ROG Maximus Z890 Hero will not boot, no QLED

[astclair2010]

If you are reading this, go ahead and pop a bag of popcorn, put on your jammies and get cozy because this is a long story...

I purchased an ROG Maximus Z890 Hero from Amazon nearly 6 months ago. When I received that board, I excitedly built my new rig, only to be disappointed when I finally pressed the power button. Rookie mistake, strike 1 for me. So I pulled everything apart and setup the standard workbench of putting the board on top of the box it came in. I tried all the standard things such as minimal hardware, swapping power supply, checking CPU pins, etc. So, I got a replacement sent to me from Amazon. I still have the original, as Amazon support specifically told me I didn't have to ship the old unit back... Then proceeded to charge me for the second board. That's a story for another time though. Moral of the story is, I now have two $750 paper weights.

Fast forward a week, I receive the new motherboard from Amazon, but this time I start slow and assemble just the very basics. CPU, 1 stick of RAM in the correct slot (per manual), 8-pin CPU power, 24-pin MOBO power. Press the power button on the board... nothing. So, my next logical step seemed to be that I just don't have a powerful enough PSU, or both my PSU's are bad (both test good). Anyways, I was already worried the 850W PSU I was using wasn't going to be good enough, so I returned that too and bought a much better one. Guess what? No change...

Here are the specs:

• Asus ROG MAXIMUS Z890 HERO ATX LGA1851 Motherboard
• Intel Core Ultra 9 285K 3.7 GHz 24-Core Processor
• G.SKILL Trident Z5 CK 48GB (2 x 24GB) DDR5 8400 RAM
• Original Power Supply: Cooler Master MWE Gold 850 V3 850 W 80+ Gold
• New Power Supply: be quiet! Straight Power 12 1200W ATX 3.0 Power Supply

I have nvme/GPU/etc as well of course, but haven't plugged any of those into the replacement board... can't get that far.

When I turn the power supply on, I get the ROG LED plate to light up, as well as a white light behind the START and FLEX KEY buttons. However, there is no Q-CODE or Q-LED lights. Which, until I attempt to power the system on, make sense. Pressing the START button does not change that situation. No Q-CODE or Q-LED lights, the PSU fan doesn't spin up, CPU fan doesn't spin, no case fans spin. Maybe the START button is broken? I try the screwdriver method and hook up the front panel connectors from my case but neither work.

Next I attempt to update the bios via USB and BIOS FlashBack to version 1901. According to the manual, I did it correctly and the lights made the correct indication of a successful flash. But, it still doesn't work.

At this point I contact ASUS chat support, explain all of this, and they agree I need to RMA the motherboard. So, I do that. I receive the board back from RMA. The "Service Repair Report" states that they replaced "SCREW; MYLAR"... It then says the technical assessment passed all rigorous testing conducted including 50 consecutive reboot cycles, stress tests, diagnostic software, and that they updated the BIOS to version 1901. It goes on to say the "Repair solution" was to "update the bios". How can it be possible that they ran all of these tests and diagnostics, yet I can't get the board to even attempt to POST? And I also don't know how a screw could have possibly been missing...

So now I'm stumped, and think maybe I'm stupid, and there is something I don't know about this latest gen of CPU/MOBO. I do tons of googling, and eventually decide to take the board in to a local PC repair shop for a second opinion. The guy there agree's the board is busted after testing with his own power supply and RAM. Doesn't prove I'm not stupid, but it was reassuring at least.

I do not have another compatible CPU to test with, and neither did that repair shop, however I'm pretty confident it's not the CPU. I have tested with and without the CPU even being in the board, which to my understanding (and the local repair guy) that should at least still do _something_ when you attempt to power on, or the QLED's should at least show some kind of error or status light that CPU is not operational.

At a loss, I contacted Asus support again, this time via phone, and explained all of this again... The rep was great to work with, understood my frustration, and worked with his manager to get me a pre-paid label (didn't get prepaid first time) to ship it back for another RMA. Here we go again.

I received the board back a couple days ago. This time the Service Repair Report states that they replaced "CONNECTOR", that it passed all of the same reboot/diagnostics, that technician found "damaged part" and that the solution was "booted normally after replacing part", and that they updated BIOS to version 2006. At least this time they seemed to actually confirm there was a boot issue. So, I hook the board up with CPU, RAM, CPU power and MOBO power and hold my breath... nothing.

I beg you, the intelligent Republic of Gamers Forum community, what can I do next? I have tried every combination of CPU in/out, RAM sticks 1 by 1 in every slot, 2 by 2 in every possible combination, 3 or 4 power supplies, multiple ways to "turn on", third party input, multiple trips to RMA, multiple calls to tech support, and REMEMBER... I have TWO boards doing the exact same thing. How can Asus RMA possibly state they ran all of these diagnostics on a board in this state? What are they possibly doing to make it work that I'm not doing? With the CPU being the only part I haven't swapped, I'm nearly tempted to just spend the money and buy a second one, but I decided I would plead my case here first before lighting even more money on fire trying to get this computer to be a computer.

Thank you for any support you can provide!