Asus Prime Z390-A False Start With Updated BIOS

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JasenSensation

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Mar 20, 2014
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Hey guys,

I recently built a new PC with an Asus Prime Z390-a and I have been getting a false start but only with certain BIOS versions and only after I unplug my system. The false start will not happen if I leave the system plugged in after a shutdown. I have tried changing power supplies, booting bare minimum (CPU, RAM, PSU) and there is nothing I can do to fix it other than revert to an old BIOS. There have been 4 BIOS versions in total for this board, 0224(first), 0402(release), 0506 and 0602(latest). The false start only occurs when either BIOS 0506 or 0602 are installed. Asus support hasn't been helpful, and it's been 48 hours since their last response. So I figured I'd come here to get some input from you guys to see if I should just RMA right away, or if this is a BIOS fault then I'd stick to an old one for now and wait until they release a newer one.

My system specs are:
Asus Z390-a
Intel i7 8700k
G.Skill TridentZ 4*8GB 3200MHz
EVGA Supernova G3 850w
EVGA GTX 1080 ti SC2 Elite
Samsung EVO 970 250GB m.2
Samsung EVO 860 1TB m.2
Phanteks Enthoo Pro M SE
 
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After more research I figured out it's called a "double boot"? Where it turns on for a second, then off for a few seconds, then back on and proceeds to post normal.
I have gotten multiple responses back from Asus, each from a different person, and nobody can give me a clear answer whether this is supposed to happen or not.
A few representatives have told me to RMA it. So that's what I did. But isn't it true that if Newegg finds nothing wrong with it they will charge me extra money or something?
At this point I'm thinking it's a new feature they added to the latest bios versions, and my RMA will have been for nothing. But any input from you guys is greatly appreciated.
 
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I've had a similar experience with my z390 gaming-e, my computer would turn on then shut down straight away three times before fully booting into bios, only done it after unplugging the cable, i found the newer bios version to be the problem, must be something wrong with the new bios if you are having similar issues too
 
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Hey thanks for your input. After all my troubleshooting and support calls with Asus, they finally told me that this was not supposed to happen and that I should RMA the board. I discovered it used to be a thing that's called a "double boot" and they said they do not have any sort of feature like that on any of their current motherboards. But we'll see what happens after I get my new board. The support team seemed clueless the entire time. Hopefully it was faulty and my RMA wasn't for nothing.
 
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Welp.... Received my new board and it does the exact same thing. The only thing I can think of is that it's supposed to happen and Asus support doesn't know how to confirm anything with their engineers. They kept saying they'd pass the information along to them. But I still can't get a solid response from any of them. It's super frustrating because I just waited over a week for the replacement when all this time it wasn't going to change a thing.
ANYBODY.... If anyone else has any input I would greatly appreciate it. For now I'm just going to use the board since it works just fine. But I would like to know why this double boot, false start, power cycle or whatever it's called even happens only on the updated BIOS.

Here is a video of me demonstrating what happens and even installing a different BIOS to show that it doesn't happen with an older version. It's a video I sent to Asus support.
https://youtu.be/F17naq68OU8
 
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Thank you very much for this post.

I also built one PC with Asus Prime Z390-A motherboard and Intel i9-9900K CPU on 12/21/18. Until today, the 30th, I have been racking my head to figure out the problem of shutting down after 1 sec and then rebooting again after few seconds as normal. I reassembled all the parts few times within the nine days to verify one by one. This MB came with 0506 BIOS and I left it as it is.

Finally, I came to a conclusion that my Enermax MaxTytan 850W PSU is failing because the 12V rail reading is only 11.88V according to HWM64. I know that it is within the 5% tolerance, but I didn't have anything else to catch on. Also, there was no beeping at all at any combination of parts. To test it, I booted up with only CPU and cooler. There were no beeps at all; there should be long beeps when nothing is connected. Usually, that indicates, a problem in the order, PSU, MB, or mixed overclocking. I don't have any overcooking, so I concluded that PSU is the culprit. Today is Sunday, so I was planning to RMA this PSU tomorrow.

Are you getting any beeps when you turn on the PC?

As I was reading through and searching the web about z390 BIOS, I saw your post and I was so relieved. Now, I know that it is not the problem with my PSU, but something to do with the BIOS.

Please update us what you hear from ASUS

 
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I haven't gotten any sort of error beeps at all. It seems to be functioning completely normal other than the double boot.

