Freezing inside BIOS - ASUS Z97-A/USB3.1

[aisle9]

I swear, I can't win for losing with this PC. A couple of days ago, I decided to put a pair of Corsair fans on my Cryorig H7 cooler. After doing so, the PC had two big issues pop up: rapid power cycling rather than booting up, and running up to full speed when turned on but not posting. I took the new fans out and returned them, then put fans that I know are safe on there instead. Getting the CPU to power up while loaded with fans--but never more than the six fans for which there are headers on the mobo--usually involved unplugging one or more of them.

 

Since getting that problem solved, my PC has occasionally taken to freezing in BIOS. I can get into BIOS without problems, and I can boot to Windows without problems, but about half the time it will just freeze within BIOS and force me to reboot. There are some other weird problems that have popped up. OpenCL as used in the RealBench stress test crashes, Core Temp crashes and/or freezes the PC, and anything by CPUID (CPU-Z, HWMonitor) throws a pagefile BSOD. 

 

Would re-flashing my BIOS or even rolling it back to the latest version help? Is a faulty PSU a possibility? I'm at a loss and have encountered nothing but headaches between high peak temps and instability, even at stock, since dropping in an i7-4790K. I mean, it's fast, really fast, and I love that, but an unstable computer does me no good, no matter how fast it is.

 

My system:

i7-4790K

ASUS Z97-A/USB3.1

Antec HCG750 750W PSU (on sale or I'd have gone 500)

EVGA GTX 960 SSC 4GB

16GB of Patriot Viper 3 DDR3-1600

Cryorig H7

Samsung 850 PRO 128GB SSD

Western Digital Black Series 1TB HDD

Thermaltake Core V31 case

TP-Link TL-WDN4800 Wifi adapter

3x Aerocool DS 120mm fans (DC)

1x b-Gears bBlaster 140mm fan (DC)

1x Aerocool DS 140mm fan (DC)

1x Cryorig QF120 120mm fan (PWM)

Samsung SH-216 optical drive (harvested from an old PC)

Windows 10 Home 64-bit

[aisle9]

So after some research, I ended up reverting to BIOS 2501. I haven't been able to replicate the freeze since, but Core Temp still freezes my PC. Have to assume that's software incompatibility, even though thousands of people are using Core Temp on Windows 10 without problems. Should I be running it (and CPUID programs) in compatibility mode with 7 or 8?

[Paul_VB]

7 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

So after some research, I ended up reverting to BIOS 2501. I haven't been able to replicate the freeze since, but Core Temp still freezes my PC. Have to assume that's software incompatibility, even though thousands of people are using Core Temp on Windows 10 without problems. Should I be running it (and CPUID programs) in compatibility mode with 7 or 8?

I recently had an issue kinda similar to the one you had with coretemp. opening the audio control panel would totally lock up my PC. i fixed it by"refreshing" my os, or plugging in a win 10 USB installer and did an "upgrade". basically, it replaced any damaged/corrupted system files with a fesh copy of it

[aisle9]

7 minutes ago, Paul_VB said:

I recently had an issue kinda similar to the one you had with coretemp. opening the audio control panel would totally lock up my PC. i fixed it by"refreshing" my os, or plugging in a win 10 USB installer and did an "upgrade". basically, it replaced any damaged/corrupted system files with a fesh copy of it

Would sfc /scannow accomplish the same thing, or would you suggest just playing it safe and figuring out where the hell my Windows 10 disk is?

[Paul_VB]

you could try sfc/scannow, but it didnt work for me personally. you could also get a usb boot utitilty thing from microsoft. just google for "windows 10 usb install"

[aisle9]

5 minutes ago, Paul_VB said:

you could try sfc/scannow, but it didnt work for me personally. you could also get a usb boot utitilty thing from microsoft. just google for "windows 10 usb install"

I dug out the OEM Windows CD, so I've got it if sfc /scannow doesn't work. Really weird how that compatibility issue didn't start until I flashed BIOS 2801.

[Paul_VB]

4 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

I dug out the OEM Windows CD, so I've got it if sfc /scannow doesn't work. Really weird how that compatibility issue didn't start until I flashed BIOS 2801.

weird indeed. 

[aisle9]

9 hours ago, Paul_VB said:

weird indeed. 

So I did the repair install of Windows, but I haven't had the heart to try CPU-Z or Core Temp yet. I'm too busy fighting an unstable PC for that. Here's what I did:

 

1. Reverted to BIOS 2501, which was perfectly stable for me in the past. I thought this had solved it, but then I froze again. I didn't freeze after that and thought I was ok, but now my wifi card is refusing to connect. I moved on to step 2.

2. Cleared CMOS. Wifi card still refused to connect until this attempt, when I was able to connect long enough to make sure that I had the right driver. I do. BIOS froze again.

 

I'm becoming genuinely worried that I'm running this PC on a damaged motherboard and am going to harm components if I keep running it. Does it seem like a motherboard issue, given that BIOS is toast half the time and random pieces of hardware are acting up, or does it seem like something else is going on? If it is a mobo, can it be saved, or is it time for an RMA?

[aisle9]

Please guys, I could really use some help. I'm stuck wondering whether I need to RMA the motherboard, cut my losses and get a new one (can't be without my PC for two weeks) or if it sounds like something else has gone bad.

