GA-Z270-GAMING K3 Boot Loop, 5 beeps without RAM, no beeps with RAM

Duecez

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I recently purchased a GA-Z270-GAMING K3 and have been experiencing some issues. I was able to install Windows perfectly fine, and the system ran well for about two weeks.

The first issue that I encountered was with the "Display driver stopped responding and has recovered" error. The system would freeze up and make a grating sound for 5-10 seconds, and then would go back to normal within 30 seconds or so. I updated my GPU driver, but my PC BSOD'd during the update. Fortunately I was able to reboot and reapplied the update.

After this I started to have more BSODs. I ran startup repair to attempt to fix the issue.

Now my system will not POST. It will power on for about 30 seconds before shutting down and auto restarting. The motherboard will make no sound when the RAM is plugged in, but will produce 5 long beeps when there is no RAM installed.

I have tried pretty much everything that I can think of to troubleshoot the problem:


  • I have reseated the GPU
    I have reseated the CPU and reapplied thermal paste
    I have reseated the motherboard in the case
    I have tried my RAM in all of the DDR4 slots
    I have tried using a lower clock speed RAM (2133)
    I have tried to clear CMOS with the jumper and by removing the CMOS battery for several minutes
    I have tried using an identical CMOS battery from another GIGABYTE motherboard
    I have attempted to boot with only the CPU, heatsink fan, and RAM
    I have jump started the PSU on its own to confirm that it is able to run
    I have checked the CPU and CPU socket with a magnifying glass and did not see any bent pins or other damage
    And I have worn an anti static bracelet while troubleshooting and during installation

I think that the issue lies with the motherboard itself and that the CPU is not dead. I have been able to boot and get into BIOS a couple of times while troubleshooting the system, but have not been able to now. Most recently, I was able to get into BIOS once with only one stick of RAM, my CPU, and heatsink plugged in, but I have been unable to get into BIOS again with the identical configuration.

I'm at my wits end at this point. Is there anything else that I can try to fix the problem? Do I just need to RMA the board?

Build:
GA-Z270-GAMING K3 Rev 1.0
EVGA GeForce GTX 760 4GB
i7-7770K 4.2 Ghz
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
Corsair Dominator Platinum Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4 DRAM 3000MHz C15
OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W
Windows 7 64bit
 
Good troubleshooting!

But the PSU may be still faulty, despite using a paper clip (or whatever) to test it. Some faults do not appear until the PSU is actually loaded. Try the PSU in another computer and/or try another known working PSU. This will help determine if the original PSU or the motherboard is faulty.
 

Duecez

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Good idea! When I've tried to boot the case fans don't spin regularly and seem like they may not be getting enough power.

Also during my initial troubleshooting I was able to get my PC to boot by changing what was plugged into my PSU. The HD and disk drives always made distinctive noises when my PC crashed, so I removed the the PSU and SATA connections to my disk drive and changed which connector on the PSU cord plugged into my HD. Doing that allowed me to boot once, which does point towards the issue being with the PSU.

I don't have another fully assembled PC to test it on, but I can plug it into my old motherboard/CPU. I've just got to order some more thermal paste so that I can transfer my heatsink over to that system.
 

Duecez

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I just tried my PSU with my old motherboard and CPU. The system beeped once and was able to boot into BIOS. Is there anything I can do to see if the PSU is at fault?

What should I try next?

Could the new motherboard's BIOS be corrupted?
 
I was suspecting that the HDD might be faulty (also), but it is more likely to be the motherboard that is faulty (hardware issue).

If possible, try to get another known working PSU and try that instead. This will confirm whether the original OCZ PSU may be faulty (or not), although it seems from the brief test that the PSU may not be faulty. However, it wouldn't hurt to confirm that.

Regardless if trying another PSU or not, the motherboard is the most likely cause of the problem.
 

Duecez

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Unfortunately I don't have another PSU on hand. I will attempt to boot to windows off of the old motherboard just to confirm that the HDD is alright.

I submitted a ticket to GIGABYTE a few days ago and still haven't heard anything back.

Fortunately, I am still in the window to get a free replacement from Amazon. I just requested a replacement motherboard. I will post again after it arrives. Fingers crossed that it works!

 

Duecez

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Sorry for the delayed response, I had to return home for a month due to a family emergency. Hopefully you're around Brispuss!

I RMA'd the motherboard and got a replacement. I just tried the new mobo with everything attached and am having the exact same issue. Lights come on, no beeps, and then it restarts within 30 seconds.

What should I do now? Should I purchase a new PSU?

 
Ideally another known working PSU should be used to confirm whether the original PSU is faulty, or maybe the motherboard (even the new motherboard might be DOA) is/was faulty.

But get another PSU, and get a good quality one that should last for many years and should provide stable power.
 

Duecez

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Thanks for coming back! I purchased a new PSU and have made some progress, but am still having issues.

