AA LED POST Code on LGA 1366 MOBO

willster580

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Feb 27, 2010
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Okay, so I built a new computer 2 days ago and all was working well. My specifications are:
ASRock X58 Extreme LGA 1366 Motherboard
Intel i7 920 CPU
6GB DDR3 1600 RAM (OCZ)
600 Watt OCZ PSU
Seagate 750 GB HDD
Sapphire Vapor-X ATI Radeon 5770

I installed Windows 7 just fine and everything was working. My CPU was running rather hot (60c idle) so I decided that the next day I would reinstall the heat sink and get three more fans. I installed the fans and it booted fine. However, after maybe an hour of usage the screen froze. I rebooted and after maybe 20-30 minutes same thing happened. This time I just shut down my computer. Both times when it shut down I was browsing the web.

Today, it just restarted on me instead. After some tinkering with the fans it seems to be running fine. My CPU temp is 38-39c right now. It has been about an hour and a half so far. Only things I changed were I updated the BIOS, took one of the fans off the MOBO and onto the PSU, and plugged the PSU into a wall socket instead of a surge protector (I highly doubt this changed anything but I thought I should list it). At this point I went into the motherboard and began to pinpoint what was wrong. The first time I ran the BIOS I had to manually clock my RAM to 1600 and change the timing to 8-8-8-24 and the the voltage to 1.654V. This worked fine then. After updating the BIOS I had to do this again.

At this point it seems that my computer is running just fine, but my motherboard LED is giving me the AA error code. After looking it up I got this: Uninstall POST INT1Ch vector and INT09h vector. Deinitializes the ADM module. I don't really know what this means, but after some google searching I'm 99% positive it involves my RAM speed. This sort of leads me to believe I my system shutting down randomly was perhaps unrelated to this problem and I had just never noticed the LED error before. Any clue on how to fix this error, though? I'm thinking I need to go into the BIOS and change the settings, but I don't know what I need to change them to. Any help is appreciated - my thanks in advance. If you couldn't tell already, this is my first computer to build and I don't know too much about computer technicalities (at least not of this sort).
 
I also have the ASRock X58 Extreme and also get the "AA" post code when the POST sequence is complete. I am able to use the mobo with all features and functionality with no issues or problems for over 10 months.

The manual is junk and basically useless.

The POST codes also depend on what version of the AMI BIOS the Extreme has. From what I can tell, it is the AMI BIOS Rev8.

The X58 Extreme is an ACPI 1.1 compliant mobo, as a result there are additional codes displayed during the POST sequence. Given this, the "AA" code that appears at the end of the POST sequence (before booting into the OS) is showing that the motherboard is running in ACPI mode.

The "AA" code is what you want to see.

The AMI REV8 POST codes are available at Post Code Masters and also at the AMI website.

Please note that when you read the POST code listing, there are two instances of "AA". One instance is the "Uninstall POST INT1Ch vector and INT09h vector. Deinitializes the ADM module" and the second is the "System is running in ACPI mode". If you also notice and watch with a keen eye, when the X58 Extreme goes through the POST sequence the "AA" code is displayed twice. The first time to references the "ADM module" and the second the "ACPI mode". Given that the POST sequence ends on "AA" and passes the sequence on to the boot loader (loads the OS), the "AA" displayed is the "ACPI mode" code. If the "AA" code displayed were the first code, the "ADM module" the POST sequence would be stuck there and would not pass the sequence on to the boot loader, the POST sequence would stop, and the OS would not load.

Hope this clears things up.

I have found the X58 Extreme to be an inexpensive, feature rich, stable, reliable motherboard with no issues or problems. I leave my computer running 24/7 for weeks at a time and it always works. The OC Tweaker settings in the BIOS make is super easy to get my DO 920 to 4GHz without problems. I think it's a great board that performs very well.