VIII Hero Motherboard q-code 35 / 4F

[Zxurian]

Hoping the community can shed some light as this is now the second Maximus VIII Hero motherboard that is exhibiting the same symptoms and ASUS just wants me to RMA it back for a third one, but I don't know if I want a third one if it's a symptom of the board itself.

Specs:
Maximus VIII Hero
Intel i7-6700K
G.Skill F4-3200C16D-16GTZB - http://www.gskill.com/en/product/f4-3200c16d-16gtzb
EVGA GTX 770 4GB
Samsung 950 Pro 512GB
Seasonic Platinum 1000w - http://www.seasonicusa.com/Platinum_Series.htm

Originally put the system together Nov 3rd. System booted beautifully, Put Win10Prox64 on it, installed base MB drivers, installed the System AI software and let it go through the 5-way auto-tuning. It ran through it, and self-OC'd the CPU to 4.5GHz stable. I had to manually set the timings of the ram to match the specs of it (3200-16-18-18-38-2N), but after that, the system ran beautifully.
Ran windows updates, installed minimal software (steam+games, few apps, nothing major as I was still getting used to the system.)

It ran beautifully, played Fallout 4, other games, no issues at all. Over this past weekend I went to a LAN party, and ~ 20:00 on the 14th, Win10 BSOD'd. Didn't think anything of it at the time and just restarted it. On restart, it immediately crashed. Tried restarting it again, and it wouldn't even get past POST.

After this, I took the side off, and tried cold booting. Q-Code showed 35 which according to manual is "CPU Post-Memory Initialization". Swapping RAM between slots, taking out discrete PCI-E, anytime I tried to boot, it always stuck at q-code 35. Occasionally it would get to 4F, but almost all the time it stopped at 35. Never any video, either discrete or onboard.

I was within the return window for Amazon, so I had them send me a replacement on Monday. Got the new board in yesterday. Disassembled everything off the first motherboard, re-put everything back together on the new (second) motherboard, upon first power on, same non-POSTing, same q-code 35. Tried the hard CMOS reset, same thing. non-POST, 35.

At this point I called ASUS tech support. They had me run through everything I've already done, (reseat, swap RAM slots, attempt to RMA but I told them this is already the second board I've received. The last thing they had me try was updating the BIOS. (Interesting side note, based on the sticker at the top right the new board came with BIOS version 0508, but the ASUS support representative claimed that there is no BIOS with that version for this motherboard.) They had me download a series of BIOS versions and use the BIOS USB Flashback feature to step through the following BIOS upgrades. 0603 > 0802 > 1001 > 1102. Afterwords, no change. still doesn't post and gets stuck at q-code 35.

At this point ASUS Support wants me to call them back tonight and being the RMA process for the motherboard, however this will be my third motherboard in under a month, and I'm wondering if either a) There's a problem with the Maximus VIII Series that they're ducking, or b) It's not the motherboard but a separate issue that they haven't identified.

Has anyone else experienced these issues or can possibly offer some guidance other than just "RMA for the third motherboard" ?

[NemesisChild]

@Zxurian

Since we have the exact same CPU, board, and memory thought I would post back with an update.
I just got the build finished several hours ago, it successfully posted the first time.
My board came with 1101 and I updated to 1102 without any issues (so far).

Let' us know if a different PSU or Chino's recommendation solves your problem.

[Chino]

Yes, at this point of the process it's usefule to have spare parts to test. I doubt the fault is with the motherboard considering this is the second one that exhibits the same problem. It's pretty rare to get 2 defective motherboards in a row.

[NemesisChild]

Thanks for posting back with your results.
If we assume that the board is fine, then that basically that leaves the CPU and memory.
Since you tested each stick individually, It's unlikely that both sticks would be defective, but certainly possible.

Here is what I would do.
To rule out the memory, get some DDR4 from a friend or buy a set from a retailer with a liberal return policy.
If you still can't post after trying this different set, then initiate an RMA for the 6700k.

[Zxurian]

I have Amazon shipping me an RMA for the CPU, so at the very least I'll have a second CPU to test with.
On the rare off chance both sticks of RAM are bad, I'm headed to a buddies this weekend with known working RAM in a working system so I'll test a stick of his to see what happens.

[NemesisChild]

Zxurian wrote:
I have Amazon shipping me an RMA for the CPU, so at the very least I'll have a second CPU to test with.
On the rare off chance both sticks of RAM are bad, I'm headed to a buddies this weekend with known working RAM in a working system so I'll test a stick of his to see what happens.

Good luck! Let us know how it goes.

[Zxurian]

tried new known working RAM and same code, so at this point, it's down to just the CPU or (outside possibility) 2nd bad motherboard.

New CPU arrives on Tuesday, I'll update when I swap it in.

[Chino]

Cool.

Keep us updated. 🙂

[Zxurian]

so wanted to provide an ending update. Received a new CPU today and installed everything, and I'm currently running without issues, BIOS v1202. I'll let it sit for a week to see how it runs before doing any type of overclocking.

So in the end it looked like the culprit was the CPU itself, despite Asus saying it was the motherboard.

[NemesisChild]

Zxurian wrote:
so wanted to provide an ending update. Received a new CPU today and installed everything, and I'm currently running without issues, BIOS v1202. I'll let it sit for a week to see how it runs before doing any type of overclocking.

So in the end it looked like the culprit was the CPU itself, despite Asus saying it was the motherboard.

Glad to hear you're up & running!!!

BTW, I'm really digging this new setup...enjoy!

[Nate152]

Hey Zxurian

Good to hear you got your new pc going. Codes 35/4F are really a stab in the dark as those particular codes are not very common.

Good job finding it. 🙂