MVF WIN8 x64 Locks Up / Freezes During Very First Power Up of The Day

[limitz]

Hey fellow Members',

First post here but long time lurker.
I've built this computer about 1 month ago and have been slowly working out the small kinks of the system. So far most have been stable as far as I can tell. I must mention I am new to OC'ing but not so new in the PC world. 🙂

The issue I am facing and unable to resolve is an issue at the very first startup of the day, usually in the morning and sometimes if the PC has been shutoff for 4 hours or more. I don't have this issue during Restarts at all.

This is what happens:
1) Powers up
2) Posts
3) Asus Logo
4) Second Asus Logo
5) Spinning dotted loading screen under Asus Logo and this is where it locks up forcing me to press the Restart button on the case
5a) After restart and Win8 is loaded and at the desktop, the Sound Icon is always muted on the taskbar (this always happens after a lockup only). If I restart the PC continuously during the day the Sound icon is never muted again, until the next lockup.
6) Q-codes are A0 (almost all the time) and sometimes I see 80 (yes, no confusion as they do look similar, lol)
7) Also when at the dashboard and everything is up and running my Q-codes are ALWAYS either A0 or 80, not sure if this is good or bad...?

Here are my specs:
Maximus V Formula (BIOS 1604)
Windows 8 Pro w/WMC x64
i7 3770K (O.C. 4.2 via Ai Suite II)
Corsair Dominator GT XMP 2000 8GB 2x4 (set at 1866 @ 1.65v)
Corsair GT 120GB SSD x2 RAID 0 and Seagate HDD 2TB x2
Corsair 1050HX PSU
EVGA GTX 580 Reference (iGPU disabled)
ASUS Xonar Essence STX Sound Card (Supreme FX disabled, drivers are installed)
Corsair Obsidian 800D
I reside in San Francisco and my morning ambient temps can be as low as 45F and 55F during the afternoon.

I hope someone can help me with this great annoyance please.
If you require more info. feel free to ask! Thanks in advance. 🙂
P.s. I love the MVF board it's an outstanding piece of board. I came from an ASUS P8P67 until it crashed and burned. 😛

[limitz]

Hey I decided to do a fresh install of Windows 8 x64 (non EFI this time), reinstalled everything just about the same it was previously, used AI Suite for OC (BIOS OC pending). Now, instead of getting the ROG logo (think due to EFI WIN8 install) at windows loading screen I am seeing the official Windows 8 logo (think due to non-EFI WIN8 install). And guess what happens, or doesn't happen anymore? No more lockups at loading screen, even after long periods of downtime. Now, in the mornings and evenings it will boot up just fine. However, I do get the occasional BIOS reset settings on its own bugger.

-Reason for non-EFI WIN8 install-
Attempted to install WIN8 Pro x64 EFI via UEFI USB Sandisk
Attempted to F6 to load RAID driver v11.7 from within USB Sandisk and Internal HDD
Both methods caused it to message an error/reject the driver or would cause a lockup.

-Luckily I had the WIN8 disc on hand-
No UEFI option for ATAPI DVD drive, so booted from DVD, loaded install screen.
F6 to load driver from both media sources and it worked without an issue.
Windows 8 Pro now is installed in RAID 0, but NOT in EFI unfortunately.

I am kind of confused as to why it no longer accepts the RAID drivers now when attempting to install windows 8 in EFI, especially when I was able to do a previous install IN UEFI, EFI.

Does Windows 8 EFI need a specific RAID driver version for compatibility reasons?
I know I have only played around with RAID drivers Intel RST 11.6 (ASUS site) and 11.7 (Intel download), both F6 versions.

edit: since after reading this "How to RAID..." article. Does F6'ing to load RAID driver before Windows 8 install even required anymore? I just did what the MVF manual instructed. Maybe it is outdated or obsolete now. The above article mentions nothing about F6 RAID loading... 😛

[limitz]

Tried my hand in OCing in BIOS and was fun to do. Nothing blew up or caught on fire.
The lockup issue seems to have died since windows fresh install non-uefi.

-mine currently followed ASUS MVF 4.7 Tuning Guide-
Basic OC 4.2Ghz goal
Idle temps - 30, 29, 27, 24
Max temps - 68, 73, 68, 67 (Prime95 small FFT 1 Hour)
cpu-z - vcore 1.176 idle and at max (set to 1.160 in BIOS)
coretemp VID 1.1359 idle and 1.3590 max
XMP 2000Mhz 1.65v

going to try another members setting to reach 4.5ghz with low V and C*.

wish me luck lol

thanks you guys

[limitz]

No lockups still going strong 😄

here is another member with exact problem. so i am not alone.