Z270I Motherboard first startup

[Seraphim5683]

Hi all, complete noob here who just built his first PC in a Phanteks Evolv Shift case using the Strix Z270I motherboard. I bought the motherboard off of Amazon Warehouse (open box deals) which seemed to be brand new and unopened when it arrived. After my build was finished I had trouble booting the PC and had to jumpstart the motherboard, which worked. However the first boot did not work as described in the manual... There was no POST, no beeps, no screen prompts, nothing. I unplugged the PSU and figured out the power button was disconnected at the source in the Phanteks case and managed to fix it. The second boot showed the ASUS logo, any devices connected to the motherboard and went straight into BIOS.

Based on the info above I have a few questions:
1. Are there any side effects for the motherboard not going through POST on its first run?
2. Is there any way to reset the motherboard so it goes through POST again?
3. Could it be caused by me having to jumpstart it on the first boot?

I realize the motherboard may have actually been used once since I got it off of Amazon Warehouse but I swear everything came factory sealed when I received it... I appreciate any feedback even if I'm overreacting to all of this.

[Nate152]

Hi seraphim5683

1) No
2) Restart your pc
3) possibly

Now that you have the case power button connected and is working all should be good.

Did your board come with a Q-connector ?

http://event.asus.com/2012/mb/tco_qr/pages/SuperiorDesign/Q-Connector.html

[Seraphim5683]

Hi Nate152, thanks for the feedback. It did come with a Q-Connector. Do you advise using it instead of just plugging the power switch into the motherboard?

[Nate152]

Well, the Q-Connector makes it easy and is marked where all the leads go.

If you have everything connected you can let it as is, if you only have the power switch connected, get the Q-connector and use it.

[Korth]

I always the ASUS Q-Connectors, makes swapping boards so much easier/faster. The Q-Connector pinout is even compatible with many non-ASUS boards, though always best to double-check before plugging these in.

But it's not strictly needed.

[Seraphim5683]

Thanks all for the help. I ran into another snag trying to install Windows 7... I made a USB using the official downloadable ISO and injected USB 3.0 and NVMe drivers. It works like a charm on my new laptop but on my desktop I run into the dreaded "A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing" error. And yes, I have tried removing the thumb drive during the welcome screen and moving it in all of my 8 available ports, no go.

I also tried every permutation of the USB configuration settings in the BIOS... any suggestions?

[Nate152]

I'm not sure windows 7 is compatible with kabylake.

I see you're using the Strix Z270I which is for kabylake but can also run skylake cpu's which support windows 7.

[Seraphim5683]

Nate152 wrote:
I'm not sure windows 7 is compatible with kabylake.

I see you're using the Strix Z270I which is for kabylake but can also run skylake cpu's which support windows 7.

I have a SKylake i5-6600k CPU.

Also, I disabled Legacy USB Support in BIOS just to see if it changes anything and now the keyboard and mouse are no longer functional. I can't navigate the BIOS settings anymore... any way to force reset the default settings?

[Nate152]

Yeah, reset to defaults with the cmos jumper. Make sure your pc is off.

[Seraphim5683]

Nate152 wrote:
Yeah, reset to defaults with the cmos jumper. Make sure your pc is off.

Done, thanks. Now to figure out why Windows 7 won't install... I also have a Windows PE rescue media done with Macrium Reflect that won't recognize any USB drives installed even though BIOS shows them correctly. It has to be a driver issue...