Hey guys, I have been spending the last 6 days troubleshooting this build.
Suspecting a bad motherboard, but I'll summarize my woes.
Motherboard GA-Z97X-SLI
CPU i5 4690K
RAM .Skill Ripjaws X 2133Mhz 2x8GB
PSU EVGA Supernova 650 GS
PCIe MSI GTX 970 Gaming
SATA 2x Kingston SSDNow 60GB SSD, 1x 128GB OCZ Vertex 3, 1x 128GB OCZ Vertex 4, 1x Asus Blu-RayPlayer/DVD Writer.
(The SSDs came from my previous computer, 1 of the 60GB has windows on it)
Heatsink - Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro 3
Thermal Paste - Noctua NT-H1
Case Anidées AI7
OS Windows 8.1 Pro 64bit
Going to publish this, and will edit my troubleshooting.
EDIT1: Motherboard came with physical Revision 1.2, BIOS was 1.0 F7 I believe (I can't double check now, you'll see).
During build, with barebones it POSTed without issues, so I went on to complete the wiring.
From the 3 SATA/Peripheral PSU ports I have:
1 with 5 System Fans directly plugged in with MOLEX cable (4 front fans and 1 back fan)
1 with the 2 60GB SSD, 1 vertex 4 128GB SSD and the DVD/Blu-Ray Drive
1 with the last 128GB SSD.
Reason being: the case is hard to work with, there was considerable trouble with cables being too short so I had to wire it this way so that all wires connect without too much tugging.
Mentioning this part as it's going to help understand my later troubleshooting steps.
Note: For the Motherboard F_Panel, I do not own a tiny motherboard speaker and case doesn't have one so I can't hear the MoBo Beep codes.
So, the system boots, BIOS, go into BIOS - set to Optimized Defaults (Per Gigabyte Board ritual). It only clocked my RAM without XMP which is fine for now. CPU temp is stable after 15 minutes into BIOS at 31-34 celcius.
System boots, loads into Windows.
Windows shows all components with their respective values. Great. No worries there.
CPU-Z test shows CPU under clocked, but stable at 34-37 celsius. Weird, maybe not stressed enough? I file it under interesting and move onwards.
About to test RAM with memtest86+ , walk away to deal with "Real Life" and come back to computer on Windows Repair screen. What?
So I try to repair windows - can't. Drive Locked (Not this again). Reset? Partition doesn't exist. *Sigh*
Reboot. BIOS loops 4x and Keyboard is locked (no lights)...can't go into BIOS. Windows did load on the after 5th BIOS screen.
Get back into Windows, immediately make a recovery disk/Backup/Image.
I install all necessary drivers.
Surprised nothing crashed yet.
I decide to test it; so I leave it on, and leave for work (Day 3)
Find out that computer is shut down, doesn't wake from sleep.
Get my spouse to turn PC on and leave on BIOS setup screen.
Come back from work. Stayed on the whole time.
Not a BIOS issue I believe.
Go into Windows again, check logs, seeing critical errors of system hibernation problems. Suspecting sleep states problems, likely due to OS coming from previous system.
Attempt to Refresh Windows (nope). Windows wants me to boot into recovery Media.
Sure.
Drive Locked.
At this point, due to nature of my Windows Key, I call Microsoft so they are the ones to tell me to clear partition (with my permission) so I may clean install Windows with my Key (upgrade key).
No dice.
Nothing.
End up having to install from old Windows 8 CD. Works. PC boots. (Day 4)
Before even installing LAN drivers, decide to leave PC on for a whole day.
Come back home, all still working, no fault, even log is clear.
Good. Install updates.
PC crashes. Black Screen.
Ok, odd.
Comes back up after 10 seconds or so. Windows Repair screen.
Can't repair. Can't fix nothing.
Reboot, BIOS Loops 4x. Windows Loads on 5th BIOS splash screen again.
I have to reinstall the LAN drivers from CD since Windows has LAN component failure.
I install 3 security updates from Motherboard disk.
Reboot.
Good.
I then install the 141 windows updates.
Windows Crashes at update 118.
Black Screen.
No POST.
No BIOS screen.
All fans are running.
Looks like HDD activity is flashing.
I think it may be due to Screen plugged into Video Card instead of MoBo built-in.
Try the other port - still no activity on screen.
Reboot - same.
PSU fan kicks in (ECO mode fan kicks in when System Temp over a certain level).
Unplug, turn off power. Unplug cable.
So, I am thinking either both SSD 60GB are defective, or PSU has issues on that SATA power port (due to 4 devices...?), or Motherboard is bad.
I am gonna clear CMOS, and test with 1 RAM...got no other ideas.
It is Day 6.
Thinking multiple component failure.
The time for RMA is drawing short.
The time for return back to vendor is drawing short (shipping issues made it 2 weeks later...)
