[SOLVED] Asus M11AD Always Black Screen!!

[bANONYMOUS]

I'm working on an Asus M11AD and customer said the thing would constantly boot loop, they didn't want any of their data saved and said it would be fine to do a fresh install, so I wiped the computer, did a fresh install of Windows 10 with GPT and after reboot it would boot to a black screen and never load the Windows 10 Setup, tried again using a MBR installer, same result, black screen right after it says "Please wait" and doesn't load the setup, tried swapping RAM, HDD, it boots fine with a Windows 10 install on SSD over a USB adapter so I was able to download the BIOS update and update it to the latest BIOS. Tried both install media's again, same result, every time.
Just to try and get it working at all I tried disabling UEFI mode and used Legacy mode for another MBR install and this time it loads the mouse cursor, and freezes instantly, the mouse cursor is never able to move.

I tried booting my SSD off of the internal SATA connectors and it won't boot, it goes into a boot loop, it will only boot off of USB.

I've traced this down to either motherboard or CPU, but I don't have either LGA 1150 socket stuff on hand to try, any suggestions to continue testing the motherboard or CPU for functionality? Any software you could recommend I could run off of my USB install that works?

[Nocte]

16 minutes ago, bANONYMOUS said:

I tried booting my SSD off of the internal SATA connectors and it won't boot

Have you tried all the ports? Different cable?

Do you have a SATA controller PCIe card on hand by any chance? If you do you could narrow down whether it's the motherboard or the CPU.

[bANONYMOUS]

Just now, Eibe said:

Do you have a SATA controller PCIe card on hand by any chance?

You are a genius, I completely forgot I have one of those!

[bANONYMOUS]

Tried swapping SATA connectors on the motherboard, SATA cables, and used a PCIe SATA card, nothing worked, every single time it goes from looking fine, hard drive comes up, formats, installs, reboots, says it's gathering device drivers, tells me to wait at a blue screen, boom, black screen, nothing, nothing works again haha.

I just don't understand why it would boot off of USB fine and works properly like nothing is going on, and the second I try internal, nothing works, so I don't think it could be CPU at this point. going to try and source a new motherboard for testing.

I'm also not entirely sure if it's SATA related either as the drive boots fine, but as soon as it is "suppose" to start the Windows 10 Setup screen, it falls on it's face and just sits at a black screen. I would assume that if this was a SATA issue, the drive it self shouldn't even boot, but it does, and follows through exactly the same every single time, I'm thinking it might be a display driver issue, I'm going to try adding a GPU and see if the integrated graphics is the issue

Are there any motherboard benchmark programs or stress testing programs to see if anything is failing seeing as how I can boot fine off of a USB SSD so I can still use this computer fully for diagnosis, I just can't give it back to the customer with a drive hanging out the back lol

[Nocte]

I think it's the CPU, not the motherboard. I might be worng as I am no expert troubleshooter, so take my words with a pinch of salt.

 

If the drive works fine with a USB adapter, it means that the CPU USB controller/interface works fine, while it hangs with the SATA one. Even though it sounds almost impossible to me as I don't see how it could happen, but what if the SATA controller does not work as it was meant to anymore?

 

Again, this is just me wondering what it could be, I do not study in Electronic Engineering . I could be completely wrong.

[bANONYMOUS]

No, you're right, that's exactly what it was, the CPU was allowing to boot over USB but blocking SATA through BIOS because I forgot to clear the Secure Boot keys lol, so the BIOS was refusing boot from SATA with an OS install that didn't match the Secure Boot keys haha.

So, I got that all figured out, but now after doing yet another clean install in UEFI mode, it now boots into a bluescreen that says Clock Watchdog Timeout.. Now, to figure out what this means lol

[bANONYMOUS]

I reseated the CPU, new thermal paste, works perfect now.

So, that seemed to be the issues, I've found a LOT of threads online with both of these issues and zero have had this conclusion so hopefully if anyone else finds this thread, you gotta clear the Secure Boot keys, disable Secure Boot, reinstall Windows 10, and if you get Clock Watchdog Error (which is always CPU related) reseated the CPU (or possibly wiggle the CPU cooler) and it worked after that, booted into the Windows 10 setup screen without issue, it's now setup and working like new again.

Thanks for the help, always good to have another brain on the job.
I honestly would have been at this for a few more hours before I found the Secure Boot Keys still there unless you suggested that the CPU SATA controller is hanging, that's when it clicked haha