Crosshair V Formula Z Voltage Monitor Freeze

[Vizhous]

Hey,

today I had a little usb problem, still not fixed but not that important, and just thought hey, lets look into the bios maybe there's something I need to change. There was not. I still looked at the Monitoring and out of curiosity I looked at the voltage monitor and everything was fine. But then it froze. I thought well, happens. I rebooted and looked at it again. Before doing so I looked at almost every other tab in my bios. No freezes. I switched back to voltage monitor and it froze within 2 sec.

So, my question is, what's wrong with that? My Bios is really outdated I think, but there was no real reason for me to update it. It's 0401.

Half an hour ago I looked at it again and had to restart again. This time while booting there was an error message. I attached a picture of it. Something with my memory and outdated bios...

My memory is running at 1333 and I don't know whats wrong with that?

I already googled this voltage monitor freeze thing, but the only threads I found were of people who hadn't already installed windows and they were in the bios and had this freeze problem. Most of them also had ram problems in memtest or people said to them that there psu may be defect.

But my pc is already running for months. It passed Memtest successful and I had no other freezes. I don't really think there's something wrong with my ram or psu. This is only happening in this one tab of bios.


Also in some of this threads I read people talked about the voltages going red before the freeze happened. In 4 out of 5 freezes the voltages were not red. Just one time the nb voltage was red, I don't know why, but I guess it maybe was because the freeze started to happen.

Anyway, I hope you can help me and I hope this is just a software fault and nothing serious.

Thank you very much!

[TheNerdBench]

Greetings and welcome to the Asus ROG Forum,

Always a good idea to do a little research first...not many individuals do that before posting their problem:)

So when monitoring the voltages from the Health Monitor page of the BIOS your system locked up?

If this is the case I would suspect one of the following:
a) your PSU is acting up (which happens over time)
b) the hardware monitoring device on the motherboard may be in the early stages of failing
c) not all that common but your BIOS may of become corrupt in some manner

Maybe this is a fluke or maybe this symptom is an early warning of some type of impending failure.

This is what I would "do" if this was my system:
1) turn the PSU switch to the OFF/0 position (but leave the power cord plugged in for grounding purposes) and wait 60 seconds until the +Vsb voltage is discharged
2) unplugged the following connectors and check for melted plastic or corroded pins on the following connectors:
- Main ATX Power Connector
- Aux 4-Pin CPU Power Connector (if this connector is not populated this very well may be the problem)
- Aux 8-Pin CPU Power Connector (this connector should be populated with your FX-8350 CPU)
- Just to be safe make sure the EZPLUG connector is populated also
3) remove your memory and re-seat

At this point I would power up your system and let it "sit" on the voltage monitoring in the BIOS

If it is still locking up I would flash the BIOS to 1901 or 2002

If even after a BIOS update your system is still locking up then I would attempt to use a different PSU to verify that this resolves the problem.

Post back with what you find out...I'm guessing memory or power connector issues...of feel free to ask more questions (please post full system specs too; that helps).

PS: If you memory is "rated" for let's say 1866 MHz and the memory is running at 1333 MHz I would change the memory timing to the memory's rate speed (in this example 1866 MHz).

[Vizhous]

Hey, thank you!

Yea I should have listed my system:

FX 8350
Crosshair V Formula Z
GTX 770 4GB Phantom
16 GB (8x2) Corsair Dominator Platinum 1866/1600 not quite sure right now.
Corsair AX 1200i PSU

I have my memory mhz on auto and not on 1866/1600 because I wasn't quite sure what would work better with my processor and the performance boost isn't that big anyway. I also have no clue about voltages and on what they have to be on the different mhz. I think I'll change that 😄

Well, it sounds like you really expect a technical and not a software failure 😞 That wouldn't be that nice. But I just can't believe that because there is nothing special about the voltage monitor. The voltage monitor doesn't stress the system and it monitors the system regardless of if I look at it or not, right? So why should it just happen there? I got no other freezes. What could be so special about the voltage monitor? If it would happen every time I stress my PC I would think its more because of technical things.

Anyway, I don't say you're wrong, I'm just curious.

Back to your instructions:

If I unplug them and check for meltings or corroded pins should I check both sides of the cable or just the end which is at the motherboard?

What do you mean with: "- Just to be safe make sure the EZPLUG connector is populated also ?"

I'll do all of what you said, thanks! By the way, how could I check for a memory issue?

And if I would have to try another PSU, is it okay to have the new PSU outside of the case ? Maybe on a table or something like that? I guess that's not ideal and I have to build it in, right?

Thank you very much!

[TheNerdBench]

See comments below:

I have my memory mhz on auto and not on 1866/1600 because I wasn't quite sure what would work better with my processor and the performance boost isn't that big anyway.

