Two problems with Asus ROG Strix B250F Gaming

[F__Gacrux]

My previous base kit was:
Asrock Z77 Pro4,
Intel Core i7-3770k (mild overclocked to 4.5GHz),
Crucial Ballistix Sport XT 16GB DDR3-1600 CL9 (4 x 4GB).

Unfortunately after 5 years of service my motherboard died and I had to switch to a newer Intel platform, now I'm with:
Asus ROG Strix B250F Gaming,
Intel Core i7-7700,
Kingston HyperX FURY 16GB DDR4-2400 CL15 (2 x 8GB).

The rest of the setup remains the same inherited from my previous Intel 3rd gen kit:
Galax GeForce GTX 1070 EX OC SNPR White 8GB,
Asus Xonar DX,
Crucial MX100 256GB SSD (problem 1),
Western Digital RE4-GP WD2003FYPS 2TB,
Seasonic S12II 520W,
Antec Kühler H20 620,
AOC Gamer Hero G2460PF@144Hz connected with DP cable (problem 2).

And less important, Ducky Zero DK2108S USB keyboard with a Logitech G400s mouse.

I'm currently running the latest BIOS version for the Asus ROG Strix B250F Gaming motherboard (BIOS 0606 released on 2017/03/25, check here: https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/ROG-STRIX-B250F-GAMING/HelpDesk_Download/).

Problem 1: Sometimes when I turn on the computer, the motherboard goes straight to the UEFI BIOS showing my SSD (which is installed Windows Boot Manager and the Windows 10 in single boot) undetected, as if it weren't connected to the motherboard with the SATA cable, the UEFI detects only the Western Digital HDD. Hitting CTRL+ALT+DEL or resetting the computer on the case button fixes this issue, but this is annoying.

Problem 2: Sometimes my monitor won't give me video output if I turn on the monitor after pushing the button to turn on the computer. It can be clearly seen on the activity led in the computer case that it's loading Windows and everything, but no video output.

Note that I never had any of those problem before with the Asrock motherboard, only after changing to this newer Asus setup I started to have these two issues.

When I have the combination of the two problems, the computer boots into UEFI and gives me no video, so I have to push the power button on the case to try again so the computer immediately turns off (when only the second problem happens, Windows 10 closes everything normally and turn off the computer after a few seconds).

Note that I didn't changed any fancy settings under UEFI apart from the fan profiles, loaded XMP profiles of the DDR4 RAM and VTD-d enabled, everything else is just plain defaults.

I already made a clean install of Windows 10 after a SSD PSID revert and restored UEFI defaults many times.

[F__Gacrux]

I guess nobody cares unless it's a $500 motherboard with fancy custom watercooler and highly overclocked CPU. Why ASUS bother branding (and charging more for) stuff with "gaming", "strix" and whatever if support comes only with the hefty priced motherboards?

I tried to disable fast boot but it still happens from time to time. Also cleared CMOS RTC RAM from jumper, changed SATA cables, changed power supply... I'm sure this is a BIOS issue.

I also found a bug in UEFI BIOS, after setting and saving a profile in QFan Control in EZ Mode, if you try to enter in QFan Control again from EZ Mode the UEFI BIOS will freeze, the only way to change the settings is switching to advanced mode and make the changes in the Monitor tab.

[Chino]

For the display problem have you tried swapping DP cables or testing with the iGPU?

Regarding your issues with your SSD, have you tried the other SATA ports or SATA cables? Also disconnect your WD hard drive for testing as well.

[F__Gacrux]

Chino wrote:
For the display problem have you tried swapping DP cables or testing with the iGPU?

Regarding your issues with your SSD, have you tried the other SATA ports or SATA cables? Also disconnect your WD hard drive for testing as well.

Regarding the sometimes-not-detected-SSD, I already tried to swap the SATA cables (used the one from the HDD) or use brand new ones. I noticed that the BOOT_DEVICE_LED from the motherboard is lighted when this problem happens. Note that this never happens to the HDD, just to the SSD, and just like I said before, my now dead Asrock Z77 Pro4 motherboard never gave me this issue. Also there is no firmware update to the Crucial MX100, I'm already using the latest one.

Regarding the also sometimes-no-video-output from my GTX 1070, I didn't tested other video outputs and I didn't even bothered testing the iGPU since for me it's useless. Also remember, I never had this problem before with my previous defunct Asrock motherboard. The DP cable I'm using came straight from the brand new monitor box.

What I'm going to do is to test the SSD issue with another model I have here (Kingston V400 256GB) and the HDMI/DVI outputs.

[Chino]

If the Boot QLED remains lit, then the motherboard isn't detecting the presence of a boot device.

How did your previous motherboard die? We can't discard the possibility of it taking out a few of your devices.

[F__Gacrux]

The previous motherboard died overnight. The day before I used normally, turned off the computer and went sleep. The day after it won't turn on again, no fan spinning, no beeps, no leds, nothing. Since it was a 1155 socket, I had to change CPU + Motherboard + Memory. What was inherited from the previous build was GPU, PSU, Sound Card, SSD, HDD, CPU Cooler, a few fans and the case, but after a month with this new build (still with those problems) I also bought a new case too just for a fresh feeling.

I noticed my Seasonic SS-520GB is not "ErP" certified by Seasonic, so I thought it was something with this new low power standard, then yesterday night changed my PSU to a Lepa Maxbron B450-MB which is ErP certified. The first boot with this other PSU the MX100 wasn't recognized either, but from the second boot and forward it recognized it without problems, but today I turned on the computer and again the SSD wasn't being recognized and the boot went straight to the UEFI.

I tested with the three "ErP Ready" options in UEFI, disabled, S5 only and S4+S5 and all three gives me this problem.

