Question A devilish problem with Maximus XIII Hero and i9-11900K Q code d4 and its reincarnation.

[cemster]

Hello,
I rebuilt my workstation from 10 years old P9X79 WS to a couple of months old ROG MAXIMUS XIII HERO coupled with an 'Intel i9-11900K', 'Corsair VENGEANCE® LPX 128GB (4 x 32GB) DDR4 DRAM 3200MHz C16 ' and an 'Asus GTX 1660Ti...

The reason I have a new build is that towards its last days the old build it started to freeze... It was a hardware problem.
The first thing I replaced was my GPU card with ASUS DUAL GTX1660TI O6G EVO. Which is also my GPU card of the new build. And also a quite new purchase.

The problem I am having is 'White light' sometimes followed by "1 long 3 short Beeps"...
And Q code displays "d4" but the post continues after a while and it settles on "A0" And as the hard drive light blinks away, as the "White" light indicates a GPU error remains and no signal is received by the monitor.

This Q code 'd4' has started right away with my very first boot attempt. However, as I rebooted, it did not give any error on my second or on the third try. Which I kept the system on, almost for three days at that time. Then next day on the fourth booth, it stuck on GPU card error again. This is how it continued for six days.
And on that sixth day, after a successful boot, the system and the monitors freeze after a while! You know as my old build did! So, I rebooted again, it freezes again in a few minutes. And after that, I couldn't pass the GPU error; the "d4" and "white light" and the "beeps". Yet the post continues and the Q code finally displays "A0". Meantime, the GPU card shows a "White" light as oppose to a "Red" light and both mobo and GPU card illuminate RGB lights.
When the system was working I had many HDDs and an SSD installed, and a few USB-connected devices plus fans, all working fine.

Now, I just have an SSD and 8 fans. I have an i9-11900K cooled by a Noctua NH-14 with two fans. That's it. I even unplugged anything coming from the case such as USB connections and whatnot.
I power the whole thing with a Corsair AX1200i PSU, and it is the only thing that I haven't replaced from my old system...
It shows the green light and seems working fine also monitored with its "iCue" app when I could boot. When the system was working I checked every component.
Rams were showing 64 GB instead of 128GB. I realize that two of them weren't properly placed so I corrected that and got 128 GB. I checked each Ram individually and they were ready for OC and they were showing proper voltage and everything. Same with the CPU. Each core seemed to be functioning normally. At one point it even OC'ed %10 with auto OC.

Even though I do suspect the PSU, I can't be a hundred percent sure if the PSU is really the problem...
I couldn't figure out which device was the faulty one with my previous system either. I took my system to three different shops for testing and none of them couldn't find anything wrong! Even with all the stress tests and whatnot, they couldn't even manage to duplicate the system freeze... And as soon as I get home, I get the "frozen screens" which they couldn't produce. Once even for a consecutive three days, they fished for the error and got nowhere...

So, as you can see it is weird luck I am having. It feels like this is a curse really...
I replaced the GPU card first and that didn't help. Nevertheless, I realized I replaced the wrong device. But maybe as the previous GPU card (Zotac) was faulty and with my bad luck, the new GPU card that I bought was/is also bad. Then, I end up replacing everything except the PSU.
I just don't want to buy a new PSU and find out that in fact, it was the GPU card that was the problem all along...

So I did two more tests today. First I removed the GPU card. Since I have the integrated CPU graphics. But I get all the same errors. White mobo light and beeps...
Then I managed to borrow a 600 watt Thermaltake PSU. I hooked up with high hopes that it would work and I can finally pinpoint the faulty device after all the drama.
But no such luck! I still am getting the same errors. And now the white light is accompanied by a Yellow light as well, indicating that something wrong with Rams too...
When the Corsair AX1200i was connected, and the white light came up, the yellow light also came up for a very short while, and as the post continues the yellow light went away as the white light remained every time.
However, with this 600 Watt PSU, the yellow light also remains and the post does not continue... So 'd4' is the final Q code there...

This is even more confusing. I am baffled. Is it the new Motherboard that is the problem?
'D4' is explained as either integrated GPU, or if a GPU card is installed the GPU card is not detected or has a problem. So they suggest checking the CPU! But the CPU was working just fine a week ago. As all the Rams were...

Alsoı, all my parts are compatible. I did my research! Matter of fact, both Asus and Corsair gave me their blessings personally. Asus put some 128 GB Corsair rams that higher than 2333 MHz into their compatibility list after my request. The video card is also listed as a compatible device.

I also did reset the CMOS a couple of times.

I am running the latest BIOS. I updated the unit before running the system through Asus's USB port. The drivers were installed through the driver disk that came with the unit.

Nothing is automatically updated in my system.

I don't know where to go from here?

And if you read the whole thing I appreciate it, I know it's a lengthy one but so is my curse...

 

[Lutfij]

Now, I power the whole thing with a Corsair AX1200i PSU, and it is the only thing that I haven't replaced from my old system...
You have a decade old PSU in your new build? That's the first problem, IMHO, you can try and rule out your PSU being the issue by sourcing a concurrent, reliably built PSU that has at least...650W of power for the entire system.

As for the this;
600 watt Thermaltake PSU
600 is the wattage, Thermaltake is the brand, it doesn't state what the model of the unit is. How old is the unit?

