Maximus IX Hero wont boot with memory slots A1/A2 populated

[Gabrielmage]

Hello guys,

I'm having trouble with my motherboard, when i first started the build all memory slots worked fine, but after a couple of days i was playing some overwatch and the game started closing by itself (3 times), i kept re-opening it until windows BSOD (Bad-pool-header), by the time my pc rebooted i couldn't get the bios to boot, i would get a 55 or 3F q-code. I tried several times to clean cmos, memoryOK!, battery removal and installing memory dimms in different locations until i got it to work.

At that point i was happy, but as soon as i would get inside windows it would BSOD on me. I decided to reinstall windows, and at first everything was working fine until it started crashing on me again.

So.. i decided to test it with 2 dimms of memory installed at a time as i was afraid that my memory got fried or something, the pc is rock solid with 2 dimms at a time.

The thing is that i can not for the life of me get the pc to boot on the memory banks A1/2, if i install something on A1 and/or A2 i keep getting q-code 49 and a continuous loop between 01-03. If i install all banks at once i usually get a q-code 55, but if i install anything on B1/2 the pc boots right away. No cmos clean, memoryOK! nor battery removal helped me this time.

I've tried with a different memory stick from a friend, and got the same results. Do you guys have any ideas?

Build:

Asus: Maximus IX Hero (latest bios)
Intel: i7 7700K (@ stock speeds)
Corsair: Vengance LED 32gb (4*8) 3000mhz (@2133mhz)
Cosair: H100i v2
Gigabyte: GTX 1080
EVGA: SuperNova G3 850W
Windows 10 Pro

Thanks in advance for you help! 🙂

[Silent_Scone]

1) Reset the CMOS

2) Remove the CPU from the socket, checking for any bent pints

3) Reattach the CPU whilst making sure for even mounting pressure

4) Stress the memory with HCI Mem test whilst the system is at optimised defaults (no XMP)

[qwertz]

Had same problem with code 55 , updated bios and no luck.
Resolved by using just 2 memory slots to B channel and A Ch unused...
With benchmarks it can grow score alot if dual channel memory but in most application operation its not as significant as applications process data and not only continiously copy.

[JustinThyme]

qwertz wrote:
Had same problem with code 55 , updated bios and no luck.
Resolved by using just 2 memory slots to B channel and A Ch unused...
With benchmarks it can grow score alot if dual channel memory but in most application operation its not as significant as applications process data and not only continuously copy.

This is pretty much what he is saying, using B channel only, however this is a work around and not a resolution. I'm thinking he wants to use all 4 slots.

Im with pulling the CPU and checking. Not sdo much as bent pins as warped PCB. These chips are getting so thin that it only takes a little too much pressure and the outer corners will bend upwards. Had a similar incident and when I pulled the cpu and laid it across a straight edge the upward bend was more than obvious. Wasnt too difficult with just a little pressure to bend it flat again. Just have to be careful you dont snap it. Ive heard of others using a heat gun/hair dryer to heat it up first then bend it back. If it get bent a substanial amount it will bend the pins down too, recovery from that is slim to none. I liked the old days where the pins were on the CPU, those were easy enough to fix and realign with a little effort.

[Gabrielmage]

JustinThyme wrote:
This is pretty much what he is saying, using B channel only, however this is a work around and not a resolution. I'm thinking he wants to use all 4 slots.

Im with pulling the CPU and checking. Not sdo much as bent pins as warped PCB. These chips are getting so thin that it only takes a little too much pressure and the outer corners will bend upwards. Had a similar incident and when I pulled the cpu and laid it across a straight edge the upward bend was more than obvious. Wasnt too difficult with just a little pressure to bend it flat again. Just have to be careful you dont snap it. Ive heard of others using a heat gun/hair dryer to heat it up first then bend it back. If it get bent a substanial amount it will bend the pins down too, recovery from that is slim to none. I liked the old days where the pins were on the CPU, those were easy enough to fix and realign with a little effort.

Exactly as you said, i bought 32 gigs of ram and i don't wanna settle and use 16 just because of a random error (i say random because this happened out the blue, i was using all 4 dimms fine until it became unstable and this happened). I did remove the CPU and founted d no bent pins, i might have to check on the PCB as you just pointed out (we are talking about the CPU itself, right?

[qwertz]

JustinThyme wrote:
This is pretty much what he is saying, using B channel only, however this is a work around and not a resolution. I'm thinking he wants to use all 4 slots.

Im with pulling the CPU and checking. Not sdo much as bent pins as warped PCB. These chips are getting so thin that it only takes a little too much pressure and the outer corners will bend upwards. Had a similar incident and when I pulled the cpu and laid it across a straight edge the upward bend was more than obvious. Wasnt too difficult with just a little pressure to bend it flat again. Just have to be careful you dont snap it. Ive heard of others using a heat gun/hair dryer to heat it up first then bend it back. If it get bent a substanial amount it will bend the pins down too, recovery from that is slim to none. I liked the old days where the pins were on the CPU, those were easy enough to fix and realign with a little effort.

It surely is small surface for 1000+ contacts
Is it also possible that it can push some pins too down and short circuit if tightening screws?
On LGA2011 i have used multiple times even screwdriver to get little extra torque applied and no problems so far.
Surely there are all sort of cooling kits, some may support pressure more evenly others less even.

[Gabrielmage]

Silent Scone wrote:
1) Reset the CMOS

2) Remove the CPU from the socket, checking for any bent pints

3) Reattach the CPU whilst making sure for even mounting pressure

4) Stress the memory with HCI Mem test whilst the system is at optimised defaults (no XMP)

Already tried everything but the stress test, i don't think this is memory related as i already tried with another memory bank (corsair vengance 2133) and got the same results.

I didn't find any bent pins

Thanks!

[Silent_Scone]

Gabrielmage wrote:
Already tried everything but the stress test, i don't think this is memory related as i already tried with another memory bank (corsair vengance 2133) and got the same results.

I didn't find any bent pins

Thanks!

Remove the motherboard from the chassis and retest if possible. If not, take the board, CPU and RAM to a system integrator and have them test it for you.

[Gabrielmage]

Silent Scone wrote:
Remove the motherboard from the chassis and retest if possible. If not, take the board, CPU and RAM to a system integrator and have them test it for you.

Will try to test it outside the chassis, are you thinking something could be touching the chassis and causing this?

[Silent_Scone]

Gabrielmage wrote:
Will try to test it outside the chassis, are you thinking something could be touching the chassis and causing this?

I'm thinking it's always best to try if all else fails. 😉

Some users tend to over-tighten surrounding screws.