Motherboard Boot Issue

[topgear]

Config Details :

Cpu : AMD Phenom II 955 BE ( RB-C3 )
Mobo : Asus M5A97 R2.0 ( NB970 + SB950 ) - no onboard gfx / Gigabyte GA-MA785GMT-US2H - flashed with latest version of bios
PSU : Corsair GS600
VGA Cards : HD6850 / 7300GS
Cooler : Hyper 212 / AMD Stock
Ram : Corsair 2x 4GB Value Select DDr3 1333 Mhz ram - this worked fine as dual channel so there's no chance of incompatibility here.

Problem Description : Running cpu and gpu at stock speed with stock volts - the Gigabyte GA-MA785GMT-US2H gne bad within 1.5 months from start using it - so sent it for RMA and got a repaired mobo with F7 bios. So bought a new Asus M5A97 R2.0 - flashed with latest bios version ( 0906) on the next day of buying. Now on yesterday the M5A97 R2.0 refused to boot - cpu fan everything started but there's no display - so I pressed the mem Ok button - the memory diagnostic red led started falshing and this kept going on like forever - shutdown the pc and tested with a 7300GS gfx card - removed the the cpu remounted it and tested with stock cpu cooler. Still no go.

Tested the cpu on the repaired GA-MA785GMT-US2H and it booted just fine.

Now remounted the cpu on the Asus M5A97 R2.0 - did a blind flash of the bios to the latest version ie 1206 and the falsh was successful acc to the mobo manual and diagnostic Led on the mobo and pen drive. Switched off the machine - turned it on again after 30 seconds - no boot - pressed the Mem ok button on the mobo, the read mem diagnostic led light started flashing and the mobo booted after 4 mins - the deafult bios setting loaded - got into windows OS ( win 7 Sp1 x64 ) - checked the bios version, ram speed, cpu volt, temp using cpu-z and hwinfo - played some games - everything seemed normal -

now the issue is : to start the pc I've to prss the mem ok button everytime and it will take 4-5 min to boot and some time the pc won't even boot and mounting ram modules on black slots makes the pc completely non bootable - if I use ram modules on blue slots the system will sometime boot and sometime not - tested with single and dual ram modules - also used one G-Skill 2GB ram module alone for testing - still the same result .....

 

[Naxal]

tested with single and dual ram modules - also used one G-Skill 2GB ram module alone for testing - still the same result .....

Wild guess may be..

Please try with a different processor if possible..

 

[topgear]

Update 1 : the motherboard has stopped booting completely - ie led lights are flashing, fans spinning but no display - another thing is the cpu , NB/SB chip and vrm area is not heating up at all. tested with a different cpu, psu and and a different power socket on a friend's place - still the result is same with the Asus M5A97 R2.0 mobo.

BTW, here's another observation : I had issues with the cpu while undervolted or overeclocked even a little - all the cpu load test app passed but while playing some particular games the game will just quit to desktop after any time between 5 to 50 mins - this happened with lots of games and once the game quit to desktop there's no way you can run a game or video file again - as windows will throw different memory related errors ( same with DDr2 and DDr3 ram ) but never a BSOD - fixed this issue by running the cpu at normal/auto voltage whih is 1.4v - the crashing issue has gone away but ever since I set the cpu vocre to auto ie 1.4v vcore 3 motherboards of different make and manufacturer gone bad showing same symptom and it takes around ~1.5 months for a motherboard to go bad .. what's exactly causing the issue - I've no idea. guys please help out.

 

[Hrishi]

Did you changed the RAM voltage settings in BIOS , after it booted successfully. ??? And was able to save it ???

I have heard of similiar issues , when only Mem-ok button works(i.e. wiping the RAM config to default ). Probably a issue with RAM and CMOS cell.

Can't say much , since it appears to have gone Kaput now as you described.

 

[topgear]

Did you changed the RAM voltage settings in BIOS , after it booted successfully. ??? And was able to save it ???

no but I checked the volt and timings once the mobo booted and they seemed normal - also checked the ram modules on another mobo ( run memtest86+ ) and they worked fine and the exact same ram module worked fine more than a month on this Asus M5A97 R2.0 mbo - so there's no chance of in-compatibility.

I have heard of similiar issues , when only Mem-ok button works(i.e. wiping the RAM config to default ). Probably a issue with RAM and CMOS cell.

Can't say much , since it appears to have gone Kaput now as you described.

another thing is how come 3 mobos from different make and manufacturer go bad in a similar way ?? do re-read the 2nd part of the 3rd post.