FYI, a lot has changed PSU wise in the past decade and often times you need to disable C states in BIOS in order to get concurrent hardware booting.

It's best if you could list your specs like so:
CPU:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:

considering you had a prior system that was later upgraded, you should parse two sets of specs, old and new. Am I right to assume you didn't reinstall the OS after the hardware migration?

 

[cemster]

I don't have a specific OS. I installed a fresh one. But I also was able to boot into three of my previous OSs without a problem.

The Thermaltake's model is; White Power 600 (LP-600AL2NH) It's not modular but seems decent and according to my friend was working fine.
It would be possible of course, but a very freaky coincidence that both of these PSUs would cause a similar problem.

Because of the story of it all, I didn't think that the component list was crucial. Especially my old system. All I have is a case and a PSU that survived from that build.
And with this build, I already wrote all the components that there are. At the moment not even the case-related cables nor the fans are hooked up. Just the CPU, cooler, and an SSD (samsıung) are connected.
I have three more HDDs with OS in them which I booted up with the new build as well.

I was told by the Intel community that in order to initiate the integrated graphics,
I might have to get into the bios if the BIOS had 'NOT' been configured to control the iGFX automatically (using AUTO setting)...

The problem is I have no access to any kind of display at the moment... So, your suggestion to disable C states in BIOS is also not possible but as I mentioned before, I did manage to deploy three of my previous OSs without a problem.

Also, as learned from the Intel community, another solution was resetting the BIOS configuration, which I performed twice...

The existing survived PSU; Corsair AX1200i is I believe one of the best PSUs in the market not only a decade ago but today as well... If I could find the receipt it is still in warranty after nine and a half years. But all I want is PSU to be tested in a lab environment. I wouldn't want to use a "fixed" PSU anyway... If the AX1200i was confirmed to be faulty I was going to get the same PSU or maybe an AX860i...
But yes, you are right. after ten years even if it is working or not, a new PSU is essential.
But I am dying to know which component was the dirty one out of the usual suspects. with my previous build and now with this new build. Hence the reincarnation of a devilish problem...

My Ram: Corsair VENGEANCE® LPX 128GB (4 x 32GB) DDR4 DRAM 3200MHz C16
or my CPU can't be the problem. They are 10 days old and they were working fine a minute ago.
I feel like the motherboard might be the guilty party in this story. But my feelings mean jackshit!

 

[DSzymborski]

The Thermaltake PSU linked is frighteningly poor quality.

I think the next thing to do is breadboard this outside the case. One stick of RAM, no GPU. The Corsair one or another one; the Thermaltake shouldn't ever be connected to these parts.

 

[cemster]

I understand. I am told by the Intel community that:

" If the BIOS had been configured to control the iGFX automatically (using AUTO setting), then yes, removing the add-in graphics card should result in the iGFX engine being enabled.

If this parameter had been set to any setting other than AUTO or ALWAYS-ON, however, this won't happen automatically. In this case, you may have to restore the add-in graphics card temporarily (long enough to reconfigure BIOS). The alternative is to reset the BIOS configuration, but this loses all other changes to the configuration that you might have made."

So, I reset the BIOS, as the only option I had yet the "d4" error along with white light did not disappear... So what is that mean? The only question that remains is how will I know which component is the faulty one? In a scenario in which replacing Rams one by one and not getting any results, I will be lost! How will I know if the motherboard is malfunctioning or not?

And now that you cursed the Thermaltake, I don't have any other option than Corsair... So how will I know if Corsair screwing things up or not?

I tried to borrow one but can't seem to find anything bigger than 600W... I also tried to rent one but that was silly of me... They rent game PCs and I rather buy the darn thing if I gonna pay that kind of money...
I have to find a decent PSU at least 750W or higher in order to narrow down the usual suspects... I am screwed...

 

[DSzymborski]

I understand. I am told by the Inteş community that:

" If the BIOS had been configured to control the iGFX automatically (using AUTO setting), then yes, removing the add-in graphics card should result in the iGFX engine being enabled.

If this parameter had been set to any setting other than AUTO or ALWAYS-ON, however, this won't happen automatically. In this case, you may have to restore the add-in graphics card temporarily (long enough to reconfigure BIOS). The alternative is to reset the BIOS configuration, but this loses all other changes to the configuration that you might have made."

So, I reset the BIOS, as the only option I had. The only question I have remained is how will I know which component is the faulty one, in a scenario in which replacing Rams one by one and not getting any results? How will I know if the motherboard is malfunctioning or not?

And now that you cursed the Thermaltake, I don't have any other option than Corsair...
So how will I know if Corsair screwing things up or not?

I tried to borrow one but can't seem to find anything bigger than 600W... I also tried to rent one but that was sill of me... They rent game PCs and I rather buy the darn thing if I gonna pay that kind of money...
I have to find a decent PSU at least 750W or higher in order to narrow down the usual suspects...

You can test without the GPU and be fine with a sub 600 W PSU. And ideally, you should. You're going to have to remove things by process of elimination.

 

[cemster]

After a BIOS update that was just recently released, things got worse!

After the new BIOS, the post is stack on 'D4', and the 'White' GPU error, is now accompanied by a 'Blue' RAM error light...

 

[cemster]

It was bent CPU Pins...

Not my doing. I had another bent Fan pin as well, which I noticed as I unboxed the MOBO... Anyways so that's the end of the story...