Gigabyte z790 Gaming X AX new build will not boot.

philelli · May 17

Building a new PC and cannot get it to boot.
Motherboard is Gigabyte z790 Gaming X AX rev 1.1
PSU Gigabyte P750GM
Intel i5 14600K
Gigabyte RTX 4060 Ti 16Gb Windforce
Corsair CMK32GX5M2E6000C36 RAM (2x16Gb)
Crucial P3 PCIe 3.0 NVMe m.2 SSD

All parts listed compatible by Gigabyte or in the case of the SSD by Crucial as z790 Gaming X AX compatible.

Upon powering on, DRAM lights then CPU lights, goes off and back to DRAM.
The CPU is definitely seated correctly. The 2x8pin ATX 12v connectors are plugged into board plus the large 24 pin ATX connector. The RTX 4060 powered by PCIE cable direct from PSU.

All fans power up and spin, AIO can be heard working. But the PC will not boot.

Tried one or two sticks of RAM in various combinations of slots based upon what I've read but both sticks should really be in slots 2 and 4 according to the manual.

A Q-Flash Plus is done to the latest BIOS, it took maybe 2-3 minutes (seemed like a lifetime) during the process the Q-Flash LED blinked, the PC started up (fans going) then it powered off (Q-Flash LED now off) and powered back up. I turned it off, hooked it up to a monitor and no difference. Upon powering up the DRAM LED is lit (one stick in slot 2) then after a while the CPU LED lights, then it switches back and forth between the two, staying on each for a couple of seconds. Monitor is saying no signal.

I've checked all connections and will (out of paranoia induced by forums) recheck the CPU when I get some more thermal paste tomorrow. But I do know that the triangle is in the bottom left corner opposite the clamp handle (bottom right) when the clamp is closed, I wish I'd taken a photo!

Not a novice PC builder, I'm leaning towards the motherboard being FUBAR.

Please help, many thanks in anticipation.

Levent · May 17

Oh boy you got a bomb in your system as well. What is the CPU cooler you got on that thing? Mounting pressure can cause problems like these.

leclod · May 17

Take off the gpu and try the igpu (please don't answer it's an F like the last guys)

Are you at stock settings ?

The motherboard is fine unless you mishandled it.

Edited May 17 by leclod

philelli · May 18

12 hours ago, Levent said:

Oh boy you got a bomb in your system as well. What is the CPU cooler you got on that thing? Mounting pressure can cause problems like these.

That is worrying, I bought that so I was all Gigabyte and it had decent reviews plus a good warranty. I shall be getting rid of that now and finding another PSU. Another day of waiting.

The CPU cooler is an Artcic Freezer II. When my thermal compound comes I'll reseat the CPU and use less torque when doing up the thumbscrews. Thanks for the advice.

philelli · May 18

12 hours ago, leclod said:

Take off the gpu and try the igpu (please don't answer it's an F like the last guys)

Are you at stock settings ?

The motherboard is fine unless you mishandled it.

Hi Ieclod, first thing I tried was the removing the GPU and trying the IGPU, no difference. Yes, settings are definitely stock as I've never gotten far enough to see them, let alone change them. The motherboard has not been mishandled, treated with care. Thanks for the advice.

leclod · May 18

I'd take the motherboard out of the case on plain cardboard and plug the bare minimum. No gpu, one stick of Ram.

Replug everything carefully, also on psu side.

Make one or two good picture for us.

So you installed the F10 Bios ?

For the psu, if you can't refund it, I'd stay with it. Maybe do some benchmarking, unleash all the power you can with FurMark, check for weird smells and then give it a pass. I did watch the whole video.

Edited May 18 by leclod

philelli · May 18

Yeah, my "getting rid of it" comment was a knee jerk reaction, engage brain before putting mouth in motion, should have applied. I watched the GN video and the Gigabyte response one too, to be fair they were blowing at 60% load on occasion. However, I then looked at dates and the video is coming up to 3 years old, August 2021 and it states they'd been investigating for several months before publishing, so the issue is going back over 3 years.
There's a channel Hardware Busters who have tested newer units supplied by Gigabyte and they seem okay.

Interestingly the serial numbers are given under the HB video, new P750GM SN: SN21033G004789 old P750GM SN (failure): SN20273G002913 and if the SN gives any indication of volumes manufactured my SN23233G016023 (I'm thinking maybe after the G, guesswork though) is streets beyond the old units. The guy in the video shows changes made to the unit design and components also. So yes, I'll not worry about that now, he's tripping them at over 900w load with no flames.

Anyway, back to the issue.

The BIOS version I used was F9, yesterday, I see F10 is now there and although the site has a date of 16th May against it, yesterday on the 17th at about 1pm, F9 was at the top of the list, F10 wasn't present so I'll give that a go it now it's there.

Then I think I'll dismantle, reseat the CPU (although as I've said I'm in no doubt it's in correctly) and as you've suggested work outside the case and take it from there. I'll post how I get on, the CPU work may have to wait a few hours, the paste is on a "by 10pm" delivery from Amazon so it may even be tomorrow I do that.
Thanks for the responses,

Cheers.

philelli · May 19

Firstly and foremost I'm happy to say it now works. Not quite sure what the fix was, my thermal paste came and I downloaded the latest F10 BIOS, I used Q-Flash Plus to install the BIOS and tried to boot, I got similar behaviour. Interestingly someone tagged me into another post of which the jist was that (from his experience) it could take a while for things to work, he flashed his BIOS it didn't work and he went away to use his GFs PC and got back to his later and it had booted. However, I did also, as I said I would, reseat the CPU. I had, as I thought, got it mounted correctly. So I checked it and the socket, both fine then cleaned it and the copper plate of the heatsink with alcohol, installed the CPU, reapplied some paste and sat the heatsink of the Arctic Freezer II back on the CPU, put on the thumb screws and at finger tight, gave them a slight nip with a screwdriver to satisfy myself they weren't going anywhere.
I turned the machine on thinking one last go before I empty the case and low and behold it booted. It's now running fine. I've cloned my old drive onto my M.2 and it's working a treat. I'm sort of leaning to the mounting pressure being the issue as I must have overtightened the thumbscrews previously, i did nip them up with a screwdriver, but more so.

So that's it.
Some pics included, the CPU post alcohol clean (see the scars on the wings from the clamp on the socket). The socket itself. The correctly aligned CPU in the socket (as it always has been), the clamped CPU, the heatsink plate and the machine itself, I shall be adding three more fans to the bottom of the case drawing air in and tidying those two wires. Ideally I would have liked the radiator mounted on the top but the heatsink by the 24 pin connecter prevents this by about 5mm or so. Hence it's mounted with the tubes to the bottom and the top of the radiator higher than the pump, it is completely quiet, no trickling sounds.

Job done and one happy me.