GA-Z97-D3H - Boot Loop history.

[felco]

I HAVE to start from this: I was using AMD Processors for about ten years now. Yeah, pretty solid. 3 Months ago I decided to build a Intel just to get rid of my Liquid Cooler, which is very noisy them have a more silent Desktop.

Well... things ain`t going well for Intel Boards. Before this board(GA-Z97-D3H) I was using a GA-970A-D3P with a AMD FX-8320, 16GB Kingston KVR1333D2N9/4G(4x4) and ZM 500-HP PSU. For my AMD this is heaven, no issues from the build and it still running.

Got my new Board (GA-Z97-D3H) with a i7 4790, setup and from the start I saw it`s turn on and turn off some times and them it goes, I was aware of that behavior is common in Intel Boards. Did setup Windows and all that, so I was starting to using the new machine when it suddenly restarted. I was like 'WTF?!'. No BSOD(wich makes me very concerned). When the board restarted itself I get the same boot thing, but now it`s looping, it never gets to do the POST. The thing is that if let the Mobo doing that loop, it eventually get UP. But wait, that behavior is unacceptable. I know how bad it is so I just unplugged the power cable from the HDDs, why? That 'Power On/Power Off' can mess ANY HDDs, that`s is so LAME, how could you implement such a amateur process like this? I found plenty of posts saying about dead drivers. That`s just sad.

And that`s not my first try. I already have this issue with a another Gigabyte board(Intel one, don`t remember the model) which I got refunded. I don`t know why I got another Gigabyte and not a ASUS board this time, this was silly of me. I guess I was convinced of GB reliability because of my 970A. Well AMD and Intel chipsets are completely different history, I tell you that.

The thing is really upseting me is that behavior of 'Power On/Power Off' to get the mobo started, this isn`t acceptable, when the MOBO decided to turn on IT MUST remain powered on UNTIL the user shut it down, in any other case IF it shutdown, for a specific reason - read because a fault hardware, IT SHOULD EMIT AN ALERT TO THE USER!

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Sum: Got a GA-Z97-D3H, tried everything you could put here, I have done. So now the board is sitting powered off, which only one RAM Stick, no additional board are connected to the mobo, even the VGA isnt connected. Just the MOBO,  Processor, one RAM stick and the PSU with the two power cords connect, the 24Pins and the 4Pins cords. And no joy, it's just can't came back, IF I let it struggle a little bit it may get up again, like after twenty restarts maybe.

Well I have read many posts here and on another forums, this looks like a very random problem, I think it`s related to RAM, but I can`t confirme this but as I can let the 'Memory Boot' to 'Fast Boot' it will get better about the power cycle thing, but thats not a solution because even when the machine got up, it will random restart again(very likely) and when it does the bios may get reseted and we are back to the boot loop thing again.

Any ideas? If I could not find a solution I will exchange this mobo for a ASUS instead, should give it a try.

I must say that I not even talking about software related problems, because even that I got a HDD with Windows I`m not booting it up, I just play around with Linux LiveCDs of many types. When I boot to the system, whats I see is that if I start web browsing it will very like presente the random reboot.

I noticed that, when running MemTest86+ (4.20) I can't not try to probe the memory size directly only by the BIOS(SPD), if I do a reboot will happen this is 100%, this reboot is exactly the same that goes when running a OS.

Thanks,
felco

[dmdilks]

Intel boards are different on CPU pins. Did you look at the pins in the CPU socket to make sure you don't have a bent pin. That will cause a boot loop.

[felco]

In fact I didn't, I was looking about that today and I assembled the machine yesterday. I will take the proc off and check if there's any bent pins. If it was it came that way because I pretty sure I put the processor without messing around.

Thanks, I will come back to this.

[felco]

I on it now. Up for about one hour so far.

I took the processor off and examined the socket pins, I put the smartphone flash light to reflect the socket pins and they are just perfect.
Anyway, though I should give it another try and I kinda surprised that it was, working. I now 100% sure that this is RAM issue.

Before, every time I shutdown the machine when I start it back again it was doing that 'Power On/Power Off' cycle, at least one time them it will power up and you will hear the short beep that mean it did the POST.
This time, when I started it first time it did the Power Cycle, but them I shutdown properly by going into the Hiren's Linux Parted LiveCD(I like it because I can test the machine and do troubleshoot on it) and when I started it back again it *did not* made the Power Cycle, which I think is the *Correct Behavior*.

I guess the BIOS do the Power Cycle thing to setup the DIMM modules, voltage and all that stuff.

I miss the age when you bought a motherboard and if you wish to do overclock you could but it was not a -feature- in the BIOS.
I think that idea that the BIOS should do *tricky* setups should be limited to a specific model of a motherboard. I would love to have a -plain- motherboard! You know, like it was a server motherboard, they do not have much features it just have the absolutely essential.

Well, I will have to keep this board but I do not think that BIOS is a good BIOS. The Power Cycle thing should have a *very restricted* possibility to take in. I think this process could not be done without User Intervention. I guess the best practice here is to always try SPD, *defaults* right? And them *if* the user wanted to get more performance, or whatsoever you know, he could them use those resources to get it. If it did not run by default, just beep like hell and let me know that this RAM module is just bad for you.

Ok... but I not confident that the machine will keep the good work. I was on it before for about 8 hours when it  random reseted first time.

Let's do some Windows now... I admit that I'm unsure.

Will keep this post live.

felco

[felco]

Yesterday I was using the Z97, but sadly the machine Rebooted out of nowhere. But this time it wont shutdown and no boot loop, its 'just' restarted and got back to the Windows.

But today when I powered the machine on, it did the Boot Loop thing... I guess like powered on and off like ten times then  it started.

I'm unsure about this behavior, the BIOS didnt get reseted to defaults, so why it did the power cycle thing again, I didnt change the memory module there...

[felco]

The true above everything right?

Yeah.. the thing was the PSU all the way. It's strange that this PSU seems to work flawlessly on my FX-8320 but in the Intel it mess everything up.

Well that's it. I think got my machine setup right now. Using a generish PSU and it seems holding up. Will buy a proper PSU in the near future.

Thanks,
felco

[dmdilks]

That is a first that it would run on AMD board but not a Intel. What PSU are you using that didn't work?