Question ASUS z87-PRO Code '00' on soft reset... Tried everything, open to any comments/suggestions

[tommoose13]

Hello Tom's Hardware Forums! It's been a while since I've been really stumped, and I'm hoping someone can reasonably confirm my suspicions, or provide me with some glimmer of hope on this one.

This is a bit of a winded story that encompasses pretty much all of last year, if you're just interested in the current issue I'm having and not how I arrived there, please proceed to "TLDR;"


So, I tried to build a pentium anniversary edition build for the purpose of running the dolphin emulator. Build parts list included:
-ASUS Q87M-E
-Pentium G3258
-Nvidia GTX 750ti
-An assortment of RAM I had laying around (HyperX 4GB 1600MHz, Crucial Ballistix 4GB 1600MHz, 2x HyperX 4GB 1333MHz; Total of 16GB)
-SSD/HDD that I had laying around
-A particularly whiny off-brand 550W "gaming" modular PSU I had laying around (caps whined noticeably when shut down but power switch on the back still flipped on)

Assembled the CPU/MOBO/RAM to do a post test, and we get fans spinning but no post. Swapped every RAM stick in sequence, reseated the CPU, unplugged everything but the power button, etc. no-go.

Brought the system to a local computer store that happened to have a spare H81 board/i5 processor that was known working, and after testing my components they couldn't get their known working system to boot back up. (They did not use my PSU for their tests)

Thinking I've either got a dead motherboard or chip (and wondering if my "dead mobo" may have killed another processor), I decide to pick up another CPU as they're so cheap. New chip arrives, I still can't get it to boot.

RMA the original chip/board I purchased.

Still wanting to get a system built for my original intent, I got a CPU/Mobo combo from someone locally, rather than an ebay purchase. I'm now working with:
-ASUS z87-PRO
-i5-4670/Pentium G3258
-Other components listed above

This board seemed to work with the rest of my components just fine with the included i5, but when I put the Pentium into the socket, I run into an issue. Booting up I would sometimes run into a '00' on the motherboard's on-board diagnostics, with the CPU error LED on the board lit up. The manual says this code is unused, and most forum searches I've done indicate we've got a bent pin in the socket, or a power supply issue. I have been over this socket with a police-grade flashlight and a magnifying glass several times and cannot find a single bent pin on the socket.
I managed to get my hands on an i5-4690K, in the interest of overclocking, and this chip will cold boot just fine, but any soft reset results in the '00' code. Knowing this may be a power supply related issue, and not having very much confidence in a PSU that whines noticeably when the machine is powered-down until unplugged, I opted to replace the PSU with a brand-new Corsair VS550. Once plugged in it cold booted fine, and the reset switch still gives me '00'.

I've tried removing/swapping RAM, reseating the CPU several times, toggling the motherboard's EPU dip switch, reverting to an older BIOS, nothing seems to impact the <soft-reset=='00'> symptom. I am really struggling to find the cause of this issue. Is it possible the whiny old PSU fried the VRMs on the Q87, and possibly the pentium processor with it, and then afterwards damaged the z87 bad enough to cause this issue?

This was fine for a while, I would always just shut down the machine when done using it, but the purpose of this machine is changing from purely a wii emulator to that of a hackintosh, and I'm running into a required soft-reboot as part of the installation process that is preventing me from completing the OS installation.



TLDR;


i5-4690k on ASUS z87-PRO cold boots and stress tests fine, any soft reset (via reset button on case, software restart, etc.) results in '00' (CPU not detected code) and I need to be able to soft-reboot to complete installation of desired OS. I am wondering if this could be a symptom of damaged VRMs on the board, and/or if there's any power settings in BIOS I can try to toggle to try and relieve this symptom.

Any suggestions welcome at this point. Really don't want to have to buy another motherboard, but starting to wonder if that's where I'm at.

 

[Darkbreeze]

What is the exact model of the power supply you are using?

If it is not compliant with the low power state of the Intel Haswell (Or newer) specification, there are a variety of problems that can occur including a failure to resume from the low power state. 100% of older group regulated power supplies are not Haswell compliant.

