Maximus VI Extreme Operational Issues

[NDarkstar]

I'm at a bit of a loss here, so I'm hoping someone might have some suggestions for a Windows 8.1 freezing issue that's come up recently.

The problem tends to occur any time a driver update / install is attempted. The system will literally stop responding. The HDD access light will light and remain solid. If the reset button is immediately pressed, the machine will reset normally. If I wait to reset, tapping the button has no immediate effect, then after around 10 seconds, the machine will power hard power off but will usually restart within a second or two. Sometimes after these delayed resets, the computer will pause after POSTing with a 'CPU overtemp' message prompting me to check the BIOS. When checking the information in the system monitors, the temperature appears to be within expected operational temperatures.

The initial freeze that caused me to begin testing was a bluescreen that was identified as having been caused by the Intel Ethernet driver. Downloading and attempting an install of the new driver caused the freezing to reveal itself.

After attempting to get the driver installed, thinking it was the root cause, I gave up on the Windows 8.1 install as having been corrupted and wiped it clean and began a fresh install. The first time through the fresh install, drivers would install correctly, including the 'faulty' Intel Ethernet driver, however after an hour or two into reinstalling software, the issue resurfaced.

Thinking to attempt to recreate the issue, I wiped and installed again, this time starting with a known good driver, and the machine immediately froze. This was literally the very first driver install I attempted on a completely stock W8.1.

At this point, I'm beginning to suspect it's either a hardware issue, or some sort of tweak I need to perform in the BIOS that I'm entirely unfamiliar with.

The issue has not occurred when installing 'normal' software - games, browsers, and the like. It only appears to happen when installing a driver. It doesn't appear to matter who the driver is from as the problem has come up with ASUS, Intel, and nVidia drivers.

First, the hardware:

Maximus VI Extreme BIOS version 1002
Intel i7-4770 (Not 4770K)
32GB Crucial Ballistix DDR3-1600
nVidia GTX 560 Ti (Primary Monitor)
nVidia GTX 465 (Secondary and Tertiary Monitors)
Samsung SSD 840 Pro 256GB Primary drive
Seagate 3TB Secondary
Seagate 2TB Tertiary
Windows 8.1 Pro

The settings are simple, no overclocking whatsoever. After the issue started occurring, I reset the settings to the default suggested settings in the bios in an attempt to resolve the issue. This had no apparent effect as the issue still occurs.

Any thoughts or suggestions? There was another thread with a similar issue under W8.1 but the person posting the problem seems to have stopped responding, so if nothing else, it doesn't appear to just be me.


Brad

[NDarkstar]

Ran a lot of tests over the weekend. Let Prime95 run for about two hours with no issues. Wiped and re-installed Windows 8.1 with all UFEI options disabled in the BIOS and set to run in legacy mode. Swapped three different graphics cards into and out of the system. Went down to one stick of memory with five different sticks. Re-installed on a non-SSD.

None of these resolved the issue. Most driver installs would still cause the system to freeze with the HDD access light remaining solid indicating constant access. A couple guaranteed to cause this freeze are the latest Intel LAN driver, HTC USB drivers, and the ASUS USB update package. None of these drivers actually begin to install, they just get to the 'preparing' portion of the installer where you would typically 'Next' to continue and freeze the system.

One of the other forum threads indicating this specific issue with Windows 8(.1) indicated that he wasn't having issues with a prior Windows 7 install. Based on this, I wiped again and installed a fresh copy of Windows 7.

After testing the machine for about 12 hours, it has not frozen once. This includes running all the packages that would cause the issue to occur under Windows 8. No BIOS settings have been changed since my last Windows 8 install which exhibited the freezing issues. Similarly, no hardware has been added or removed from my original base configuration. Based on this testing, I believe that one or more of the Windows 8 drivers is causing the issue.

Any thoughts as how to resolve this issue in Windows 8.1?

[HiVizMan]

Nope sorry mate, seems that it is a specific Win8.1 issue. I will ask our BIOS department to look at this thread they may contact you directly.

[NDarkstar]

As a note, I cloned my Windows 7 install and attempted to use the Windows 7 -> Windows 8.0 -> Windows 8.1 non-destructive (keeps apps and presumably drivers) upgrade path last night. This still resulted in the same freezing issue once the Windows 8.0 upgrade was complete.

Specifically, the pre-install evaluation found that the bluetooth and Intel LAN drivers were not compatible with Windows 8 and had to be uninstalled before the upgrade. Once upgraded, attempted to install the LAN drivers as the integrated NIC wasn't recognized. During the LAN driver install, the system froze as had been previously experienced under Windows 8.1.

So the issue isn't limited to Windows 8.1.

[HiVizMan]

Cheers so noted and passed on.

[k_electron]

was there any resolution to this?

i am having the same issue with a Maximus V Gene with an Intel lan 82579v -> have the latest bios, memtested single memory, single hard drive that passes all the checks and a 3770k. some drivers freeze at preparing to install step, some others complete. when a network device driver fails, the ethernet port on the pc goes bizzare and causes the router to crash. all the devices have been tested to be a-ok in another machine.

[NDarkstar]

My eventual resolution was two-part, not sure which part fixed it though.

1) I RMA'd the motherboard as directed by tech support.
2) I replaced the Intel fan + heat sink with a Zalman CNPS10X.

With my testing on the original motherboard I'd installed a temperature monitor and for the first time I'd seen, the default Intel heat sink appeared to be barely adequate. Had idle temps that seemed high and full load temps that were near if not over the operating threshold.

After receiving the new motherboard, I installed the Zalman from the start and idle temperatures are around 35C and loaded around 65C.

Haven't had any crashes since replacing both items.

Please note that the Maximus VI line appears to have a lot of custom drivers that are incompatible with the reference drivers provided by the companies that made the components. Be sure to use the official drivers and not the up-to-date reference drivers from companies like Intel or Realtek.

[k_electron]

sigh.. what i really want is a really high quality motherboard that just sticks to the cookie cutter components.

i ordered myself a p8z77-v because this pc is going to be deprecated once haswell-e comes out so i just need something to tide me over and i cant be out of commission for the rma process. i dont oc or anything, just need a stable durable piece of hardware.

i already use a cnps10x and none of the temps are out of the ordinary.