Thoughts before I RMA board?

daphatgrant

Fi-yah!
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Jun 15, 2003
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Hello all, I'm pretty sure my board has given up the ghost. I have an Asus Crosshair VIII Hero X570 board and it was running great until about 3hrs ago when I decided to upgrade to the latest bios. I did everything by the book, downloaded the new bios installed it with a usb drive, no issues. Everything seemed great, the upgrade was successful, I rebooted and it couldn't get back into Windows, just an endless loop of trying, then trying recovery and repeating. It never attempts to actually repair anything, just reboots.

I've tried booting into linux on a usb drive, tried running the windows installer from a usb drive and it just doesn't want anything to do with it and reboots after a few seconds. I've pulled the drives and swapped ram sticks and unplugged everything other than the mouse and keyboard. Memtest runs fine and I was able to run drive test/scans in the bios without any problems, my issues seem to start after the post screen goes away. It tries to load from a drive or usb stick but will just end up rebooting. I've also tried all the different bios versions with no change.

Anything else I should try before RMAing this board?
 
so memtest works off usb but a windows installer wont? I mean I'm sure you have, but check all the boot settings.
 
clear the CMOS maybe
No luck there either
so memtest works off usb but a windows installer wont? I mean I'm sure you have, but check all the boot settings.
Yeah it's odd, everything seems completely normal until I get past the post screen then it's endless reboots... I've looked through the boot options and there isn't that much there really.
 
I tried a cd copy of Win 7, no luck, same deal as before, I get the win logo for a second and then it reboots.
 
It really sounds like a problem related to your hard drives... I'd really hate for you to RMA the board and have the replacement do the same thing - that would be a LONG downtime for nothing.

Try this: Disconnect ALL drives (m.2, SATA, PCIe, USB - EVERYTHING). Then try and boot a Linux LiveCD off of a USB stick and see what happens.

If that fails, RMA. If it boots successfully, connect a spare SATA HDD (you have one, right?), and try the Windows installer on it. I would recommend booting the Windows installer into recovery mode command prompt and using DISKPART to CLEAN the HDD and rebooting again before the installation to avoid any potential UEFI/BIOS shenanigans.
 
It really sounds like a problem related to your hard drives... I'd really hate for you to RMA the board and have the replacement do the same thing - that would be a LONG downtime for nothing.

Try this: Disconnect ALL drives (m.2, SATA, PCIe, USB - EVERYTHING). Then try and boot a Linux LiveCD off of a USB stick and see what happens.

If that fails, RMA. If it boots successfully, connect a spare SATA HDD (you have one, right?), and try the Windows installer on it. I would recommend booting the Windows installer into recovery mode command prompt and using DISKPART to CLEAN the HDD and rebooting again before the installation to avoid any potential UEFI/BIOS shenanigans.
I've got no drives installed right now and have ubuntu on a usb drive, same result, reboot after reboot. Win 10 installer on usb does the same thing, reboot loop.
 
In case you are unfamiliar with DISKPART, it is the command line Windows drive tool and can do everything the Disk Management UI can do plus some.

1) Once you get to the command prompt from the installer USB, run DISKPART and you will get a different kind of command prompt as Diskpart is it's own shell.

2) At the prompt, type LIST DISK to see a list of drives the Windows installer detects. Ideally, you should see 2, the USB stick you are booting from, and your HDD you just attached. Sadly, Diskpart does not show you the actual manufacturer name/model of each drive on this screen, but you can figure out which drive is which based on size most of the time.

3) If your HDD is drive 0, type SELECT DISK 0 or if it is drive 1, type SELECT DISK 1

4) Type CLEAN and Diskpart will erase all partition and ID info off of the drive, in effect making it look factory empty.

5) Type EXIT to quit Diskpart and reboot the machine using [CTRL]-[ALT]-[DEL] and proceed with install as usual.
 
I've got no drives installed right now and have ubuntu on a usb drive, same result, reboot after reboot. Win 10 installer on usb does the same thing, reboot loop.

That is peculiar indeed. Looks like there is nothing for it but to RMA, but that is a really weird mainboard RMA symptom. Nothing else left to check unless you have other Socket AM4 (CPU, Mainboard, RAM) stuff sitting around...
 
That is peculiar indeed. Looks like there is nothing for it but to RMA, but that is a really weird mainboard RMA symptom. Nothing else left to check unless you have other Socket AM4 (CPU, Mainboard, RAM) stuff sitting around...
You're not lying man, lol. It was perfect until I installed the latest bios... I've got 4 sticks of ram and they seem fine, I actually let memtest run for a bit because at least that ran.
 
If anyone wants to see it doing nothing, lol. When you see the keyboard lights go out after the post screen it's about to reboot.

Ubuntu attempt


Windows attempt


I did try another keyboard as well, because why not, no change.
 
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You * could * try it with just 1 stick of RAM...
Tried that too, different sticks, 1 at a time in different slots. I'm going to have to RMA it I guess... sucks but I guess I'd rather have it do it now than in 2 years.
 