 

[CyberKID]

another thing is how come 3 mobos from different make and manufacturer go bad in a similar way ?? do re-read the 2nd part of the 3rd post.

Maybe that is caused by a faulty PSU. I got two mobo's dead with a faulty PSU, took them to the repair guy, he told me that the Southbridge has gone kaput-for both the mobos.

 

[topgear]

thanks for the heads up .. I was thinking that the cpu is what causing all this .. I'll try to get the PSU replaced.

BTW, sent the motherboard to the service center.

 

[CyberKID]

^ It was just a suggestion. Just get the PSU checked before sending it for an RMA, it's quite possible that it may not be the culprit.

 

[Cilus]

TopGear, I have sorted out the issue as I was also facing this issue with the latest BIOS for by Sabertooth. Googled it and found out that the latest BIOS is specifically targeted for Piledriver CPU and Windows 8. In My case the BIOS is Rev 1604. With this BIOS you can't restart the system. All you can do is to shut down and again start it. While restarting, the computer will run, your USB components will also get power but without display.
Shut down the Computer by pressing the Start button for 10 sec. Make sure that everything is stopped. Now start it and it will boot. Download the BIOS prior to the latest BIOS (in my case it is 1503 which added some USB compatibility) and update it. Then restart the system. 1st time it will show the overclock fails menu and you need to enter BIOS by pressing F1.

Inside the BIOS, set the Ram timing and speed and also enables the CPU power saving features like AMD Cool 'n quiet, which will be in Disabled by CPU state. Select Always Enabled option, save and exit. I think it will solve your issue.

 

[topgear]

I wish if it was that much simple ..

anyway, Asus M5A97 R2.0 came with bios version 0601 - I updated it to 0906 ( no PD cpu support ) and the mobo was not giving any beep sound anymore but was booting and working fine - no display, restart or usb issue - now on one fine morning ( like all the previous AM3 mobos ) the motherboard stopped booting ( showing no signal ) - after trying many mix and match combinations of several components like ram, cpu, psu, even a mobo and gfx card the motherboard was still not booting - so I though the bios may be corrupted - so I flashed with the latest version of bios ( 1201 ) using the bios flash switch and usb port of the mobo - after flashing and pressing eme ok button the motherboard booted only for two time thugh it took ages for the motherboard to boot and after that t went completely out of order.

What is bugging me most is how come three mobos can go kaput in a same way - there's must be something terribly wrong either with the cpu or the psu.

BTW, e-mailed AMD tech support ( on 15th Nov. ) for RMA the CPU - the damn company did not sent me any RMA no. or e-mail response - what I got is a automated response only .. anyone knows how to RMA AMD cpu ??

 

[topgear]

Update 2 : PSU sent for RMA and after getting no response/RMA no. from AMD ( inspite of sending three e-mail so far ) I've contacted the shop from which I got the cpu and they agreed to take care of the RMA process.

 

[Cilus]

Good for you. From which shop, you got the CPU?

 

[aloodum]

@@top gear: Really frustrating arent these issues eh?

Case is either ur real unlucky to get bad mobos in quick succession or maybe ur ram modules itself(apart from the psu angle)..
The fact that your last two mobo's also faced memory related issues , and your inital build lasted atleast a few days, drives me to suggest that ur cpu may not be at fault, the mem controller would have thrown issues out of the box itself..Whereas rams die in creative ways i tell you!!
I had a similar situation long back on a athlon64 with ddr rams, both rams were bad, it was just one of the sticks was in a better state, but somehow the pc still booted up with two, but would not boot with the really bad stick
So, in the mean time ,can you run a mem test in dos mode for your 2 X corsair sticks on a friends pc....

Also, can you inspect your mobo mounting sections in your cabby? Though infrequent but sometimes a short with teh cabinet body can cause your pc to act crazy, like one recently where a PDC on a g31s2l used to abruptly shutdown, followed by the statup diff beeps .any subsequent bootup would need 10 mins ....closer inspection revelaed rust build up on various section of the cabby ...spray painted the areas, remounted teh same mobo and its been working like a charm.

Cheers to your investigations !!!

 

[CyberKID]

Thanks aloodum for your valuable suggestions. I hope this might be helpful for topgear and might as well be helpful for others too.

 

[aloodum]

^^ glad to add my 2 cents mate

 

[topgear]

Good for you. From which shop, you got the CPU?

Starcomp.

@@top gear: Really frustrating arent these issues eh?

