Rog Strix B460-i Gaming odd GPU issue.

[nelsing]

So i built a fair amount of computers in my life and usually can figure out any eventual problem. But this one has me baffled. I will get an error every other boot where i get no picture and the VGA led lights up on the motherboard. I turn it of and on again and it will boot with no problems at all. Next time i boot it up the same issue occurs where i get the VGA led error. I have updated to the latest bios with the problem persisting. So any help would be appreciated so i can try and get this sorted and hand it over to the owner.

CPU: 10400F

GPU: GTX 1650 TUF Gaming

 

[Bombastinator]

Every other boot says warm boot vs cold boot to me.  Restart vs start.  Systems behave differently for each.  This may well be a MOBO thing because that’s where bios lives.  Will it post on these times it doesn’t work?

Edited April 30, 2021 by Bombastinator

[nelsing]

3 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Every other boot says warm boot vs cold boot to me.  Restart vs start.  Systems behave differently for each.  This may well be a MOBO thing because that’s where bios lives.  Will it post on these times it doesn’t work?

Nope it get stuck with the VGA error led lighting up on the motherboard. But it sure does feel like it is bios related as you mention. I'm at a loss here and tired, so any suggestions are greatly appreciated and i will continue trying tomorrow, hopefully with some things to try i have not thought about yet. I am reluctant on trying the gpu in my own computer unless i really have to since it will be a bit of a pain removing my GPU.

[Bombastinator]

2 hours ago, nelsing said:

Nope it get stuck with the VGA error led lighting up on the motherboard. But it sure does feel like it is bios related as you mention. I'm at a loss here and tired, so any suggestions are greatly appreciated and i will continue trying tomorrow, hopefully with some things to try i have not thought about yet. I am reluctant on trying the gpu in my own computer unless i really have to since it will be a bit of a pain removing my GPU.

So it’s not even getting to post.  This feels like a possible bios setting or corruption issue.  Have you cleared CMOS? I’d say boot without the gpu using the iGPU but f chips don’t have them.  If you’re getting a working monitor every other boot I suspect the entire video “train” is fine hardware wise.  Can you confirm/deny the warm boot cold boot theory?

[nelsing]

42 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

So it’s not even getting to post.  This feels like a possible bios setting or corruption issue.  Have you cleared CMOS? I’d say boot without the gpu using the iGPU but f chips don’t have them.  If you’re getting a working monitor every other boot I suspect the entire video “train” is fine hardware wise.  Can you confirm/deny the warm boot cold boot theory?

The weird thing is it is every other boot even if i pull the plug in between each boot and no matter the time period between the boots. Im going to try another Cmos reset and reseating memory and gpu again tomorrow when i wake up. If that does nothing i guess im pulling my GPU after all so i can test if there are any issues with the card in my computer or not.

[nelsing]

So a small update, while looking around for what the problem might be on my main computer it managed to get past the VGA part where it has been failing every other boot (it took about 5-10 minutes) After another 5-10 minutes or so i now got the following message "(A7) Me FW Downgrade - request mespilock failed". After that had been up for another 5 minutes or so the system proceed to boot normally. Now at least i have something to work from but it is still not clear to my why it would always be every other boot attempt.

[nelsing]

I'm not sure if trying to solve the "(a7) me fw downgrade - request mespilock failed" is the right approach since it only happens every other time when the system does not boot properly and takes a lifetime to finish the POST. When it boots properly it all goes fast and no error is shown, i can not for the life of me figure out why it always is every other boot.

[Bombastinator]

15 hours ago, nelsing said:

The weird thing is it is every other boot even if i pull the plug in between each boot and no matter the time period between the boots. Im going to try another Cmos reset and reseating memory and gpu again tomorrow when i wake up. If that does nothing i guess im pulling my GPU after all so i can test if there are any issues with the card in my computer or not.

As if there’s a timer or something.  Computers don’t work that way unless there is a heat issue and a part needs time to cool. Brings up heat as another possible I guess.  Bad mount somewhere maybe or broken fans or garbage case.

[nelsing]

1 hour ago, Bombastinator said:

As if there’s a timer or something.  Computers don’t work that way unless there is a heat issue and a part needs time to cool. Brings up heat as another possible I guess.  Bad mount somewhere maybe or broken fans or garbage case.

Well, i have ran multiple benchmarks with good temps and the scores have been close to the results i have found online with the same hardware. I now noticed another message that shows up for about a second after the whole (A7) Me FW one, "Error sending end of post message to me heci disabled proceeding with boot". But i can find no one else with this problem that has it occuring only on every other boot, i seem to be alone with an issue like that. Because i can find nothing wrong with the system on the boots i do not run into this error.

The whole thing with it being every other boot is messing with my head so bad.

[Bombastinator]

11 minutes ago, nelsing said:

Well, i have ran multiple benchmarks with good temps and the scores have been close to the results i have found online with the same hardware. I now noticed another message that shows up for about a second after the whole (A7) Me FW one, "Error sending end of post message to me heci disabled proceeding with boot". But i can find no one else with this problem that has it occuring only on every other boot, i seem to be alone with an issue like that. Because i can find nothing wrong with the system on the boots i do not run into this error.

The whole thing with it being every other boot is messing with my head so bad.

Might be some weird part that isn’t cpu or gpu that is heating up.  That usually requires a hot case though which tends to show high other places.  Remember coincidence is not causality.  

[nelsing]

Feel like i now have tried every single suggestion i can find on the net regarding problems even remotely similar to mine. Apart from trying another cpu and/or motherboard.

