[SOLVED] Have to clear CMOS to get Windows to load

Ducks1663

Honorable
Feb 18, 2014
30
0
10,540
Started having some odd issue with my PC, had originally thought it was just my Windows install getting corrupted but after reinstalling the OS it's doing it again. It will POST without issue and start loading Windows but sits there for 10-20 minutes before it'll finally load into the OS. Odd thing is this happens also for the Windows installation media but loading into my Manjaro OS works without issue.

Was able to get it to stop doing this by resetting my BIOS using the button on the back of my motherboard, but after playing a game and it entirely freezing up on me that is no longer working. Wondering if this is some hardware issue at some level? Or could this be hardware starting to fail? As I said for a few times I could clear cmos with the button on the back of my mobo and it'd resolve the issue at least for a bit. but issues return at some point.

Last night when I had gone to bed, I put the system to sleep but when I got home after work it was on but sitting on black screens and my keyboad and mouse weren't on. Had to hold power switch to turn off the system and when I turned it back on it had an error about the system posting into safe mode because of failing to POST previously. After resetting CMOS it booted into Windows without issue and I had started playing games when after about 20 minutes it complete froze and had to power cycle again where the issues loading into Windows came back.

Specs;
i7 8700k (Prior to this, it was OC'd to 5Ghz @ 1.35v - Had it set to this OC since I bought it in Oct '17. Always had an AIO cooling it and never saw it reach above 80)
ASUS GTX 1080 Ti 11G
ASUS ROG Maximus X Formula
4x8 GSkill TridentZ RGB (3200Mhz)
EVGA SuperNova 1300G2
Currently OS is install in a 500GB Samsung 970 EVO Plus, but issues were persistant on a 860 Pro.

Honestly not sure where to even begin trying to figure out what is going on. Would say it seems like some hardware issue but not sure that'd be the case with being able to load into Manjaro perfectly fine and can stay in that OS without any system freezes or issues at all.
 
Solution
Did you test the RAM for errors with memtest86?

You can try to RMA only the motherboard and hope that a new one will fix those issues. You can also try to manually increase the CPU voltage a little bit or try to disable turbo boost as a test. That way you can learn if the CPU is the cause of the instability. Of course the GPU can be also responsible and in that case replacing the mobo/CPU combo won't fix those issues. I think that you should look every important PC component (CPU/mobo/GPU/RAM) and check/test each one of them with whatever tools you have at your disposal ( both software and hardware) in order to find which one is responsible. Finally the PSU may be also responsible, that's why you should test you build with another...
It seems to be a hardware issue. You have to return the CPU to its default frequencies. An overclock may have a detrimental effect on system stability. You also have to test the RAM for errors with memtest, since failing/bad RAM could certainly cause these issues. Finally you should test your system with another PSU. You current PSU model may be very good but honestly it seems overkill for your current build. Although this may have nothing to do with this issue, just saying.
 

Ducks1663

Honorable
Feb 18, 2014
30
0
10,540
It seems to be a hardware issue. You have to return the CPU to its default frequencies. An overclock may have a detrimental effect on system stability. You also have to test the RAM for errors with memtest, since failing/bad RAM could certainly cause these issues. Finally you should test your system with another PSU. You current PSU model may be very good but honestly it seems overkill for your current build. Although this may have nothing to do with this issue, just saying.
Yeah the PSU is 150% overkill but when buying this CPU, Mobo, & GPU from Frys they had either a 500 or 1300.

I've reset everything back to default, even turning off XMP. Haven't had a chance to run memtest yet but will likely do it tonight. But even when reverting everything to default it still was having issues loading into Windows

Did finally get into Windows and looking through event viewer there's a spam of Realtek 8822BE Wireless LAN 802.11ac PCI-E NIC : Has determined that the network adapter is not functioning properly. and when I had checked device manager there was a Realtek network device that had the yellow exclamation. I uninstalled it through Device Manager and rebooted and it loaded into Windows within seconds as would be expected. So not sure if it could be have / is a driver issue? Would at least explain why I can get into my Linux install without issue but Windows derps out. But I've been having issues with the WiFi adapter on this board for a couple weeks now, but had thought it was my router. Thinking that may not be the case.

