Maximus VIII Hero with some very weird behaviour

[JorisS]

Hi all

After a couple of years without stationary build, I recently purchased new equipment and spent the better part of this weekend assembling it with acrylic H2O cooling and all.
Quite fun, up until it was time to get going with the system...

Components:
* CPU: i7 6700K
* Mobo: Asus Maximus Hero VIII
* Minnen: Kingston HyperX Predator DDR4 PC24000/3000MHz CL15 4x4GB (HX430C15PB2K4/16)
* GPU: 2 x Asus GTX 780 (sitter i PCIE8x1 och PCI8x2)
* PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA P2 1000W
* SSD på 480Gb

Initially the PC booted fine and I was inside the BIOS, changed memory speed to 3000Mhz (couldn't find the setting to enable XMP so simply changed the speed - probably wrong way to go about but anyway.
I found out that I actually had an (old) clean Win 8.1 install on the SSD I used for the build, so it booted into Win 8.1 and all looked ok.
When I came back to the PC a while later, it had frozen up with some error msg relating to the memory I believe. It said it would restart but never did.
This is when the trouble truly started, with PC not POSTing and getting stuck on various different Q-codes. If I recall correctly it POSTed one more time and I could get into the BIOS, which then looked really weird
with mixed languages and missing menu parts (See attachments).

In short I tested Mem-OK, Clear CMOS, removing battery and all that. To no avail,
I couldn't get the PC to POST and display and image at all anymore. Tried using the BIOS Flashback which initially failed, but then with another USB drive it passed successfully.
After this I rebooted and got a message that BIOS was updated. Then it rebooted and got stuck again... the q-code most often showed 60 or 62 when it got stuck, sometimes 78 or 4F or something else.
All basically related to initialization of the various components, nothing specifically indicating a fault anywhere. The LED lights for VGA/mem/Boot device were unlit at some times,
lit at others (red or white or orange, randomly).

Finally I thought I'd check CMOS battery, and it was only showing 3.015V whereas a fresh battery shows 3.25 or thereabouts. I swapped it out, did the USB Flashback once more and then started making progress.
Initially I only had 1 DIMM in slot A1 at the time (had tested with A2, A2+B2, A1+A2+B1?+B2 and all before already). I got a POST logo and BIOS on most attempts, but still looking as per pictures above with the weird language and all.
At least I managed to get into the EZ mode, chose XMP so memory was running as per specs (1.35V) and save. At some point here, the BIOS then reverted back to fully English and showing all menu items. It has been that way since, haven't
seen the weird BIOS since. I then tested with 2 DIMMs (A1 & B1) - seemed ok. Tested with 4 DIMMs and got stuck on 55, meaning "No Memory installed" or something of the likes.
Tested removing A2 -> worked fine without
Tested putting A2 back -> code 55 again
Tested swapping the module from B2 to A2 and running with A1, A2 and B1 -> worked fine
Tested putting in DIMM nr 4 in B2 -> worked fine (?!?!)

Tested memtest with all four DIMM in -> works fine, no errors

WTF!?!?

What's left now is that I'm having issues with installation of Win 7 complaining about missing drivers for CD/DVD, whilst installing from USB 😕
Searched a bit on this and doesn't seem uncommon, but the suggested fixes of swapping USB and making sure I'm using USB 2 don't work.


I'm at a loss here. It seems that the PC is running ok now (except for not installing Win 7 as of yet, but I'll try dl the drivers and see where that gets me).
I can't really pinpoint one specific "action" my end that solved the instability though, so I feel like I'm threading on very thin ice here. It's better to find out a specific fault/cause, solve it and rely on
the system after. I tried so many things and had so many different errors and issues here that I really have no idea what was/is going on.

