Question Successful POST, then restart.

[packerfansmith12]

CPU: 7800x3d
CPU cooler: Waterblock
Motherboard: ASUS b650e-f
Ram: G.Skill Flare 5600 16gb
SSD/HDD: Teamgroup 4tb NVM.e
GPU: (Not plugged in)
PSU: 1000w FSP Hydro Ti Pro
Chassis: Define 7
OS: Windows 11
The build successfully posts, but restarts after bios. The system is fully stable in bios and I can alter any settings there without issue or crash. This repeats indefinitely. There is a warning on boot "Please ensure to fully connect at least one 8-pin ATX_12V connector to the PSU for system stability..."
The same symptoms occur when I swap PSU, RAM, with either 8 or 12 pins plugged in to the 12V slot, or boot from a USB w/ installation media.
Reseating the processor, clearing CMOS, and flashing to latest bios, did not solve the issue.
Any recommendations, or do I need to take my motherboard to a repair shop?

 

[Darkbreeze]

After flashing to the latest BIOS, did you THEN perform a hard reset? Because this is sometimes necessary in order to convince the BIOS to reset the hardware tables. Even after flashing a newer firmware version sometimes the system simply refuses to recognize new settings for some devices and a reset is often the only fix that is needed. At the least, TRY this, and do it EXACTLY as outlined.

Also, there really aren't any "repair shops" for motherboards. Even electronic repair specialists will generally refuse to work on a motherboard to perform any type of repairs unless it's something very basic like replacing a swollen or faulty capacitor. These boards are so complex these days that it's practically impossible to "repair" them when something goes wrong or is damaged. Even the factory will tend to simply replace it with a different one and toss it in the scrap pile when you send one in to them that has problems. So if there is a problem with the board you'd want to send it in for warranty replacement, not take it to a "repair shop". Repair shops don't usually "repair" anything, they just do the troubleshooting and replace parts, which anybody can really do themselves these days in most cases.

It does make sense for some people though if they don't have any parts to swap out for troubleshooting, since the repair shops WILL generally have known good parts they can swap in to tell if something is faulty or not. Try the hard reset before doing anything else though.


BIOS Hard Reset procedure

Power off the unit, switch the PSU off and unplug the PSU cord from either the wall or the power supply.

Remove the motherboard CMOS battery for about three to five minutes. In some cases it may be necessary to remove the graphics card to access the CMOS battery.

During that five minutes while the CMOS battery is out of the motherboard, press the power button on the case, continuously, for 15-30 seconds, in order to deplete any residual charge that might be present in the CMOS circuit. After the five minutes is up, reinstall the CMOS battery making sure to insert it with the correct side up just as it came out.

If you had to remove the graphics card you can now reinstall it, but remember to reconnect your power cables if there were any attached to it as well as your display cable.

Now, plug the power supply cable back in, switch the PSU back on and power up the system. It should display the POST screen and the options to enter CMOS/BIOS setup. Enter the bios setup program and reconfigure the boot settings for either the Windows boot manager or for legacy systems, the drive your OS is installed on if necessary.

Save settings and exit. If the system will POST and boot then you can move forward from there including going back into the bios and configuring any other custom settings you may need to configure such as Memory XMP, A-XMP or D.O.C.P profile settings, custom fan profile settings or other specific settings you may have previously had configured that were wiped out by resetting the CMOS.

In some cases it may be necessary when you go into the BIOS after a reset, to load the Optimal default or Default values and then save settings, to actually get the BIOS to fully reset and force recreation of the hardware tables.

 

[packerfansmith12]

This worked! Got into windows. I would not have suspected a hardware table problem, given that the bios was indicating the correct hardware. Thanks!

 

[packerfansmith12]

Well this is odd. When I try to swap in my 64gb 6400 ram (and repeat the reset as above, not enabling docp etc), the reboot issue persists. That would suggest the ram is faulty, but I'd expect some issue getting to BIOS if that were the case.

 

[Darkbreeze]

It doesn't necessarily mean the memory is faulty. It may simply be that the memory you are trying to swap in is not compatible with your motherboard, and by "not compatible" I do NOT mean "wrong TYPE" of memory. I mean, THAT SPECIFIC KIT not being liked by your board. This can happen for a variety of reasons but suffice to say this is why they have a motherboard QVL list and why memory manufacturers like Corsair, G.Skill and Crucial have their own, MUCH more extensive compatibility lists.