I'd start there. I'd also make CERTAIN that you have disabled hibernation by doing the following.

To Disable Hibernation:

1. The first step is to run the command prompt as administrator. In Windows 10, right click on the start menu and click "Command Prompt (Admin)".
2. Type in "powercfg.exe /h off" without the quotes and press enter.
3. Exit the command prompt.
4. Hibernation is now disabled.

Now shut down the system and then power on. Once in the desktop restart to verify whether there is still an issue. If there is, a newer compliant PSU would be my next recommendation, and is probably a good idea ANYHOW since it's arguably a more important component than ANYTHING else in the build. Consider, if the PSU isn't delivering consistently clean power in ample quantity, and can sustain it under load, and can comply with all standards including low power states, power ok signal and have accurately configured protections, then it hardly matters how good the rest of your hardware is.

CPU, memory, motherboard, graphics card, drives, these ALL can only work as well as the power supply that is running them. If it's weak or bad, then they are weak or bad. Or just won't work at all.

 

[tommoose13]

What is the exact model of the power supply you are using?

If it is not compliant with the low power state of the Intel Haswell (Or newer) specification, there are a variety of problems that can occur including a failure to resume from the low power state. 100% of older group regulated power supplies are not Haswell compliant.

I'd start there. I'd also make CERTAIN that you have disabled hibernation by doing the following.

To Disable Hibernation:

1. The first step is to run the command prompt as administrator. In Windows 10, right click on the start menu and click "Command Prompt (Admin)".
2. Type in "powercfg.exe /h off" without the quotes and press enter.
3. Exit the command prompt.
4. Hibernation is now disabled.

Now shut down the system and then power on. Once in the desktop restart to verify whether there is still an issue. If there is, a newer compliant PSU would be my next recommendation, and is probably a good idea ANYHOW since it's arguably a more important component than ANYTHING else in the build. Consider, if the PSU isn't delivering consistently clean power in ample quantity, and can sustain it under load, and can comply with all standards including low power states, power ok signal and have accurately configured protections, then it hardly matters how good the rest of your hardware is.

CPU, memory, motherboard, graphics card, drives, these ALL can only work as well as the power supply that is running them. If it's weak or bad, then they are weak or bad. Or just won't work at all.

Thanks for the reply. Currently I'm using a Corsair VS550 as a PSU. This one is 80-Plus white rated; does that make it compliant with Haswell low-power states?

The hibernation advice would probably keep headaches at bay... if I were sticking with windows. Any advice for HackOS Catalina?

What really irks me now is I can get to '00' by booting into BIOS setup, then clicking the reset button on the case while in BIOS. Also anytime I make BIOS changes, it hangs at '00' and I have to hold power to shutdown and reboot cold to see my applied changes.

 

[Darkbreeze]

No, that is a group regulated design even if it is the newer gray label model and not the older model with orange lettering on the label.

Which do you have, gray label with black VS650 lettering or black label with Orange VS lettering, on the side of the unit and the box?

Often, code 00 is due to bent pins on the CPU or motherboard. Did you CLOSELY check the pins on the motherboard before installing the CPU, OR, was the CPU already installed in the motherboard and you didn't bother to remove it and check to see that it didn't have any bent pins before assembling the build?

 

[tommoose13]

No, that is a group regulated design even if it is the newer gray label model and not the older model with orange lettering on the label.

Which do you have, gray label with black VS650 lettering or black label with Orange VS lettering, on the side of the unit and the box?

Often, code 00 is due to bent pins on the CPU or motherboard. Did you CLOSELY check the pins on the motherboard before installing the CPU, OR, was the CPU already installed in the motherboard and you didn't bother to remove it and check to see that it didn't have any bent pins before assembling the build?

I've got the Grey/Black label on mine; purchased it from Amazon a few weeks ago to replace the whiny older one.

