[SOLVED] ROG Zenith Extreme Issues

[antr1x]

Hi all! Recently i've upgraded my PC (specs at the end of post) and i have some issues with new motherboard. Why i decided that problem is in motherboard? Cuz most parts from my current pc i've used with previous pc build. So, generally, i've changed only motherboard and cpu (maximus xi extreme & i9-9900k were replaced by zenith extreme & threadripper 2990wx). For reference - pc is not overclocked, bios has been updated to latest version. So, let's start:

1. pc launch takes a very long time (it takes about 7-10 seconds before the UEFI image appears with "press del to enter bios blah blah blah" text).
2. I can't choose boot device in bios. Every time i change the boot device and exit from bios with saving settings - a message appears stating that i did not make any changes. I have to spam F8 each time.
3. Livedash works partially. i can set any image/gif for my led display/ryujin 360 but i can't choose any stats/text options (no reaction).
4. My GPU's are swapped (?). I mean that my monitor is connected to GPU1 (upper) but even the bios shows that the main GPU is lower (GPU2). Same thing in nvidia cp and other software.
5. Sometimes the PC just freezes even without load (cpu temperature at this time is below 40°), after reboot, the following errors appear in the system log:

Processor X in group 0 exposes the following power management capabilities:

Idle state type: ACPI Idle (C) States (2 state(s))

Performance state type: ACPI Performance (P) / Throttle (T) States
Nominal Frequency (MHz): 3000
Maximum performance percentage: 100
Minimum performance percentage: 73
Minimum throttle percentage: 73

P.S. Im using Arctic MX-2 thermal compound and it's applied correctly to whole radiator surface.

And I would like to ask the following - in which "proper" order should i install chipset/gpu drivers and can i download latest chipset driver from amd site instead of zenith extreme support page?

Current PC specs:

Motherboard	Asus ROG Zenith Extreme
Processor	AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX
Memory (part number)	G.SKILL Trident Z DDR4 128GB 3600
Graphics Card #1	Asus ROG MATRIX RTX 2080 TI
Graphics Card #2	Asus ROG MATRIX RTX 2080 TI
Storage #1	Samsung 970 Pro series 1TB M.2
Storage #2	Kingston HyperX Savage 480/960 Gb
CPU Cooler	Asus ROG Ryujin Aura OLED 360
Case	Asus ROG Helios
Power Supply	Asus ROG Thor 1200W

 

[Lutfij]

Radiator surface? I'm sorry for being a little curious but after watching that horrible stunt by The Verge, I will second guess everything I read when someone says they applied Thermal paste to the whole radiator surface.

Since you carried over the installation drive, did you reinstall the OS after creating it with Windows Media Creation Tools? Ideally you should work with the latest drivers, if AMD have them good, if Asus have them, good as well.

Here is a list of drivers you may need to look for prior to downloading them:

1. Motherboard Chipset
2. USB and third party controllers
3. Management Engine Interface (Intel)
4. Audio
5. Networking adapter (Wired and/or Wireless)
6. Graphics card (onboard or dedicated)
7. Storage (native and/or third party)
8. Keyboard and/or mouse
9. Gamepads and game controllers
10. Displays and/or monitors

Just to double check, which version of BIOS are you currently on?

 

[antr1x]

No, no, no... I meant that I applied thermal compound evenly as it was originally made by the manufacturer, and not smearing it over the entire radiator surface area, glossing over the holes for the bolts and so on.

OS installed from original MS iso (downloaded from site via "tablet" mode), 1903 build.

In fact ... on this pc I installed the OS three times:

1. Immediately after pc assembly, but there was a whole mishmash of benchmarks and other things for tests. Drivers were installed only the most necessary (chipset from rog site, gpu from nvidia site).
2. The second time there was a "clean" installation, but for some reason I installed the entire driver pack and utilities from the flash drive that came with mb. I don’t know why I did it, because before that, I always downloaded only the most necessary drivers from the manufacturer’s website.
3. Just finished installation. Now I will install only the most necessary drivers and I will observe if a similar problem arises.

In general, I don’t remember that in the first case there were problems with the PC freezing.

BIOS version is 2001.

 

[helper800]

No, no, no... I meant that I applied thermal compound evenly as it was originally made by the manufacturer, and not smearing it over the entire radiator surface area, glossing over the holes for the bolts and so on.

OS installed from original MS iso (downloaded from site via "tablet" mode), 1903 build.

In fact ... on this pc I installed the OS three times:

1. Immediately after pc assembly, but there was a whole mishmash of benchmarks and other things for tests. Drivers were installed only the most necessary (chipset from rog site, gpu from nvidia site).
2. The second time there was a "clean" installation, but for some reason I installed the entire driver pack and utilities from the flash drive that came with mb. I don’t know why I did it, because before that, I always downloaded only the most necessary drivers from the manufacturer’s website.
3. Just finished installation. Now I will install only the most necessary drivers and I will observe if a similar problem arises.

In general, I don’t remember that in the first case there were problems with the PC freezing.

BIOS version is 2001.

