Very weird issue with Motherboard(Gigabyte Z87-HD3)

[jbrianj]

A wall of text is about to go in, be prepared:

So i have a weird major issue with my Motherboard right now. It doesn't boot when there isn't a bootable USB device(any, whether it's a windows boot USB, a Ubuntu live USB or a memtest bootable USB).

What happens is that when it's not attached, and i boot the system up; the screen stays black and the HDD activity led gives a pattern of about 3 seconds off and then a short flash indefinitely. Nothing else happens...(keyboard and mouse lights do not go on at all)

Now when i attach the USB stick, the systems boots and the BIOS gives me "Previous Boot failed, load optimized defaults and boot" I don't think this has to do with a bios setting whatsoever and it's been on optimized defaults since forever now. Now Windows boots normally and no further issues arise(like literally nothing)

I've reinstalled Windows 10 completely fresh(from USB using UEFI and GPT partition table and copying over Windows 10 setup files directly from the ISO)

It all started with a random BSOD(irql_not_less_or_equal) of the Intel C220 SATA/AHCI driver. This caused my system to crash, and Windows to fail booting(INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE)

I tried resolving this by using a recovery usb of Windows 10 and use the idem command to restore the Microsoft SATA driver. After i did this, i restarted and the system completely failed to boot(causing the symptons i said before). I've tested alot of things: RAM, GPU, SATA devices(even tried unplugging all SATA cables in the machine, which did not work)

I've ran Memtest86 v7.1 through 1 pass and no issues arose, not even the hammer testwhich did give me a note(no error) saying that my "RAM may be vulnerable to high frequency row hammer bit flips"

I've all confirmed that these are not the problems.

Is there anyone that knows how i might solve this issue? I have the feeling the driver issues from before causes the SATA/AHCI controller to behave improperly(on hardware level) and also causing device initialization to fail in certain cases.

 

[weberdarren97]

You loaded optimized defaults... Have you done a CMOS clear?

If there are any BIOS updates available, install them.

If it boots after a CMOS clear, download the SATA/AHCI driver for your specific board.

 

[jbrianj]

No bios update since 2015(i have the latest).

Tried CMOS clears, they do nothing.

When i install both Intel INF and Intel ME no driver gets installed and it uses the Microsoft default SATA controller driver.

Now i have no idea how i ended up having Intel 8/C220 Series SATA Controller driver.

I still have to have a USB storage device installed before it even starts up any other device(screen stays black, mouse lights don't go on, keyboard lock lights don't start glowing etc)

When there's no USB storage device it won't get past BIOS check.

 

[weberdarren97]

Do you have USB as the no. 1 boot priority? If so, make the hard disk the no. 1 priority.

I don't really think that that'll solve your issue, this sounds like your BIOS has become corrupt. It may be time for a new motherboard.

 

[jbrianj]

Why though? The system runs fine if a USB storage device is attached to the motherboard, just not when there's none. As i said in the OP the PC runs *COMPLETELY* fine with it attached, and continues to run fine when i remove the USB after boot.

 

[jbrianj]

Okay what i'm gonna try is not upgrading the BIOS(since there is no new version) but reinstalling it instead. Maybe this'll "reset" the SATA controller and make it operate normally again?

 

[jbrianj]

That... actually did the trick apparently(used built-in Qflash in BIOS). I can now boot Windows without an attached USB-stick now.

Weirdest technical issue i've ever had... And i really have no idea how i could prevent these kind of things in the future(I would like to know since i'm an IT-student)

 

[weberdarren97]

Sometimes BIOS just becomes corrupt. It isn't usually predictable, but the symptoms are usually easy to identify. Symptoms include and are not limited to: failing to POST when a specific device is present, failing to POST when a specific device is not present, system halts when a certain device is present, system halts when a certain device is not present, ports or connectors do not work correctly, drivers for the board do not recognize the board, system halts or crashes when in BIOS setup, system starts up and turns off and repeats this cycle (called a boot loop), etc.

Flashing BIOS may resolve this issue, but it doesn't always work. Usually there's a reason why BIOS becomes corrupt... If it happens once, it may happen again. And each time it happens again, the chances of being able to fix it are dramatically reduced. If it happens more than twice, it's time to replace the board.

Here is a video by JayzTwoCents that shows a boot loop caused by a corrupt BIOS.

You say you're an IT student? I'd subscribe to ScienceStudio, LinusTechTips and JayzTwoCents. There's also ChannelSuperFun, it's what Linus Media Group (the owners of LinusTechTips) do when there's no work to be done.

 

[jbrianj]

Could a faulty/invalid SATA driver cause non-OS related hardware problems?

Since the mainboard is already past warranty(a month ago it passed the 2year warranty) and i don't know if this issue will reoccur(also don't think i can classify this motherboard as reliable anymore), I'm going to consider upgrading it and CPU(I already own some brand new DDR4 RAM modules thanks to a friend).

I'm probably going back to using a MSI motherboard again. I've used 2 Gigabyte's now and both of them showed signs of failure after it's warranty period.

By the way, I already know Linus, but i did not know about the rest. Thank you!

Thanks again for your help on this issue.

/closed

 

[weberdarren97]

Until the OS is loaded, drivers are not loaded. Drivers do not do anything on the software level until Windows is loaded, and they don't do too much on the hardware level at any time.

Drivers are not loaded into BIOS. Since flashing the BIOS solved the problem, we can be sure that it wasn't a driver issue.

Here is a LinusTechTips video of a corrupt BIOS causing the firmware on RAID cards to become corrupt, and basically borking the system.

 

[jbrianj]

I kinda meant in a way that drivers can cause a device(USB controller for example) to misbehave after drivers were used, even after the drivers are unloaded from RAM.

I've had a case that wrong drivers caused the LAN device to lock-up(did not detect a cable anymore) completely(even a OS reinstall) until a CMOS reset was done.

 

[weberdarren97]

That would likely be a problem with how drivers were communicating with BIOS. Drivers are able to change things that we can't access in BIOS setup, so it can only be undone via a CMOS reset.

If you want to see what drivers are being loaded at startup, you can enable boot logging.