VIII HERO - Have problems booting

[AfterShave]

Hello I have the system with the following specs:
6700K
MSI Gaming X 1080 Ti
G.Skill Ripjaw 8GB x2
ASUS Maximus VIII Hero MB
Corsair AX 860 PSU

About 2 weeks ago I noticed that my system would not turn on by either the case power button or the mobo power button, and it was only after clearing the cmos that it would function normally again. The same issue has come back multiple times since then and each time has required a cmos clear. I did a paperclip test on my PSU and it turned on just fine, so I'm pretty sure it's the MB.

My question is, should I get my MB replaced? Or is this something that I can ignore. Also, there seems to be some occasional audio popping that didn't used to happen, I don't know if this is connected to my main issue.

Any help is appreciated.

[Menthol]

AfterShave,
have you tried checking all your power supply cable connections to your motherboard, Video card, etc.
Was there anything you changed before this started, bios update, software, driver updates.

[AfterShave]

Yeah I've checked all my connections, it's definitely not that. And besides, when my system is turned on, it works just fine.

[Vinny1001]

AfterShave, these boards have been full of audio issues since day 1. You can search the forums and find plenty of people with the issue. Below are 2 recent ones.

https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?97177-Audio-goes-out-of-sync-in-various-programs-games
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?98091-Crackling-Popping-audio-on-HERO-VIII

I've covered so many different ways to "fix" it, and audio issues still persists one way or another since this board was released a couple years ago.

I have tested my same exact hardware on two other brand boards, and did not have those audio issues. My bet is it's the board, Win10 version, and driver related.

Asus doesn't seem to want to look into addressing this audio issue.

I highly suggest to look at another brand if the audio issues will bother you, unless you can find a fix. Asus support is horrible (at least in my case and I've seen others) and their hardware seems to have more issues than what it's worth. I had two Asus builds before, 0 issues.

Let me know if you figure it out! Try some of mine and others suggestions in the other 2 recent threads.

[Menthol]

shot in the dark could you look in the bios for the MEI version, I have had corrupted bios before with strange issues and the MEI version showed N/A, had to purchase a bios chip to fix it

I have not had these sound issues on any ASUS board, I may just be lucky

[Nate152]

I'll agree with Menthol, I've never had any sound issues with the Maximus V Extreme, Maximus VIII Formula or Maximus IX Code. I had good results installing the Realtek audio driver from the motherboad cd with the Maximus VIII Formula.

As for the boot problem, I wonder if your pc is going to sleep rather than fully shutting down ? This could be a sign of instability, possibly with your ram and could be contributing to the sound popping. You could try disabling sleep in windows.

You say it runs ok after a clear cmos, does the problem happen after enabling XMP or setting your ram to its rated specs ?

[Merlinn]

I have the same problem .. PC started only after the flash bios and then all ... all the PC sent me in the claim and was a defective processor and replaced for new 🙂

[AfterShave]

Well my PC seems to boot now. However, when I hit the power button there's a ~5 second delay before my PC boots which was not present before. Not sure if i should keep investigating.

[Vinny1001]

I'll leave the audio topic to other threads. I've had two friends build new PC's whom avoided these lines of Asus boards because I let them try to fix my audio issue and they couldn't either. On the positive note, I still got the Asus 1080 Ti 🙂

AfterShave, have you tinkered with any other settings? Your 5 second delay seems familiar back when I was getting Q Code 00 issues, where it'd stall then turn on, shut off and turn back on with delays and what not.

XMP settings?

What PSU do you have? I had issues with two Corsair PSU's, one new and one from my previous build that never had an issue and works on my previous build to this day, and I switched to EVGA and that resolved my Q Code 00 and the PC turned on without a single hangup IIRC.

What BIOS settings have you changed?

[AfterShave]

UPDATE: Reinstalling audio drivers seems to have solved the audio popping, not entirely sure yet since it occurred sporadically.

@Vinny: I'm running with default BIOS settings other than enabling XMP. However before my first CMOS clear I had my CPU OC'd to 4.6 Ghz, at a safe voltage (~1.3V iirc). I'm using a Corsair AX 860.

Curiously enough, my last PSU, a Corsair RM 850, actually crapped out on me and killed my previous CPU and motherboard. The thing literally had a capacitor fall out of it when I inspected the unit(pictured below). Thankfully though my 980 Ti (at the time) was left unscathed. Don't know if this is important to the case at hand since I've replaced everything but the storage and case from that build.