Question Gigabyte GA-H170-Gaming 3 is not working ?

[barlowc]

Hello. I have a machine with a Gigabyte GA-H170-Gaming 3 system board which recently stopped working. I had updated the BIOS version from F5 to F22e in order to ensure support for the NVMe SSD that I was upgrading to. After the BIOS update, I successfully booted the machine using the old SATA III SSD. I then installed the new NVMe SSD and booted from it at least once. Then it stopped working. It doesn't even show the Gigabyte screen and give me the option to press the delete key and get into the settings.

When I power on the machine, the system board's red Ambient LED is on and the case and CPU fan both run. After a little bit it turns off and then back on. This repeats seemingly indefinitely.

I have removed the GPU card and don't have any other cards installed. I pulled all the memory too.

Any suggestions on further troubleshooting? Does it sound like the system board failed and I should replace it?

 

[rgd1101]

try taking the new nvme ssd out?

 

[helpstar]

check with the old ssd and remove the new one with all hardware installed
which cpu are you using?
check the boot order

eventually reset the cmos

 

[barlowc]

try taking the new nvme ssd out?

check with the old ssd and remove the new one with all hardware installed
which cpu are you using?
check the boot order

eventually reset the cmos

I don't have the new NVMe SSD installed. I only have the processor (i.e. i7-6700) and 4 memory modules installed.

I can't check the boot order because when I power on the machine, it doesn't even show the Gigabyte screen and give me the option to press the delete key and get into the settings. As such, I can't reset the CMOS either, unless there's another way to do it.

 

[helpstar]

reset the cmos by jumper, the manual of the motherboard should provide the information how to do that

 

[barlowc]

reset the cmos by jumper, the manual of the motherboard should provide the information how to do that

I tried that. It didn't really change or fix anything. I put the external GPU and old SATA III hard drive in and the machine eventually booted. I then removed the SATA III drive and installed the NVMe drive and got it to boot a couple of times. The overall behavior is very inconsistent and erratic. I tested the memory using Memtest86 and it passes with no errors.

 

[helpstar]

replace the cmos battery
eventually try a different PSU

might be a nvme incompatibility

 

[barlowc]

replace the cmos battery
eventually try a different PSU

might be a nvme incompatibility

I had tried replacing the CMOS battery and that didn't change anything.

The NVMe drive wasn't installed and it was the same model of drive with other identical machines.

I pulled the board and installed it in another case and it did the same thing, ruling out the power supply.

After some further experimentation, swapping components between machines, I've narrowed it down to a pair of memory modules. When that pair is installed in a machine, the behavior is erratic in the machine's POST. That pair of modules tests out just fine using Memtest86 though. 🤔

Right now I'm running the machine without the suspect pair and only with the other pair and everything seems fine.