Hi all, so, having some issues and wondering if anyone can help me track down the cause. Here's the system:
MSI Z87-GD65 motherboard
Core i5-4670k CPU
MSI Twin Frozr 2 GTX770 graphics card
Sandisk SSD, plus a couple of mechanical drives
Thermaltake Water 2.0 Extreme AIO watercooler
Patriot Viper RAM, 2x8GB
Corsair AX860i digital PSU
90% of the time the system runs perfectly. CPU, GPU, and RAM are all running modest overclocks and can handle gaming, graphics benchmarks, and stress tests just fine. In terms of the latter I've successfully run AIDA64, Intel Burn Test, Nova, and Prime95. MaxxMem was a bit of an oddity in that it refused to start the test after RAM was overclocked, but RAM tests in AIDA64 come back fine.
Issues I'm facing are as follows:
-Twice in the past couple of weeks, the computer has been unable to start. Fans and lights switch on for about one second, then click back off. Clearing CMOS does not help, neither does switching to BIOS B (this is a dual-BIOS motherboard), which I have left at factory BIOS version and settings. Unplugging and replugging motherboard power cable from PSU fixes this issue immediately and allows me to boot.
-I have been unable to run the Corsair Link USB dongle for the AXi power supply unless it is the only device plugged into the internal headers. Corsair tech support guy thinks this is an issue of limited power and/or bandwidth available to the internal headers. I have an NZXT internal USB hub (which draws power directly from a molex connection) on special order to try and resolve this. Note: other USB devices, internal and external, seem to work perfectly.
-POST LEDs sometimes usually show "A0" once Windows is running; however, occasionally they show "03" or "04". These codes are described in the manual as north and south bridge chipset initialization codes respectively. Obviously chipsets are not still initializing when in Windows, so something is weird here. The only noticeable symptom is that keyboard will start with numlock off when it shows "04", and with numlock on otherwise. This issue only appears in BIOS A, which I have updated to version 1.3. Switching to BIOS B (still at v1.0) seems to alleviate it.
So, my current thinking is that I'm looking at one of two options.
Option 1: the motherboard is a lemon and I need to exchange it.
Option 2: I have either a bad PSU or a bad PSU-to-motherboard power cable; the Corsair Link dongle is just asking for too much power; and the weird POST LED codes are due to a bug of some kind in the v1.3 BIOS.
So, my questions are: first, can anyone think of a third option?; and second, is there any test I can do to figure out whether these are three isolated and relatively minor problems, or three symptoms of a serious issue with my motherboard?
Thanks to anyone who has any thoughts!
MSI Z87-GD65 motherboard
Core i5-4670k CPU
MSI Twin Frozr 2 GTX770 graphics card
Sandisk SSD, plus a couple of mechanical drives
Thermaltake Water 2.0 Extreme AIO watercooler
Patriot Viper RAM, 2x8GB
Corsair AX860i digital PSU
90% of the time the system runs perfectly. CPU, GPU, and RAM are all running modest overclocks and can handle gaming, graphics benchmarks, and stress tests just fine. In terms of the latter I've successfully run AIDA64, Intel Burn Test, Nova, and Prime95. MaxxMem was a bit of an oddity in that it refused to start the test after RAM was overclocked, but RAM tests in AIDA64 come back fine.
Issues I'm facing are as follows:
-Twice in the past couple of weeks, the computer has been unable to start. Fans and lights switch on for about one second, then click back off. Clearing CMOS does not help, neither does switching to BIOS B (this is a dual-BIOS motherboard), which I have left at factory BIOS version and settings. Unplugging and replugging motherboard power cable from PSU fixes this issue immediately and allows me to boot.
-I have been unable to run the Corsair Link USB dongle for the AXi power supply unless it is the only device plugged into the internal headers. Corsair tech support guy thinks this is an issue of limited power and/or bandwidth available to the internal headers. I have an NZXT internal USB hub (which draws power directly from a molex connection) on special order to try and resolve this. Note: other USB devices, internal and external, seem to work perfectly.
-POST LEDs sometimes usually show "A0" once Windows is running; however, occasionally they show "03" or "04". These codes are described in the manual as north and south bridge chipset initialization codes respectively. Obviously chipsets are not still initializing when in Windows, so something is weird here. The only noticeable symptom is that keyboard will start with numlock off when it shows "04", and with numlock on otherwise. This issue only appears in BIOS A, which I have updated to version 1.3. Switching to BIOS B (still at v1.0) seems to alleviate it.
So, my current thinking is that I'm looking at one of two options.
Option 1: the motherboard is a lemon and I need to exchange it.
Option 2: I have either a bad PSU or a bad PSU-to-motherboard power cable; the Corsair Link dongle is just asking for too much power; and the weird POST LED codes are due to a bug of some kind in the v1.3 BIOS.
So, my questions are: first, can anyone think of a third option?; and second, is there any test I can do to figure out whether these are three isolated and relatively minor problems, or three symptoms of a serious issue with my motherboard?
Thanks to anyone who has any thoughts!
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