CPU did come installed on the z87 board when I acquired it, but I've swapped the CPU between the three different models I have on hand (G3258, 4670, and 4690k) and I've checked (as mentioned in the TL;DR) with a magnifying glass and excessive flashlight, and I cannot see any bent pins on this socket.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Ok, that's better, but it's STILL a group regulated design and is not Haswell or Intel low power state compatible, so that's a potential problem that might well be relevant. What you can DO to eliminate the issue if that IS the option, is go into the BIOS and disable both the C6 and C7 low power states, save settings, exit BIOS, check to see if the problem remains.

 

[tommoose13]

Thanks for the suggestion @Darkbreeze. I found my motherboard BIOS only had an option for "all C states" - disabled and still getting '00' upon pressing reset.

I fiddled with some other power settings, EIST, Turbo mode, undervolted/overvolted by 0.1v just to see what would happen (It did NOT like being overvolted, refused to boot then 3rd attempt said "Overclocking failed")

What do you think is more likely? VRM damage, or power supply compatibility problem?

The only good news I have is I forgot I ordered a cheap motherboard on ebay to make use of one of the spare CPUs I have, and it should be arriving in the next week or so. I may just repurpose the new board for the hackintosh and keep this board for windows gaming, instead of upgrading my NAS like I had originally intended

 

[Darkbreeze]

Are you sure? I'd check to see if your BIOS has an option for a basic AND an advanced view. If you have an EZ view, then options are a lot more limited, however, you are right that if you disabled all C states and you still have the issue, then it's due to something else.

Is your BIOS FULLY up to date? If not, that would be my next step. Based on your symptoms it might be worth looking into the availability from the manufacturer of a replacement BIOS ROM if the one on your board is changeable. Or, replacing the CMOS battery, which I'd try first.

 

[Mr.Spock]

2 things the G3258 is a Haswell refresh chip and actually needs a higher bios revision than the 4670 - so that may be your issue there, also your PSU may not support the C6/C7 states in either CPU - you can disable those in bios (might need C1 as well) and that could fix things.

Hello Tom's Hardware Forums! It's been a while since I've been really stumped, and I'm hoping someone can reasonably confirm my suspicions, or provide me with some glimmer of hope on this one.

This is a bit of a winded story that encompasses pretty much all of last year, if you're just interested in the current issue I'm having and not how I arrived there, please proceed to "TLDR;"


So, I tried to build a pentium anniversary edition build for the purpose of running the dolphin emulator. Build parts list included:
-ASUS Q87M-E
-Pentium G3258
-Nvidia GTX 750ti
-An assortment of RAM I had laying around (HyperX 4GB 1600MHz, Crucial Ballistix 4GB 1600MHz, 2x HyperX 4GB 1333MHz; Total of 16GB)
-SSD/HDD that I had laying around
-A particularly whiny off-brand 550W "gaming" modular PSU I had laying around (caps whined noticeably when shut down but power switch on the back still flipped on)

Assembled the CPU/MOBO/RAM to do a post test, and we get fans spinning but no post. Swapped every RAM stick in sequence, reseated the CPU, unplugged everything but the power button, etc. no-go.

Brought the system to a local computer store that happened to have a spare H81 board/i5 processor that was known working, and after testing my components they couldn't get their known working system to boot back up. (They did not use my PSU for their tests)

Thinking I've either got a dead motherboard or chip (and wondering if my "dead mobo" may have killed another processor), I decide to pick up another CPU as they're so cheap. New chip arrives, I still can't get it to boot.

RMA the original chip/board I purchased.

Still wanting to get a system built for my original intent, I got a CPU/Mobo combo from someone locally, rather than an ebay purchase. I'm now working with:
-ASUS z87-PRO
-i5-4670/Pentium G3258
-Other components listed above

This board seemed to work with the rest of my components just fine with the included i5, but when I put the Pentium into the socket, I run into an issue. Booting up I would sometimes run into a '00' on the motherboard's on-board diagnostics, with the CPU error LED on the board lit up. The manual says this code is unused, and most forum searches I've done indicate we've got a bent pin in the socket, or a power supply issue. I have been over this socket with a police-grade flashlight and a magnifying glass several times and cannot find a single bent pin on the socket.
I managed to get my hands on an i5-4690K, in the interest of overclocking, and this chip will cold boot just fine, but any soft reset results in the '00' code. Knowing this may be a power supply related issue, and not having very much confidence in a PSU that whines noticeably when the machine is powered-down until unplugged, I opted to replace the PSU with a brand-new Corsair VS550. Once plugged in it cold booted fine, and the reset switch still gives me '00'.

