Maximus vii Ranger q-code 00 and no post

[colin51]

**************************** PROBLEM SOLVED ****************************

Hi everyone,
My first post here and unfortunately a problem with a new build. I have purchased an asus bundle as follows :-

MAXIMUS VII RANGER, Core i7-4790K & 8GB Veng Pro Ultimate

To make the whole system I have also purchased :-

Corsair H100i Hydro Series Extreme Performance CPU Cooling
Corsair 860W AX860i 80PLUS Platinum High Performance Digital PSU
Corsair Vengeance C70 PC Gaming Case Military Green
2 x Corsair 128GB M550 SATA 6GB/s 2.5" 7mm Solid State Drive
1 x WD 1TB Black SATA 6GB/s 7200RPM 64MB 3.5" AF Hard Drive
Asus Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 DirectCU II OC 2GB GDDR5 Graphics Card

I have also purchased an addition 8GB Veng Pro Ultimate memory to make 16Gb total. I will also be adding a resent 3TB WD Blue drive from my old system.

The build for the new system went very well with a very clean and neat result following PCDIY on YouTube. Not my first build by the way but the last was about 5 years ago.

Anyway my problem is that on first boot ( and subsequently ) the system powers up but will not post. The MB lights up, all fans power on for a few seconds. The Hi100 cooler lights and fans and pump are working BUT the Q-code indicator shows 00 with no other warning lights showing and that's as far as it gets.

I have removed the graphics card, switched memory across all configurations. removed the bios battery, reset bios, done a complete bios update via flashback. The only thing I haven't done yet is remove the processor. I will do so but I took great care with personal earthing and pin protection when I fitted the i7. I'm at a loss now and thinking of returning the MB but am I missing something? It appears that others have had similar problems with Asus boards but I have been unable to find any pointers as to possible solutions.

Any ideas, or links, or hopefully a simple silly process that I should follow would be much appreciated.

Colin51

[MeanMachine]

Hi colin51 and Welcome to ROG.
Unfortunately Qcode 00 is not documented as far as I can tell, Some seem to think it is a failure to recognize the CPU however, one thing I have picked up on is you have purchased 16GB of DIMMs in separate kits. This may or may not be an issue, but mixing separate kits is not recommended and the cause of many failures.
I would remove your DIMMs except for one in the first slot to see if it will post, If it does then add in the rest of that same kit and reboot.
List the frequency and stats of your DIMMs to check please.

As you have tried most other obvious things, you may have to check out your CPU for possible bent socket pins and also conduct a Fault Finding procedure.
Try the above first and I can give you the FF procedure if unsuccessful.
MM

[colin51]

MeanMachine wrote:
Hi colin51 and Welcome to ROG.
Unfortunately Qcode 00 is not documented as far as I can tell, Some seem to think it is a failure to recognize the CPU however, one thing I have picked up on is you have purchased 16GB of DIMMs in separate kits. This may or may not be an issue, but mixing separate kits is not recommended and the cause of many failures.
I would remove your DIMMs except for one in the first slot to see if it will post, If it does then add in the rest of that same kit and reboot.
List the frequency and stats of your DIMMs to check please.

As you have tried most other obvious things, you may have to check out your CPU for possible bent socket pins and also conduct a Fault Finding procedure.
Try the above first and I can give you the FF procedure if unsuccessful.
MM

Thanks for getting back to me MM. The memory with the kit is Corsair 8GB (2 x 4GB) Vengeance Pro Black DDR3 1866MHz CL9 Memory (CMY8GX3M2A1866C9), I bought Corsair CMY8GX3M2A1866C9R Vengeance Pro Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1866 Mhz CL9 XMP Performance Desktop Memory Kit Red. I believe the only difference is the Red cover? Anyway I have tried all variations of memory and memory slots with no affect but will try again once I take the processor off and check that. I had to order a CPU cleaning kit and new thermal paste before taking the processor out and checking the pins. Arrives tomorrow so will let you know what I find.
I will also probably take the motherboard out of the case to check for any shorts on the back of the board as I read one thread elsewhere who had a similar problem with the dreaded 00 code on their asus ROG board.
I do hope this is going to be simple.

Colin51

[colin51]

Well I have taken the CPU out and minutely checked all pins with no fault visible. I have rechecked all RAM with no issues. I am now completely stuck. The board powers up, water cooler fans and MB lights etc but the infamous Q-code 00 with no post.
No error LEDs show either which is annoying. Time to return the MB to DABs I guess? Really frustrating as in 20 years of PC building I have never had such an issue. Perhaps I should have stayed with Gigabyte boards which have never given me problems.

Colin51:mad:

[chevell65]

According to the compatible memory list for Z97 , the memory you are using may not be compatible with Z97. Neither of those Corsair memory's are on the list. In fact all of the compatible Corsair memory's start with either CMX or CMV but you are using CMY. I'd have to try using one of the compatible memory's before returning the board.