What is the exact model of your 64GB 6400 MT/s memory kit? And did all the DIMMs in that come together in one kit or were they individual sticks that you put together, regardless of whether they are the same model or not?

 

[packerfansmith12]

T-Create Expert Model CTCED564G6400HC34BDC01
2 paired sticks. Same issue with either individual stick in all slots.

Unfortunately, I don't think that's the issue. I swapped back to the G-Skill that I got to boot, and reset the cmos as above, but the system is back to a reboot cycle now.

Edit: I checked the T-group QVL list and it looks like I was a dumb dumb and bought incompatible memory. So, sticking with the backup G-Skill (which does list the mobo on the QVL) for the forseeable future. Lesson learned on not double checking RAM compatibility. As above, still having the reboot cycle with the G.Skill ram.

 

[packerfansmith12]

Alright, after tinkering with various reset and bios setting combinations, I have a consistent boot now, but not the easy way lol.
If I do a hard CMOS reset as above, restore defaults, then set boot to UEFI/Standard and ASUS boost to enabled, I get a clean boot where everything, including my GPU is fully functional, and from what I can tell, is fully stable. Subsequent boots seem to stall out on a VGA light, but repeating the above consistently results in a full boot

 

[Darkbreeze]

What model is your graphics card and with the new configuration do you still have this problem even if the graphics card is removed and using the iGPU?

 

[packerfansmith12]

4090 FE. When no gpu is installed, it (usually) goes into an infinite boot loop rather than stalling at vga light. Nothing consistent, however, and I've gotten successful repeat boots without vga. The same reset loop gets a boot with or without gpu installed.

Whelp, now every third or fourth boot is locking with a boot light on. This problem is getting real weird

...and now the reset is going into infinite boot loops (sometimes). Rip.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Well, one thing I can tell you, and I didn't know this before because I had not looked at reviews of this model (yours) of power supply previously, is that it's VERY unlikely the problem is the power supply since that might be one of the best power supplies in the history of ATX power supplies.

Maybe two or three other units have ever actually been this good based on the reviews I've looked at. So, I'm not going to go there and it doesn't REALLY seem like a PSU issue anyhow,

Let's start over.

Did you just build this recently and was it working fine at one point or has it never worked correctly since it was assembled?

Have you pulled the CPU back out to verify that there are no bent pins on the motherboard at all? It may take some form of magnification such as a magnifying glass or reading glasses to see any deviations and ANY deviation, at all, could be the cause. You will of course need to clean off both the top of the CPU and the bottom of the cooler, and apply fresh thermal paste, after taking it apart. That means you'll need some thermal paste and it would be a really good idea to have some isopropyl alcohol, preferably 91% or higher, for cleaning off the mating surfaces. I recommend using paper coffee filters to do the cleaning as they can be obtained for cheap and they are lint free so they will leave no residue on the surfaces to affect the paste job.

 

[packerfansmith12]

This build is a bit of a ship of theseus. The mobo and cpu were both replaced after a tube popped off of a fitting in the cooling loop. The 6400 ram was also in that build, but I'd been running into issues with it before anytime I tried to activate expo (explained by the lack of compatibility).
So the only portions of the build remaining from the leak are the 4090 and the PSU.
Unfortunately, I did bend two pins on the mobo during one of my several reseating tests. I'd provide pictures, but after the repair I literally cannot find the deviated pins on 10x zoom camera (s/o to my wife's small, steady hands and surgical tweezers).
So if you suspect its a pin issue, then I'll probably just have to pray to the RMA gods (or see if the shop near me that "specializes in motherboard repair" is actually worth their salt.)

 

[Darkbreeze]

If you bent a pin or pins, and then bent them back, it's entirely possible that you can't see the bent pin anymore but it may have broken BELOW the surface that you can see, and this is not terribly uncommon when a pin gets bent one way and then back to the original position. Think of bending a wire back and forth until it breaks, but in this case it's an extremely soft, super thin piece of wire.