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! 🙂

[NemesisChild]

Clear the CMOS and then test accordingly.

If you can verify that there are no bent pins, then it's either defective memory slots or the CPU IMC.

I'm leaning towards a bad board since B1/2 seem to be performing normal.

[Gabrielmage]

NemesisChild wrote:
Clear the CMOS and then test accordingly.

If you can verify that there are no bent pins, then it's either defective memory slots or the CPU IMC.

I'm leaning towards a bad board since B1/2 seem to be performing normal.

I'm going to check the CPU with Intel's Processor Diagnostic Tool, maybe there's something wrong with its IMC as you said.

Thanks!

[Gabrielmage]

UPDATE:

I'm getting a replacement mother tomorrow after I'd RMA this one, this would be my 3rd mother. Got the 1st one from amazon with a bent pin out of the box, now this one that started behaving strangely after a week... I'm hoping 3rd time is a charm... all in all I'm quite disappointed at ASUS.

[Valethar]

If it makes you feel any better, I have the same problem. Only I was told I couldn't get any help from ASUS because I had two 16 gig kits instead of a 32 gig kit, so I had to eat a $50 restock fee just to find out that nothing changed when I used a single 32 gig kit.

Can't tell you how disappointed I am with ASUS at present.

[Gabrielmage]

I feel the same, extremely disappointed at them. If this goes wrong again, i might as well get a Gigabyte.

[Gabrielmage]

Valethar wrote:
If it makes you feel any better, I have the same problem. Only I was told I couldn't get any help from ASUS because I had two 16 gig kits instead of a 32 gig kit, so I had to eat a $50 restock fee just to find out that nothing changed when I used a single 32 gig kit.

Can't tell you how disappointed I am with ASUS at present.

Just out of curiosity, you pc won't boot with 4 dimms at the same time, but do all dimms work? Because i couldn't make it boot with the A1/2 but worked fine with B1/2

[Gabrielmage]

UPDATE 2: Got the new mother, behaves exactly the same... A1/2 are not usable. I can't believe asus released something like this.

[NemesisChild]

Gabrielmage wrote:
UPDATE 2: Got the new mother, behaves exactly the same... A1/2 are not usable. I can't believe asus released something like this.

Highly unlikely that both boards would have the same defective memory slots.

The only common element here is the CPU.
If you can rule out bent/broken pins and no warped PCB, it would seem to be related to the CPU IMC.

[Gabrielmage]

NemesisChild wrote:
Highly unlikely that both boards would have the same defective memory slots.

The only common element here is the CPU.
If you can rule out bent/broken pins and no warped PCB, it would seem to be related to the CPU IMC.

I know for sure there are no bent pins and the PCB of the CPU is straight as they come.
Last motherboard got bench-tested with a different CPU/Memory by the computer shop that sold it to me. Thats why they exchanged it.
I also thought that the CPU was defective, but unless my CPU is killing memory lanes... i don't know what to think about this.

Thanks!

[Raja]

Gabrielmage wrote:
UPDATE 2: Got the new mother, behaves exactly the same... A1/2 are not usable. I can't believe asus released something like this.

What's the part number of your memory kit?

To debug, do this:

1) update to the latest UEFI version
2) See if the board POSTs with a single memory module in slot A2.
3) If it does not POST, power down the board, turn off the PSU, and move the memory module to slot B2.
4) Power up the system, once it POSTs, enter UEFI, go into the DRAM timing section and select Maximus Tweak Mode 2.
5) Save and exit UEFI.
6) When the system POSTs, enter UEFI, then press the power button on the board to power it down.
7) Turn off the PSU.
😎 Insert a second memory module into A2, (leave the other module in B2).
9) Power up the system.
10) If steps 2-9 do not work, try again but this time use Maximus Tweak Mode 1. Do not use XMP at any part of this process. Want to see if the board will POST at 2133.
11) Try the same as above, but this time set System Agent Voltage and IO voltage to 1.25V manually - just to see if its a timing related issue.

If none of this works, it's highly unlikely there is an electrical issue with the board - given you have tried multiple motherboards. The issue is either with the CPU cooler/board mounting, CPU, or the firmware. That latter I can rule out once you supply me with a memory kit part number, as I can ask someone here to replicate if need be.

-Raja