ASRock 970 Extreme4 won't boot

[majmetro]

My existing system which has been running flawlessly for over a year.

ASRock 970 Extreme4 MOBO
AMD FX-8320 3.5G 8M R CPU w/
Corsair Hydro Series H90 Liquid CPU Cooler
Corsair "Vengence" 2x8G 1866 MHz MEM
Corsair CX600M (600W) PSU
ASUS GT640-DCSL-2GD3 (fanless) GPU

About three weeks ago, I swapped out my two monitors for a new LG 34" Ultrawide 34UM65-P. Today I turned it on and system freezes at the ASRock POST screen, in other words, it won't respond.

I have accomplished all the "Perform these steps before posting about POST.."

I've played around with memory cards, swapping them, using one only, swapping slots (1 only).

Cleared CMOS cache several times. Pulled battery, checked it's voltage and re-installed.

Dr. Debug shows code "99". I removed my GPU card (only PCI-E card installed) and rebooted, still get code 99 (without card installed).

Surfed the web and now I'm looking for advice from the experts as to how I should go about testing components from here on out.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Has to be a bad card or PCIE slot.

 

[majmetro]

I failed to mention, I did swap the GPU to a different slot on the motherboard. No luck.

I'm kinda leaning towards a bad card, but since I'm a little confused since I get the ASRock screen shot. So something is driving the video. There are no graphics on the motherboard (HDMI, DVI or VGA).

I'm surprised that I would still get a Dr Debug code 99 when I removed the GPU (only PCI-E board). I would have thought it would have booted if the GPU card was creating the problem.

So what to do, try another graphics card? If that doesn't work, figure it might be the motherboard?

 

[damric]

Even though you will get no display, try removing the graphics card and then powering up and check and see what's going on as far as error codes/beeps. I'm betting your PSU is shot.

 

[Wisecracker]

Wild swing at it ...

* For cooling the CPU and its surrounding components, please install a CPU cooler with a top-down blowing design

On the ASRock CPU Support Page for your motherboard, your processor has the * beside it.

I'm going with the sheer coincidence of board failure given the 'PCIe' debug 99 error -- FETs got hot, fried some traces and dinked the mobo.

(I hope I'm wrong, but it does provide for a 'maintenance' replacement with a Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P)

 

[majmetro]

When I pulled the card I still get "99".

 

[damric]

Pull the mobo out of the case and test it on a piece of cardboard. You might be shorting out somewhere.

 

[majmetro]

Wild swing at it ...

* For cooling the CPU and its surrounding components, please install a CPU cooler with a top-down blowing design

On the ASRock CPU Support Page for your motherboard, your processor has the * beside it.

I'm going with the sheer coincidence of board failure given the 'PCIe' debug 99 error -- FETs got hot, fried some traces and dinked the mobo.

(I hope I'm wrong, but it does provide for a 'maintenance' replacement with a Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P)

I was hoping the Corsair H90 water cooler would hold it in check. I've a couple of case fans running also in a very spacious Fractal Define R4.

But.. certainly a possible issue.

 

[majmetro]

Looks like I'll have to disassemble and test it on some cardboard.. tomorrow.

Thanks for now.

 

[damric]

It's a slight chance at least. It does look bad like you will RMAing that mobo.

 

[majmetro]

Bought this mobo from NewEgg Nov 2013, installed in Dec '13.. I think I'm out of luck on this one.

May have asked a little too much from this board with the FX-8320. Going to step up to a 990 chipset mobo and see what happens.

Will post my results when I get this straightened out.

 

[Wisecracker]

I don't mean to get up into your bidness, but the reason I suggested the Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P is the 8+2 CPU power phase and FET sink.

If you are running a Windows OEM OS, the EULA provides an absolute right for a maintenance replacement of your motherboard, providing you do not abuse the right by a 'slide-ways' upgrade to a higher level chipset.

 

[majmetro]

It's been a while, but I thought I'd better post the results of my boot troubles.

I passed on trying to troubleshoot my mobo by isolating it from the case and attempting to boot. (Is this what they refer to "breadboarding"?) Anyway since my system has been running without issue for the past 13 months, I just didn't feel the board had a short.

Long story short.. I've a long haired cat and my fan screens were plugged.. my bad. Bought a new Asus Sabertooth 990FX (plus added one more SSD) and problem solved. Reloaded OS and everything is working quite nicely.

I believe I was to blame for the failure of my ASRock 970 Extreme4 mobo with the AMD FX-8320. I let my fan's intake become restricted and it couldn't take the heat.

Thanks to all who contributed their help.