Again me being me I would set the memory to whatever MHz it is rated at...you don't need to adjust any voltages or anything like that.

The voltage monitor doesn't stress the system and it monitors the system regardless of if I look at it or not, right? So why should it just happen there?

Correct but the system may be freezing because the BIOS is making a call to read the voltages from the hardware monitoring chip every 1/2 second or so. Question; do you have AI Suite or other Hardware Monitoring Utililty (HW Info for example) installed to monitor the voltages?

If I unplug them and check for meltings or corroded pins should I check both sides of the cable or just the end which is at the motherboard?

Check both 🙂

Just to be safe make sure the EZPLUG connector is populated also ?
That is the Molex connector located between the top PCIe X16 slot and the CPU socket; see the motherboard manual for more info

By the way, how could I check for a memory issue
You could use Memtest86 but I was just referring to pulling the memory and re-installing.

And if I would have to try another PSU, is it okay to have the new PSU outside of the case ? Maybe on a table or something like that? I guess that's not ideal and I have to build it in, right?

That is extactly what I would do...run other PSU next to the case.

Thank you very much!

Your Welcome and post back with more questions or if you think you resolved the problem...would like to know what the problem is/was 🙂

[Vizhous]

Sooo, I followed your steps.

I checked the 24pin and 8pin power connectors. I can't see any meltings or corroded pins. My 4 pin cpu cable is not connected because I used the 8 pin, which is right for the fx 8350, isn't it? The 4 pin ezplug is also not connected, because in the manual it's written that you only need it for multiple graphic cards. Should I connect it anyway?

I still attached the photos of what I did, just to be safe.

I also took the memory out and in again.

Then I started my pc again and looked into the bios. First of all I changed my memory to 1866 and saved and resetted. My Pc restarted normally and then I looked into the bios again and switched to the voltage monitor. It froze again after maybe 2 sec. I had to use the reset button. After the reset the same error message I posted above was there ("memory ok!...").

I don't know why it was there, but I knew that it had set the memory back to 1333 so I started bios and changed it back to 1866. I used save and reset again, but this time my computer really turned off and started again. I was kinda surprised that it really turned off, like completely. The first time I exited the bios with safe and reset it didn't turn off completely, atleast I think so. Well, maybe that's normal.

All in all my memory is back to 1866 and my sytem still runs fine but I can't look at the voltage monitor.


And yea I already used monitoring programs in windows which also read the voltage. No problems there. If I go into ez mode in bios, I can also see the voltages. Not all of them but in the main menu of ezmode there are some of the voltages displayed.

I think I'll need to update my bios next. Is there anything I have to take care about before that? I never updated bios because it wasn't really necessary. Is there anything that can go wrong when I update my bios?

Pictures:

First two are the main power cable at the mainboard. Next two are the 8 pin at the mainboard.
Pciture 5/6 are main power at the psu.

[Vizhous]

-double post

[Vizhous]

Oh and the 8 pin power cable end at the motherboard had 1 one thing that wasn't normal. I attached another picture.

One corner, I hope you can see it, is "cut off obliquely". That's what google translate said. I'm not a native speaker so I don't know how to describe it. But the corner of the pin isn't really a corner. But I don't think that has something to do with this issue. Anway, thanks!

[MeanMachine]

Hi Vizhous,

Updateing your Bios is a very simple task with this motherboard If you follow my instruction.

First go to Asus support site and download the latest BIOS which is 2002, onto a blank usb stick.

Obtain the renaming tool at the same time, and make sure they are both on the same usb stick together on their own.

Now run the renaming tool and it will convert the file to CSFZ.CAP.

Check the .CAP file has been created then remove the other file except the .CAP.

Plug your usb stick into the ROG usb Bios flashback port on the IO panel.

Then hold in and press the ROG Connect button till you see it flashing, sometimes it just needs a short press. Then let it do its stuff.

When it stops flashing your done.

Just make sure your system is powered down but still with power to the system. (Important!!!).

There are other methods of course, but I have found it to be the safest.

Updateing a BIOS always has a risk,should your power fail during the process you may be unable to boot but your fairly safe if you do it correctly, An updated BIOS usually yields good results.

[Vizhous]

Picture 7/8 are 8pin at psu and the last is the voltage monitor while beein frozen.

[Vizhous]

"Plug your usb stick into the ROG usb Bios flashback port on the IO panel.

Then hold in and press the ROG Connect button till you see it flashing, sometimes it just needs a short press. Then let it do its stuff.

When it stops flashing your done. "

All of this while the system is shut down? So nothing in the bios like ez flash or something like that?