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1150/MAXIMUS-VII-HERO/MAXIMUS_VII_HERO_MEMORY_QVL.pdf

[colin51]

chevell65 wrote:
According to the compatible memory list for Z97 , the memory you are using may not be compatible with Z97. Neither of those Corsair memory's are on the list. In fact all of the compatible Corsair memory's start with either CMX or CMV but you are using CMY. I'd have to try using one of the compatible memory's before returning the board.

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1150/MAXIMUS-VII-HERO/MAXIMUS_VII_HERO_MEMORY_QVL.pdf

Hi chevell65,

Interesting point as DABS was selling the memory as part of a bundle. Does anyone here know if the memory will work or not?
EDIT ** in actual fact the memory is shown as compatible in the manual of the rampage on page 1-15 so that is not the issue. Back to frustration. ** EDIT

Colin51

[chevell65]

Yes the book shows many more than the link. Did you check the latency and voltage settings against the settings that the XMP assigned?

What's strange is that I've seen the 00 code and everything works fine for me. I usually see the dreaded A0 which works equally well for me.

[NemesisChild]

chevell65 wrote:
Yes the book shows many more than the link. Did you check the latency and voltage settings against the settings that the XMP assigned?

What's strange is that I've seen the 00 code and everything works fine for me. I usually see the dreaded A0 which works equally well for me.

Code A0 is normal operation.

[chevell65]

NemesisChild wrote:
Code A0 is normal operation.

That's what I thought but I saw people saying dreaded A0 code and couldn't figure it why because it always works for me. The 00 code should be working as well.

[MeanMachine]

Hi colin51. You will have to conduct a Fault Finding procedure if you can't post and all what you have tried has failed.

The dreaded "FF" POST code, or no POST at all.
This fix is best done outside a case to ensure the case isn't shorting the motherboard:
Qcode: FF indicates Fault Found.

1) If you know what burnt electronics smell like, then smell your motherboard. I'm not joking. Specifically around the VREG (left/above the socket), Southbridge (below the socket) and Chipset (right of the PCI slots) areas. If you smell burnt electronics, keep that in mind if you hit step (7b) below as that'll mean its the motherboard 99.9% of the time.

2) Test the PSU with a tester, if it's not beeping/blinking at you then it's ok. Unplug and re-plug the 24-pin connection several times. Keep an eye on the "PG" and see if it ever reports 0ms or 999ms as this means it's a bad PSU (since this is unloaded it won't fail the PSU tester every time even though it will fail the motherboard every time). If you don't have PSU tester, swap in your known-good PSU.

3) With the PSU verified to be good, plug in ONLY the power to the motherboard (20+4-pin and 4/8-pin CPU power, but NOT the 4-pin molex connection if it has one). Disconnect EVERYTHING else from power (hard drives, DVD drives, etc).

4) Remove all RAM. Remove all GPUs. Remove all other PCI/PCI-e cards. Unplug all the cables (including SATA, IDE, FDD, SAS, USB, Firewire, HD Audio, and all the switches but the power switch) from the motherboard. You should have just your MoBo, CPU, HSF, PSU and a power switch connected right now. Disconnect EVERYTHING from the front and back panels of the computer, including your mouse and keyboard.
4a) if your computer does NOTHING when you hit the power button, plug the reset switch into the power switch pins on the motherboard and use the reset button in case the power button has gone bad - yes, it happens, no it won't damage anything.

5) Remove the BIOS battery and leave it out until you're told to put it back in.

6) Power on the computer. If it beeps or gives a POST code other than FF then go to (7a) below, if not check out (7b)

7a) If it beeps at you, or gives any POST code other than FF then turn it back off. Leave the BIOS battery out. You will now add in 1 piece of hardware, power it on, check if it POSTs (and gives any error other than FF), if it does, turn it back off and add the next component. Start with RAM, one stick at a time, then GPUs, one at a time, then other expansion cards, finally HDDs/DVD drives - rebooting between each and every part.

8a) If it starts giving an FF code or stops POSTing all together then the last component you added is bad.

9a) If it doesn't give a FF error code and is still POSTing with all your hardware back in, shut it down again, put the BIOS battery back in and power back on one more time. If it gives an FF code now, replace your BIOS battery.

10a) If it works with everything back in, then your motherboard lives to fight another day.

7b) If it still POSTs as FF or not at all in this condition remove the CPU, make sure the pins are intact, reseat the CPU and HSF and try it again. If it still posts FF you either have a bad motherboard (about 95% of the time or about 100% if you smelled burnt electronics in step 1) or a bad CPU (about a 5% chance).

8b) Swap in a known working motherboard if you have one to test the CPU is good, or bring in a spare CPU to test the motherboard with. Whichever part fails is the culprit, replace it and go again.

As you see it can mean a number of things, so follow these steps and see how you go.