Issue with GPU/Motherboard?

[womble2511]

 

I have been having issues with my new build, Firstly specs below:
 

-          ASUS PRIME  Z390-a

-           i9 9900k @ 4.7 (stock with no AI overclocking) 

-          16 GB Corsair vegence RGB  RAM DDR4 3200

-          Corsair RMx white (2018) 750w gold rated

-          Main boot drive is Samsung 840 evo SSD with UEFI GPT install of win10 pro 64bit (previously was win10 home on MBR)

-          MSI 1070 Armor 8gb OC (stock clocks with the vbios 86.04.50.40.DF)

 

Firstly I will try roughly explain whats been happening with this build.

it all started off with an issue with the GPU being disabled by windows with an error 43, the machine would boot no problem onto IGPU. But in device manager I could see it was being disabled.

This led me to believe it was just that new drivers needed to be installed, Naturally I decided to uninstall with DDU for a clean install and reapplied drivers. Issue still persisted, I went into bios set all the settings as default, checked the primary display to be PCIE and I kept noticing that UEFI mode was disabled and it was using legacy bios mode and CSM (compatability support mode) I then tried to reseat and check my PCIE slot was working, I tried other slots. Only sometimes it would boot intermittently into windows with the card fully working, I was able to game. Yet sometimes I would get the machine on a reboot and it would happen again, and it would re-enable CSM mode and I would get random blue screens such as Video TDR failure, Page fault in non paged area.

This made me realise in my ignorance that I was still using MBR from previous install of win 10 on my last machine which had originally been upgraded from win7. I then went ahead, backed up my files, reinstalled windows 10 with a UEFI install of win 10 with GPT. Since a clean install is always a good idea, I was hopeful this would solve the problem. I also flashed my bios to latest as it was still an old bios version.

 

As soon as I booted into windows same thing happened again, I brushed this off as there was drivers missing on the board, I then started to install every driver for all the board components. The Asus drivers on the site seemed to get it working to some point but only on IGPU, the problem still persisted with my GPU not being recognised as a fully functioning device. Once I had installed all of the drivers it seemed to work for a short time, but after a reboot it would revert to the same issue with the VGA light being on the motherboard (solid light). I tinkered around with a few settings after that in BIOS and on windows itself, since im on an SSD I disabled Fast startup in windows and started running UEFI mode on the mobo (making sure to turn CSM mode off) this would then boot into my GPU with it sometimes flickering on late into the boot (not showing bios splash) I went back into the bios and update my machine to boot PCIE. This worked. It was functioning correctly.

All my drivers were up to date but I double checked using a software called driver easy and driver booster I had heard about, I wouldn’t usually use this kind of software on a build but since it told me all the latest drivers I was happy to find that there was a few I had missed and I updated those too.

It was working fine now, I could game no problem, for hours in fact, no random bsods, thermals were great, I could pretty much not break the thing.

this worked for a whole week before issues started again, Firstly windows decided to update some drivers for me, from the history it looked like an old build of a display driver (nvidia) and a huge power cut which effected the whole of the U.K happened also, it is pretty rare we have powercuts in my area so I don’t think its necessary to have a UPS.

 

After this it was back to square one, if not maybe worse than originally. I kept getting Error 43, on reboots CSM kept trying intermittently to start after a few failed boots, it kept having issues with VGA light on. All drivers remained the same, I tried DDU again took everything off and reinstalled.

I later tried going to the Nth degree, I took everything out realised the PC boots fine on IGPU, I reflashed my Vbios which had no effect.

At one point I got it working again intermittently but it would only work maybe 1-5 boots and it would be fine, and I tested this with gaming etc and everything worked as it should.

The only thing I noticed is the BIOS settings had been wiped somehow during that time, im not sure whats causing the issue sometimes with the card.

 

Last night I tried a few more things, I got my old system, put my SSD in it and my GPU and booted fine no problem (to the same install of win10 as well!) it would happily do everything I wanted it to.

I also tried an old GTX 780 card in my new build and it didn’t work, exact same issue, I’ve also tried a workstation card which is a Quadro K620 but this doesn’t require any power cables and runs straight off the board, leading me to believe that it really lacks the features of a gaming card. It worked fine in the new build though so the PCIE slots are working as intended.

I have also checked in the BIOS that the device is connected and it can see an NVIDIA card when I put my 1070 in so its certainly nothing to do with the PCIE Slot. 

 

I have also done a Memory test, everything else on this build seems to function fine, i do get a random issue where my disk drive (secondary) randomly disconnects out of This PC and i have to reboot for it to re-appear but so far has only happened twice. 

I’m really at my wits end, I can’t seem to figure out what the issue is, im literally so close to returning the mobo but im afraid that I may send the board back and get the same issue with my card. Like I say the card is WORKING and can be used sometimes on this build and 100% works all of the time on my previous build.

 

I’ve been thinking perhaps its some BIOS setting or something, or maybe a driver issue? I have reinstalled windows on my boot drive another time since typing this and it’s still happening even with a clean install of win10.

I know plenty about building computers, but this is way above me I think I thought I would ask some experts. Could anyone suggest anything?  P.s  if I missed any details off just let me know