D3HP	F4	Intel i3-6100	WhoAmI failed Cannot start any APs in parallel mode.
Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 (rev. 4.0)	F3	AMD FX 9590	Freeze on test 3 using CPU 0. Hangs on any other processor. Reference
Gigabyte 990FXA-UD5	?	AMD FX 4350 4.2 Quad Core & AMD FX 8350	Freeze on Parallel, Sequential, Round Robin Reference Unexpected RAM errors on test 3 and generally unstable motherboard when in parallel mode. Reference Freeze / Hang in parallel mode. But single CPU modes run OK. Turned out not to be a BIOS issue, but user pushed a CPU overclock too far. Reverting to stock clock speeds fixed problem. Reference.
Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P v2.0	FC	AMD Phenom II x4 945 CPU	Freeze on Parallel, Sequential, Round Robin. Freeze on Single for all CPUs except CPU0 Reference
Gigabyte X99 Ultra Gaming X99-Ultra Gaming-CF	F4 F6	5820K i7-6850K	Unspecified multi-threaded problem. Reference Freeze on Test 2 in parallel mode Reference
ASUS M5A97 R2.0	?	AMD FX-8350	Freeze on Sequential and Round Robin. Timeout and Errors in Parallel Mode Reference Unofficial BIOS fix from ASUS
Asus M5A97 Evo R2.0	2603	AMD FX-8300	Freeze on Sequential and Round Robin. Timeout and Errors in Parallel Mode Reference Unofficial BIOS fix from ASUS
ASUS M5A99FX PRO R2.0	2501	AMD FX-8370	Freeze on MP test on startup
ASUS 970 PRO GAMING/AURA	0501	AMD FX-8320E	Crash in Parallel Mode Official BIOS fix from ASUS
Asus X99-A II	0601	Intel i7-6850K	Crash in Parallel Mode. Single, Sequential and Round Robin OK Official BIOS fix from ASUS
Asus X99-A/USB 3.1	?	Intel Core i7-5930K	Freeze during Parallel Mode. MP test passed during startup Official BIOS fix from ASUS
ASUS X99-E WS	?	Intel Xeon E5-2630 v4	Freeze on Sequential, Round Robin and Parallel Mode. Single CPU Test OK
ASUS Strix X99 Gaming	1401	Intel Core i7-6800K	Freeze on multiprocessor test on startup Reference Official BIOS fix from ASUS
ASUS ROG STRIX X99 GAMING	0801	Intel Core i7 for LGA 2011-v3	Freeze on Sequential, Round Robin and Parallel Mode. Single CPU Test OK Reference Official BIOS fix from ASUS
ASUS SABERTOOTH X99	3301	Intel i7-5820K	Freeze on Sequential, Round Robin and Parallel Mode. Single CPU Test OK Reference Official BIOS fix from ASUS
ASUS X99-DELUXE II	1504	Intel Core i7-6950X	Freeze on Sequential, Round Robin and Parallel Mode. Single CPU Test OK Official BIOS fix from ASUS
ASUS X99-DELUXE	3505	Intel Core i7-5930K	Freeze on Sequential, Round Robin and Parallel Mode. Single CPU Test OK Official BIOS fix from ASUS
ASUS RAMPAGE V EXTREME	3402	Intel Core i7-5960X	Failed multiprocessor test on startup Freeze on parallel, sequential, round robin. No problem in Single CPU. Reference BIOS fixed in release 3701 - 2017/06/09
ASUS ROG Rampage V Edition 10	1003	Intel Core i7-6950X	Freeze on Sequential, Round Robin and Parallel Mode. Single CPU Test OK Reference Official BIOS fix from ASUS
Asus Z10PE-D8 WS	?	?	Freeze during Parallel Mode. MP test passed during startup
ASUS MAXIMUS VIII RANGER	3007	Intel Core i7-6700K	Single-core and all-cores tests run with no problems Freeze on Sequential, Round Robin. Reference
ASUS PRIME B350-PLUS	0503 0513 0605 (Beta)	AMD Ryzen 7 1700 Eight-Core	Freeze during multiprocessor initialization (EnableDisableAP) Reference
ASUS CROSSHAIR VI HERO	1107	AMD Ryzen 7 1800X	Freeze during multiprocessor initialization (EnableDisableAP) Official BIOS fix from ASUS
ASUS ROG STRIX X370-F GAMING	0902	AMD Ryzen 7 1700	Freeze during multiprocessor initialization (EnableDisableAP) (Update: Appears to be fixed in version 4012)
Supermicro X9DRW-iF	R3.2	Intel Xeon E5-2680 V2	Freeze on Sequential and Round Robin. Reset on Parallel Mode. Single CPU Test OK
Supermicro X9DRW-3LN4F+/X9DRW-3TF+	1.20	Intel Xeon E5-2640	Failed multiprocessor test on startup Reference
Supermicro X9SRL-F	?	Intel Xeon E5-2670 v2	Hangs on AP test on startup Reference
Supermicro X9SRA//X9SRA-3	R 3.2	Intel Xeon E5-1620	PC shuts down and reboot after "Testing multiprocessor support" Reference
Supermicro X10SRA/X10SRA-F	2.0c (25th Sep 2017)	Intel Xeon E5 2630 V3	Hangs at startup unless single threaded. Reference (Update: See top of thread for possible fix from Supermicro)
Supermicro C7X99-OCE/C7X99-OCE-F	2.1a		Hangs in parallel mode from Test 2 (Update: See top of thread for possible fix from Supermicro)
Supermicro H12SSW-NT & H11DSU-iN	1.01	AMD EPYC 7812, 7302	Fails to start CPU X error message (Update: Can maybe disable AMD's SMT (hyper threading) in BIOS to work around the BIOS bug)
EVGA X99 FTW K	2.02	Intel Core i7-6800K	Hangs on AP test on startup
MSI X399 SLI PLUS	7B09vA6	AMD Threadripper 1950X	Freezes in parallel mode on test 3 (Own address, Parallel) Reference

