[SOLVED] Did I Recieve a Bad Board?

[ExtremelySoupy]

Hello, I recently built a whole new system with the exception of a power supply and graphics card (using them from a previous build). I'm having an issue where when I try to boot from my disk drive to install Windows 10 my computer freezes on my splash screen. I have tried using a retail Windows 10 disk, Windows media creation tool on a flash drive, and a retail disc version of Windows 7. The same issue occurs for each of the attempts. I also tried installing an old SATA SSD but got no progress or answers. One last thing is that I wasn't able to flash or update my BIOS, when i tried the update progress would freeze at 99% and not progress any further leaving me with no choice but to restart the system. Is this the cause of a faulty board or something entirely different. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

-SYSTEM SPECS-
CPU - i7 9700k
GPU - R9 390
RAM - 16gb Trident Z 3200
MOTHERBOARD - ASUS Prime Z390-a
PSU - EVGA superNOVA NEX 750
NVMe - Inland Premium 512gb

I can provide photos and/or videos of the issues if needed

 

[Darkbreeze]

Were you upgrading simply to improve CPU performance or were you having issues on the old system, and that is why you built a new system?

Have you tried a hard reset of the BIOS?

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.

Afterwards, go back into the BIOS and select the option to load Optimal default or Default settings, then save settings and exit. Restart, back into BIOS. Set your boot device to your installation media and try again.

See if that helps at all.

Also, I would try a DIFFERENT flash drive if possible, and make sure to try it in a USB 2.0 (Black) port rather than a 3.0 port. Sometimes in pre-Windows environments, USB 3.0 can be flaky.

 

[ExtremelySoupy]

Were you upgrading simply to improve CPU performance or were you having issues on the old system, and that is why you built a new system?

I was upgrading to freshen the performance of my computer as I use it for gaming. There were no issues with my old build other than being outdated. In fact I'm using my old system to write this.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Do you happen to have a spare drive around in order to try installing to that, with the NVME drive removed from the system? I'm tempted to make an early guess that it could be a problem with that drive. Inland is not a premium hardware manufacturer really. It would not be too surprising to have a bad PCI drive.

I would try the BIOS reset first though, and make sure that any PCI boot settings are set to enabled in the BIOS as well.

This could be helpful as there are a few BIOS related steps in there that I included that might be relevant to settings.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[ExtremelySoupy]

Were you upgrading simply to improve CPU performance or were you having issues on the old system, and that is why you built a new system?

Have you tried a hard reset of the BIOS?

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.

Afterwards, go back into the BIOS and select the option to load Optimal default or Default settings, then save settings and exit. Restart, back into BIOS. Set your boot device to your installation media and try again.

See if that helps at all.

Also, I would try a DIFFERENT flash drive if possible, and make sure to try it in a USB 2.0 (Black) port rather than a 3.0 port. Sometimes in pre-Windows environments, USB 3.0 can be flaky.

I just tried this hard reset but I'm faced with the same issue. I am able to navigate the BIOS with no issues and all of my hardware is being read properly. I was able to enable my XMP profile for my RAM with no issues as well. One thing I want to note is that my NVMe is being shown in my storage information but not being found in my boot priority list and I am not sure if it should be. The only thing that appears in the boot priority list is the disk drive that has my copy of windows on it.

 

[ExtremelySoupy]

Do you happen to have a spare drive around in order to try installing to that, with the NVME drive removed from the system? I'm tempted to make an early guess that it could be a problem with that drive. Inland is not a premium hardware manufacturer really. It would not be too surprising to have a bad PCI drive.

I would try the BIOS reset first though, and make sure that any PCI boot settings are set to enabled in the BIOS as well.

This could be helpful as there are a few BIOS related steps in there that I included that might be relevant to settings.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

I removed my NVMe and tried a SATA SSD but no luck, same freeze

 

[Darkbreeze]

NVME drives often won't show up in the BIOS boot order. Sometimes they will, sometimes they won't.

Do you have any other storage devices connected or ONLY the drive you are trying to install TO and the drive you are trying to install FROM? Yes?

Is your 16GB of memory from 2 x8GB or 4 x4GB memory kit? Did ALL of the memory come TOGETHER, in ONE kit, or is it made up of multiple memory kits or modules?

WHICH slots are the memory currently installed in?

 

[ExtremelySoupy]

NVME drives often won't show up in the BIOS boot order. Sometimes they will, sometimes they won't.

Do you have any other storage devices connected or ONLY the drive you are trying to install TO and the drive you are trying to install FROM? Yes?

Is your 16GB of memory from 2 x8GB or 4 x4GB memory kit? Did ALL of the memory come TOGETHER, in ONE kit, or is it made up of multiple memory kits or modules?

WHICH slots are the memory currently installed in?

Yes I only have the one drive (the NVMe) and I am trying to install from the disk to the NVMe. As for my RAM they are 2 8gb modules, they are from the same kit and are brand new (bought about 2 weeks ago) They are installed in slots A2 and B2 which are the recommended slots as specified by the manual.

 

[Darkbreeze]

So, that is all on point. Good deal, as far as that part goes.

So, in regard to the BIOS not being able to be updated.

What method are you using to update? Live update?

Or are you manually downloading the BIOS file, unpacking it, copying the contents to a blank formatted flash drive (Fat32 file system) and then connecting that to one of your USB ports ON the back of the motherboard followed by going into the BIOS and running the BIOS update utilizy known as EZ flash 3?

[Motherboard/Desktop] ASUS EZ Flash 3 - Introduction | Official Support | ASUS USA

www.asus.com

 

[ExtremelySoupy]

So, that is all on point. Good deal, as far as that part goes.

So, in regard to the BIOS not being able to be updated.

What method are you using to update? Live update?

Or are you manually downloading the BIOS file, unpacking it, copying the contents to a blank formatted flash drive (Fat32 file system) and then connecting that to one of your USB ports ON the back of the motherboard followed by going into the BIOS and running the BIOS update utilizy known as EZ flash 3?

[Motherboard/Desktop] ASUS EZ Flash 3 - Introduction | Official Support | ASUS USA

www.asus.com

The method I tried using to update my BIOS was to download the newest version by installing it directly to the computer over the internet with an ethernet cable connected. I do not have an extra flash drive available to do the update that way, but I might pick one up tomorrow at the store.

 

[Darkbreeze]

That usually doesn't work. I've had very little success updating BIOSes like that.

Try it as I explained above.

 

[ExtremelySoupy]

That usually doesn't work. I've had very little success updating BIOSes like that.

Try it as I explained above.

Will do, I will report back tomorrow afternoon. Thanks for all of your help tonight.

 

[mamasan2000]

You should never cancel a BIOS update. It most often leads to a bricked motherboard. I would take it to a computer service place and ask them to reflash the BIOS.

 

[ExtremelySoupy]

You should never cancel a BIOS update. It most often leads to a bricked motherboard. I would take it to a computer service place and ask them to reflash the BIOS.

Yes I understood the risk of restarting after the freeze, thank you for your input and concern. The motherboard is working just as it was before the failed update. I am considering taking it to a service shop in the event that I am unable to make any progress and run out of option to do on my own