Crosshair VIII Dark Hero - Randomly hardlocks

[D3hum4niz3d]

Hello,

I own two Crosshair Dark Hero boards (and a Strix X570-e that has never let me down) and both have the same two issues.

The issues being random hardlocking (requires powercycling the PSU for the system to get back up), which happened more frequently as I ran overclocked memory and a static noise when moving cursor on the right audio channel of the motherboard audio header. Note: the hardlocking was also happening when running completely stock settings.

Setup is powered by a Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 750W PSU, GPU is a Strix 5700XT.

The first board, I purchased originally in January 2021 and all was good with that board until I actually tried running XMP with a Samsung B-Die kit (HX432C16PB3K2 - Arguably garbage tier, but I didn't know any better) and a 3100, which was a placeholder for my current CPU, a 5900X. It would sporadically hardlock with XMP enabled. I went as far as RMA'ing it and the same stuff kept happening. Then, I went with a completely different kit, with Hynix DJR (F4-4000C18Q32GVK) and it still did the same thing. I later tried both CPU's and RAM kits and crosschecked, and it still kept happening. I gave the board for an RMA at my retailer, and they sent it to an ASUS repair center in the Czech Republic - The note was that there was no issue found. Since then, it kept repeating more often - even a couple times a day.

Then I switched back to an older motherboard, namely a Strix X570-e that never any issues. I even ran my manual RAM OC on that board with no issues at all and it never hardlocked! Not only that, there was no issue with static noise when moving the cursor on the right audio channel. Ran for a month on this setup and was really annoyed by the PCH fan whine, but whatever.

Then I purchased at an outlet another Dark Hero for crosstesting - and first thing I noticed, is that the electical noise on the right audio channel is still present. Still, I said to myself, it will probably not matter. I proceeded to set up the RAM OC and everything worked just fine with no hiccups for a month.

Until this morning. I left the PC in sleep mode, and what do I wake up to? Hardlocked with orange light and 00 Qcode.

This wouldn't be an issue for me, if the only thing I would be doing on this machine was bull****ting around in Cyberbug or whatever - but I'm actually also using it for school / work.

Please, someone help me here. I'm really so done with all of this.

Kind regards,
Matt / D3

[D3hum4niz3d]

So I come back with an update.

I've spent A LOT of time testing both boards with a new PSU - and here are the results of my testing. I've also managed to snag a 6800XT at a low price, so I had even more options to test.

1. The onboard audio header still has the high pitched electric noise upon cursor movement, regardless of what PSU is being used to power the system, or whether or not the system is inside or outside the case.

Just to be sure, I've crosschecked this with two cases - Phanteks Enthoo Primo and Corsair 7000X. This is NOT A GROUNDING ISSUE CAUSED BY THE CASE / PSU. The issue is exclusive to both of the Dark Hero boards I own. When I tested the Strix X570 and the Aorus Xtreme X570, NEITHER HAVE AUDIO ISSUES WITH EITHER PSU / CASE COMBINATION.

2. The hardlocks still keep happening regardless what hardware combination I used, regardless the BIOS settings or BIOS revision - both boards hardlocked either way with memory Qcode lighting up, completely unresponsive to anything other than power cycling the PSU.

So, to keep it short and simple, hardlocks on both boards happen sporadically, regardless of the following:

* It does not matter what CPU is used (tested with 5900X and 3100)
* It does not matter what RAM is used (tested with HyperX HX432C16PB3K2 and G.Skill F4-3600C19Q-32GSXW)
* It does not matter whether you're running single or dual channel RAM;
* It does not matter what RAM slots you are populating;
* it does not matter if you are running RAM OC / XMP / JEDEC - But the hardlocks will occur more frequently as you are OC'ing the memory.
* It does not matter whatever BIOS revision you are running;
* It does not matter what BIOS settings you're running (C-states, 4G decode, re-BAR, etc.)
* It does not matter what GPU you're running (tested with both a Strix 5700XT and Red Devil 6800XT)
* It does not matter what PSU you're running (Corsair HX1200 and Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 750W)

The worst part about the issue is, that it is sporadic. Sometimes it will go for a week without a hardlock, other times it will hardlock every couple minutes during testing. I've talked with a friend who does board level repair, and he hinted towards these boards having busted memory controllers.

I've also tested the mentioned hardware configs with two other boards - Strix X570 and the Aorus Xtreme X570 and both performed flawlessly.

Starrain if you are reading this, please patch this through to the guys at the repair center . I can provide S/N, whatever you need. A friend of mine that does board level repairs hinted that it might be the memory voltage controller that is acting up.