[nelsing]

Well, returned the motherboard and hoping i will get a replacement from the manufacturer. I won the motherboard in a competition so there is no guarantee from the store on this one. I probably spent a total of 20h+ on trying all the different "fixes" for any problem even slightly relating to mine with no success.

[Bombastinator]

On 5/1/2021 at 6:27 AM, nelsing said:

So a small update, while looking around for what the problem might be on my main computer it managed to get past the VGA part where it has been failing every other boot (it took about 5-10 minutes) After another 5-10 minutes or so i now got the following message "(A7) Me FW Downgrade - request mespilock failed". After that had been up for another 5 minutes or so the system proceed to boot normally. Now at least i have something to work from but it is still not clear to my why it would always be every other boot attempt.

Implies possible warm/cold boot issue.  Warm/cold isn’t about heat it’s just terminology.  The computer boots slightly differently depending on if it’s a start or restart.  Both are often called just ‘start’ though.  Part of the issue is I can’t tell if you are doing full starts or just restarts and when. 

[nelsing]

6 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

Implies possible warm/cold boot issue.  Warm/cold isn’t about heat it’s just terminology.  The computer boots slightly differently depending on if it’s a start or restart.  Both are often called just ‘start’ though.  Part of the issue is I can’t tell if you are doing full starts or just restarts and when. 

It was both warm and cold boots, it behaved the same way no matter what. Powerd it of and switched parts in the system between tries, if it had booted the previous time it would not boot after the part change if it had not booted properly it would boot properly after the replacement of the next part. Im hoping to get a detailed report if i do not get the motherboard/cpu replaced so i get to know exactly what was causing the issue.

[Bombastinator]

11 hours ago, nelsing said:

It was both warm and cold boots, it behaved the same way no matter what. Powerd it of and switched parts in the system between tries, if it had booted the previous time it would not boot after the part change if it had not booted properly it would boot properly after the replacement of the next part. Im hoping to get a detailed report if i do not get the motherboard/cpu replaced so i get to know exactly what was causing the issue.

Wait.  What part change when?  Was it doing this with NO parts changes as well? 

[nelsing]

1 minute ago, Bombastinator said:

Wait.  What part change when?  Was it doing this with NO parts changes as well? 

It was doing this from the start, my first step was to update the firmware since it has solved similar issues in the past. When that did nothing i started trying with other gpu/memory from my own system that i knew 100% works fine. The behaviour was always the same, every other boot no matter if it was a cold or warm boot. Same thing happened when i returned it to the store and they did a fast test. Unfortunately i did not have access to any extra socket 1200 motherboard or cpu to test with.

I was told they would get back to me today but heard nothing as of yet, will try to remember to update here when/if i get a detailed report for the cause of the issue.

[Bombastinator]

25 minutes ago, nelsing said:

It was doing this from the start, my first step was to update the firmware since it has solved similar issues in the past. When that did nothing i started trying with other gpu/memory from my own system that i knew 100% works fine. The behaviour was always the same, every other boot no matter if it was a cold or warm boot. Same thing happened when i returned it to the store and they did a fast test. Unfortunately i did not have access to any extra socket 1200 motherboard or cpu to test with.

I was told they would get back to me today but heard nothing as of yet, will try to remember to update here when/if i get a detailed report for the cause of the issue.

Still feels like software.  It’s like the functional boot flips a toggle that breaks startup and a failed startup flips it back.  

Edited May 5, 2021 by Bombastinator

[nelsing]

Well, a little update. I found out today that i am getting a replacement motherboard but still have no clue what the actual error was. Im hoping i will get that information since i really want to know what caused the issue.

[Bombastinator]

2 minutes ago, nelsing said:

Well, a little update. I found out today that i am getting a replacement motherboard but still have no clue what the actual error was. Im hoping i will get that information since i really want to know what caused the issue.

If it’s a motherboard problem it could be something with a rom rather than an eprom because even if it’s software it’s still not repairable without replacing the chip. Could also be any number of oddities having to do with the power system though.

[nelsing]

Just now, Bombastinator said:

If it’s a motherboard problem it could be something with a rom rather than an eprom because even if it’s software it’s still not repairable without replacing the chip. Could also be any number of oddities having to do with the power system though.

Im used to building computers but i am far from an expert on the actual workings of all the components. I tend to be able to figure out what the faulty part is or find others with the exact same issues with the help of google but had no real luck this time. So i hope they can and will provide me with a detailed error report, but im not holding my breath though. But unless the store managed to isolate it i doubt the manufacturer will bother to do it. But if i do get any detailed information or any information at all i will post it here.

[Bombastinator]

1 hour ago, nelsing said:

Im used to building computers but i am far from an expert on the actual workings of all the components. I tend to be able to figure out what the faulty part is or find others with the exact same issues with the help of google but had no real luck this time. So i hope they can and will provide me with a detailed error report, but im not holding my breath though. But unless the store managed to isolate it i doubt the manufacturer will bother to do it. But if i do get any detailed information or any information at all i will post it here.

On the bright side it’s not a video card.  I hear with some of those people try to RMA em they just get a check back for MSRP (which may be less than they paid) and the people in the RMA house sell it on at a profit.

[nelsing]

So unfortunately i was not able to get a detailed error report, only that the motherboard was not working properly. I got an Rog strix B560-I Gaming Wifi motherboard as a replacement from asus.

[Bombastinator]

3 hours ago, nelsing said:

So unfortunately i was not able to get a detailed error report, only that the motherboard was not working properly. I got an Rog strix B560-I Gaming Wifi motherboard as a replacement from asus.

Apparently not all b560s are created equal. GN and/or hardware unboxed did som b560 reviews. Might be worth looking at.