[MisterK]

1 minute ago, aisle9 said:

Please guys, I could really use some help. I'm stuck wondering whether I need to RMA the motherboard, or if it sounds like something else has gone bad.

Sounds like you might have just killed your board with static, I would safely just say RMA the bored, there is only so much you can do without replacing a component.

Although in my experience when fans go up to full speed and power cycle its almost always a psu issue. I know I just contradicted myself but if you don't have another psu to test with I would just start by RMAing the board.

Good Luck

[aisle9]

Considering that I'm moving twice in the next 30 days (no joke, first to a new house here, then almost immediately 1,000 miles away for a new job) and have zero faith that an RMA'ed board would follow us, I'll try the new PSU first. If that doesn't solve it, I'd almost rather just buy a new board on sale (MSI Z97-Gaming 3 is $90) and RMA the old one. Would everything transfer over, or would I lose my Windows install if I dropped in a new mobo?

 

*Edit: I've been incredibly careful about static, grounding bracelets and all. Not saying it's impossible, but I'd consider it more likely that one or both of those defective fans shorted something.

[MisterK]

12 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

12 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

Considering that I'm moving twice in the next 30 days (no joke, first to a new house here, then almost immediately 1,000 miles away for a new job) and have zero faith that an RMA'ed board would follow us, I'll try the new PSU first. If that doesn't solve it, I'd almost rather just buy a new board on sale (MSI Z97-Gaming 3 is $90) and RMA the old one. Would everything transfer over, or would I lose my Windows install if I dropped in a new mobo?

 

*Edit: I've been incredibly careful about static, grounding bracelets and all. Not saying it's impossible, but I'd consider it more likely that one or both of those defective fans shorted something.

Considering that I'm moving twice in the next 30 days (no joke, first to a new house here, then almost immediately 1,000 miles away for a new job) and have zero faith that an RMA'ed board would follow us, I'll try the new PSU first. If that doesn't solve it, I'd almost rather just buy a new board on sale (MSI Z97-Gaming 3 is $90) and RMA the old one. Would everything transfer over, or would I lose my Windows install if I dropped in a new mobo?

You will need to backup what ever you want backed up and do a clean install in the new mobo.

[aisle9]

1 minute ago, MisterK said:

You will need to backup what ever you want backed up and do a clean install in the new mobo.

Complete wipe of everything, SSD and HDD too?

[Master Disaster]

18 hours ago, aisle9 said:

So after some research, I ended up reverting to BIOS 2501. I haven't been able to replicate the freeze since, but Core Temp still freezes my PC. Have to assume that's software incompatibility, even though thousands of people are using Core Temp on Windows 10 without problems. Should I be running it (and CPUID programs) in compatibility mode with 7 or 8?

Coretemp has a known fault where it will freeze your PC, the dev released a fix on the Coretemp forums but never pushed it to the main site.

 

Its pretty much abandoned now anyway, ditch it and get hwmonitor instead.

[aisle9]

Just now, Master Disaster said:

Coretemp has a known fault where it will freeze your PC, the dev released a fix on the Coretemp forums but never pushed it to the main site.

 

Its pretty much abandoned now anyway, ditch it and get hwmonitor instead.

I had Core Temp, HWMonitor and CPU-Z, and am now using Real Temp and Open HWMonitor instead. The CPU-Z driver was crashing my PC constantly.

[MisterK]

7 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

Complete wipe of everything, SSD and HDD too?

Just boot drive.

[aisle9]

5 minutes ago, MisterK said:

Just boot drive.

Ok, so here's the process I'm looking at:

1. Buy a smaller, better PSU that's more suited to my system's needs (500W should do) and test with that for a few days.

2. If the problems persist, RMA the mobo and/or buy a new one.

 

One question left: am I damaging my other components by using this motherboard?

[MisterK]

1 hour ago, MisterK said:

40 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

Ok, so here's the process I'm looking at:

1. Buy a smaller, better PSU that's more suited to my system's needs (500W should do) and test with that for a few days.

2. If the problems persist, RMA the mobo and/or buy a new one.

 

One question left: am I damaging my other components by using this motherboard?

Just boot drive.

Doubt it faulty psu's rarely cause dmg. Having a bad motherboard wont change a thing.

[aisle9]

13 minutes ago, MisterK said:

Doubt it faulty psu's rarely cause dmg. Having a bad motherboard wont change a thing.

Awesome, thanks. If it's not the PSU, I might just buy a cheapo Z97 micro-ATX board and see if it holds me over. It definitely (in your nonbinding opinion that won't be held against you) seems like it's one of those two things to you, though?

[MisterK]

17 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

Awesome, thanks. If it's not the PSU, I might just buy a cheapo Z97 micro-ATX board and see if it holds me over. It definitely (in your nonbinding opinion that won't be held against you) seems like it's one of those two things to you, though?

Pretty much 100% 1 of those 2

 

[aisle9]

1 minute ago, MisterK said:

Pretty much 100% 1 of those 2

I'll head to Fry's and buy myself a new PSU and a new mobo, maybe the MSI Z97 Krait Edition or Gaming 3, test out part A and hopefully return part B.

[aisle9]

Whelp, it's the motherboard. Crap. Thanks for your help guys. If the new mobo doesn't fix it, I'll kill it with fire.