Max VI formula won't boot after OC error AE and bsod

[welshy46]

Just bought the Maximus VI formula a week or so ago after junking my VI hero which I had replaced my Maximus III extreme and i7-875k with, after 3 years of faultless service. Still the best board I've owned with the possible exception of the VI hero. I don't rate the formula simply because I could post the same 3dmark scores on both boards and the £60 extra on the formula is too much. Although I put a lot of the OC problem down to the core i7 4770k, i can only manage a 4.6 stable OC on it with either the hero or formula. I had my 875k 2.93 at 4.6 for over 2 years using corsair h50 water cooler without issue.

Anyway to the problem. I got the formula fitted and immediately ran into problems, usb's not working, no lan, boot drive not where I thought I put it. My fault the last one, didn't check which was SATA 1. Just assumed it was the one closest to the top of board, oops. Obviously number 1 is in the middle. Got that sorted by referring to the instructions, man card is looking likely to be revoked. Went into BIOS and resolved other problems. The thing still wont boot. Had a fiddle around in the BIOS again and finally got it going, Hurrah. Spent the last week playing BF4 and playing around in the BIOS to try and justify the extra £60 to no avail. Can't get it to run stable at more than 3.6 and max 3dmark of 38586, the VI hero managed 38846. Now, the problem. After not being able to get it too boot the first time I changed something in the BIOS and for life of me I can't remember what it was.

I've checked the RAM, the graphics card, I've reinstalled the III extreme and everything worked fine. I'm stumped on what to try next. I can't test the CPU or board independantly of each other in other hardware, got no similar spec parts. Tried to boot from disc and it still BSOD's. reset CMOS. Any ideas or suggestions welcome.

[HiVizMan]

Hello mate sorry to hear about your hassles.

Here is what I would do.

Pull your other SATA devices from the system. Ensure you SSD (or is it a mechanical drive?) is in the correct SATA port. Just trial and error if need be, plug it in and boot to bios see which sata port is populated. Remember if you installed the OS using the IDE mode you will need to set that in bios again.

Then once done, boot to OS once.

Power down and then add the other hard drives.

[welshy46]

Hi HiVizMan, thanks for the response. I've been systematically testing the hardware as much as I can with only one 1150 board and cpu. I can't imagine I have bricked the chip or board, never spun the cpu up past 4.8 and that was days ago. Been playing BF$, in ultra. What a sight, at the time of the failure I had it on it's stock settings. Reflashed the BIOS and tried your suggestion of switching to IDE. Still the same, Going to keep at it. what I can't figure out is why it would still bsod, error 0x000074 bad_system_config_info even with a fresh BIOS and running the windows 7 operating system install. I am at the stage of checking settings that can't possibly affect the boot sequence but too rule things out I'm checking what I can.

[welshy46]

I think I royally screwed the windows start up programs when messing with the OC. I have switched back to my rampage III Extreme. so the only change is the board, chip and storage drive. I reverted back to my 1tb HDD which i used as my primary drive on the III extreme and ran checks on the 120gb SSD I bought for the VI hero which is now a VI formula thanks to a costly school boy screwdriver error with the motherboard.

I think the best thing to do now is wipe the SSD and do a clean install of windows 7 64. Hopefully this and not too fast a jump while OCing will keep everything tickety boo.

[HiVizMan]

OC can and often does result in your MBR getting messed up. That is why I always make certain I do my OC settings before I plug my 24/7 OS into the system.

Do the clean new install with only the SSD fitted please.

[welshy46]

well the mystery of the uncooperative motherboard looks like it's at it's conclusion. Took the board fella. scan in Bolton and they tested it their and then. The board is fine, however it looks like the 4770k isn't. Taking it in tomorrow to let them check it. it's not looking good for the little fella.

[HiVizMan]

Scan are good like that.

Yeah I am seeing heaps of CPUs that are opdef at the moment. You are not alone there.

[welshy46]

Just to clarify and wrap up this thread , it was the 4770k that was dead. the motherboard is fine, scan replaced the CPU straight away and everything is now good. Installed windows 7 and Battlefield 4 no probs, had a quick tinkle in the BIOS and it's happily sitting at 4.6ghz and benching nicely. Thanks HiVizMan for the advice and the guys at scan for their fast service.

[HiVizMan]

Respect to you for taking the time to update the thread so I can close it as solved.

Thread Closed