You’ve convinced me to never update the bios unless needed.

That said, psu voltage drop? Sounds like the bios bricked it. I’d definitely try to downgrade first at least.
 
have you tried downgrading to the very first bios that supports your cpu, then clearing the cmos by removing the battery for half an hour? does the battery have the full voltage, 3V i think?
I did try all 3 available bios versions going back to the first with no luck. I did not pull the battery but it has a clear cmos button on the io and that didn't do anything. Correction it reset but did not resolve the problem

You’ve convinced me to never update the bios unless needed.

That said, psu voltage drop? Sounds like the bios bricked it. I’d definitely try to downgrade first at least.
Ha, I was trying for the new bios hoping it might fix ryzen 3000 boosting issues and like I said above I tried every available bios version without affect so I'm out of ideas.
 
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Unplug the power supply from the motherboard, pull the battery and clear cmos for a few minutes?
Also I see the MB throwing a bunch of codes? Is that normal when it is trying to boot?
 
You’ve convinced me to never update the bios unless needed.

That said, psu voltage drop? Sounds like the bios bricked it. I’d definitely try to downgrade first at least.

I bought one of those HP all in one touchescreen machines the other day. Put Win10 on it and it has this issue where the backlight doesn't turn on when waking from sleep.
Someone mentioned a BIOS update, so I went and downloaded the most recent BIOS and this HP BIOS software erases and flashes the BIOS right in Windows which I thought was pretty nifty.
 
so your able to mess around in the bios? it all goes to shit when you exit it? obviously your trying to boot from your boot drive, so that wouldnt normally change with a bios update tbh. what code is the board throwing up when it stops? btw i also would have figured a compete power down and drain the caps before doing a long clear cmos would NORMALLY fix this kind of stuff

you have one of the few boards that can be flashed without even cpu installed lol
 
so your able to mess around in the bios? it all goes to shit when you exit it? obviously your trying to boot from your boot drive, so that wouldnt normally change with a bios update tbh. what code is the board throwing up when it stops?
Apparently it's a reboot loop, not a stop.
 
It kinda sounds like some obscure setting got added into the new BIOS code or an existing setting get reset and is pissing off the booting procedure.
 
It kinda sounds like some obscure setting got added into the new BIOS code or an existing setting get reset and is pissing off the booting procedure.
see i thought these new fancy asus boards could be usb flashed or what ever its called if the bios rom was corrupted back to a working default. I havent read much into the manual on this type of issue, cause it never came up. I know many years ago people would just swap of the rom chips. (and i didnt think it was needed on these new ones)
 
In case you are unfamiliar with DISKPART, it is the command line Windows drive tool and can do everything the Disk Management UI can do plus some.

1) Once you get to the command prompt from the installer USB, run DISKPART and you will get a different kind of command prompt as Diskpart is it's own shell.

2) At the prompt, type LIST DISK to see a list of drives the Windows installer detects. Ideally, you should see 2, the USB stick you are booting from, and your HDD you just attached. Sadly, Diskpart does not show you the actual manufacturer name/model of each drive on this screen, but you can figure out which drive is which based on size most of the time.

3) If your HDD is drive 0, type SELECT DISK 0 or if it is drive 1, type SELECT DISK 1

4) Type CLEAN and Diskpart will erase all partition and ID info off of the drive, in effect making it look factory empty.

5) Type EXIT to quit Diskpart and reboot the machine using [CTRL]-[ALT]-[DEL] and proceed with install as usual.
Interesting. New info for me. I will add this to my tool-set. Thanks for sharing.
 
see i thought these new fancy asus boards could be usb flashed or what ever its called if the bios rom was corrupted back to a working default. I havent read much into the manual on this type of issue, cause it never came up. I know many years ago people would just swap of the rom chips. (and i didnt think it was needed on these new ones)
This board does have the flash from usb option but I didn't use it because I could get into the bios without any issues.

Interesting. New info for me. I will add this to my tool-set. Thanks for sharing.
That is a fantastic tool especially if you are trying to get rid of hidden partitions. The only thing I do different from mvmiller12 is between his step 3 and 4 is I type "list disk" again which will relist the drives and put a asterisk next the drive that is selected. This is just additional confirmation that you have the correct drive selected before you wipe it.

I will say that Asus was reasonably unobstructive when getting me an rma#. I was expecting to have to jump through a bunch of hoops trying to prove that it wasn't working correctly but after answering a few simple questions they approved the return.
 
Are you absolutely sure you’re downloading the BIOS images for the correct board and revision?
 
Are you absolutely sure you’re downloading the BIOS images for the correct board and revision?
I'm sure, I tried all 3 versions that are available from here and had the same issue. I did originally update it from the original bios (0702) to (0803) without issue but when I went from (0803) to (1001) we stopped loading any OS. I was really hoping that going back to an older bios would resolve it and I'd either wait for an updated working bios to come out or just not worry about the minor cpu boost increase.
 
