Very strange boot loop issue

[Benjamin_20]

So I have my buddy's system sitting on my bench right now and we have been struggling to figure out what is going wrong with it. With just CPU + RAM and boot SSD hooked up I was able to boot into windows. When we restart the system it flicks through a couple codes on the debug display then makes a kinda of 'click' sound and turns off then starts again.

I pulled out half his ram, down to 2x 4gb instead of 4x 4gb and it booted again. Then on restart same issue. When I move the ram from the 1/2 slots to 3/4 slots again could boot straight away but can't survive a restart.

I've reset the bios and no luck seems sometimes removing or moving a piece or hardware allows us to boot but then straight back to not working. The failure to post seems to happen even if I had no drives plugged in at all.

This motherboard has dual bios to which I've tried swapping to the secondary one and booting but the same thing happens.

Things I have tried:

• updated the bios
  replaced the cmos battery
  removed all unnecessary components (GPU, extra hard drives, half the RAM)
  plugged in spare known good power supply
  tried different sata cables to the boot drive
  I've reseated the CPU, also checking for bent pins
  reapplied thermal paste and remounted the heat-sink

The components are:

• CPU: i5-4770k
  Mobo: Gigabyte Z87X-OC
  RAM: Gskill 2133c11 4x4gb
  SSD: Samsung 840 pro 120gb
  GPU: Gigabyte 1080ti

 

[jay.wooster]

1. I would run MEMTEST86 from a boot USB to check the Memory has no issues

 

[jay.wooster]

Can you provide details on the PSU in the system ? Have you tried booting with everything but the GPU, then adding the GPU and testing ? If it works without then fails with it points to a blown GPU or too low powered PSU.

 

[Benjamin_20]

Can you provide details on the PSU in the system ? Have you tried booting with everything but the GPU, then adding the GPU and testing ? If it works without then fails with it points to a blown GPU or too low powered PSU.

I am currently trying to boot without GPU it's been out of the system most of the time I've been troubleshooting. The PSU I am currently using is a OCZ 650w fully modular one don't know what it's 80+ rating is. The original PSU is a corsair tx650m. Seems unlikely the power supply doesn't have enough juice for just a cpu and motherboard to boot up and I'm certain the power supply is fine as I just removed it from a working system a month ago.

 

[Benjamin_20]

1. I would run MEMTEST86 from a boot USB to check the Memory has no issues

Good idea I will try this.

 

[SkyBill40]

You can also try booting with one stick of RAM in at a time to see by a simple process of elimination if one of them is bad. Just make sure you're placing the stick in the proper slot. Also, is this a new build or new RAM? If so, have you verified that it's on the QVL list for that mobo to ensure compatibility?

 

[Benjamin_20]

You can also try booting with one stick of RAM in at a time to see by a simple process of elimination if one of them is bad. Just make sure you're placing the stick in the proper slot. Also, is this a new build or new RAM? If so, have you verified that it's on the QVL list for that mobo to ensure compatibility?

Build is a couple years old, RAM has been in the system since 2013ish so compatibility isn't an issue. I will iterate through the RAM to see if I can find an issue.

 

[Benjamin_20]

I've run memtest86 on the ram and its fine. The issue persists the board will boot and then if I subsequently shutdown it will continue to fail to boot till I change something. Either clearing cmos or changing which ram is plugged in seems to do it.

 

[ikasmeridis]

I've run memtest86 on the ram and its fine. The issue persists the board will boot and then if I subsequently shutdown it will continue to fail to boot till I change something. Either clearing cmos or changing which ram is plugged in seems to do it.

I have exactly the same issue. Did you find and solution to this?

 

[Benjamin_20]

I have exactly the same issue. Did you find and solution to this?

No sadly we spent a few days on it and I think the board has something wrong with it. No matter what every successful boot is followed by boot looping. I tried everything I could think of all different hardware, single sticks of ram, different everything. The only piece of hardware I couldn't test was a different CPU in the motherboard and the same CPU in a different motherboard as we don't have access to another PC on the same platform.

Eventually my buddy said fuck it and bought a new r7 2700 + mobo and ram.