Fan spins, won't boot, corrupt BIOS

[Mighty]

I bought a replacement GA-Z87X-UD5H at the end of Nov. Been running well since then. Albeit, occasionally I'd walk in the room in the morning and the machine will have rebooted overnight. Maybe every three to five days for the last month. I run SETI@Home 24/7, so it's being pushed pretty hard. I keep Core Temp up, so I know it's not overheating, but it is up around 70% most of the time. Games have been running fine.

Tonight, the screen went black. It tried to reboot itself, but was doing the thing where the fan spins for a second, but won't boot. Most of the time it didn't even make it far enough to display debug codes.

I tried reseating the RAM, the GPU and all power plugs at both ends. I haven't taken the cooler off and reseated the CPU, yet. I did blow out some dust from the cooler. I routinely clean the radiator every month or two, so it wasn't even close to blocked off.

I wondered if it might be heat from the number crunching, so force-powered down and I went and did something else for over an hour. When I came back, pretty much the same behavior. So, while surfing around looking for ideas, and staring to type this up, I let it continue to try booting. After 20 or so attempts, I got a "Corrupt BIOS, restoring" message. Then it booted another 20-30 time, at least. And now it just came back up.

So, I'm back up and running, now. But, does anyone have any ideas to try for when this happens next?

GA-Z87X-UD5H updated to F9 BIOS Nov '15
4790K CPU also purchased Nov '15
Corsair H60 cooler Nov '15
2 x 8 GB DDR3-1866 ADATA XPG V2 Jan '14
GTX 780 3GB Jan '14
Thermaltake SP-850M 80 PLUS Bronze Jan '14

Thanks,
Drake Christensen

 

[MeanMachine41]

That Qcode b2 error is a bummer. It usually indicates something with the GPU and your Bios, Maybe the console or cabling. Not much help I know.

At least your making progress.

 

[Mighty]

Frustratingly, that CPU lasted less than a year. I started having boot issues a month or two ago. Last week, it gave up completely. Same symptoms, the fans just spin for a few seconds. The Intel website says that I'm warrantied until 2019, so I've already started the process to replace it. I assume they'll get back to me after the holiday weekend.

 

[Mighty]

They did honor the warranty. But, still having issues. I've decided to punt and update the motherboard, memory, CPU and graphics card. Essentially, a new computer.

 

[MeanMachine41]

Hello again Mighty

Sorry to hear you were still having issues and the problem could not be identified.
Would be interested to know what you have chosen for your new system.

 

[Mighty]

That old system kept going for almost a year since I started this thread. I was hoping for another year or more. But, that's not how it worked out.

I started to build a new machine at the boutique site I use, ibuypower. As I was clicking options, I realized that I already had a lot of them in this machine. I went to NewEgg and priced just the core parts:

ASUS ROG Maximus IX Hero Z270
Intel Core i7-7700K Kaby Lake Quad-Core
32GB of RAM
GIGABYTE AORUS GeForce GTX 1080 Ti GPU

It came in at about half of the complete system.

Unfortunately, after putting it together, the first time i powered it up I heard a pop, saw a flash, and then some smoke. But, I don't see any scorch marks on the board. I started a new thread asking for advice on that.

 

[MeanMachine41]

What's the title of your new thread as I can't find it.?

 

[Mighty]

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3448863/motherboard-flash-heard-pop-smoke.html#19852789

 

[MeanMachine41]

Well yes generally, I doubt the system would boot to Windows like you said and function properly at all if a major component blew. You may indeed be lucky. If you get up and running OK you will know soon enough when the system is under load. I too thought it could be PSU related however test your system whilst still in bench mode to save the hassle of pulling it down again. Good Luck.