[asterx]

Hi,

Freeze on Parallel, Sequential, Round Robin.
Freeze on Single for all CPUs except CPU0

is happening on the Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P v2.0 motherboard with the FC BIOS and AMD Phenom II x4 945 CPU too.

[Phoenix365]

Hi everybody,

-Gigabyte GA-Z170X-UD5
-BIOS "F4"
-Intel i7-6700k
-Freeze on Parallel, Sequential, Round Robin. Freeze on Single for all CPUs except CPU0

Runs fine on CPU0, all others insta-crash and reboot

[mig]

Another board with the same/similar issue

Asus M5A97 Evo R2.0 wiht BIOS version 2603

CPU: AMD FX-8300
RAM: 4x8=32GB Kingston HyperX Fury DDR3-1866

everything OK outside Parallel/Robin parameter (MEM is good with single CPU test and is working when using Parallel but in old MT86 4.3.7)

[MuMMeL]

Mainboard: Supermicro X9DRW-iF
BIOS: R3.2
CPU: 2x XEON E5-2680 V2
Reset on Parallel Test
Freeze: Round Robin
works ok: single CPU Test

We buy the pro version to test our compiler server. And this is a pain in you the know what i mean.

Christian

[NikoKiko]

Hi
here are my finds

-Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming 7
-BIOS "F6"
-Intel i7-6700k

MemTest 6.3.0 Free

-Single Cpu - Runs fine on CPU0, all other CPUs goes to start the test and restarts right away
-Parallel - Runs on CPU0 but says "[CPU Error] Could not start CPU 1-7"
-Round Robin - runs the first 3 tests on CPU0 then restarts maybe the moment it tries to go to the next CPU
-Sequential - just like Round Robin

MemTest 4.3.7

no such problems

[TonyK132]

Add me to the list of systems that fail using MemTest 6.3.0. I'm booting from a memory stick. Here's my system:
Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 vers 4.0
Bios F3 dated 5/28/15 (latest)
AMD FX 9590 8-processor CPU
16GM Corsair Vengeance Red 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1866 MHz (PC3 15000) Desktop Memory (CMZ8GX3M2A1866C9R)
h100i cooler
Samsung SSD + HDDs

I have not been able to complete even 1 test using 1 processor. It always seems to stop on test 3 using CPU 0. If I try to use a different processor (ie, CPU1, etc), then nothing happens, it just hangs. If I run the Microsoft Memory Test, that works fine, but it does not give me the option to use other processors.