Going to do some stress tests and see if it locks up again or not, hoping for the best.
 
A bad network driver or bad network configuration can make windows load very slowly. Also a bad driver can affect greatly overall OS stability so you have to make sure that all the drivers are updated to their latest versions. On the other hand there is still a chance that the wireless LAN chip may be failing and if it's part of the motherboard you may have to RMA it if it's still under warranty. Therefore you have to make sure that the WiFi adapter works perfectly with the latest driver. Good luck.
 

Ducks1663

Honorable
Feb 18, 2014
30
0
10,540
Alright, well sadly that doesn't seem to have been a fix to make things usable at least.

Looking into getting the funds to upgrade CPU & Mobo, but what're the odds that neither of them are the issue? Concerned calling it a hardware related issue as I can get into Linux without issue and no issues doing my typical workload in Linux and I can play some games on there without crashes.
 
Last edited:
Did you test the RAM for errors with memtest86?

You can try to RMA only the motherboard and hope that a new one will fix those issues. You can also try to manually increase the CPU voltage a little bit or try to disable turbo boost as a test. That way you can learn if the CPU is the cause of the instability. Of course the GPU can be also responsible and in that case replacing the mobo/CPU combo won't fix those issues. I think that you should look every important PC component (CPU/mobo/GPU/RAM) and check/test each one of them with whatever tools you have at your disposal ( both software and hardware) in order to find which one is responsible. Finally the PSU may be also responsible, that's why you should test you build with another unit.

The fact that under Linux the PC is more stable point to a software/driver issue but still Windows is a totally different OS and uses each hardware component differently so you cannot make direct comparisons. Therefore it can still be a hardware issue. However I don't think that you should take the upgrade route. You current system is still modern and very powerful. Additionally most of your parts are still under warranty. So I think that you should manually find the defective part and then RMA it. Good luck.
 

Ducks1663

Honorable
Feb 18, 2014
30
0
10,540
Did you test the RAM for errors with memtest86?

You can try to RMA only the motherboard and hope that a new one will fix those issues. You can also try to manually increase the CPU voltage a little bit or try to disable turbo boost as a test. That way you can learn if the CPU is the cause of the instability. Of course the GPU can be also responsible and in that case replacing the mobo/CPU combo won't fix those issues. I think that you should look every important PC component (CPU/mobo/GPU/RAM) and check/test each one of them with whatever tools you have at your disposal ( both software and hardware) in order to find which one is responsible. Finally the PSU may be also responsible, that's why you should test you build with another unit.

The fact that under Linux the PC is more stable point to a software/driver issue but still Windows is a totally different OS and uses each hardware component differently so you cannot make direct comparisons. Therefore it can still be a hardware issue. However I don't think that you should take the upgrade route. You current system is still modern and very powerful. Additionally most of your parts are still under warranty. So I think that you should manually find the defective part and then RMA it. Good luck.
I left memtest running all yesterday while I was at work and no issues at all with RAM. But I flashed bios again going through the switch on the back instead of through the BIOS itself and it's not had any issues at all today. Been able to restart it several times and it loads almost immediately back into Windows as you'd expect. WiFi is completely inoperable at this point but with past experience with RMAing with ASUS I may just look to a Z390 board as I am planning on going to a 9900k in a month or two despite these issues (I'm only paying 50% of the part costs and giving friend my old parts).

Going to do some more tinkering and see if I either break it again or can get the WiFi to work. Starting to seem like a board issue. Can't even install bluetooth drivers anymore. Contacting ASUS to see if they have any ideas

EDIT: Just to throw an update onto this, ended up fixing it with reflashing BIOS through the hardware switch on the back of the motherboard & replacing the CMOS battery and I'm at a week being fully stable even back onto my 5Ghz OC.
 
Last edited:
Solution

Blackink

Distinguished
If you overclocked the system with the Asus overclocking tool, if by chance that is the problem, at least in my experience putting the overclock back to the default settings-no overclock, that still didn't stop my system from crashing.
After I re-set my settings back to no overclock, I had to re-install the OS.
After that, I had no problems with my system crashing and now I do any overclocking manually without the Asus software. My system is much more stable now.