Kind regards,
D3

[STARRAIN_ROG]

Hi D3hum4niz3d,
For the high pitched electric noise, as you mentioned you don't have the same issue when connecting to rear jack port, most likely it is compatible issue between pc case or cable to front panel. We would suggest use rear jack port from motherboard directly.
For hardlocks, if you still get qcode 00 on bios 4201 with bios all default settings(no OC)and have cross checked each components, please send the motherboard to our RMA and describe the issue and occurrence frequency in detail for further examination.
Thank you.

[Megascrypt]

The Bios 4201 is bad, so flaky that its scary to adjust anythings in bios. I just purchased new Crosshair VIII Dark Hero and paired with 5950X. Initially, It worked OK on Bios 3801, but again I haven't had the board for long enough so I can't tell how sold really was. Today I updated to Bios 4201 and again, initially It seem OK, but at stock settings all I did I went to disable "Precision Boost Overdrive" just to see the difference in performance, if any and upon reboot nothing but BSOD's.
I have reverted back to Auto, but that didn't make any difference, from this point on nothing but BSOD's. Finally after few times of resetting Bios to defaults I managed to get into windows, but even running Cinabench R23 will randomly crash the whole PC. The Bios is broken and this was not an issue prior to me only touching this one settings.
All my life I have used Asus, but seems that between the recent fiasco of Z690 Hero's going into flames and this and prior BIos's which are terrible, Asus doesn't seem to be good choice any more.

[STARRAIN_ROG]

Hi Megascrypt,
The crash you mean it Cinebench R23 close itself without any error message?
Have you tried reinstalling windows on bios 4201 with bios all default setting(no OC) but still got BSOD?
If you revert back to older bios like 4006 or 3801 and disable "Precision Boost Overdrive", do you get BSOD?
Thank you.

[Lucciola2]

I have this motherboard for a year and it has never had any problems, now it happens that suddenly the computer restarts by itself stopping with the yellow ram led on. the only way to unlock it is to turn off the power. after which it restarts without any problem. advice?

[Megascrypt]

STARRAIN@ROG wrote:
Hi Megascrypt,
The crash you mean it Cinebench R23 close itself without any error message?
Have you tried reinstalling windows on bios 4201 with bios all default setting(no OC) but still got BSOD?
If you revert back to older bios like 4006 or 3801 and disable "Precision Boost Overdrive", do you get BSOD?
Thank you.

My apology for late response, I just looked into forum.

The crash happens randomly on R23 and I run my system at stock settings with PBO off, but also the crash happens while PC siting at idle and that is with Bios 4201.

Here is the thing, I've had 3 of these boards "Hero VIII Dark". The first board came with Bios 3801 and when I first run, but for short time as I always update to latest Bios and didn't know the issue, right after update to 4201 upon reboot problem of BSOD's started and even after going back to previous Bios the problem persisted.

The second board came with Bios 4006 and this time I run for 2 days without issues so I thought I would try updating to 4201. This time I didn't have BSOD's, but the PC would again randomly restart without any errors, even after flashing back to 4006 still had random restarts on idle and under load and that was after fully clearing CMOS as well.

This time I am on 3rd board that came again with Bios 4006 and I didn't even bother updating and frankly, I am skeptical to do so, but so far its rock solid, no freezes or reboots or any issues and I don't know if its the board itself that have/had issues and the Bios 4201 would triggered the hidden problems or what.

Someone here on this forum said that Asus did say its hardware related issue, I don't know how true that is and if they were referring to the Z690 hero and the memory capacitor that was soldered backwards or they referring also to this board Hero VIII Dark.


STARRAIN@ROG if this is a hardware issue, is there a way you could PLEASE let us know the latest manufacturing date or serials of the problematic batch of theses boards Please!!! that would help all of us to determine who has those boards to avoid potentially dealing with this issue over and over again, ONLY, If its my current broad I would prefer to send it to Asus to let them fix it .

Hope to hear your response soon.
Thank you

[Megascrypt]

If you just updated to bios 4201, go back to 4006 and clear CMOS, this 4201 Bios is absolutely trash causes a ton of people to have similar problems.

[Hedius]

Megascrypt wrote:
If you just updated to bios 4201, go back to 4006 and clear CMOS, this 4201 Bios is absolutely trash causes a ton of people to have similar problems.

4006 works fine for you?

[STARRAIN_ROG]

Hi Lucciola2,
Does it auto restarts on bios 4201 with bios all default setting(no OC)?
Have you followed the instructions to check your ram and ram slots?
https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1042678
Thank you.

[Hedius]

I also have the same problem. The hardlocks with 00 started to appear with 4201. (I 've never logged those events, but my system 5950X, 3090, RAM on the list, ran stable since I built it in 2020). Since 4201 I am confronted with those hardlocks even without any OC. Though, they usually only happen every 2-3 weeks for me.

RAM is fine.

I am not running optimized defaults atm. (Resizable bar is enabled, OC has been already disabled for the past 2 months). I am going to downgrade to the previous release and check if the system is stable again.