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Z690-A PRIME DDR5 - USB stops working, PC freezes

DragDay7
Level 9
Hello,
Week ago I upgraded motherboard, cpu and ram. Current specs are:

ASUS Z690-A PRIME
Intel i7-12700KF
Corsair DDR5 2x16GB 5600MHz CL36
MSI 2080 Trio X
Corsair RM 750W
Windows 11

Once or twice a day I get three issues:

1. Keyboard stops working, its backlight starts to blink like it keeps getting disconnected. Plugging it to same socket fixes it for couple of seconds. Using Gen2 usb fixes it for good, but that's not an option. I tried to measure usb voltage, but once I plug usb voltage meter it works again. This wasn't a thing with old setup so keyboard is fine.

2. Whole PC freezes and stays on like that - tried to wait couple of minutes but nothing happened. I can only shut it down or use reset button. This worries me the most.

3. PCIE drive (Plextor M9PeY) stops booting. I have to change PCIE Gen in bios or storage type then it works for like a day.

Both (1,2) things happens only when I do some light stuff like typing, browsing stuff, it never did when I played a game or watched a movie. Perhaps it's related to efficient cores? Voltages are within their range, temperatures are great, nothing weird. I tried run several diagnostic tools (including memtest), stress test all parts, tweak bios settings that might be related to stability (XMP, power saving, PCIE gen, fixed dram frequency and so on), unplug whatever I could, removed all Asus software. Benchmarks are great. I updated usb firmware, bios to version 1304 (now it's 1403), used all up to date drivers. Nothing helped. There's no bsod, nothing in event logs.

Does anybody here got same issue? Is there a way to track down what's the cause? Perhaps I missed something. Google shows that few people are struggling with similar issues but they end up return their hardware and it didn't always helped - I tried to follow their solutions without luck.

Thanks a lot for reading, take care. o/

// I've edited this post to summarize what's going on with my motherboard and removed unrelated info.

- It turns out my stability issue comes from PCIE Native Power Management - disabling it fixes freezing and keyboard issue. I didn't had WHEA 17 error like others. NVMe drive boots every time if I lower gpu PCIE gen to 4th (at least for about 3 days I didn't had any problem with it).

- After trying for a month to fix it with Starrain's help I finally requested RMA. Hopefully Asus service will sort it out.

- Motherboard came back, service found no issue and blames other components xD Finally I've replaced everything - OS still freezes.

That's what you get people when you buy ASUS.
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28 REPLIES 28

DragDay7
Level 9
Hey,

What about frequency? If it's really me tampering with bios or it's unsupported device why freezing only once a day the most when idling? Bios settings doesn't matter anymore once it freezes.

Why advertising features if you don't get to use them? Doesn't that sound wrong? I've done my lecture, I'm fully aware what might affect stability and nothing explains why it happens once per 24h the most.

I'm sorry, I have so many questions and your suggestion in my scenario doesn't sound right (that doesn't mean I'm not gonna follow). There's gotta be something wrong with power management and/or some fancy new "ai" feature that resets every day and goes unstable under low load.

STARRAIN_ROG
Customer Service Agent
Hi DragDay7,
If the issues still occur on bios 1304 with bios all default settings, we can exclude the specific bios settings from the cause.
Also, because you have the issue when mount the NVMe drive in M.2_1 slot, I'm not sure if the NVMe drive or system is unstable, but you have also done fresh Windows 11 installation, and you said there is no change before the issues occur again. That's why I suggest try other M.2 NVMe SSD for OS drive.
I'm sorry my opinion might not be correct, but it is hard to find the root cause especially when it occurs once in a few days, so I want to reduce some factor to the best of my abilities.
Thank you.

DragDay7
Level 9
Hi,

Yea, you're right. Wish I could trigger those issues more often. Waiting a day for another freeze is a pain. Changing time doesn't work, I wonder if clearing cmos does, but then I don't know what triggers my issues. I had default settings before and pc was freezing daily. Now it's stable for couple of days. I need to check what settings I've changed in OS - I know I toggled some power saving stuff few days ago, not sure if it's relevant. I start to think that's the same case as guys with WHEA ID 17 just behaves differently.

STARRAIN_ROG
Customer Service Agent
Hi DragDay7,
If you get WHEA ID 17 error or you think your case is same as it, maybe you can try this setting.
Advanced Mode > Platform Misc Configuration > PCI Express Native Power Management > Disabled
Thank you.

DragDay7
Level 9
Hi Starrain,

So... I never got WHEA ID 17 error, but I read lots of people with Z690 chipset gets it. I'm wondering if it's related. I had PCIE power saving switched off inside windows settings for around week - I realized that the day I made previous post. I got no freezing nor keyboard issue also for about week. 4 days ago I enabled XMP profile and disabled PCIE Power Management in bios. Still no freezing.

Now I'm about to go back to default settings and enable PCIE power saving in windows too as it's enabled by default.

About NVMe booting issue - still happens. Soft reset and it works fine but it's frustrating.

STARRAIN_ROG
Customer Service Agent
Hi DragDay7,
Is the NVMe drive in M.2_1 slot is detected in storage informtion, but is not in boot priority?
Does it occur every time you turn on the pc? and you have to shutdown it and turn it on again? or how often it occurs?
If the NVMe booting issue happens on bios 1304 with bios all default settings and it is hard for you to try other M.2 NVMe SSD, please let me know.
Thank you.

Hi Starrain,

Just had a freeze. Now gonna disable PCIE NPM and we'll see.

STARRAIN@ROG wrote:
Is the NVMe drive in M.2_1 slot is detected in storage informtion, but is not in boot priority?

Yes, I've literally shown you a screenshot before, c'mon. xD

STARRAIN@ROG wrote:
Does it occur every time you turn on the pc? (...) or how often it occurs?

It does not, it's random. It appears once a day or more often? It's hard for me to say cause I've been focusing on finding out why my pc freezes mostly. I was just soft resetting my pc. Not a big deal, but still an issue.

STARRAIN@ROG wrote:
and you have to shutdown it and turn it on again?

Shutting down doesn't always work (or never? haven't realized that). Soft reset (ctrl alt del) or F10 works every time.

STARRAIN@ROG wrote:
If the NVMe booting issue happens on bios 1304 with bios all default settings and it is hard for you to try other M.2 NVMe SSD, please let me know.


It is. I will be buying new drive just not now - this is rather my unnecessary expense - just got a newborn and I have so much on my head, having faulty pc doesn't help. xD

STARRAIN_ROG
Customer Service Agent
Hi DragDay7,
May I have the following information?
- the serial number of your motherboard via PM
- the firmware version of your NVMe drive
- the photo of you ram like this
92564
- OS version and OS build of your win11 OS
Thank you.

Hey Starrain,

I've sent info you asked for. Today NVMe drive booted fine, also no freeze so far after disabling PCIE NPM even with XMP enabled. Maybe that's relevant - every time I have nvme issue pre-boot takes much longer (the part where fans spin full speed) so I disabled USB legacy support because this too was slowing it down. Today I had no boot issue. I cannot test it further this week - I'm away until Monday. I'll be checking forum and I can access pc remotely but that's it until I'm back.

Thank you, take care.

// edit: Nvm, still having boot issue.

STARRAIN_ROG
Customer Service Agent
Hi DragDay7,
Thank you for your reply.
I'll also consult our tech team so see if there is any further suggestion.

edit: Have you adjusted PCIE to gen3?