Cannot access Windows or BIOS after GPU OCing! Help!

joshvanrad · February 26, 2021

So a little context first:

Yesterday I was trying my hand at GPU overclocking for the first time. I downloaded and ran MSI afterburner and cranked my power and temp limits to max and set the GPU base clock to 1750 with a boost of 2050. Everything seemed fine but I wasn't seeing any change in my base clock so I ran Time Spy to see if I could see the boosting on the results graphs. I saw no changes to the GPU so I figured maybe I needed to reboot for the changes to apply.

When I rebooted the system it initially looked like it was coming up normally (fans spun up, lights came on, etc). Then it crashed and started. It did that about three times, never making it to the BIOS screen. Then, it came up with a "please insert boot media or device" message on the monitor, and my motherboard was showing an "AE" code.

The next part is where I really got lost.

But first, some PC specs:

GPU: RTX 3090 TUF OC

CPU: Ryzen 3800XT

Mobo: Aorus Master X570

Storage: 1tb Sabrent Rocket Gen4 m.2

PS: Fractal 860w 80+ Platinum

What I have done:

After all that I powered the system down and switched to the secondary BIOS on the motherboard and the system came up just fine and everything looks good. Whew. I checked MSI afterburner and it showed the GPU specs at stock values, so I removed Afterburner just in case it was the program. I powered down and switched back to the main BIOS and still nothing. So I powered it down again, and switched the GPU from performance to quiet. With the GPU in quiet the system booted and operated just fine. So now I'm totally lost. I need some help figuring out exactly what I screwed up and if I can fix it.

So here's a quick recap of where the system currently stands:

BIOS 1: GO GPU PERF: NO GO

BIOS 1: GO GPU QUIET: GO

BIOS 2: GO GPU PERF: GO

BIOS 2: GO GPU QUIET: GO

Additionally, both BIOS 1 and 2 are the same revision, f31o.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Josh

StDragon · February 26, 2021

AE code relates to no bootable OS found. Your GPU wouldn't come into play at this point. Reseat your SSD into the socket and run diags against the drive if possible.

Edit: Also could occur if you left a USB flash drive or other media attached. Be sure to have those unplugged when booting up the PC.

Edited February 26, 2021 by StDragon

Mark Kaine · February 26, 2021

So here's what I think happened: you overclocked your gpu - way too much from the sound of it - then ran a benchmark, which over loaded the much too weak PSU, and now only settings that have lower power usage still work - the BIOS 1 has probably standard settings whereas all other options are power saving oriented (yes totally guessing here, but it is difficult to make sense out of this behavior otherwise).

So that means either PSU or GPU are damaged, or both, possibly motherboard as well - that's why they always warn you about overclocking in tutorials and such to take it slowly and test thoroughly and to do it on your own risk of course.

I would probably try another PSU with at least 1000w first and see if that fixes anything.

2 hours ago, StDragon said:

Edit: Also could occur if you left a USB flash drive or other media attached. Be sure to have those unplugged when booting up the PC.

But why is it only not working with the default BIOS 1 setting, and putting the GPU into saving mode fixes it but that doesn't change the boot order either...?

I'm really not sure what's going on, but it's definitely very strange - maybe something just got messed up in the BIOS by the crash, yeah, is that possible?

Resetting CMOS would be another thing worth trying before changing out parts and stuff of course.

PS: @joshvanradare you like absolutely positive you actually "applied" the settings in Afterburner, it's usually a ☑ like icon that you have to press - because since you say you saw no changes I'm kinda thinking you maybe didn't even apply the settings - in which case the issue would most likely be caused by something else ...

joshvanrad · February 26, 2021

3 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

So here's what I think happened: you overclocked your gpu - way too much from the sound of it - then ran a benchmark, which over loaded the much too weak PSU, and now only settings that have lower power usage still work - the BIOS 1 has probably standard settings whereas all other options are power saving oriented (yes totally guessing here, but it is difficult to make sense out of this behavior otherwise).

So that means either PSU or GPU are damaged, or both, possibly motherboard as well - that's why they always warn you about overclocking in tutorials and such to take it slowly and test thoroughly and to do it on your own risk of course.

I would probably try another PSU with at least 1000w first and see if that fixes anything.

But why is it only not working with the default BIOS 1 setting, and putting the GPU into saving mode fixes it but that doesn't change the boot order either...?

I'm really not sure what's going on, but it's definitely very strange - maybe something just got messed up in the BIOS by the crash, yeah, is that possible?

Resetting CMOS would be another thing worth trying before changing out parts and stuff of course.

PS: @joshvanradare you like absolutely positive you actually "applied" the settings in Afterburner, it's usually a ☑ like icon that you have to press - because since you say you saw no changes I'm kinda thinking you maybe didn't even apply the settings - in which case the issue would most likely be caused by something else ...

I'm almost positive I didn't actually apply the overclock. Time Spy showed the stock boost and base GPU clocks when I ran it after messing around in Afterburner.

If I'd done damage it wouldn't fire up on BIOS 2 would it? I even ran another benchmark with the GPU in perf mode and BIOS 2 and everything ran fine.

The more I think about it the more I'm confused. Is it even possible to mess with the mobo BIOS when I'm overclocking the GPU through afterburner?

Thanks,

Josh

Mark Kaine · February 27, 2021

41 minutes ago, joshvanrad said:

I'm almost positive I didn't actually apply the overclock. Time Spy showed the stock boost and base GPU clocks when I ran it after messing around in Afterburner.

If I'd done damage it wouldn't fire up on BIOS 2 would it? I even ran another benchmark with the GPU in perf mode and BIOS 2 and everything ran fine.

The more I think about it the more I'm confused. Is it even possible to mess with the mobo BIOS when I'm overclocking the GPU through afterburner?

Thanks,

Josh

yeah, it's confusing... my other theory was that maybe the benchmark was too much for the psu... but since you ran it again that seems unlikely... so it's really difficult to say what happened.

And yeah, a crash *can* change things in the bios, I guess it's rare but it happened to me - that's not to say that's what happened but it could be...

Otherwise since everything seems to run fine on the other bios maybe just use that for the time being?

if it's stable and all you could always put a newer bios on the first one, just as a backup.

And yeah, after reading this again I also think you probably didn't apply the oc... so mysterious why it crashed - could still perhaps be the psu, as it's probably cutting it real close (and you should maybe get a more adequate one anyway)