What would you guys suggest? Anybody ever seen the weird BIOS language/incomplete menus before? Simply start using the PC and hope for the best, or send the motherboard in for repairs/checkup seeing as it was behaving very erratic?
Problem is that I'm using the acrylic H2O cooling, meaning it's basically impossible to do any error searching in terms of removing components without first draining and disconnecting the cooling... not to mention
I can't run the system longer than a couple of seconds without the water cooling.

I've also included a picture of the build, for the fun of it 🙂
(It's leaking on one connection so I'm going to have to drain the loop and redo that tube regardless of what I do with the motherboard I'm afraid 😞 )

Cheers
//J

[Nate152]

Hello JorisS

It looks like you're getting it.

In the bios on the "Main" Tab scroll down to system language and select "English".

If you have an optical drive you could try installing from the windows DVD.

Or here is a video to install windows 7 from a usb stick that might help.

[JorisS]

Hi Nate

thanks for taking the time to read and reply, I realize it became quite the novel 🙂

The language is also available at the top of the page in the BIOS, but as you can see in the pictures it was set to English!
Parts were in English, two of the menu headers to the left in French, then there were several missing headers - no text there but hovering the mouse there did "reveal"
a yellow underline, indicating that I could click there. Doing so brought me to a next sub-menu. Then the header to the far right is in Chinese or something?

When I tried changing language, nothing really happened....


I'll check out the video. Have installed plenty of times from USB though, this is the first time it's giving me this message.
I do have an optical drive I can test with also. I'm confident I'll find a way to get Windows installed, my main concern is the very weird and erratic behaviour of the motherboard and the fact that I do not know what, if anything truly, fixed it?

Cheers
//Joris

[MrDartay]

Hey Joris, the driver error has to do with the new chipset not supporting the old USB drivers used by the W7 install or somesuch.. Don't quote me I'm in no way an expert. But you can use the software provided with the motherboard to create a bootable ISO with the drivers preloaded.

You can also use a PS2 keyboard to install W7 on Skylake.

EDIT:

1. Head here: https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/MAXIMUS-VIII-HERO/HelpDesk_Download/
2. Grab the EZ-installer
3. If anything unclear, I think there's even a page about it in your manual. As well as a dedicated manual on W7 install on the site I just linked.

Hope it helps. I was in your exact situation before.

[Nate152]

If it's still showing places in french and chinese you could reset to defaults and flash the bios again, different languages and missing menus is not normal.

16GB of 3000MHz ram is likely not plug and play and vccio and cpu system agent voltages will need to be raised for stability, on the extreme tweaker tab check to see what they're reading and add .01v - .02v to each.

Give us an update on how things are going with the windows 7 install, be sure to do a UEFI installation.

[Chino]

Make sure the screws for your waterblock isn't overtigtened. Uneven pressure can make the motherboard not pick up all modules at times. For installing W7 on the Z170 platform, you can refer to this Windows® 7 and USB 3.0 driver installation for 100 Series and Braswell platform guide.

[JorisS]

Thanks guys.
Grabbed the EZ Installer and creating USB now, hope it works 🙂

@Chino: I've checked and they are rather loose - pressure may be uneven but shouldn't be too tight at least.


So it's possible that all problems were caused by me raising the memory speed to 3000 without adjusting any of the other settings? But then, that should have been
fixed by clearing CMOS/running the MemOK?

Speaking of which: according to the manual, one should press the MemOK button until the memory LED starts flashing... the only thing that happened for me was that the PC would beep and then reboot or something, then if I kept the button pressed it would do so over and over ?
Still concerned that the current stability may be a temporary thing... lol

[Nate152]

Chino's guide may have helped you better so let's hope this gets your windows 7 installed.

You want the screws on your waterblock just snug, not tight so if they are loose tighten them until they are snug.

let us know if you're able to get windows 7 installed.

[JorisS]

Thanks, trying now will let you know how it goes 🙂

[JorisS]

Ok well Windows installed, all drivers installed... and then some.
Everything appears to be working as it should now. Will try and download 3D mark, other suggestions for benching/pressing the system?