ASUS North America - ASUS Z170 Motherboards Q&A Thread

Any monitoring tools being run on the system?

No, nothing. Its a fresh install of Windows (it was doing it in 8.1 and now I'm on 10). Its hard to describe, for example as I scrolled down this page, each time I turn the scroll wheel all the fan spin up and slow down. The fans seem to be reacting to everything even though the CPU temp is a constant 24*C.

I went ahead and bought a brand new set of fans to try out, maybe one of them is bad and causing the controller to have issues? They're all PWM Noctuas I've had for a long time.

EDIT: removing the water loop and all of the fans I used and switching to my air cooler with completely new corsair fans and re-running the q-fan tuner seems to have fixed it. One of those fans must be faulty, or the pump.
 
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Just installed a Z170-A into a corsair 750D, the backplate did not fit the motherboard very well. As in at all, I'm just rolling without it because meh, but curious if anybody else has had this issue?
 
Raja@ASUS

loaded the newest bios 0905 for the RANGER and I could not get the vcore to stay at what I set it to, I had to go back to 0801

DRAM voltage seemed to be fluctuating as well even though it was static
Primary issue is I set adaptive voltage at 1.2 and offset @ .001 just like I do now with 0801 and when I boot up vcore is reading like when it is set to auto, I saw it hit 1.40 + at stock speeds even though I set it in bios

it does not do any of this with 0801, so I guess my point is while it might say it makes the board more stable, it really didnt.
 
EVERY time I cold boot my PC, it fails to boot up and gives an "Overclocking failed" error message, press F1 etc etc. I go in to the bios, change nothing, restart the machine, it boots in to windows fine and I can stress test it to my heart's desire. I have an Asus Z170 Pro Gaming. This behavior didn't start until later BIOS updates, and I am on the newest version which I just flashed last night. Super annoying... Any ideas?
 
Raja@ASUS

Any ETA for the release of the Sabertooth Z170 mobo? Haven't yet seen it pop up really except for on eBay, some third-party seller on Amazon, and some Google search SuperBiiz link...
 
EVERY time I cold boot my PC, it fails to boot up and gives an "Overclocking failed" error message, press F1 etc etc. I go in to the bios, change nothing, restart the machine, it boots in to windows fine and I can stress test it to my heart's desire. I have an Asus Z170 Pro Gaming. This behavior didn't start until later BIOS updates, and I am on the newest version which I just flashed last night. Super annoying... Any ideas?

My guess would be cold memory instability especially if using XMP. Easily verified by going back to stock settings and corrected by increasing the usual three DRAM related voltages.
 
EVERY time I cold boot my PC, it fails to boot up and gives an "Overclocking failed" error message, press F1 etc etc. I go in to the bios, change nothing, restart the machine, it boots in to windows fine and I can stress test it to my heart's desire. I have an Asus Z170 Pro Gaming. This behavior didn't start until later BIOS updates, and I am on the newest version which I just flashed last night. Super annoying... Any ideas?

flash back to the older bios. If it says "not a proper bios" then do the asus flashback with a usb stick. I'm also seeing that the older bios versions are better.
 
Been waiting a week for a tech support response through their support center. Is this common?

Trying to figure out for the life of me, why my Hero doesn't always power down right. It seems if the PC is on for a longer duration, or idle for a while, and then when I try to shut it down, about half the time the screen will go black, fans spin down, it half shuts down, but my soundblaster z, mobo leds, and other connected leds still stay powered on.
 
can someone give me the quick details on what the Maximus VIII Extreme offers over the Hero? One is $500 and the other is $230.
 
Raja,

I picked up an Asus Maximus VIII Hero Z170 motherboard today. I'm very happy with the purchase, but apparently Asus decided to go with a 14-1 pin TPM header on the motherboard, rendering all current modules (including the current Asus one) incompatible.

Are there any plans to release a compatible TPM module in the near future?
 
Then explain how it provides 4way SLI without a PLX Chip? The board does not have enough PCIe lanes without something to multiplex to the CPU. If not a PLX what magic have they pulled out?