After installing the new PSU I was able to get into BIOS. The one issue that I had was that no SATA connections showed up. I swapped my SATA cable from SATA 3 to SATA Express and was able to connect to my HD. After I got my HD connected I was able to successfully boot to Windows. Unfortunately, I got a BSOD within 5 - 10 minutes.

After the BSOD the boot loop started again. I powered everything off and checked all of the connections inside, everything looked fine. When I attempted to boot it again I noticed that the VGA Indicator light was on. I swapped my GPU to another PCIE slot and cleared CMOS, this allowed me to get back into BIOS.

I have looked around in BIOS and noticed an abnormality that may or may not be relevant. BIOS is listing the wrong frequency for my RAM. My RAM is 3000MHz, but BIOS is indicating that the frequency is 2132 and 2133 MHz. Could this disparity be part of the problem?

Edit: Just from a bit of Googling, I found this thread. Maybe I need to enable the XMP profile?
 

Duecez

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Quick update, I enabled XMP and booted to Windows. Within 1 minute of being on the desktop I got a BSOD.

WuSXfh5.jpg



Edit: Another update, I ran the Windows Memory diagnostic tool with both sticks of RAM plugged in and got no errors. My PC rebooted to Windows after the test was complete and I got another BSOD with the MEMORY_MANAGEMENT error.
 
The system by default will run higher frequency memory at the non-overclocked frequency that is native to the system, in this case 2133 MHz.

If wanting to run the memory at higher frequencies, then "overclocking" will be required.

It is suggested that the system be confirmed as being stable first before attempting any overclocking. So disable any XMP, or clear CMOS (again).

All this aside, it seems there is still some problem with the system.

Remove the CPU and confirm that the new motherboard CPU socket has no damage, dirt etc. And make sure the CPU is mounted evenly.

There might be a problem with the operating system.

If possible run (under administrator rights) sfc /scannow, and also if possible chkdsk c: /r, where c: (or whatever the OS boot drive/partition is named). This will help determine if there is a problem with the boot drive and/or the installed operating system.
 

Duecez

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I just checked the CPU socket and everything looks fine, no bent pins or dirt.

I tried booting and it seems like I am stuck in the boot loop again. Unfortunately, shorting the CMOS isn't letting me get back into BIOS now.

I am starting to wonder if the CPU itself, or perhaps the CPU cooler, could be at fault. The CPU fan doesn't sound quite right, the fan speed sounds a bit irregular. I may be reading into it too much, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

During booting the VGA status LED on my mobo stays on. In the last 2-3 seconds before the system restarts, the VGA light goes off, and the CPU and DRAM lights alternatively flash.
 
It is possible that the CPU may be faulty. It is relatively rare for CPU's to fault, but it does happen.

Are you certain the CPU has been mounted evenly? Uneven CPU mounting causes intermittent and/or loss of contact with some pins, which in turn causes other system issues.

If possible, try the CPU in another computer, and/or try another compatible CPU. Borrow CPU and/or computer from neighbor, friend etc if necessary.
 

Duecez

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Unfortunately my other motherboard and CPU are LGA 1155 and not 1151, so I can't try them. I'll ask around to see if anyone I know has the 1151 socket.

I am fairly certain that the CPU is mounted evenly, but not 100% positive. I do think that my heatsink (212 Evo) might be a bit too loose, so perhaps that's part of the problem. It can wiggle around a bit even when the screws are fully tightened. Could the heatsink be making poor contact / applying insufficient pressure to the CPU?
 
It is possible that there might not be enough pressure exerted by the CPU heatsink so that CPU pin contact may not be good enough. However, usually it is uneven heatsink mounting which causes uneven pressure on the CPU which in turn may make CPU pin contact dicey.
 

Duecez

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I reseated the CPU, reapplied thermal paste, and reseated the heatsink and the heatsink mounting.

Here's a picture of the CPU in the socket, does it look alright?
vaXsGv2.jpg


I am still getting a boot loop.

This may or may not be helpful, but I recorded a video of the status LEDs during the boot loop. I let it cycle three times. The second and third crashes sounded a bit different from the first one.
Crashes are at 0:42, 1:16, and 1:47.

Does that help at all? It looks like the CPU light always flashes right when it crashes.
 

Duecez

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Quick update that may help us narrow down the possible culprit(s):

I wanted to access something on my desktop's HD, so I put my old motherboard (GIGABYTE GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3) with its i5 2500k and DDR3 RAM into my case. I also attached my current GPU, current heatsink, case fan, the new PSU, and my HD.

When I attempted to boot I surprisingly got a boot loop. I did not previously have this problem with the old configuration. I upgraded because my CPU was old and was constantly overheating (I literally had to have an external fan blowing into the case while playing graphic intensive games to avoid crashes).