I have been in contact with Asus support for the past couple months trying to fix this issue since they said it's not supposed to happen. I already sent them my board a couple weeks ago and they created a new custom BIOS to supposedly fix the problem. But when I received it back the issue was still happening. So then they asked if I could send my RAM in with the board again. Since they didn't have my exact model of the G.Skill TridentZ RGB memory: F4-3200C16Q-32GTZR.

They should have received those by now so I'm hoping it shouldn't take longer than a week to fix it or conclude that the board is faulty and send me a different one. Although that's highly unlikely it's faulty since I already RMA'd my first board through Newegg and the replacement did the same thing.

If you are having the same issue as me, I doubt your PSU is faulty. So you should contact Asus Support, specifically Wendy Huynh.

wendy_huynh@asus.com

Found her email listed under the CEO contact list because normal Asus support was no help at all. But she has been very helpful so far. So if you haven't been able to find a fix, definitely email her and explain the situation and hopefully they can see that this issue is happening to more than just me and then maybe they'll be able to fix it for us.

I'll keep this thread updated when I hear back from them.
 
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Thank you. I will contact Wendy and make my case to her, so that they would know that it is not an isolated case.

In the mean time, I wonder if you have/had any problem with Device Manager errors. In my system there are two items with yellow marks; namely, PCI Device and SM Bus Controller.

I downloaded all the available drivers from the Asus website for this MB and installed except the BIOS 0602. And then I checked with the Windows 10 Update but didn’t get any through that channel. Then I went to the property of those two entries and clicked on “update driver”, but didn’t get any driver for it.

I don’t know how to get drivers for those two entries. Any idea?

Another problem I have is with the RAM. I am using brand new Corsair DDR4 2666MHz, 2x16GB, but the BIOS registered it as only 2133MHz. I played with the XMP in the BIOS, but that is not helping to register it correctly or I don’t know how to do it correctly.

I saw that in your Youtube post, the RAM registered as 2133MHz. Is it actually 2133MHz or something else in your system?
 
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I have not had any issues with device manager errors. There was a while that the windows defender security center had the yellow icon, but a fresh install fixed it.
That's strange you are having those issues, but they shouldn't be related to the same motherboard problem. Try installing all the motherboard drivers in order as they appear on the CD. And make sure to restart between every one even if it doesn't ask you to. Windows 10 feature updates have been known to mess up other device drivers, so make sure the latest version of windows 10 is what you have downloaded before you do a fresh install.

Then as far as the ram speed goes, when XMP is enabled in the bios it doesn't actually show the correct speeds for some reason. It will only show proper timings. You have to use cpu-z to verify that the speeds are where they should be. But in my YouTube video I may have not even had XMP enabled because I was trying to fix the other thing. 2133MHz is the default ddr4 speed for most motherboards. But as long as XMP is enabled, it should actually be running at 2666 for you whether it shows it or not in the bios.

I hope these help. Let me know if you have any other questions and also keep me updated if Asus tells you anything about the double boot thing.
 
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I got a reply from Wendy and they are working on a new BIOS.

Here is a quote"
" I've forwarded your concerns to our technical team and they have advised the following:

I suggest the customer to make sure the RAM is set to default (not XMP) and see if it works.

If it still does not work, test with single memory on A2 Test the memory with Windows Memory Diagnostic. If the Windows memory Diagnostic does not pass, we would suggest to replace the memory. Otherwise, if it does pass, we are currently working on a new BIOS to resolve the issue.

I will continue to monitor the progress of the new BIOS and update you once it becomes available and/or a release date. In the meantime,.."

Now, I have to figure out how to find those drivers for " PCI Device and SM Bus Controller " I didn't use the DVD that came with it. I downloaded everything from the Asus website.


 
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That's great. I still haven't heard anything back from them, but at least they have more info to use to troubleshoot and make a new BIOS.

I didn't mean to use the disc to install the drivers, I just meant it as a guideline for the order of each driver that needs to be installed.
For instance I always install the Intel chipset driver and IME drivers first. Then IRST. Then LAN and audio drivers. Then GPU and other hardware drivers not on included on the motherboard.

Google says the pci device is a generic label for something you have plugged into a pci/pci-e slot. So maybe check if you have the right driver for whatever is plugged in like your graphics card or something?

And the SM bus controller is a system management chipset controller. My best guess is the Intel MEI or Intel Management Engine Interface. Which is listed under chipset drivers on the website. Maybe you missed that or it just didn't get installed properly?
 
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Wendy asked me to send the serial number of this motherboard and I sent that one this morning.

