ASRock Fatal1ty B450 Gaming ITXac, NO POST zen2 3700x, zen 1600 no issues.

Ready4Dis

2[H]4U
Joined
Nov 4, 2015
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Figured I'd post here for any suggestions before blowing more $$ on a new board.

System Info:
1600/3700x
Corsair Vengeance LPX (2x8gb) 3000mhz C15 (samsung B-die) / G. Skill NT 2400mhz CL15? On clearing of bios it automatically sets my Corsair to 2133mhz @ CL15 which it should easily handle.
Asrock B450 Fatal1ty GAming ITXac
EVGA 1000w Supernova G3 80+ Gold
R9 Nano
EVGA CLC 120 (120mm AIO)

So, I've been running my board with a 1600 for a while now. Updated to bios 3.4 (3.3 they added zen2 support). 3700x came in, pulled 1600 reset bios, installed 3700x and just cold boot loop (guess it's trying to figure out ram timings from what I've been reading). Left it for a good 15 minutes, still can't even get to splash screen. Installed 1600 back in, 100% stable after a short boot. Figured maybe something wasn't seated all the way or w/e, installed 3700x and same issue, no post.
So, I pull my sons PC apart that I just put together, also with a 3700x, but a B550. Installed my 3700x into his PC, 100% stable. Put his CPU into my B450... cold boot loop. Ok, maybe it doesn't like my ram? Installed some slower G. Skill 2400mhz 1.2v memory (this time only a single stick just to be safe). Exact same symptoms. Back to 1600 with 2400mhz ram, boots no problem. Upgraded bios to the latest available (4.10 -> 1.0.0.6 which added support for XT processors!) Swap 3700x back in, can't even post. At this point I'm frustrated and running out of ideas. I put my regular ram back in along with the 1600, and am typing this up now without any hickups or issues. I left it sit for a good 30+ minutes the last time hoping it would eventually find some timings it was happy with. I reset the bios multiple times, cycled power, disconnect/reconnected battery.

If anyone has any ideas or has run into similar and knows any tricks, it'd be great. B550 ITX boards are still in very short supply. The cheapest I can find is the.. Asrock B550 ITX, but with my current issues on my asrock, I don't know if I want to go down that road (although, it's been rock solid with the 1600 for some time now). Next up MB (and in stock) was like $230, which is basically x570 territory at that point (but, the x570 only had 1gb ethernet, not 2.5gbe, so still not positive which is "better" for me).
 
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See a few people have read this,but no responses yet, guessing everyone is as lost as I am at this point :).

So, tried a few more things:
Tried a stick of ram from my sons PC that is currently running the B500 + 3700x... exact same results.

Stole a speaker from another PC in my house, put it in and removed everything from the board besides power, cpu, heatsink/fan + front panel switches. Booted using the Ryzen 1600 and got 3 beeps (ram issue) so the speaker was working. Took that out, reset battery, installed 3700x... nothing. Just a few lights and fans spin, does that for a little while, then "reboots". Let it sit for a little while but never did anything else, just cycles. No beeps. So, for some reason it's like the CPU is causing the board to not even get to the point of checking ram or beeping at all. This points to possibly a CPU issue, but as mentioned, I swapped this CPU with my other build and it works flawlessly. It's acting like the bios isn't up to date to support the right microcode, but I upgraded it twice now, once to 3.40 which supports 3000 series (3.30 was the first to add support), and again to the latest (4.10) that has 3000XT support, so there should be no questions whether the bios should be fine. So frustrated. I set a notification @ B&H for an Asrock B550 ITX board ($189 shipped). Figured other than this upgrade, this board (and my intel asrock board) has been really good to me (I can even run XMP @ 3000mhz with my zen 1600 no problems, haven't tried to push further, but wouldn't be surprised if I could). Only B550 ITX I could find in stock is over $300... I can buy a mATX or ATX + Case +RAM and still come out ahead. So much for doing a cheap upgrade at this point :).