Case is either ur real unlucky to get bad mobos in quick succession or maybe ur ram modules itself(apart from the psu angle)..
The fact that your last two mobo's also faced memory related issues , and your inital build lasted atleast a few days, drives me to suggest that ur cpu may not be at fault, the mem controller would have thrown issues out of the box itself..Whereas rams die in creative ways i tell you!!
I had a similar situation long back on a athlon64 with ddr rams, both rams were bad, it was just one of the sticks was in a better state, but somehow the pc still booted up with two, but would not boot with the really bad stick
So, in the mean time ,can you run a mem test in dos mode for your 2 X corsair sticks on a friends pc....

Also, can you inspect your mobo mounting sections in your cabby? Though infrequent but sometimes a short with teh cabinet body can cause your pc to act crazy, like one recently where a PDC on a g31s2l used to abruptly shutdown, followed by the statup diff beeps .any subsequent bootup would need 10 mins ....closer inspection revelaed rust build up on various section of the cabby ...spray painted the areas, remounted teh same mobo and its been working like a charm.

Cheers to your investigations !!!

Ram modules tested on a another pc - run memtest86+ uisng a bootbale CD and no issue found .. also like I said before tested with a G-Skill 2GB memory module and previously I was using a single 4GB ddr3 ram module ( kept it as spare once I got 2x 4GB ram modules ) and the two recently bought corsair ram modules were also in a pair - so far I tested with 4 mem sticks with absolutely same result ( on M5A97 R2.0 ) and all of them are still working fine another pc.

Closely inspected the cabinet and I can't see any sign of rust.

When a mobo goes kaput there's no booting ( ie fans and led working fine but no display ), no beep and even the cpu, vrm and chipset won't even heat up - feels like the mobos cpu socket is not getting any power at-all.

why I think this is a cpu issue - I think the cpu is somehow consuming a lot more voltage than it should at stock bios setting ( 1.4v) and this is somehow making the mobos bad ( cpu vrm and NB chip I suspect ) in a similar time frame and searching the net reveals that some older AMD cpus have exactly the same issue - it's very rare but it happens sometime.

 

[aloodum]

^^ well years back , circa 2008 types...for gigabyte boards like the ones based on the p31/p35 board, i saw that their auto setting usually set a higher voltage for the cpu...you had to manually set itsthe parent setting as "Custom" and set the cpu voltage as "Normal"...

..i blv both ur mobo's vrms were atleast 4+2 ...that extra consumption should not matter that much-Nevertheless as you've suggested about the cpu being a guzzler to an extent we can only guess at this moment, it may indeed be the ellusive case ur pointing at....btw did you observe higher cpu/mobo temps atleast in your last two mobos compared to say an earlier build?

Btw hows the wiring in your room? Have you got it checked recently ?

 

[topgear]

talking about wiring I've one more laptop and pc on the room and they are Ok..the pc is more than 7 years old and the pc with 955BE was running using a APC UPS ( from Dec 2011 ).

CPu and mobo temp checked and they never crossed 56c and 45c under load even during the summer season. The temp of M5A97 was even lower 32c and the cpu was at 45c under load due to climate change.

The previous mobo's auto volt vcre setting was around 1.475v and I've set it to normal which then came down to 1.4v and the M5A97 R2.0 automatically set it at 1.39 which are safe to use IMO and I've also checked other volt settings and they were ok too.

Now the most irritating thing about the cpu was it's inability to OC by even a single Mhz !! Benchmark app worked fine but most of the game crashed and I've even tried under volting the cpu with same result - the only way the cpu can maintain it's stability is using 1.4v or higher.

 

[topgear]

yesterday inquired about mobo RMA and Digicare guys replied that they need to replace a part and waiting for Asus to send it to them. If they can't get one they will give me a credit note but it all depends on Asus ( and the Distributor ) now and told me to call back after one week. Grrr.... ! buying an AMD cpu and a mobo for it now feeling really awful - The mobo is only one and half month old and I paid 6.8k for it - don't know if they are issuing a credit note how much I'll get or I'll have to forcefully go for a better version of the mobo which I don't need - I can't seem to get it Why can't they replace the motherboard - M5A97 R2.0 is still in production or our money has no real value. and mreover I think the RMA process be it the cpu or mobo just taking too long time.

 

[topgear]

update : got the psu back from RMA on 1st Dec., the motherboard on 11th and the cpu just yesterday.

now to get the mobo rma done quickly I had to contact Asus - Asus has escalated the case and I also talked with sumonpathak about this who helped me to get in touch with some higher official ( can't post the name here ) - after all this the RMA procedure took only 8 days.

The cpu RMA took the longest period of time - 44 days !!

anyway, everything is working fine now.