Serious problem with CPU after resetting CMOS

[sunshine_and_ga]

Specs if needed:
i7 2600K @ 4.8GHz 1.405v (Overclock before CMOS reset)
EVGA GTX 570
ASUS Maximus IV Extreme P67 (BIOS 3208)
16GB Mushkin Enhanced Redline @ 1600MHz (7-9-8-24 1.65v)
2x OCZ Vertex 4 128GB (one for OS, one for games)
WD Caviar Black 1TB 7200RPM (mass storage)
Corsair AX1200
Corsair H100
Corsair 800D

Hey guys, i've been having a really serious problem lately with my PC. I'll try and make this as short and to the point as possible, i've tried to get help on other forums with no luck so i'm really hoping someone here can shed some light on this for me. I would very much appreciate it, this is my first build and i'm very upset about this.

For about 2 months now, my PC will randomly shut down, restart itself and freeze at the windows logo screen ("starting windows") as it's booting up.

Everytime it does it, the motherboard shows a code "10." It then shuts down then restarts itself, freezes at the windows logo screen (starting windows), then I have to hold the restart button till it shuts down because it won't do anything. I then push the power button to boot it up again and it's fine.

It doesn't happen every time, and it's completely random on when it decides to do this for some reason. It hasn't done it for almost 2 weeks after I did the Windows repair option that showed up when it happened the previous time. I thought to myself "oh I must have fixed it," but I was very wrong. It happened to me again a couple nights ago, I was so dissapointed I didn't fix it. I did the Windows repair option again, and turned off the computer.

And that brings me to why I reset CMOS. I fixed the RAM back to what it's rated for (7-9-8-24 @ 1600MHz 1.65v), disabled all C-States, and fixed boot options and that's all I touched in BIOS.

Well, now I have another problem.... All of a sudden my BCLK is now at 100.3 instead of 100.0 like it was before with my overclock, and with Turbo Mode enabled set to Auto the Core Speed of the CPU won't go above 3500GHz even though the target speed is 3800GHz.

Another weird thing is when I set the AI Overclock Tuner to Manual and Turbo Ratio to All Cores and leave it at Auto, the CPU voltage will skyrocket to 1.47v with no overclock for some reason.
(I'm trying to run the CPU at stock for a while to see if it fixes my problem that made me reset CMOS in the first place.)

Does anyone know what is causing this? Can someone please steer me in the right direction with this? I've been so stressed about this, it would be very much appreciated if I can get an answer to this. I'm so lost, and i've been trying to find an answer for so long.


Here's a picture in CPUID of the 100.3 BCLK and x35 multi:

[moorhen2]

I see you you are using a 3 series bios,how long since you upgraded to 3208,and can you tell us why you needed to,as your not running an Ivy Bridge cpu.the 3 series bios's have caused all sorts of problems for non Ivy users.

Sorry,do excuse me,welcome to the forum.....:)

[HiVizMan]

And please tell me how you did your latest BIOS update. Did you use the OS to flash your BIOS?

[sunshine_and_ga]

moorhen2 wrote:
I see you you are using a 3 series bios,how long since you upgraded to 3208,and can you tell us why you needed to,as your not running an Ivy Bridge cpu.the 3 series bios's have caused all sorts of problems for non Ivy users.

Sorry,do excuse me,welcome to the forum.....:)

I updated the BIOS a couple days after I built the rig, near the end of April i'd say. I updated it because I thought it would benefit me in some way. This is my first PC build and I thought I was doing the right thing by updating, I guess I was wrong.
Am I stuck with these whole mess of problems now?


Thank you for the welcome, much appreciated.

HiVizMan wrote:
And please tell me how you did your latest BIOS update. Did you use the OS to flash your BIOS?

I used the disc that came with the motherboard. I believe the program is called AI Suite if i'm not mistaken.

[moorhen2]

sunshine and gasoline wrote:
I updated the BIOS a couple days after I built the rig, near the end of April i'd say. I updated it because I thought it would benefit me in some way. This is my first PC build and I thought I was doing the right thing by updating, I guess I was wrong.
Am I stuck with these whole mess of problems now?