As for the PCI and SM bus controller, I solved it. When you said about the CD came with the MB, I put it into the drive and looked through the files in it. I saw the basic Intel Chipset driver that I have been searching for is in that list. So, I installed only that one, all those errors got cleared. So, the lack of that chipset driver was the problem. Usually, I never use the CDs comes with a motherboard because most of the time those drivers are old, so I never bother with it but download directly from the manufacturer’s website.

I have been searching for the Z390 chipset driver on Intel website, but I couldn't find it. On Asus website drivers downloads, they listed MEI as chipset driver that got me confused. In fact, Asus website doesn't have the Intel Chipset driver. I wonder why they didn’t put it there.

I should have installed the Chipset driver right after installing the OS before any other software installation, but I couldn’t find it at that time.

Do you know where we can download Chipset Driver from the Intel website?
 
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Hey that's great. Glad you found what the missing drivers were.

It looks like on the downloads page under "Chipset" there are three files. The first two are MEI drivers with the latest being version 1828.12.0.1152. Even though they are labeled slightly different for some reason...
But the 3rd on the list is the Intel Chipset driver Version 10.1.17695.8086. That should be the one you're missing. They've just only made one driver for that so far.
 
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]

Thank you very much. I didn’t expand it because usually older versions of the same driver is listed. Now I see the Intel chipset driver in it

Now we have to wait for the new BIOS to test it.

Thank you for all the help.

 
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Hi all,

I just registered to let you guys know that you're not alone. I also have a Prime z390-a mobo. And although I know quit a lot of how pc's work, I just spend a whole week trying everything I could to get sleep-mode working correctly. PC does go to sleep, but does not wake up. But to no avail. I tried all kinds of stuff in bios and windows. with oc, without oc and even underclocking stuff. But I must admit, I only tried BIOS 0602.
Only thing I will try is messing more with the XMP settings, cus I heard this is not always well implemented yet.
Personnally I find the voltages on the mobo ( with AI tweaker or just on auto) are too high in general.
But somehow, I have a feeling that the voltages are sometime too low during booting.
Especially for the RAM. I have DDR4 3200.
I do not have the double boot problems but am following up this thread with much interest.

Just a personal opinion. I don't think its wise to unplug your pc all the time. Don't know why you do it, but I just dont think PC's/PSU's are made for it.
 
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Why did you say that? Are you assuming or do you have any technical knowledge in electronics?

You said you have no problem with double booting with BIOS 0602. I wonder what is the version of your motherboard.
 
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This is also happening to me. sometimes it goes through the on off process a couple times. i'm having a UPS delivered to get rid of my GPU coil whine and i'm hoping it will stop my PC from ever going dead power and making this dual boot thing happen. hopefully they release a bios update that fixes it soon
 
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Hi.

I have the same problem. I don't care so much that it does the double boot thing when disconnecting the power cord, since I leave it plugged in most of the time. My problem is that in order to turn off the Aura lights on the motherboard and disable booting the computer when I touch a button on my PS2 keyboard I have to enable Erp S4+S5 power settings. When I do that the computer goes into some power save mode when turning it off and I get the double boot even if I don't unplug the power cord.

Reading the S.M.A.R.T info on my HDD, I can also see that I get a unsafe shutdown every time this happens.
 
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I am also having this same occurance, and what I’ve noticed is that my led power light in my case, attached to the positive and negative led power pin out on the motherboard, only turns on during the first of the double boots, and stays off entirely on the second boot. Has anyone else noticed that with their set up?
 
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Sorry for downvoting your post and the forum won't allow me to change it. I didn't get a reply link on my phone and was trying different things. Had to use my computer to reply.

Anyway, have you checked your Aura settings in bios? If set to stealth, the power led stays off.

 
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Stealth turns off the Aura Lights, power led and hdd led. Setting aura to off is supposed to only turn off Aura lights. And these settings only apply to when the computer is on if I remember correctly. To turn off aura lights when the computer is off I had to choose power setting Erp S4+S5

 
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Hey people, I just created an account to say I have the same issue with the ROG STRIX Z390-E Gaming, I didn't think it's a problem until I stumbled upon this thread. I usually leave my PC plugged in and I don't turn off the PSU.
I have the "G.Skill Trident Z RGB 16GB Kit DDR4 3200MHz RAM F4-3200C16D-16GTZR". Can someone confirm they have the same issue with other ram models?
I tried with XMB on and off, I'll try using a single RAM in A2 and see how that goes.. :/
There's also a bios in beta, v0802, might give that a try.
 
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I have 2 corsair vengeance lpx 8gb 3200mhz

 
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