Have you tried reflashing BIOS to the same version? Did you try resetting CMOS? Sometimes the BIOS flashing process leaves remnants behind from the previous version causing conflicts.

 

[antr1x]

Have you tried reflashing BIOS to the same version? Did you try resetting CMOS? Sometimes the BIOS flashing process leaves remnants behind from the previous version causing conflicts.

You know... i didn't do this. I'll try to reflash bios and reset cmos. Thank you for advice!

 

[helper800]

You know... i didn't do this. I'll try to reflash bios and reset cmos. Thank you for advice!

Keep us posted.

 

[antr1x]

BIOS reflash and CMOS settings reset didn’t speed up loading (time interval between pc power on and appearing bios UEFI image). But... since the last windows install, thank God, so far the error has not been repeated. I will test further and report about "investigation" progress here.

 

[antr1x]

Well, problem appeared again, but... both ("Processor X in group 0 exposes the following power management capabilities" | The description for Event ID 56 from source Application Popup cannot be found. ) errors was already in the log 3 hours ago, but there were no problems with pc, so apparently this is not the problem. I noticed that these "errors" appear each time on PC start. So, as I understand it, the problem will be much more difficult to track.

And i've tested my main ssd (m.2) and AS SSD found an error:

Maybe i should somehow to reflash BIOS via different way? Because today i've flashed same BIOS version, but process was completed too fast. Is there any other "more proper" way to reflash BIOS?

 

[helper800]

Well, problem appeared again, but... both ("Processor X in group 0 exposes the following power management capabilities" | The description for Event ID 56 from source Application Popup cannot be found. ) errors was already in the log 3 hours ago, but there were no problems with pc, so apparently this is not the problem. I noticed that these "errors" appear each time on PC start. So, as I understand it, the problem will be much more difficult to track.

And i've tested my main ssd (m.2) and AS SSD found an error:

Maybe i should somehow to reflash BIOS via different way? Because today i've flashed same BIOS version, but process was completed too fast. Is there any other "more proper" way to reflash BIOS?

As far as I know, there are 3 ways to flash BIOS. One, boot into windows and use the ASUS utility program to flash BIOS. Two, go into BIOS with a new version on USB formated to FAT32/16 and use the BIOS flashing utility. Three, use the BIOS flashback feature while the computer is off but the PSU is connected, the FAT32/16 formatted USB with the properly renamed BIOS is plugged into the BIOS flashback USB port, and press and hold the BIOS flashback button on the MOBO for 3 seconds to start the flashing process. While the process is occuring the flashback led will blink and will shutoff when it is done 3-10 minutes later. If you start it and the led flashes for 5 seconds and becomes solid then something went wrong and the pc needs to be shut off by the PSU switch to restart.

 

[antr1x]

The investigation is ongoing. So, at the moment it is known that the problem is not in RAM (it worked perfectly on the previous pc build and was tested via memtest) and not in GPU's (yesterday i took out second GPU, leaving only one that worked on the previous pc build). Tomorrow i will reinstall OS on sata ssd instead of m.2. If the freezes continue, the motherboard will go back to the store in exchange for a new one.

 

[antr1x]

Few minutes ago i've finally downgraded bios to 1402 version. For those who have a problems with downgrading or using bios flashback in general - there is a some kind of mini tutorial below. Honestly - downgrade was the most terrible and hemorrhoids moment in my life, so i want to share my experience with everyone who has encountered the problem of using an asus flashback, cuz i constantly ran into a problem when the update button blinked several times and started to light constantly (solid light):

insert usb flash drive into USB "bios" slot (recommended to use ANY 2-8gb flash)
open CMD and follow these commands:

diskpart
list disk
select disk X (where X is your flash drive)
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format fs=fat32 quick
assign
exit

turn off your pc for a while (toggle psu switcher)
press CMOS reset button for a few second
power on your PSU (not PC itself)
press BIOS flashback button

congrats! you're awesome!

And what about my problem? I'll be watching PC work for a few days and i hope that bios downgrading solved my pc freezing problem. I will continue to keep you informed (if anyone is interested at all).

 

[antr1x]

Yesterday, finally, i received a new motherboard (zenith extreme alpha), and today i installed it instead of the previous one (zenith extreme). At this moment uptime is more than 3 hours (after installing all drivers and restarting the OS), so far everything is fine, there has been no "freeze".

 

[helper800]

Yesterday, finally, i received a new motherboard (zenith extreme alpha), and today i installed it instead of the previous one (zenith extreme). At this moment uptime is more than 3 hours (after installing all drivers and restarting the OS), so far everything is fine, there has been no "freeze".

There must have been something wrong with the mobo. It could have been some small defect with the PCIe lane, the cpu socket, or there was some small amount of solder causing a short. Well, lesson learned; If everything driver, firmware, and software-related is ruled out start swapping suspected hardware and see what happens. Thank you for continuing to update your post for others to see.

 

[antr1x]

The problem repeated, so it’s not motherboard. Yesterday i ordered another cpu (1900X at a discount) and RAM from the QVL list. I'll lose my mind soon.