Thank you for the welcome, much appreciated.



I used the disc that came with the motherboard. I believe the program is called AI Suite if i'm not mistaken.

Please follow my instructions to the letter,and you should be fine...

Originally Posted by moorhen2

Hi there,the simple answer is yes you can,using the ROG Connect procedure,ie,download the latest bios,using a memory stick formated to Fat32,place the bios file on it,rename it to M4EZ.ROM,with the board powered down,but still power to it,place the memory stick in the ROG Connect port,press the ROG Connect button next to it for several seconds then release,the LED light next to the first bios chip will start blinking,wait for this to stop blinking,it can take a few minutes,then your good to go.It is called flashing blind,you dont need a cpu installed.Hope this helps.


Here is the port you need to use.


Please follow the above procedure,but you will need to download a pre-3 series bios,the last one before the 3 series should be good,then rename it as above,but rename it to M4E.ROM.Hope this makes sence....

[moorhen2]

One thing you should try before doing the above procedure,change to bios 2,you can do this by shuting down your PC,then press the red bios select button as shown below in red,number 17,this will select the second bios chip,then boot up as normal,see how this goes first,then get back to us.



Thanks for that HiVizMan,im blushing now,lol!!!

[sunshine_and_ga]

Moorhen, in your post where you say to press the button to load the second BIOS chip, is there any downside to this? Are the two chips exactly the same?

Is there anything I need to do in the BIOS before shutting down and pressing this?

After pressing it and loading BIOS 2, it's supposed to be a previous version correct?

Should I not touch anything in the BIOS once it's switched to BIOS 2?

I apologize for all these questions, I just want to do this right the first time around.

[moorhen2]

sunshine and gasoline wrote:
Moorhen, in your post where you say to press the button to load the second BIOS chip, is there any downside to this? Are the two chips exactly the same?

Is there anything I need to do in the BIOS before shutting down and pressing this?

After pressing it and loading BIOS 2, it's supposed to be a previous version correct?

Should I not touch anything in the BIOS once it's switched to BIOS 2?

I apologize for all these questions, I just want to do this right the first time around.

Hi there,dont panic,lol!!!,by switching to bios 2,all you are doing is using the second or backup bios,this chip will have the default bios,ie the bios the board shiped with,as long as you have never flashed this one.With your PC turned off,but still power to the board,just press the button once,you will notice the tiny LED that is lit next to "Bios chip 1" will move to "Bios chip 2",then just reboot your PC,then you can go into the bios and make any adjustments you need,you might have to set time,date etc,thats all.

[sunshine_and_ga]

Alright I gave power to the board, pressed the button and the LED went over to BIOS 2. I powered up my PC and almost immdiately after, it shut down and restarted itself. After the restart, about 3 seconds in it shut down and restarted itself again.
After the two restarts, I finally got into the BIOS. I set the RAM, boot, and c-state options I wanted and saved and exited.

After I saved and exited out of the BIOS, it shut down and restarted itself once more. After that restart, it loaded Windows. I checked CPUID right away and the BCLK is back to its normal 100.0 and the Core Speed is back to 3800GHz, even running at a lower voltage too.

BIOS 2 is version 2001 on my board.

I'm sure all of those restarts should not have happened though? That's the most i've ever seen it do that so quickly. I shut it down completely after I checked CPUID and booted up again to see if it would restart itself but it didn't that time.

I shut down again and am now posting this on my laptop. Any thoughts on why it's doing this? Or was it supposed to restart that much when switching BIOS chips?

I really appreciate you taking the time to help me out with this. 🙂

[moorhen2]

No,it is not normal to keep restarting,can you reboot the system,and keep an eye on the "Debug poster LED",this gives codes when in the boot up stage,let us know what code it gets to when and if it does a sudden reboot..Can i ask,is it a reboot,or does it BSOD,.