I've tried removing/swapping RAM, reseating the CPU several times, toggling the motherboard's EPU dip switch, reverting to an older BIOS, nothing seems to impact the <soft-reset=='00'> symptom. I am really struggling to find the cause of this issue. Is it possible the whiny old PSU fried the VRMs on the Q87, and possibly the pentium processor with it, and then afterwards damaged the z87 bad enough to cause this issue?

This was fine for a while, I would always just shut down the machine when done using it, but the purpose of this machine is changing from purely a wii emulator to that of a hackintosh, and I'm running into a required soft-reboot as part of the installation process that is preventing me from completing the OS installation.



TLDR;


i5-4690k on ASUS z87-PRO cold boots and stress tests fine, any soft reset (via reset button on case, software restart, etc.) results in '00' (CPU not detected code) and I need to be able to soft-reboot to complete installation of desired OS. I am wondering if this could be a symptom of damaged VRMs on the board, and/or if there's any power settings in BIOS I can try to toggle to try and relieve this symptom.

Any suggestions welcome at this point. Really don't want to have to buy another motherboard, but starting to wonder if that's where I'm at.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Yes, being on a new enough BIOS version to support that CPU would be a prerequisite.

 

[tommoose13]

So, EZ mode on this board's BIOS only gives me three ASUS performance profiles and boot override options, to modify any specific setting advanced mode must be used.
I did have the board on the most recent BIOS, I then flashed back 1 revision to no change in the '00' error.
I swapped the CMOS battery out for a fresh one, no change.

@Mr.Spock that may explain some behaviour i observed earlier in this project.. I've swapped out so many things I'm not 100% sure what happened in what order at this point.


I have ordered a gigabyte H81 board to add to this project... Hopefully I can install MacOS on that board, and maybe then switch the boot drive to this board? We will see what happens there!

 

[Darkbreeze]

Yes, advanced mode was what we were after. If you WERE using advanced mode and the options weren't there, then it is what it is.

Have you TRIED a hard reset after installing the newer CPU? If not, I would do so. Don't assume that a standard reset is good enough. Often, using just the jumper pins is not enough.


BIOS Hard Reset procedure

Power off the unit, switch the PSU off and unplug the PSU cord from either the wall or the power supply.

Remove the motherboard CMOS battery for five minutes. In some cases it may be necessary to remove the graphics card to access the CMOS battery.

During that five minutes, press the power button on the case for 30 seconds. After the five minutes is up, reinstall the CMOS battery making sure to insert it with the correct side up just as it came out.

If you had to remove the graphics card you can now reinstall it, but remember to reconnect your power cables if there were any attached to it as well as your display cable.

Now, plug the power supply cable back in, switch the PSU back on and power up the system. It should display the POST screen and the options to enter CMOS/BIOS setup. Enter the bios setup program and reconfigure the boot settings for either the Windows boot manager or for legacy systems, the drive your OS is installed on if necessary.

Save settings and exit. If the system will POST and boot then you can move forward from there including going back into the bios and configuring any other custom settings you may need to configure such as Memory XMP profile settings, custom fan profile settings or other specific settings you may have previously had configured that were wiped out by resetting the CMOS.

In some cases it may be necessary when you go into the BIOS after a reset, to load the Optimal default or Default values and then save settings, to actually get the hardware tables to reset in the boot manager.

It is probably also worth mentioning that for anything that might require an attempt to DO a hard reset in the first place, it is a GOOD IDEA to try a different type of display as many systems will not work properly for some reason with displayport configurations. It is worth trying HDMI if you are having no display or lack of visual ability to enter the BIOS, or no signal messages.