Haswell with Maximus VII Hero: New build with random shut down issues

[MadMasterPLZ]

Alright guys, I've been dealing this this issue for almost 2 months now and I have run out of ideas to try to fix it so I'm coming to see if anyone else can shine some light where I'm going wrong.  In November, my sister bought all the required components for me to build her a new PC, here is the specs list:

 

i7 4790k 1150 socket size, Stock speeds

Asus maximus VII Hero lga 1150 motherboard

GTX 980

16 GB (2 x 8 GB) Crucial balistix sport RAM (1600 mhz and CL 9-9-9-24)

TP-LINK TL-WDN4800 Dual Band Wireless N900 PCI Express Adapter (PCI WIFI adapter)

256 GB Samsung 850 Pro SSD

2 TB WD Black Drive

Corsair HX750i PSU

Corsair Hydro Series H100i CPU Cooler (Used with Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Grease)

LG Bluray drive

Samsung S32D850T 32" 2560x1440p Monitor

Generic Corded mouse from Dell (also used Logitech M510)

Corsair K70 RGB with cherry red switches

Corsair 750D Case

 

Alright, so I put the system together with no issues and everything and I booted it up and went into the BIOS and set the boot order up to boot to a flash drive that I had windows 8 pro on.  I booted to this, installed windows on the samsung SSD and then booted into Windows.  The Motherboard post was fine and it booted into windows with no issues.  I then proceeded to install windows updates, windows 8.1, the motherboard drivers from the Asus website, the wifi adapter drivers, the 980 graphics drivers, and any other necessary programs like MSI afterburner, Corsair Link software, Samsung Magician.  The first night is was fine.  Then as we were using it, it suddenly shut off with no prior indication and everything just shut completely off.  I checked the wall outlet and the surge protector and other things that were plugged into them were still powered so that counts the outlet and surge protector out.  However, I still plugged the computer into many different outlets in different parts of the house to make sure it wasn't the outlet.  The issue would still continue where the PC would randomly shut down with no indication or error (no BSOD and the only thing in eventview was an event 41 which is a kernal power loss where windows just states that the computer did not shut down cleanly).  This issue seemed to happen whether it was under load, browsing a webpage, or just idling on the desktop.  The time that it took to happen seems to be completely random too.  It could take anywhere from 4 hours to 8 hours to up to 12 hours to happen (when the computer was running it did not seem to have any issues and everything was very fast).  Here is a list of things I tried to troubleshoot the issue:

 

-Ran Intel Burn test on the CPU and it was hitting about 69 to 71 degree celsius on that and passed without any stability issues

-Ran Unigen Valley and a couple of games on the 980 and it had no issues running it at the 2560x1440p resolution and with no software crashes

-The 980 was ran in  a similar system with the same wattage PSU and similar Ivy Bridge i7 and was benchmarked and ran under games all day and did not have any issues with running them or with stability

-The hx750i PSU was tested in the same system as above and had no issues running games and was shown to be supplying the correct voltage on the 12, 5, and 3.3 volt rails

-The system was taken out of the 750D case to test for instabilities and shorts and was tested on each component's box.  The problem still persisted and effectively ruled out any shorts in the case

-My PSU (EVGA 1000 G2 Supernova) was tested in the system instead of the hx750i and was shown to exhibit the same issues.  This PSU has been running in my system for well over a year and I have never had any problems with it (and my system draws more power than this one since I have 2 AMD 7970s in crossfire)

-The system was ran without the PCI adapter WIFI card in it and was shown to exhibit the same issues

-The mouse and keyboard were both unplugged and the system was ran without them and, yet, it still showed the same random shut down issues

-Set the RAM to the XMP profile in the BIOS to make sure it was running at the right settings

-Updated the motherboard BIOS to the latest version given on the website

-Disabled the CPUs C6 and C7 power levels, because Haswell goes into a very low power state on standby and this could cause this issue (it ran for almost a full day but ended up shutting down)

-Ran MemTest for about 10 passes and the RAM passed every single one

-The motherboard seems to hang while posting sometimes on QCodes AE and A2 and the display does not detect a signal from the graphics card (not sure what is up here but the Motherboard could just be taking longer to POST than usual)

-The GPU was taken out and the system was run on integrated graphics and it did not shut down for over a day (longer than any other time) and this led me to believe it was something with the motherboard's PCI lanes but I wasn't sure

 

All of the above did not seem to fix the issue so I went ahead and RMA'd the motherboard to ASUS as this and the CPU were the two things that I could not explicitely test (and I don't think the CPU could be causing these random shutdowns).  I contacted Asus and they said that it was in the repair stage and that there were some components that had to be replaced on the motherboard and that they were sending it back to me after it had been repaired.  Once I had the mobo again, I put everything back together and within 4 hours it was shutting down randomly on me again.  At this point, I do not know what to do.  I do not have nor do I know anyone who has an 1150 socket CPU that I could test nor do I have another 1150 socket motherboard.  Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should do? I have been building machines for people for 4 years now and I have never had this many issues with anything.  At this point, I was planning on just calling Asus and demanding they send me a new board because I think this motherboard is shot but it could also be the CPU or something else that I am missing.

 

I'm sorry about the wall of text but I really need some help on this one guys.  Please give me some suggestions.

[-rascal-]

At this point, I'd:

1. Inspect the CPU contact pads for any issues.
2. Inspect the CPU socket for bent / deformed pins.
3. Monitor your CPU / system voltages for any sudden spikes or drops.

Does Windows if an error message box after rebooting the system?

Use 'WhoCrashed', and see if there are any errors reported: http://www.resplendence.com/whocrashed

[ConanOfRottingham]

I have an i7 4790K and an Asus Hero VII ROG motherboard... and I too have had the random shutdown issue.

 

I have update my bios to newest version, switch out memory sticks to different brands and slots, removed 1 of 2 AMD HD 7970 video cards... tried the other video card... still shuts down.  I have an Corsair H110i? or 100i water cooler and it purrs like a kitten and doesn't come close to hitting any ram sticks in any slots.  

 

I read that someone else bought a brand new 1000w PSU and switched out their old one and nothing changed.

I did not want to repeat this last course of action as power supplies are expensive.

 

Finally i think the issue is resolved.. But I don't know what bios setting I changed that fixed it. It would shut off about 2 times a day, and now 2 days passed and it seems fine. 

For bios settings I would disable C6 State, Speedstep, Turbo Features, Auto Overclock features, set your memory speed up manually and whatever else you think may be an issue.

 

I did tweak some stuff with the memory that was labeled something like Memory Tweaking <auto> and I change it to <full power phase> or something to that effect.  

 

I seems the default values are not stable on this motherboard and you will need to tweak stuff in the setting even if you don't know what your doing to get it stable... or just buy a different brand/model motherboard.  Biostars have always been good to me for customers builds, but I do like my ROG boards (I have 2 - one Intel and one AMD ROG) both are awesome...and the AMD doesn't throw fits and shutdown.