I'm sure, I tried all 3 versions that are available from here and had the same issue. I did originally update it from the original bios (0702) to (0803) without issue but when I went from (0803) to (1001) we stopped loading any OS. I was really hoping that going back to an older bios would resolve it and I'd either wait for an updated working bios to come out or just not worry about the minor cpu boost increase.
Most of the time this thing can be fixed by pulling the power cord, then holding the power on switch to drain the caps. then hold the cmos reset button and do a full clear. But most times if your able to get into the bios settings things can be ok...I can kinda force mine to do a reset loop like yours by just settings to fast a ram speed. (but in that case it would do the 2 loud beeps);)
 
Most of the time this thing can be fixed by pulling the power cord, then holding the power on switch to drain the caps. then hold the cmos reset button and do a full clear. But most times if your able to get into the bios settings things can be ok...I can kinda force mine to do a reset loop like yours by just settings to fast a ram speed. (but in that case it would do the 2 loud beeps);)
I haven't sent it back yet, was planning on doing that this afternoon. I'll throw it back in and give the cap draining a shot, I'd love to not have to send it back.

I gave the unplugging it deal a shot and had no luck, pulled the battery and cleared the cmos again as well and it's still the same as before. Oh well, I gave it a last shot.
 
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I haven't sent it back yet, was planning on doing that this afternoon. I'll throw it back in and give the cap draining a shot, I'd love to not have to send it back.

I gave the unplugging it deal a shot and had no luck, pulled the battery and cleared the cmos again as well and it's still the same as before. Oh well, I gave it a last shot.

I had not realized you had not tried the BIOS FLASHBACK process using the machine. Absolutely try this. It is the only way, short of using the command line tool with custom switches, to completely wipe and re-flash the BIOS. The Flash utility built into the BIOS skips several regions whereas the FLASHBACK function overwrites the whole shebang AND the ACPI tables.

Just note that the FLASHBACK function only works with a specific USB port on the back of the board, is super picky about the USB sticks it will work with, the system has to be powered down but plugged in for it to work, requires the BIOS CAP file be renamed to something specific (Asus provides a renamer tool but you won't be able to use it since you can't get into Widows) and be located in the root because there is no interface of any kind, and is SLOW - it takes up to 4 minutes in my experience for it to complete.
 
I had not realized you had not tried the BIOS FLASHBACK process using the machine. Absolutely try this. It is the only way, short of using the command line tool with custom switches, to completely wipe and re-flash the BIOS. The Flash utility built into the BIOS skips several regions whereas the FLASHBACK function overwrites the whole shebang AND the ACPI tables.

Just note that the FLASHBACK function only works with a specific USB port on the back of the board, is super picky about the USB sticks it will work with, the system has to be powered down but plugged in for it to work, requires the BIOS CAP file be renamed to something specific (Asus provides a renamer tool but you won't be able to use it since you can't get into Widows) and be located in the root because there is no interface of any kind, and is SLOW - it takes up to 4 minutes in my experience for it to complete.
Lol, I just got done putting it all back in it's boxes. I'll give that a shot, I didn't try it because I thought the flash utility in the bios would do it. I had no idea that a flashback was different than the built in flash utility.

<fingers crossed>
 
I had not realized you had not tried the BIOS FLASHBACK process using the machine. Absolutely try this. It is the only way, short of using the command line tool with custom switches, to completely wipe and re-flash the BIOS. The Flash utility built into the BIOS skips several regions whereas the FLASHBACK function overwrites the whole shebang AND the ACPI tables.

Just note that the FLASHBACK function only works with a specific USB port on the back of the board, is super picky about the USB sticks it will work with, the system has to be powered down but plugged in for it to work, requires the BIOS CAP file be renamed to something specific (Asus provides a renamer tool but you won't be able to use it since you can't get into Widows) and be located in the root because there is no interface of any kind, and is SLOW - it takes up to 4 minutes in my experience for it to complete.
i new it had something like this (probably cause mine has same function) I remember reading something but never had to mess with it
 
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the one that says BIOS:) My box and manual are packed away but i remember reading about it at one time. (Its a pretty advanced feature and im surprised the asus people didnt ask him about it)
 
I be
Lol, I just got done putting it all back in it's boxes. I'll give that a shot, I didn't try it because I thought the flash utility in the bios would do it. I had no idea that a flashback was different than the built in flash utility.

<fingers crossed>
I believe the required filename for the BIOS file for the Crosshair 8 Hero is C8H.CAP.
 
I got it man ;), just found it funny that the first link was broken. I'm also not sure how to follow step #3?

3. Insert the your motherboard into the POWER SUPPLY and keep the motherboard Standby.
:p

It is essentially just telling you to make sure you are plugged up to the power supply so that it has power but keep the computer OFF
 
Note that if the light on the BIOS button quits flashing and stays a solid blue, ut didn't do it. The light goes out entirely when it completes successfully.
 
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