I'm going to clone my MX100 to the Kingston UV400 and use it for a few days and check if this happens to the Kingston SSD. Despite the Kingston being a much newer drive, it considerably slower than the Crucial (almost 3 years old but is in good shape, still has about 97% of write cycles according to the Crucial software) and I'm not willing to buy a new SSD or switch to a slower one because of a faulty BIOS. I don't believe it's a issue with the SSD, it's more likely a incompatibility with the ASUS motherboard.

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I talked to Seasonic support and according to them, all Seasonic PSUs since 2010/2011 are ErP Lot 6 compliant, so my Seasonic M12II SS-520GB despite of the info about ErP compliance missing in the box and the official website (many other more recent models are also missing this info in the spec table), it's ok to work with the low power standards of the most recent Intel processors.

I changed the SSD to the Kingston UV400 and I'll test for a few days to see if the problem happens. If my Crucial MX100 is incompatible with the motherboard, I hope someday ASUS releases a BIOS update to fix this issue, the UV400 in much slower than the MX100 I was using.

[F__Gacrux]

It's been a week since I changed my CRUCIAL MX100 256GB for a KINGSTON SSDNOW UV250GB and the problem is gone, never happened to the KINGSTON SSD, this also solved the problem with the monitor sometimes not being recognized by the video card when turning on the computer, so I can conclude this second issue with the monitor was being caused by the long boot time by the UEFI trying to find the SSD drive.

What I can conclude from this is that the motherboard ASUS STRIX B250F GAMING is incompatible with the CRUCIAL MX100 SSD model, because this same SSD used to worked perfectly on my previous ASROCK Z77 PRO4 motherboard and it's currently working inside a very old COMPAQ notebook with ICH9M SATA controller.

The solution is not "use the Kingston instead the Crucial SSD", the Kingston model I currently own is much slower in certain read and write operations, I prefer to use the Crucial model.

So what can I do, hope for the best and see if ASUS ever release a BIOS update to fix this issue (and others I reported in other threads in this forum), or content myself with the situation, stay with the slower Kinston drive and never buy ASUS again?

[Eleiyas]

I have forwarded this thread onto the Admin as this is a rather peculiar issue.

Please give as much information on system specs, bios version, driver versions and everything as possible in order for us to diagnose and hopefully rectify the issue 🙂

[Bahz]

I also had 2 of these drives (which I ended up selling both), this problem was occurring for me as well and it's well documented. The drive occasionally disappears and can't be detected at startup. I contacted their support and they told me it's not a common problem, but apparently based on how many people who also had this problem, it indeed was a common problem.

I bookmarked their thread on this issue, so here it is:
http://forum.crucial.com/t5/Crucial-SSDs/MX100-will-not-boot-sometimes/td-p/158815

The issue is not with the motherboard, it's definitely the drive as one of my drives was working properly and this other drive kept doing this randomly. Crucial has this issue with "many" of their drives. I can tell you I won't be buying their stuff ever again. I RMA'd one of the drives and the replacement was working well for some time then it started happening again and then I swapped in my other drive that never had this issue and that drive also started having the same issues. In the end my solution was to sell both drives.

BTW, you can switch to IDE mode and it probably will detect it but I wasn't willing to accept that as I installed OS on AHCI, so it was annoying me and I didn't want to keep the SATA controller on IDE mode.

[F__Gacrux]

Bahz wrote:
I also had 2 of these drives (which I ended up selling both), this problem was occurring for me as well and it's well documented. The drive occasionally disappears and can't be detected at startup. I contacted their support and they told me it's not a common problem, but apparently based on how many people who also had this problem, it indeed was a common problem.

I bookmarked their thread on this issue, so here it is:
http://forum.crucial.com/t5/Crucial-SSDs/MX100-will-not-boot-sometimes/td-p/158815

The issue is not with the motherboard, it's definitely the drive as one of my drives was working properly and this other drive kept doing this randomly. Crucial has this issue with "many" of their drives. I can tell you I won't be buying their stuff ever again. I RMA'd one of the drives and the replacement was working well for some time then it started happening again and then I swapped in my other drive that never had this issue and that drive also started having the same issues. In the end my solution was to sell both drives.

BTW, you can switch to IDE mode and it probably will detect it but I wasn't willing to accept that as I installed OS on AHCI, so it was annoying me and I didn't want to keep the SATA controller on IDE mode.

I don't have BSODs, computer freezing or anything like that described in that thread, the only issue is the SSD disappearing in cold boots which some users quoted.

So, don't happen in any other computer I have (or had, I also remember using this MX100 in a old ASUS P5Q Deluxe for a month before buying the Asrock Z77 Pro4), even a jurassic Core 2 Duo T6400 Compaq notebook works fine, happens only in my Asus motherboard then it's a Crucial issue :(.

Thanks for your response anyway.

I can't RMA my Crucial drive because I bought it while I was in France in 2015, now I live in Brazil and I don't even think it's under warranty anymore since it's have been almost 3 years.

I'm sad 😞

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I disabled Smart Self Test in UEFI and surprisingly my MX100 now is detected in cold boot, tested about 10 times in a row.

When I say cold boot, I follow this pattern: turn off computer, remove power cable, bleed the capacitors by pushing the ON button on the case until the LEDs on the motherboard turn off, plug the power cable, wait for the LEDs on the motherboard lit and turn on the computer.

With Smart Self Test set enabled, following this pattern the SSD is missing in cold boot, motherboard POST straight to UEFI and I have to reset to get my SSD detected.

I have tested many other options such as enabling and disabling hot plug, change ErP modes, enable and disable RGB LED Lighting, change PCIE modes (because of the monitor issue, I thought it could be my GTX 1070) and many other stuff, but always ignored the Smart Self Test option.

Now I'm going to make a fresh Windows 10 install and test for a week and hope this never happen again.