I am sad and on the brink of defeat.
Help?
Suspecting a bad motherboard, but I'll summarize my woes.
Motherboard GA-Z97X-SLI
CPU i5 4690K
RAM .Skill Ripjaws X 2133Mhz 2x8GB
PSU EVGA Supernova 650 GS
PCIe MSI GTX 970 Gaming
SATA 2x Kingston SSDNow 60GB SSD, 1x 128GB OCZ Vertex 3, 1x 128GB OCZ Vertex 4, 1x Asus Blu-RayPlayer/DVD Writer.
(The SSDs came from my previous computer, 1 of the 60GB has windows on it)
Heatsink - Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro 3
Thermal Paste - Noctua NT-H1
Case Anidées AI7
OS Windows 8.1 Pro 64bit
Going to publish this, and will edit my troubleshooting.
EDIT1: Motherboard came with physical Revision 1.2, BIOS was 1.0 F7 I believe (I can't double check now, you'll see).
During build, with barebones it POSTed without issues, so I went on to complete the wiring.
From the 3 SATA/Peripheral PSU ports I have:
1 with 5 System Fans directly plugged in with MOLEX cable (4 front fans and 1 back fan)
1 with the 2 60GB SSD, 1 vertex 4 128GB SSD and the DVD/Blu-Ray Drive
1 with the last 128GB SSD.
Reason being: the case is hard to work with, there was considerable trouble with cables being too short so I had to wire it this way so that all wires connect without too much tugging.
Mentioning this part as it's going to help understand my later troubleshooting steps.
Note: For the Motherboard F_Panel, I do not own a tiny motherboard speaker and case doesn't have one so I can't hear the MoBo Beep codes.
So, the system boots, BIOS, go into BIOS - set to Optimized Defaults (Per Gigabyte Board ritual). It only clocked my RAM without XMP which is fine for now. CPU temp is stable after 15 minutes into BIOS at 31-34 celcius.
System boots, loads into Windows.
Windows shows all components with their respective values. Great. No worries there.
CPU-Z test shows CPU under clocked, but stable at 34-37 celsius. Weird, maybe not stressed enough? I file it under interesting and move onwards.
About to test RAM with memtest86+ , walk away to deal with "Real Life" and come back to computer on Windows Repair screen. What?
So I try to repair windows - can't. Drive Locked (Not this again). Reset? Partition doesn't exist. *Sigh*
Reboot. BIOS loops 4x and Keyboard is locked (no lights)...can't go into BIOS. Windows did load on the after 5th BIOS screen.
Get back into Windows, immediately make a recovery disk/Backup/Image.
I install all necessary drivers.
Surprised nothing crashed yet.
I decide to test it; so I leave it on, and leave for work (Day 3)
Find out that computer is shut down, doesn't wake from sleep.
Get my spouse to turn PC on and leave on BIOS setup screen.
Come back from work. Stayed on the whole time.
Not a BIOS issue I believe.
Go into Windows again, check logs, seeing critical errors of system hibernation problems. Suspecting sleep states problems, likely due to OS coming from previous system.
Attempt to Refresh Windows (nope). Windows wants me to boot into recovery Media.
Sure.
Drive Locked.
At this point, due to nature of my Windows Key, I call Microsoft so they are the ones to tell me to clear partition (with my permission) so I may clean install Windows with my Key (upgrade key).
No dice.
Nothing.
End up having to install from old Windows 8 CD. Works. PC boots. (Day 4)
Before even installing LAN drivers, decide to leave PC on for a whole day.
Come back home, all still working, no fault, even log is clear.
Good. Install updates.
PC crashes. Black Screen.
Ok, odd.
Comes back up after 10 seconds or so. Windows Repair screen.
Can't repair. Can't fix nothing.
Reboot, BIOS Loops 4x. Windows Loads on 5th BIOS splash screen again.
I have to reinstall the LAN drivers from CD since Windows has LAN component failure.
I install 3 security updates from Motherboard disk.
Reboot.
Good.
I then install the 141 windows updates.
Windows Crashes at update 118.
Black Screen.
No POST.
No BIOS screen.
All fans are running.
Looks like HDD activity is flashing.
I think it may be due to Screen plugged into Video Card instead of MoBo built-in.
Try the other port - still no activity on screen.
Reboot - same.
PSU fan kicks in (ECO mode fan kicks in when System Temp over a certain level).
Unplug, turn off power. Unplug cable.
So, I am thinking either both SSD 60GB are defective, or PSU has issues on that SATA power port (due to 4 devices...?), or Motherboard is bad.
I am gonna clear CMOS, and test with 1 RAM...got no other ideas.
It is Day 6.
Thinking multiple component failure.
The time for RMA is drawing short.
The time for return back to vendor is drawing short (shipping issues made it 2 weeks later...)
I am sad and on the brink of defeat.
Help?
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