Problems w/New Prime Z370-A Build! Help!

[cubdukat]

This past Sunday, I purchased the parts for a new Coffee Lake build:

Prime Z370-A
32GB Crucial Ballistix Sport LT DDR4-2400
Core i7-8700K
Thermaltake Smart 850W Modular PSU
32GB Optane module
1TB Samsung 960 EVO

The following parts were carried over from my previous system:

4TB Toshiba X300 hard drives x2
PNY GeForce GTX960
LG WH16NS40 Blu-Ray burner
Corsair Graphite 230T case
Cooler Master Hyper-212 EVO

The build went off without incident, the system powered up and I installed Windows 10 Pro. It ran perfectly for an hour, but then a bad Windows Insider build corrupted things, and when I went to reboot to do a clean reinstall, then came the random BSODs and GSODs saying things like "IRQL NOT LESS OR EQUAL," "KMODE EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED," and so forth. I couldn't even boot into the Windows 10 DVD or a thumb drive to do the reinstall without getting those errors.

I returned the board and memory and exchanged them for new models. The same thing happened with the replacements, and so today, I found out that the Crucial RAM was not on ASUS' QVL, so I exchanged it for some Kingston HyperX Fury RAM that was. Again, nothing but random BSOD's and GSOD's.

I am at a loss to explain any of this. The DVD boots just fine on my laptop, and the thumb drive works as well, but the Coffee Lake build won't even run Linux from a live drive. The only thing I haven't done is return the CPU, because I'm pretty sure that if it was the CPU, the system wouldn't even POST.

I have never had these many issues with a build before, not even with my first one. I'm really hoping to avoid having to pay someone to look at it because it's already cost me close to two grand already. So I'm hoping someone here would be able to give me some insight.

I don't have pics of the BIOS screens yet, as I would have to use my phone, but I could snap them and include them later, if it would help...

[BigJob]

The issue is you upgrading to a newer computer with your older drive. Windows somehow detects new hardware and throws random BSOD on it. It's your hard drive that's carrying over from the past W 10 installation. You gotta get into safe mode and delete old mobo files and old programs that will no longer be necessary on the new installation. Delete all software pertaining to maintaining or configuring old mobo or ram or asus software.

This is entirely a software issue and not a hard ware issue.

Safe mode > Control panel > Delete old apps that you won't need, especially any relating to the software drivers of the old system like for example Asus suite or Asus mobo firmware, just uninstall everything from manufacturers that relate to anything related to the old hardware.

[cubdukat]

BigJob wrote:
The issue is you upgrading to a newer computer with your older drive. Windows somehow detects new hardware and throws random BSOD on it. It's your hard drive that's carrying over from the past W 10 installation. You gotta get into safe mode and delete old mobo files and old programs that will no longer be necessary on the new installation. Delete all software pertaining to maintaining or configuring old mobo or ram or asus software.

This is entirely a software issue and not a hard ware issue.

Safe mode > Control panel > Delete old apps that you won't need, especially any relating to the software drivers of the old system like for example Asus suite or Asus mobo firmware, just uninstall everything from manufacturers that relate to anything related to the old hardware.

Unfortunately, that's the problem. I can't get into safe mode.

I can't even boot the Win10 DVD to wipe the drive from there.

I tried with two other drives, all blank. It still BSOD'd, and that was with both the 960 EVO and the Optane removed.

It does this even when there's absolutely no drive whatsoever other than the BD burner where the install DVD is. if this is a software problem, the only place I can think of is the firmware where the Secure Boot keys are installed. Failing that, this is a hardware issue. Why would it have let me install Win10 the first time, but not again? And why wouldn't it let me do it on a completely new system?

If I could find a way to remotely wipe both the 960 EVO and the Optane drive, that would solve that, but I couldn't even boot into Linux to attempt to install that over it.

One of the other things I'd noticed is that the BD drive seems to read for two or three minutes before the spinning balls appear and the system BSODs. Maybe I'm four generations behind (this is replacing a Devil's Canyon system), but it seems strange for the drive to be reading for two minutes before loading. The same thing happens with another BD burner I swapped out just to rule out a drive problem; it did exactly the same thing.

[cubdukat]

Here's some screenshots I managed to grab. I wasn't sure what was relevant, but I think the problem might be in this first section...

[BigJob]

How are you attempting to get to safe mode? Asus has a confusing way to get into it. Power on PC > Keep hitting f12 for the boot menu to come > then press ESCAPE button and safe mode option should pop up


& if you want the flash drive to boot then you have to change the setting under ... (look for it under boot config under BOOT ) from legacy to uefi and disable secure boot somewhere and then select the flash drive from the boot menu by pressing F12 repeatedly while it's starting

try this for the usb boot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIuEb-Ek6-U

[cubdukat]

I wasn't aware of that key combo. I'll have to try that.

However, I don't think it will let me get that far into the boot process to get to that point.

[cubdukat]

Just tried it. Didn't even let me get that far. The balls spun for one rotation, then it GSOD'd.

[BigJob]

cubdukat wrote:
I wasn't aware of that key combo. I'll have to try that.

However, I don't think it will let me get that far into the boot process to get to that point.

It would expedite the repair process if you can take a video of what you're currently experiencing . You have to click the escape button very fast, I have to find this video, it's very hard to get to the safe mode selection screeen but it's possible but just very hard.

Looking for this video for you. HOld.

[BigJob]

Finally found it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p852Jp6csE

it's very hard , here's how to do it, start pc > press F8 repeatedly > boot menu should pop up > on boot menu keep pressing F8 and press ESC after, this should bring up the Safe mode menu

hard because the time to press the f8 while it's on the boot menu is very small, fractions of a second quick, if you don't get it right you gotta re try.

https://superuser.com/questions/346309/f8-not-showing-advanced-boot-options-on-a-windows-7-pc

"I think I've found the answer: this YouTube video says that on some computers, F8 brings up the "Select boot device" menu that I described above, and if that happens, to hit Esc then keep hitting F8 until the Advanced Boot Options screen appears.

I'll give it a go.

Update

First attempt failed: it just booted normally.

On second attempt, I tapped the F8 as rapidly as I possibly could, after hitting the Esc key, and almost immediately got the Advanced Boot Options menu."

[cubdukat]

My bad. I thought you meant safe mode in Win10.

Yeah, I tried that too, and the results were the same.

I'd show you, but I'm having a hard time getting my iPhone to cooperate with me. I'll show you what it does when booting from the SSD and the DVD.