Troubleshooting M5F QCode 59 and no SLI

[Ferrum88]

So off the bat here are my specs:

M5F - bios 1408
2700K @ 4.6GHz
(2) Crucial 4GB 1600 ram
(2) EVGA GTX 670 in SLI (no overclock)
W7 installed on Samsung 128GB SSD
2TB WD HDD for extra space
Air cooled

Been running this since April.

Couple days ago, fails to boot. Q-Code 59. I set cpu and memory at default settings. Now boots to windows fine, I try overclocking the CPU a little bit. Finally get it up to 4.6. Everything seems normal.

Set the memory to X.M.P. profile @ 1600, Q-Code 59 comes back.
Swap memory between slots. Go to one stick, swap sticks, swap slots. Still Code 59.
Run Memtest for 2 hours on each stick separately. No errors.
Tried bios 1408, 1604 and 1802. No difference.

I'm thinking alright, possible bad memory. No big deal, I'll just run the default speed till I upgrade to 16GB.

Go to play a game and notice only one GPU, in the first slot, is recognized.
Both are getting power (fan is spinning) but not seen in bios.
Swap the GPUs between slots, still only one.
Try without SLI bridge. Nothing.
Try with one GPU in second slot, get the beeps on post that mean No GPU Detected.

I'm starting to think motherboard or cpu may have kaputt but not sure. It seems like a strange set of things to happen together but for all I know, I could be looking in the wrong place. I don't have a second CPU to try or any extra memory to eliminate them as culprits.

Sorry for the boat load of info. Tried to include anything relevant.

TLDR - Code 59, when memory at X.M.P. profile 1600 MHz and also no second GPU. Tried a couple of things. Need ideas.

[HiVizMan]

More information is better than no information mate. 🙂

Ok here is what I would like you to do, clear CMOS and then re-flash your bios to the same BIOS you have been using. I take it you have not recently updated your BIOS or anything like that.

Down load the bios file, extract the bios to the root directory of a fat formatted USB stick and use the EZFlash2 utility in the tools menu to flash. Follow the prompts and let your system do the full BIOIS update regardless how long you think it may be taking, do not power down.

Let me know if this sorts out your issue please.

[Ferrum88]

No luck, same two issues. Used bios 1408. Took like 4 seconds to update??? Said it was successful.

[HiVizMan]

And that was via USB and BIOS? 4 seconds? Hmm not to sure of that. Will test with a board and flash the same bios over it.

Go back one bios and see if that helps.

[Ferrum88]

Flashed 1309 through ez flash 2. Took longer this time, like a minute. Still same problems.

I may mess with it at a later date. I can use most of the hardware from this computer to build a new one for my father. He's got some dell from 2003 I think. This will be overkill for his needs, i.e. internet surfing and taxes, but it should last 10 years like his current one. I can upgrade in the meantime.

[HiVizMan]

The thing is you can get it to work at least, true not in the way you ideally want it to work.

And on the upside any-time you legitimately get to have new shiny toys is a win win situation.

[Ferrum88]

Are there more "drastic" ways to reflash potentially corrupted bios? Just curious.

[HiVizMan]

Yes you can buy online (EBAY) pre-flashed bios chips. It is a simple matter to swap them out.

[Ferrum88]

May have fixed it. Erased and reflashed the bios eeprom chip with AMI flash tool. Make sure to check the option to Program All Blocks I was searching for missing settings in the bios and someone had a really similar issue as me.
No matter how many times he reset and reflashed his bios, certain options wouldn't show up. Then he used the bios manufacturer's reflash tool and fixed it. Figured I'd try it out. I have a new bios chip coming anyway if things went AWOL.

I have one GPU pulled at the moment, need to put back in. Still need to test the memory and overclock. The single GPU is back at x16 speeds. I would do it now but I got work in the morning. Not sure why I'm still awake.

HiVizMan, is there anyway to change the title of the thread to say solved after I confirm everything is working? You were right all along, I needed to reflash the bios. Maybe not an ASUS recommended way but..... 🙂

[HiVizMan]

Yeah once you give me the go ahead I will edit for you.