I've been running this test off and on for the past 3 wks. I even bought new memory since the Ballistic memory I had been using was not listed as supported even though it seems to work OK in normal operation.

Let me know if you are interested in getting my log file to see what's going on. It seems it is too big to add in-line to this message, and the system will not accept a TXT file.

I have not tried to contact Gigabyte, although from what I've read in this forum they are not likely to admit to a problem.

Comments?
Thanks,
Tony

[keith]

Tony,

Thanks for the details. Yes, if possible, please e-mail us a copy of the log file.

[stibi]

Hi,
similar problem with stock settings - only CPU0 is working:
Gigabyte Z170X-UD3 BIOS F6
Intel i5-6600K
Kingstone 4x4GB (2x kit 8GB) HX430C15SB2K2/8
MemTest86 V6.3.0 Free Build: 1000 (64-bit)
Log file https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4l...ew?usp=sharing

In MemTest86 Version 4.3.7 test passed 7times with all CPUs (parallel) over night.

Stibi

[David (PassMark)]

Update: We have purchased a ASUS M5A97 based machine to test on in house.
So hopefully we'll find find a work around for the BIOS bug.
(and then hope the same work-around also fixes the Gigabyte BIOS issue)

We should have a new software release to try out in a couple of weeks (mid May 2016)

[David (PassMark)]

MemTest V7 beta is now out. This release has a work around / detection method for the above UEFI bug.

The behaviour in V7 is to try and detect the above bug and if detected the machine will only be run in single threaded mode. If the machine seems bug free, and supports threading, we run in multithreaded mode.

This means that V7 will now default to multithreaded testing. Running in parallel mode significantly decreases the test time as compared to running in single CPU mode and should also help to detect more errors faster.

We have also reported the problem to ASUS and they have indicated that they have a look at it with a view to fixing it.

We are sure at this point if this will also solve the problem with the ASRock boards and Gigabyte board. Fingers crossed it will.

[cowbawx]

-Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming GT
-BIOS "F6"
-Intel i7-6700k

MemTest 6.3.0 Free

-Single Cpu - Runs fine on CPU0, all other CPUs goes to start the test and restarts right away
-Parallel - Runs on CPU0 but says "[CPU Error] Could not start CPU 1-7"
-Round Robin - runs the first 2 ests on CPU0 then hangs PC
-Sequential - just like Round Robin

[David (PassMark)]

ASUS got back to us and has confirmed is is a firmware bug in the M5A97 R2.0 motherboard. We tested updated firmware and confirmed it does correct the problem.

The new firmware version we tested was called "M5A97-R20-ASUS-9001.CAP"

However the current public release on the ASUS site seems to be BIOS M5A97-R20-ASUS-2603.CAP. (Version 2603 from July 2015). So who knows if this 9001 release will ever be made public, or if it gets renamed before being released.

Still, nice to know it really was a firmware bug and not something wrong in MemTest86.

Seemingly they aren't proactively fixing other motherboards. We asked them to make the same correction to the other ASUS motherboard with the same problem, like the M5A97 Evo R2.0, but they instead asked us to fill out more customer feedback forms
We don't have test hardware for these other boards, so can't test a fix in any case.

[Cyra]

Sounds like ASUS.

I tested parallel mode on an ASUS X99 Deluxe (latest 3101) as well as ASUS X99-A USB 3.1 (latest 3101) and they also freeze early on in the pass every time.

So, it sounds like every ASUS X99 motherboard also has this very annoying and easy to reproduce problem. Hope ASUS fixes it at some point as my 128GBs of RAM takes 49 hours per pass.


David, can you provide the 2603 and 9001 files, or do a diff on them to see if this is something we can fix ourselves with UEFI Tools or the like?

I'll file a tech support case with ASUS for my boards and cross my fingers.

edit: tech case started.

[David (PassMark)]

A request has been made to ASUS to make the fix available across their range of boards. We don't know the status (but it was several weeks ago now that the request was made), or if any action will be taken.

We only had updated firmware for 1 board, the M5A97 R2.0. And we aren't sure if we are allowed to distribute it.