I just put together a system using a ROG Strix B760-F Gaming WiFi motherboard and an i5 14600K CPU. I know using an unlocked CPU on this board is largely pointless, but anyway the whole thing seems to be possessed.
The system initially booted into the BIOS and then ran for about 60 seconds before just turning off and not restarting until the CMOS was reset. I removed absolutely everything and ran with just the CPU (+ cooler, obviously) and a single stick of RAM. Tried it out with two different PSUs, and it still did the same thing. Temps looked fine in the BIOS, couldn't see any physical issues but took the CPU out and inspected it, couldn't see a problem. Put it back together and it ran for a good 10 minutes. Ok, I thought — seems to have sorted itself out. Good system! Well done!
So I Installed the latest BIOS (process went fine), the GPU (4070 Super OC), 1TB SSD and 32GB DDR5 RAM and actually had the thing install and boot into Windows. Even played a game for about 30 minutes. It ran smoothly and with absolutely no problems. Good system! Well done!
Then I quit the game and once the system got back to the Windows desktop, it died again without warning. Restarted it after a CMOS reset and installed all the ASUS drivers in existence. It stayed up another few minutes before deciding that I'd had all I was going to get, and it died again.
I've since had it running for a maximum of about five minutes, but more generally it'll only stay up for about a minute or two. Again, temps are fine — CPU sitting at around 29-33C and nothing else getting hot. It's not the PSU as I've tried two different (definitely working) units with the same behaviour — it's currently (not) running with a Corsair RM750e.
Once it dies, it won't turn on again unless the CMOS is reset or it's left for a long time with the power disconnected (even if you plug in a different PSU, so it's not the PSU tripping). Or... if you just leave it after it turns itself off, it randomly turns itself on again — lights and fans all on, everything spinning up for about 5 seconds and then it's dead again. This might be once every 10-20 minutes, or sometimes after just 30 seconds.
None of it makes any sense! Is the motherboard completely screwed or is it the CPU? If it's the CPU then why would the motherboard be attempting to fire everything up again every so often? What do I return as faulty? Or is this just a terribly unstable and ill-advised CPU/motherboard combo? Or is there something I can change in the BIOS that would make this thing stable? Obviously it's running with stock settings virtually all the time as the CMOS gets wiped so often.
Thanks to anybody who can diagnose this or offer any suggestions! I've had components die on me before, and I've had components arrive dead, but never had anything behave like this. I'm starting to think it's possessed. It just turned on the fans for three seconds right now... I think it's trying to communicate. And then ten seconds later it booted into the BIOS and happily reported everything fine at 31C CPU, 21C motherboard and 38C chipset temp. For 20 seconds. Now it's just died again.
