New PC won't boot or POST after hard resets, having to clear CMOS every time.

Breezybeej · Nov 20, 2015

I just put together a PC and everything went just fine. Everything seated properly and it booted up beautifully. Installed Windows 10, the graphics card drivers, and the chipsets.

Everything was fine until I was installing Google Chrome and Steam when it crashed. It gave me a frowny face and whatever Win10's blue screen text is. When it started back up, it didn't even make it to POST. I pulled the CMOS battery and left it out for a few minutes and that let it boot again. The problem, as it stands, is that hard resets will not ever make it to POST. I have to pull the CMOS battery every time (there is no jumper that I can find, either).

I've tried changing the battery and adjusting the BIOS settings to lowest clock speed and such and other random adjustments. None of that has helped.

Here are my specs:

CPU: Intel i7-6700k 4GHZ
Motherboard: Asus Z-170K ATX
GPU: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 4GB WINDFORCE
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Fully Modular
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR4

I'm going to try taking everything out and re-seat ing it tomorrow and I know someone with a PSU tester so I'll probably try that too but I'm open to any suggestions because I don't want to write it off as a bad motherboard.

Martell1977 · Nov 20, 2015

It is possible that it's the PSU...as you seem to suspect. You have really good hardware there, except the PSU is on the lower end of acceptable.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html
Tier 3...You should consider RMAing it and getting a Tier 1 or 2. With nice hardware like that, I personally wouldn't risk it to a cheap PSU, regardless if it's defective or not.

Breezybeej · Nov 21, 2015

It is doing something else now that is concerning me. I'm not familiar with devices doing this but maybe that's just a lack of experience.

When I reset the CMOS, the computer will POST and then it will shut down. Then it automatically powers up, POSTs again, and carries on as normal. I don't know if that is indicative of anything but it seems odd to me.

Martell1977 · Nov 21, 2015

Breezybeej :

This might be fixed with a BIOS update, check what version you are running and compare ot to what the latest is:
http://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/Z170-A/HelpDesk_Download/

Breezybeej · Nov 22, 2015

I flashed in the latest BIOS but, if anything, that made it worse.

It only boots to Windows if the CMOS battery is completely disconnected.

I re-seated everything and as I was doing that, I tried booting with only the CPU and RAM inserted and still had the same problems. I want it to be the PSU that's the problem, at this point, rather than the mobo.

I'm still at a loss though. Nothing seems to be helping.

Breezybeej · Nov 22, 2015

Okay! So, tentative but I think I solved it! Updating the BIOS was probably crucial but it was a RAM issue.

We had 4 sticks in there and when the first problems started, we tried removing the secondary slots and it didn't help. Just now, I grabbed the RAM from my old PC and tried it and it was fine. I only had 2 in there anyway. Used just two of the new sticks and it was fine. The only difference from then and now was re-seating and The BIOS update.

if more problems arise, I'll be back ;^) Thanks

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