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Intermittent Boot Problem - Asus P8Z68-V/Gen 3

X

Xonim

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jul 14, 2011
Messages
1,035
This last weekend I built two basically identical systems for my wife and I - only differences being video cards and storage drives. I've restored both to optimized defaults in the BIOS v0301 (only revision for the board).

One of them boots fine every time. On the other one, it seems to boot fine 75% of the time. For the other 25%, one of two things happens. Either (1) The Asus screen comes up, then some other screen flashes quickly (drive detection maybe?), then the Asus screen comes back and it sits there, or (2), same as #1, except instead of sitting on the Asus screen the 2nd time, it goes to a black screen with a blinking cursor, but never boots.

Powering off and on again seems to resolve the issue for that boot cycle.

At first I thought it was only when restarting out of the BIOS, but I've since noticed it when just turning the box on in the morning.

Any ideas?

Asus P8Z68-V/Gen 3
i5-2500k
MSI 6950
8GB Ripjaws X
128GB Crucial M4
500GB Barracuda
LG DVD Burner
Asus PCE-N15 Wireless
Corsair HX650
 
Swap power supplies, and RAM, then see if the problem persists. Might be also some HDD problem, so see if it boots from the other PC's HDD.
 
I concur with MorgothPI, but I'd take out the video card as a first step to see if using the onboard graphics makes the problem go away - if so, it may serve to support a malfunctioning power supply / video card explanation.
 
I never thought of it possibly being anything other than some BIOS setting honestly. Voltages seemed stable across the board, Prime95 ran all three tests for a few hours each without an error, as well as 25 iterations of maximum IBT. RAM/psu never even crossed my mind....

I am still running onboard on my build as my video card isn't actually here yet. I think that might be the easiest first troubleshooting step. I guess if that fixes it, the next step would be to try another PCIe slot to see if it's the card or the slot that's faulty...
 
Xonim said:
This last weekend I built two basically identical systems for my wife and I - only differences being video cards and storage drives. I've restored both to optimized defaults in the BIOS v0301 (only revision for the board).

One of them boots fine every time. On the other one, it seems to boot fine 75% of the time. For the other 25%, one of two things happens. Either (1) The Asus screen comes up, then some other screen flashes quickly (drive detection maybe?), then the Asus screen comes back and it sits there, or (2), same as #1, except instead of sitting on the Asus screen the 2nd time, it goes to a black screen with a blinking cursor, but never boots.

Powering off and on again seems to resolve the issue for that boot cycle.

At first I thought it was only when restarting out of the BIOS, but I've since noticed it when just turning the box on in the morning.

Any ideas?

Asus P8Z68-V/Gen 3
i5-2500k
MSI 6950
8GB Ripjaws X
128GB Crucial M4
500GB Barracuda
LG DVD Burner
Asus PCE-N15 Wireless
Corsair HX650
Click to expand...


Did you run each system at stock? Yes, even bio settings set to default. Everything default, no overclocking the ram either. Voltages at default.
 
s3Gtk.jpg
 
Thanks for the suggestions, I'll give them a try when I get home tonight.

I did actually reset everything to defaults already, so that's been ruled out. That graphics adapter thing looks promising based on something related I found this morning when I looked around a bit.
 
What frequency is that memory rated at? Anything faster than DDR3-1333 at CAS 9 CR2 on Sandybridge (last time I checked the white papers) is considered overclocked by Intel - meaning the CPU memory controller may need over-voltage. And because the overclocking ability of each memory controller varies, what is stable on one system may not be stable on another with the same settings.

So, if the suggestions above do not work, confirm board or CPU variance by swapping the CPUs over and see if that affects how the board BOOTs.

Also confirm both boards are using the same UEFI version and same plug in devices (USB etc).
 
Setting the graphics adapter to PCIE/PCI didn't change anything - it was already set that way.

The memory is DDR3-1333 @ 1.5v, 9-9-9-24. The only differences between the build is with the video card, a sound card, wireless mouse vs. wired USB mouse, and then the storage drives. I can probably disconnect all drives except the OS drives, which would then just be a Crucial M4 vs. Intel 320.

I didn't have the chance to try much else last night, I'll have to spend some time this weekend swapping everything out and seeing what else I can find.
 
We're definitely on to something with it being the video card. I had a spare 5 mins so I removed the card, attached to iGPU, and booted. The Asus screen only showed up once.

Went back into the bios, set "Initiate Graphics Adapter" to "PCIE/PCI", and then changed "Power on by PCIe" to "Enabled" per this post here. Now the Asus screen is back twice (Power on by PCIe didn't matter, not sure what it even does), which I believe is when the problems start. Hasn't hung during the couple times I rebooted this morning though.

The graphics card CAN be installed & powered, and will not cause the problem as long as the DVI cable is connected to the iGPU.

My video card should be here for the other build tomorrow, I'll see if it does the same thing.

EDIT: Just hung up again after 4th restart. Manually set RAM speed, voltage, and timing in BIOS - hung up again. Reset voltage to auto, rebooted, and booted up but Asus screen still showing up twice. The only thing I can read off the screen that flashes quickly is something about JMicron.
 
Last edited:
I had double boot problem and did this which worked for me:
disable "internal pll overvoltage" (ai tweaker advanced)
disable "display option rom" from (onboard device configuration)
enable all hotplugs except dvd/optical
disable marvell controllers, usb3 and firewire (all for me) if not in use.
 
dootinbob said:
disable "display option rom" from (onboard device configuration)
Click to expand...

This did it. Disabled "JMB Storage OPROM" and only get the Asus screen once now. Rebooted 5-6 times and it hasn't hung up yet! Boot times seem to have decreased by 3-5 seconds also for some reason. Thanks for the suggestion!
 
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