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BIOS stuck in QCode 'A2'

apocalypzez
Level 10
I have a Maximus IX Apex that will not boot anymore. I dismantled my system to change my SSD & HDD, & also to clean the dust out of my system. and now after putting back everything, the motherboard gets stuck at A2 Q_Code, which means IDE Detect. So my first thought was to disconnect my hard disk and SSD, which I did and still wouldn't boot. I did a CLRCMOS as well after removing all the storage devices but error still popped up. I then disconnected everything and left it at the bare minimun, i.e., MOBO, CPU & RAM. This also failed and error code again appeared and stays there as long as i leave the system on.

There is not much on the internet on how to fix this issue. Many say it's storage related but I don't have any storage device connected, unless my motherboard is a dud :mad::mad::mad::mad:!!!!

Any help would be appreciated, thanks!!
ASUS Maximus IX APEX || Core i7 7700K || Corsair H150i Pro || EVGA RTX 2080 Ti B.E. || G.Skill Trident Z RGB F4-3000C15D-16GTZR 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 @ 15-16-16-35-2N || ADATA SX8200 Pro 1TB x 2 (RAID0) || WD RED 3TB x 2 || Corsair AX1200i || NZXT H700i (without the smart hub) || Dell U3011 || Windows 10 Pro x64 || Logitech Z2300 THX Certified 2.1 & Corsair Vengeance 2000 ||
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12 REPLIES 12

I have a few theories to address before purchasing a different 12 TB HDD. One of which is to update the BIOS and the other being that I suspect these enterprise HDDs take ages to spin up and become 'Ready' and maybe the Motherboard sometimes tries to detect the IDE drive before it's actually ready and this happens.
ASUS Z270 Maximus IX Formula / i7-7700K 4.5GHz / ASUS NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 TUF GAMING OC / ASUS PG27UQ / 64 GB G.Skill Trident Z 3200MHz @ CL 14 / Samsung 960 Pro 512 GB / Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB / Seagate 12 TB BarraCuda Pro Helium / LG BH16NS55 / Corsair AX1200i / Window 10 Pro 64-Bit

Qcode Q Code A2 boot error hanging on Maximus V Gene - Solution ?

For Posterity

I have been having this error intermittently for 2-3 years ? rarely and it fixed itself after not more than 1 hr or so.
During this A2 event, there is no Image on Screen , even KBD isn't active sometimes
In extreme cases I disconnected all I could
Today , Struggled all day

Wierd things :

I got new HDD which I installed as usual
A2 appeared (this time) after I changed SATA positions - I realized I was using the 3Gb SATA mistakenly .
Looks like ASMEDIA SATA can not accept any HDD, hell , even eSATA bracket triggers A2
Tried everything.
Noticed A2 dissapeared, in a way , after I was Resetting the BIOS by taking out the BIOS Cell ! Seems that the BIOS Reset Button does not get the same effect.

Replaced the 2.95V Cell with a NEW Cell 3.35V . This seems to be the most effective act.
I still had to Reset by taking out the Cell ( right under the GFX, bahh ) a few times - Reset Button on every A2, and Ctrl Alt Del ( When I actually had KBD)

Important thing I did was to enable Fan monitoring for the CPU ( N/A I have water cooling) So the BIOS asked me to press F1 - but I didn't get Screen mostly

I am now in Windows , as usual I hope .
Tomorrow - If I won't get A2 , I'll check what windows says is going on.
For now, near midnight , 24th December .. I wanna rest

Hope this helps someone
-----------------
More : next day - trying to Install Win10 from USB 2.0 drv
A2 hell again BUT :
* When it gets into BIOS and it is important to keep it doing that , by avoiding manual boot/resets
* I disabled Partial Initialization of USB etc during Boot : seems to help !
* slow ( vs fast) boot gave me issues with the USB drive - the partition RUFUS made needs UEFI ( ? )
* I installed a 2nd Win10 , as I always do, on the (new) HDD , where C: is SSD. I disconnect all but the target HDD. Looks like BIOS has difficulty in scan/init of new config - that's A2 - a combination of Reset , Power Button, Power Off and patience did the trick.

FFS very hard to inspect the inside of the SATA connectors .. maybe they are dirty ? who knows.
-----------------------------------
Update : Still getting A2 sometimes - but I can overcome it

Reflashed BIOS 1903. Doesn't seem to improve anything = the code is not the issue ! i.e hardware
I feel what the motherboard needs to be warm. Usually A2 happens on cold boot.
* What does have an effect is Reset in succession :
It boots, beeps, when I press Del , Qcode will turn from 99 to 64 , than A2 will appear
Usually it takes a second or two , or 5, to scan IDE and A0 will appear , which means it booted fine.
What I did/do is Reset when it is at 99 ( keys won't have effect prior ), and do that 3-4 times
Now it boots to A0 and all is fine.


P.S Why can't I edit my Sig ?!?
MVG 1903, 3570k watercooled, 2x4 TridentX 2400 at 2133 ( why) , 500Gb MX500 SSD, eVGA GTX 1060SC GFX, 3.5" : 7k3000 2Tb + FireCuda 2Tb , LG 34UM57-P UWide 21:9 2560x1080 , Roccat Kone [+] . Modded Antec Sonata1 ( Just Noctua back fan ! )
MVG 1408, 3570K, 2x4 TridentX 2400, Intel SSD 520 120Gb, Zotac GTX 660 Ti AMP! . Hitachi 7k3000 2Tb. Roccat Kone [+] , Roccat SOTA , Roccat Kave . Samsung T220P. Modded Antec Sonata 1 (in works) \m/

briansu
Level 7
I have the same problem. It was something to do with the secondary storage HDD which was a HGST He12 SATA drive. 9 / 10 times the drive would spin up upon power on and the 'data access' LED would just stay on and this A2 code appears. Sometimes it works fine. When I use the HDD in an external USB case, the same thing happens. i.e. sometimes it spins up and makes the same noise but Windows won't detect it as a connected USB device.

However, the probability of success when using the HDD as a SATA drive is much much lower.

I used Western Digital's own tool to diagnose the drive and it found some issues. I sent it back for RMA and got a new one. Now the new drive (after just a few days) also trips the A2 code. However, it works fine as a USB drive using a SATA to USB adaptor.

This is very annoying and I have tried swapping SATA cables and ports with little success.

I might just purchase a different HDD instead like the Seagate Barracuda Pro 12TB.

By the way, I never faced this issue with my older 4 TB WD Black drive.
ASUS Z270 Maximus IX Formula / i7-7700K 4.5GHz / ASUS NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 TUF GAMING OC / ASUS PG27UQ / 64 GB G.Skill Trident Z 3200MHz @ CL 14 / Samsung 960 Pro 512 GB / Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB / Seagate 12 TB BarraCuda Pro Helium / LG BH16NS55 / Corsair AX1200i / Window 10 Pro 64-Bit