 

[antr1x]

UPD: an interesting observation - on the Zenith Extreme freezes were much more frequent (10-15 times were repeated during the day), and on the ZE Alpha there was only one (but exactly the same) from the moment the mobo was installed. Guys, i don’t know what to do, this is a complete nonsense. As soon as the CPU and RAM will be delivered, i will install ZE board back and install new CPU first and only then new RAM. Oh yes, there’s another interesting bug on the new board - you need to turn off the Wi-Fi adapter in the BIOS and turn it on only AFTER the wifi drivers are installed, otherwise there will be a stable BSOD (at least at the time of installation, even when loading an already installed OS) and this is confirmed by many sources and topics (including this forum). AMD, why are you doing this to me?!

 

[helper800]

UPD: an interesting observation - on the Zenith Extreme freezes were much more frequent (10-15 times were repeated during the day), and on the ZE Alpha there was only one (but exactly the same) from the moment the mobo was installed. Guys, i don’t know what to do, this is a complete nonsense. As soon as the CPU and RAM will be delivered, i will install ZE board back and install new CPU first and only then new RAM. Oh yes, there’s another interesting bug on the new board - you need to turn off the Wi-Fi adapter in the BIOS and turn it on only AFTER the wifi drivers are installed, otherwise there will be a stable BSOD (at least at the time of installation, even when loading an already installed OS) and this is confirmed by many sources and topics (including this forum). AMD, why are you doing this to me?!

I do not think this is AMD and if it is their processor in the end duds like this are rare. The wi-fi problem you were experiencing is a Windows issue and is fairly common as from what I have seen. Don't give up! This seems like its a short somewhere but I don't have a clue where. Is your computer connected to a surge protector that is grounded? Are you getting any weird behavior in the event viewer? Have you had the opportunity to test the PSU in a different know good computer? Are all the motherboard standoff being used? Are there any extra unneeded motherboard standoffs touching the bottom of the motherboard? In any case, switching motherboards making the issue occur less is a huge clue. It makes me think some physical setup of the parts changed enough to help alleviate the issue.

 

[antr1x]

I do not think this is AMD and if it is their processor in the end duds like this are rare. The wi-fi problem you were experiencing is a Windows issue and is fairly common as from what I have seen. Don't give up! This seems like its a short somewhere but I don't have a clue where. Is your computer connected to a surge protector that is grounded? Are you getting any weird behavior in the event viewer? Have you had the opportunity to test the PSU in a different know good computer? Are all the motherboard standoff being used? Are there any extra unneeded motherboard standoffs touching the bottom of the motherboard? In any case, switching motherboards making the issue occur less is a huge clue. It makes me think some physical setup of the parts changed enough to help alleviate the issue.

Nah, wifi isn't a problem at all, i just mentioned it (just really weird issue).

No, pc is not connected to any surge protector, but grounded.

All my previous builds worked fine (based on intel mb/cpu), this problem began to appear only after installing the AMD mobo / cpu, all other parts (psu, ram, gpu's, etc.) remained the same and they worked fine before that. And no, i don't have any "weird" errors in event viewer, only critical kernel-power error.

BUT! I've forgot to tell you about one moment - after rebooting pc (via reset in case of pc "freezing"), some of my applications were "reset"... for example, a purchased copy of the utorrent started to re-apply activation and downloading the pro version, and only half of the settings were reset from the telegram app. As for the reset - it was the same as on zenith extreme, steam also logged out, as if I had never been logged in. Specifically, in this case, i do not think that the problem was reproduced precisely because of this option in the BIOS, just a coincidence.

 

[helper800]

Nah, wifi isn't a problem at all, i just mentioned it (just really weird issue).

No, pc is not connected to any surge protector, but grounded.

All my previous builds worked fine (based on intel mb/cpu), this problem began to appear only after installing the AMD mobo / cpu, all other parts (psu, ram, gpu's, etc.) remained the same and they worked fine before that. And no, i don't have any "weird" errors in event viewer, only critical kernel-power error.

BUT! I've forgot to tell you about one moment - after rebooting pc (via reset in case of pc "freezing"), some of my applications were "reset"... for example, a purchased copy of the utorrent started to re-apply activation and downloading the pro version, and only half of the settings were reset from the telegram app. As for the reset - it was the same as on zenith extreme, steam also logged out, as if I had never been logged in. Specifically, in this case, i do not think that the problem was reproduced precisely because of this option in the BIOS, just a coincidence.

Settings resetting and profiles logged out seems very odd... memory / boot drive issues are what comes to mind. @Lutfij do you have any more ideas? Im hitting my diagnostic limit with this one.

 

[antr1x]

So, the problem was with the CPU. I sent it under warranty, AMD confirmed the problem (thanks to them that everything turned out very quickly and without problems) and sent me a new CPU. Yesterday I received it, replaced it, so far everything is working fine now (I hope everything will be fine in the future as well).

Thank you all and once again thank you AMD for a quick warranty CPU replacement (without any sarcasm)!