Well, if you guys have any other suggestions or thoughts I haven't come up with yet please throw them out there! In my eyes... since this PC runs 100% stable with the 1600 in, I don't have a bad GPU or PSU or (physically) MB. The fact I can swap the 3700x in and out of my sons B550 and it runs fine means the CPU is working fine. It seems there is just some incompatibility (bios issues?) but I've heard of more than one person running a zen2 CPU on this board with success.
 
You had the cpu cooler installed, 12v 4-pin connected to motherboard? None of the pins are damaged?

I had issues with some a-series apus, but my 3400g (zen+) booted right up.
 
My board has 24 pin ATX, 4 pin and 8 pin aux connectors for CPU. My 3700x wouldn't boot on my x570 board till I plugged all of them in. It would light the LED and spin the fan for about 5 seconds, then just die out.

So, make sure all your cables are plugged in
 
You had the cpu cooler installed, 12v 4-pin connected to motherboard? None of the pins are damaged?

I had issues with some a-series apus, but my 3400g (zen+) booted right up.
I will pull the connectors off later after work to verify no pins look damaged (this MB has an 8-pin CPU connector, which my PSU has and is plugged in) but it does run the Ryzen 1600 perfectly fine which is the same 65w TDP as the 3700x.

My board has 24 pin ATX, 4 pin and 8 pin aux connectors for CPU. My 3700x wouldn't boot on my x570 board till I plugged all of them in. It would light the LED and spin the fan for about 5 seconds, then just die out.

So, make sure all your cables are plugged in
Both are connected and fully seated. As mentioned, my 1600 boots and runs fine. This board has 8-pin CPU plug and I've re-seated both the 24-pin and the 8-pin. The LED and spin for a few seconds does sound similar though, but it only does it with one cpu. And it also shuts off lights & fan and does a cold reboot type deal then starts over (cycling ever 30-45 seconds, I didn't actually time it).

I can possibly pull a PSU from another box as a sanity check, but it's working with the 1600; which is the part that's throwing me off, that kinda proves the entire system must be working fine and the 3700x runs fine in the other PC (b550) so if if everything works... why aren't they working together :).

Anyways, thanks for the suggestions, maybe this CPU is more sensitive to something, I will try checking the power more closely and possibly plugging in another PSU at least for testing.
 
I will pull the connectors off later after work to verify no pins look damaged (this MB has an 8-pin CPU connector, which my PSU has and is plugged in) but it does run the Ryzen 1600 perfectly fine which is the same 65w TDP as the 3700x.
Meant CPU pins here, sorry. If those connectors were damaged sparks could be flying. lol
 
Meant CPU pins here, sorry. If those connectors were damaged sparks could be flying. lol
Haha, no pins are 100% straight, as I said the CPU works flawlessly in my B550. I have seen those molex pins get pushed IN (not bent or touching, but pushed in) where they don't make good contact.

Well, just got done pulling MB and everything back out, tried a new PSU just to rule it out... XFX TS750, same example cold boot loop. I really feel that if it's not even beeping when I turn it on, it's pointing to a BIOS issue. It's odd because I've tried 2 different BIOS that supposedly support this CPU and neither seems to do anything. I'll leave it disassembled for a little while but I'm down to the bear minimum at this point:
24-pin plugged in, 8-pin cpu plugged in, heatsink fan plugged in and CPU installed... no ram, no GPU, no audio connectors, USB all disconnected, MB on a wooden desk outside of case, disconnected pw/reset/hdd led, etc and am just manually jumping the power pins to boot (seen someone had a power button that was failing that the MB would see as stuck pushed and it caused it to keep powering down). So, any other ideas anyone has, even if you think they are silly, I'm all ears, lol.