To me this seems to indicate that my i7 CPU, the motherboard, and DDR4 RAM are probably not at fault. It suggests that the fault lies with the PSU, GPU, heatsink, case fans, or the HD. Do you think that this is correct, and that we can narrow it down to being one of those items?
 
Thanks for taking the time to record and upload a video of the booting LED status. But I haven't looked at it yet (I'm on a slow dial up connection, and most of the time when trying to watch videos on YouTube, I get error messages and videos do not play).

The CPU appears to be seated OK, but (contact) issues usually arise when the CPU heatsink has been mounted and causes uneven pressure on the CPU. So the CPU heatsink should be mounted evenly on the CPU. This is usually done by trying to maintain about the same heatsink screw pressure for each heatsink screw, and trying to verify the mounting is level (as far as can be seen) by "eyeballing" the mounting with respect to the motherboard.

The video card (GPU) is now a possible suspect.

Remove the video card, and boot using the old motherboard and by using the CPU's Integrated Video instead of the discrete video card. Also, could try the video card in another computer, and/or try another known working video card instead.
 

Duecez

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Oh no worries about the video then, it must be frustrating to be on dial up! Where abouts are you located?

I tried the old motherboard without a GPU and got the same result. (I attempted this with both the old and new PSU.)

I also tried another heatsink with the current motherboard. I attempted to boot with this heatsink and the GPU and got a boot loop. I tried running it without the GPU and still got the bootloop.

At this point I'm perplexed as to what the issue could be. It seems extremely odd that I would get the exact same boot loop pattern on a totally different system (old mobo, cpu, heatsink, RAM, and PSU).
 
Dial-up is a nuisance! Because it is so slow, I can't watch most videos, and I can't download files from some websites (particularly if there is a time limit on downloading files)!!

Broadband is available where I am, but I can't afford it.

OK. Make sure that there are no "spare" metal standoffs on the case that might be touching the motherboards' underside circuitry. Only standoffs that are used to screw the motherboard down should be used, and no more. Any standoffs not being used should be removed. Also make sure there are no wires nor any other metal objects touching the motherboards' circuitry.

Try another HDD maybe.
 

Duecez

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I just tried a few more things.

I just attempted to boot on cardboard to try to rule out any issues with mounting. It still won't boot.

I also tried booting with just the power switch plugged into the Front Panel Header in case there was an issue with some of the other wiring, but that didn't seem to have any effect either. :(

One good thing is that I am at least getting one beep when it boots now, for what that's worth. I was not getting any beeps with the other heatsink.


Edit: One other thing to note is that prior to the BSOD I was routinely able to get back into BIOS by clearing the CMOS Jumper on the new PSU. Ever since the BSOD happened though I have been unable to get back into BIOS, neither clearing the CMOS Jumper or removing the CMOS battery seem to have had any effect.

----------------------------------

Edit 2:

Okay I think I may have identified what's wrong. I've been trying different PSU wiring configurations to see if one of the cables was bad and have been running with just the CPU, heatsink, and 1 stick of DDR3 RAM. Everytime the system attempts to boot the VGA light stays on, despite no GPU being plugged in, and my motherboard being directly connected to the monitor.

I just checked the PCI slots and it looks like might be a bent pin in one of the slots. Could that cause the system to think that think that a GPU is connected, thus producing an error? This seems like a very plausible to me because the VGA error light remains on even when no GPU is plugged in.
 

Duecez

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Haha, it seems like it!

I'll go to the store soon to get some compressed air to clean it out.

One other thing that I noticed is that the shapes of the CPU ATX slot and the cord do not exactly match up.
GLKW3ap.jpg

3QSDVQV.jpg


Could that be an issue, causing the CPU to not get enough power?

(Sorry if the images are big on your connection. I uploaded them from my phone and can't easily compress them.)
 
As said before, anything seems possible now.

The ATX 12 V (CPU) socket shown in the photo appears to be the correct configuration. The connector(s) from the PSU appear to be wrong for the ATX 12 V socket as per your photo. Make sure that the correct connector is used from the PSU for connection to this socket. Note the shape of the socket holes (square, and square with angles) should correspond to the shapes from the PSU connector.

The socket and connector shapes should match up 100%. If they don't then the wrong PSU connector is being used. Don't force the connector into the socket, if there is any doubt.
 

Duecez

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Hm, maybe that's the root cause?

The PSU CPU cable is a bit odd. The end that plugs into the PSU has an identical configuration to the ATX slot, but the other end does not match up as you saw.

I think that trying to get a new ATX cord should be what I try next. I tried searching on Amazon and didn't see any that had the proper configuration and length. Is there a more specific term that I can use to search for one?

Edit: Could I connect the ATX connector from my old PSU and the 24 pin connector from my new PSU, or could that cause electrical problems?

I ask because (for whatever reason) my old motherboard did not crash when I attempted to run it with the old PSU earlier today, but it would not beep or give DVI output. That made me think that maybe the 24 pin connector from the old PSU is bad.