"There’s a PLX chip hidden beneath the heatsink to the bottom of the LGA 1151 socket which adds more PCI-E lanes" http://wccftech.com/asus-rog-z170-motherboards-maximus-viii-extreme-maximus-viii-hero-maximus-viii-gene/

Hello

I have been working with the board for a month now. There is no PLX chip under the heatsink. The board supports quad-GPU SLI not 4-way SLI.
 
Hello

I have been working with the board for a month now. There is no PLX chip under the heatsink. The board supports quad-GPU SLI not 4-way SLI.

Well it seemed like they were saying 4way SLI and I found a review that stated it had a PLX, even though it isn't a site I typically trust. I was sure you were wrong, but I found the manual and clearly you are correct.


Manual says clearly
This motherboard supports multi-GPU SLI/CrossFireX graphics cards for an unrivalled
gaming performance. With the Intel Z170 platform to optimize the PCIe allocation of multiple GPUs, it supports up to 2-Way SLI or 4-Way CrossFireX configuration.

I apologize.


Here is the support page for the board
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/MAXIMUS-VIII-EXTREME/HelpDesk_Manual/
 
flash back to the older bios. If it says "not a proper bios" then do the asus flashback with a usb stick. I'm also seeing that the older bios versions are better.

Yeah... regretting the pro gaming mobo choice. I thought I was a good deal, but it seems it is a poverty board using questionable binned components. There are way more bios updates for this thing than the Z170 Maximus Hero, feels like they're trying to fix something that isn't affecting the higher tier boards. Disappointing
 
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I decided to go with the Hero VIII and after putting everything together, I can't seem to update the BIOS? I've downloaded an updated BIOS file (0902), unpacked the .cap file and renamed it correctly to M8H.cap and put it on a flash drive in the correct usb BIOS update slot in the mobo but every time I try get the UEFI BIOS flash utility to select the file, it says it's not a valid BIOS file. Anyone else having this issue?

:edit: Perhaps this has something to do with the Intel MEI driver? If that's so, i wasn't able to install it either. I tried multiple times, even after resets to install this from the Asus CD but each time it finished, it wouldn't recognize it as installed. What gives? Is there a better way that I can do this?
 
If you are just updating the bios from the bios utility then just unpack the file to a USB and put it in one of the other USB slots, not the the slot for Bios Flashback.

I had this issue on my ASUS Ranger, I could not read the bios from the Flashback USB port unless I was actually trying to use the Flashback process which it doesn't seem like you are.
 
I decided to go with the Hero VIII and after putting everything together, I can't seem to update the BIOS? I've downloaded an updated BIOS file (0902), unpacked the .cap file and renamed it correctly to M8H.cap and put it on a flash drive in the correct usb BIOS update slot in the mobo but every time I try get the UEFI BIOS flash utility to select the file, it says it's not a valid BIOS file.
~
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Looks like you followed the procedure for BIOS flashback then decided to use EZ flash instead. Don't rename the file if using EZ flash.
 
Looks like you followed the procedure for BIOS flashback then decided to use EZ flash instead. Don't rename the file if using EZ flash.

It works from the file simply being extracted on your OS hd. At least, I was simply able to point my easy flash app to my downloads folder where the .cap file was extracted. Updated no problem. :D I've seen other Asus motherboards require USB sticks be formatted as fat32, fyi.
 
Thanks for the help all. Not sure which one it was as I did all three things in combination, but I def. got my BIOS updated.
 
Having more problems with my Z170 Pro Gaming. More cold boot issues, more BIOS updates from Asus that don't seem to help. I'm going to see about RMAing the board. I was considering purchasing a Maximus board as there seem to be way less BIOS updates for it, but even seeing people complaining about that. Thinking about Gigabyte or ASrock depending how my RMA goes.
 
Having more problems with my Z170 Pro Gaming. More cold boot issues, more BIOS updates from Asus that don't seem to help. I'm going to see about RMAing the board. I was considering purchasing a Maximus board as there seem to be way less BIOS updates for it, but even seeing people complaining about that. Thinking about Gigabyte or ASrock depending how my RMA goes.

Cold BOOT issues are usually related to memory or CPU core instability. May need to tune SA/IO for memory. Would be worth sharing a parts list and configuration info.
 
