GA-Z97X-Gaming 7 boot loop before post beep

[kemical]

Hi,
this is a bit of a long and convoluted tale but I'll try to be as clear as i can. First, system specs:

GA-Z97X-Gaming 7
i7 4790K @ stock settings
EVGA 980TI SC
16GB 2400MHz Corsair Vengence RAM
250GB Samsung 840 SSD
750W Seasonic PSU

Ok so every few weeks my system will on a cold boot fall into a boot loop before the post beep. It will just keep churning over and over until I hold down the power button.
Now when this happened the first time around I tried various things.

I found that if i booted on one stick of RAM I could get back into windows. So I then turned the machine off and tried to boot from cold, still with the one stick inserted and the same happened again, boot loop. This meant I couldn't even use the one stick trick to get back into windows but luckily I had some spare RAM from an old build so popped a stick of that in and it booted up.

Yayy i thought it must have been the RAM... Er nope! Even with this different ram if then turned the machine off and tried to boot it would again fall back into the boot loop.

So i popped one of the original ram sticks back in and weirdly it booted, I then flashed the bios which seemed to be the solution. Everything worked as it should and i thought no more of it.

A few weeks later it happened again. I got back into windows and flashed the bios. Once again all was fixed.

A few weeks later and it's now yesterday and it happens again. As I'm at the highest bios version I flash it back to F7 and in doing so heard some very weird bios beeps. At one point the bios was beeping continually although eventually it seemed to sort itself out and that's where I'm now at.
System seems to be working without flaw but then again it always does until this damned issue raises it's head again.

The issue occurs in both bios, 1 and 2 as it's dual bios system.

I've ran the Intel diagnostic on the chip which passed

As i said above I've tried two sets of RAM both did the same thing.

I sent a support ticket to Gigabyte but I think the issue is too difficult and they stopped replying lol..

If anyone has an idea I'd appreciate it.

[ElectroStingz]

Hello,

The older memory kit, what frequency were you running it at?
Your problem has it always been doing this with stock settings or did you first encounter when (if) overclocking?

Reducing the power on load, have you tried removing the GFX card and performing cold boots?

[kemical]

Hi,
thanks for the reply.

I've never overclocked this system.

The original kit of RAM was some xms 1333mhz stuff, DDR3 of course.

I haven't tried cold booting with the vga removed as it seems the issue is cured with a bios flash... Seems unrelated to me but I'll try it the next time it happens.

It sounds like the bios chip becomes corrupted and each time I reflash it set's it back to normal until the next event.

It's such an odd issue. Like now the system is running beautifully. It booted up fine this morning and I know it will do for the next few weeks until, for whatever reason, it craps out on me again... It's bizarre.

[dmdilks]

You using the same brand of memory? Have tried a different brand of memory? I have had many Gigabyte boards that don't like some brands of memory.

[kemical]

No, i only have Corsair memory which I've always found to be fine with Gigabyte boards or least the ones i've used.

I originally thought it was a ram issue until I tried booting the next day with my old set (xms 1333mhz) and i got a boot loop yet when i was getting the boot loop before with the Corsair vengence 2400mhz RAM replacing that set with this 1333mhz set allowed me to boot up.

It seemed the issue had been cured.

Now it was doing the very same thing.

The oddest thing is if I removed the 1333 stuff then popped in a stick of the 2400 it will boot. If i turn it off and try to boot from cold it gets a boot loop. If I take the stick out and pop in a stick of the 1333 xms stuff again it will boot but yet if turn it off It will boot loop from cold.

It seems that when it (the system ) see's a new stick of ram it will boot but then something happens and it will not boot from cold.

As I've mentioned the only thing that stops this merry-go-round is to flash the bios. I can then use the pc as normal and it runs lovely until the next time this happens.

[ElectroStingz]

In your BIOS there are options to alter how the CPU voltage is supplied, you can change the voltage manually or try adjusting the Load Line Calibration options.

M.I.T\Advanced Voltage Settings\Advanced Power Settings

CPU VRIN Loadline Calibration
Change to low and test your cold boots.
No change, Medium <Don't go higher.

This will help maintain the CPU voltage, less drop.
You can also disable Turbo Boost and EIST to help maintain the Voltage closer to default specs.

This may not be your issue but sometimes if the CPU is not supplied the correct voltage at startup it will enter the boot cycle until it stabilises.

[kemical]

Trouble is once the cold boots start i don't get near the bios to try that. Even with the settings at optimised defaults the system will still boot loop. ( I normally reduce the cpu vcore to a setting where i've tested it's stable using prime95 but thinking that this could be the issue i let it run on optimized defaults and it made no difference)

I just reflashed the bios back to F8 using Qflash. My other bios flashing was done with @bios and i wonder if this has something to do with it.

If this does happen again I have a number of things to try thanks to your posts I just wish someone had been through something similar. I can see from doing a search via google that it's not an unknown issue although causes seem many and varied.

[ElectroStingz]

Trouble is once the cold boots start i don't get near the bios to try that.

When the PC is working you would change the setting, save&exit and leave it like that?
Then use the PC as you normally do and see if it occurs later on.

[kemical]

Well anything is worth a try right now and to be honest something like this did cross my mind about load line calibration. I'll give it a try as i did have a look previously but left it on auto.

[kemical]

I may have traced the fault to @Bios. It simply wasn't flashing correctly unless windows 10 had something to do with it.

Since i flashed the bios using Qflash the machine feels a lot happier.

I'll never use @bios again to update the bios and it should be removed from the download section.

[dmdilks]

I may have traced the fault to @Bios. It simply wasn't flashing correctly unless windows 10 had something to do with it.

Since i flashed the bios using Qflash the machine feels a lot happier.

I'll never use @bios again to update the bios and it should be removed from the download section.

You never ever use windows to flash your Bios. I never even let windows update drivers. Unless the is no other options.   

[kemical]

Agreed, it was just a bad habit I'd got into because stupidly enough I thought it was doing the job. I never let Windows update drivers either and am very particular about my machine i just never realised how bad flashing through windows was or could be.
Never again!

[kemical]

Just to add to this tale I've recently been reading about how in a dual bios both bioses should be either the same or similar otherwise cold boot issues can occur. Well my back up bios was F6 and the normal bios is F8 so I flashed the back up to match.
One needs to makes sure your on optimsed defaults and have booted from cold. Press alt+F10 just after the beep or where you'd normally press delete to enter the bios.
I had to try a couple of times but eventually a dual bios screen appeared which then allowed me to flash the back up.
Apparently this is easier if one uses a PS/2 connection with your k,board. I had an old adapter to hand so used it but am unsure if it will work just USB.
I cannot take the credit and the info is here:
http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php?topic=9462.0

[gijoe50000]

I've been having the EXACT same problem with my Gaming 5 (and 4790k) for a month or two now. Same thing where removing a stick of ram usually solves the problem.. until the next day.. Even got the constant beeping once or twice too!

I usually end up at the blue screen with the option to boot into default bios settings, sometimes on a bad day I end up clearing the cmos.

I just had an overclocking crash a few minutes ago and my bios reverted itself to F6 (from F7), I was going to reflash it but something was telling me to avoid @bios. I don't know why, maybe I read something somewhere, also I don't trust any of Gigabyte 'extras' software, it's a joke and not the ha ha kind.

Hopefully my overclocking crash solved the problem for me by reverting the bios, otherwise tomorrow I may have to reflash it properly..

[gijoe50000]

So I had my first trouble free cold boot in weeks this morning Only time will tell if it's permanently sorted, but it looks like the dodgy F7 @bios flash was the problem.