Links to BIOS versions and CPU compatibility lists just in case someone can see something I missed.

https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/Fatal1ty B450 Gaming-ITXac/#BIOS
https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/Fatal1ty B450 Gaming-ITXac/#CPU
 
Do you do a reset to defaults in the bios itself before you swap the CPU's? I noticed sometimes, doing that is different than shorting the bios reset pins on the motherboard, for some reason.
 
Do you do a reset to defaults in the bios itself before you swap the CPU's? I noticed sometimes, doing that is different than shorting the bios reset pins on the motherboard, for some reason.
Yes, sorry, didn't mention but I am pulling the battery and shorting the CMOS reset pins when swapping CPU's to clear all bios settings.
 
That's a strange one for sure. The best I can tell you is that I didn't have a problem like that when I did something similar with my ASRock B450M Steel Legend, so it might just be something wacky with your board.
 
That's a strange one for sure. The best I can tell you is that I didn't have a problem like that when I did something similar with my ASRock B450M Steel Legend, so it might just be something wacky with your board.
Yeah, that's what I'm thinking, so weird not works 100% stable with the 1600. I mean, no random reboots, nothing. Even on the zen 1 my memory easily does xmp @ 3000mhz (haven't tried for higher). Feels more like software (bios?) than hardware, but I don't know, others have had success with zen2 on many b450 boards, even asrocks. Hence making this post and trying not to pull out my hair, lol.
 
If I couldn't see an obvious issue at this point. I'd rip everything out of the case, sit it on the table, and start going part by part
till I could recreate this problem. But I'm old school, and remember a time when you could short out boards with standoffs if you didn't
use them cute paper washers.
 
I'm at that point, the MB is sitting on my desk (wood) and only things plugged in is power, CPU/cooler and a speaker ... Can't even get it to beep with the 3700x. If I swap it with the 1600 I get 3 beeps which is what I would expect with no memory installed. I can't really reduce anymore, lol.
 
I'm at that point, the MB is sitting on my desk (wood) and only things plugged in is power, CPU/cooler and a speaker ... Can't even get it to beep with the 3700x. If I swap it with the 1600 I get 3 beeps which is what I would expect with no memory installed. I can't really reduce anymore, lol.

I mean it definitely seems like it is not detecting the processor properly. Like if you put in a incompatible CPU.
 
I mean it definitely seems like it is not detecting the processor properly. Like if you put in a incompatible CPU.
Yeah, that's exactly what it seems.like, which points to a bios incompatibility since this 3700x works fine in another MB. I just can't understand if I have a compatible bios what could still be wrong with it. I don't normally post with issues but, omg this is crazy. I've updated bioses before to support newer CPUs, lol, it shouldn't be this difficult to get going.
 
At this point, I'd have to say the CPU is damaged.

Doh, so the thing works in another board. Ok. This shits just weird.

Nuke it all from orbit, start over :D
 
At this point, I'd have to say the CPU is damaged.

Doh, so the thing works in another board. Ok. This shits just weird.

Nuke it all from orbit, start over :D
Yeah, lol, that's the crazy thing. I have 2 3700x CPUs, both work 100% stable in the B550, neither works in the B450. Was going to just bite the bullet and get a B550/x570 ITX to replace it and be done, but availability is almost zero besides scalpers @ $350 and I'm not paying $350 for a $180 board. So I'm pretty much stuck at this point or I'll have to ditch the itx and pick up a new MB + case.
 
I would definitely try a different BIOS. If you flash to another and it still doesn't work with either 3700x, RMA it.
 
I would definitely try a different BIOS. If you flash to another and it still doesn't work with either 3700x, RMA it.
This was the 2nd bios I tried. Also, the original BIOS that came with the board says AMD Ryzen 3000 Ready (it has the sticker on it)... so really there is no reason I should have even had to flash the bios :p. Funny you said RMA it, Asrock literally sent me an email at the same time you posted saying someone was going to contact me about an RMA. I didn't know if I could since I bought this board off another [H] member so I'm not the original purchaser.
 
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