Cold BOOT issues are usually related to memory or CPU core instability. May need to tune SA/IO for memory. Would be worth sharing a parts list and configuration info.


Z170 Pro Gaming Bios 0803
Corsair 16GB LPX 3000MHZ
i7-6700K

The SA/IO voltages have been set to 1.20 and 1.25, as recommend by Asus. Turn on computer, it fails to boot three times. Eventually BIOS comes up, says Overclocking failed (all I'm trying to do is enable XMP, no further OCing) so I exit the BIOS without saving any changes and then all of a sudden it boots up fine running the ram @ 3000MHZ. Works fine, no issues, go to restart, have to go through the entire process again. Seems to get worse with every BIOS update.

edit: Also when it does boot up normally, it passes 10 rounds of max Intel Burn test without any issues. It is the motherboard.
 
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In addition to SA/IO changes, try setting DRAM voltage to 1.3732 or 1.3794 instead of 1.35 if using XMP.
 
i heard people saying SA and IO but I looked in UEFI and and I don't see any SA/IO, what is that?
 
Z170 Pro Gaming Bios 0803
Corsair 16GB LPX 3000MHZ
i7-6700K

The SA/IO voltages have been set to 1.20 and 1.25, as recommend by Asus. Turn on computer, it fails to boot three times. Eventually BIOS comes up, says Overclocking failed (all I'm trying to do is enable XMP, no further OCing) so I exit the BIOS without saving any changes and then all of a sudden it boots up fine running the ram @ 3000MHZ. Works fine, no issues, go to restart, have to go through the entire process again. Seems to get worse with every BIOS update.

edit: Also when it does boot up normally, it passes 10 rounds of max Intel Burn test without any issues. It is the motherboard.

I would use higher IO an SA voltage - more like 1.30V. This board is 4 layer, for 16GB they tend to need higher SA and IO voltage than the 6 and 8 layer boards. The board/memory is failing memory training from power cycle. If that does not help, you can try increasing some of the third tier memory timings by +1 clock.
 
Z170 Pro Gaming Bios 0803
Corsair 16GB LPX 3000MHZ
i7-6700K

The SA/IO voltages have been set to 1.20 and 1.25, as recommend by Asus. Turn on computer, it fails to boot three times. Eventually BIOS comes up, says Overclocking failed (all I'm trying to do is enable XMP, no further OCing) so I exit the BIOS without saving any changes and then all of a sudden it boots up fine running the ram @ 3000MHZ. Works fine, no issues, go to restart, have to go through the entire process again. Seems to get worse with every BIOS update.

edit: Also when it does boot up normally, it passes 10 rounds of max Intel Burn test without any issues. It is the motherboard.

I've had all kinds of skylake problems but got them resolved eventually. Try turning off xmp and setting your ram speed manually. For what it's worth, I've returned corsair and Kingston ram due to problems but had zero issues with g.skill. Gskill seems to be the safe skylake choice. Corsair lpx seems particularly problematic.

I basically had the exact same issues you are having with a Asus deluxe board and I RMA d the processor and ram and everything was fine with the same mobo, a new 6700k and G. Skill ram.
 
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What's the current consensus on this board guys? I was about to pull the trigger and read the newegg reviews and here. Do I need to wait this out?
 
What's the current consensus on this board guys? I was about to pull the trigger and read the newegg reviews and here. Do I need to wait this out?

Definitely stay away from the Pro Gaming board. I'm going to offload mine as quickly as I can. I'm looking at a Maximus Hero, but even then the mediocre reviews on newegg are a little concerning. The Z97 boards were so rock solid, I'm mystified by these Z170 issues.
 
I went with the Maximus Hero. I was gonna go for Pro Gaming, but the reviews were dead on, like 9 bios updates in 3 months is pretty bad
 
I've had no issues with the ASUS Z170-A. Has been solid so far with my overclocked CPU and 3000 MHz DDR4.
 
10th BIOS released for the Z170 Pro Gaming, no difference in my XMP issues. :confused::confused::confused:
 
I've noticed the newest bios version (0907) is missing some options. In 0901 version it looks like below:

151101225152.jpg



and now 4 options is missing:

151102090854.jpg



What purpose was for that options ? Why it was removed ?
 
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