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ASUS M5A99FX Pro R2.0 Slow to Post - [Solved... Kind of...]

1K views 17 replies 3 participants last post by  Terrere 
#1 ·
I'm thinking that my board may be going out since it is having issues.

So here's the deal:

In early March my system was artifacting something serious so I RMA'd my graphics card. They sent it back and said they couldn't find anything wrong with it. My rig had been idle for about 3 weeks while they tested the card, so it wasn't touched. The card came back and everything was fantastic... kind of. The artifacting was gone, but now my post takes forever. Not only that, the screen flickers in and out several times during post and doesn't reappear until the Windows login screen. Also, all of the USB devices turn off and don't turn on again until right before the Windows loading screen comes back up.

My Windows setup is a clean install, the graphics card is fresh from RMA, and the issues all happen BEFORE anything reaches out to my hardware. In all my IT work I've done, I've never hit something quite like this other than a board or PSU going out.

I've been kicking around the idea that it might be my power supply, but my tester says it's good and I'm getting steady 12.1, 3.35 and 5.57 on the pins. I also had an issue where I plugged in a USB device and the entire system restarts.

I've tried disconnecting all of my USB devices as well as all SATA devices and all but essential pieces disconnected to no avail. I've run stress tests, memory tests, and every benchmark that I could think of... Once in Windows, everything is perfectly normal.

Any ideas on where I might need to continue looking?
 
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#2 ·
Have you looked in Windows Event Viewer?

Do the issues happen in Safe Mode?

Have you removed and reinstalled the video drivers?

Have you tried a BIOS reset and then re-entering your settings?
 
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#3 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by billbartuska View Post

Have you looked in Windows Event Viewer?

Do the issues happen in Safe Mode?

Have you removed and reinstalled the video drivers?

Have you tried a BIOS reset and then re-entering your settings?
Event viewer has shown no trouble other than the security flags from when I misspell my password and the usual "Service Couldn't Start" followed quickly by the "Oh, it's started now. No worries"

Yes, the issue still happens with Safe Mode because the issue is in the POST process before Windows starts. I tried it last night thinking that my boot disk might be messed up.

That's a big ole "aye" on the video drivers. Before mailing off to RMA, I used the DriverUninstaller utility after uninstalling through Catalyst.

Negative on the BIOS reset. I'll try that this evening. I had thought about that but I have sooooo many settings for my overclock. I had planned on taking it back down to stock to see if that helped, but never did.

EDIT: POST is assumed issue since it is happening before Windows. I'm going to try another clean wipe soon before replacing any hardware.
 
#4 ·
There's post and then boot. If it's a hardware issue likely post. If its a software issue likely boot.
And you seem to be trying solutions (RMA), disconnecting USB, etc.) before you've identified the problem.
As an IT guy you should know better....................
 
#5 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by billbartuska View Post

There's post and then boot. If it's a hardware issue likely post. If its a software issue likely boot.
And you seem to be trying solutions (RMA), disconnecting USB, etc.) before you've identified the problem.
As an IT guy you should know better....................
The only thing RMA'd was the graphics card due to artifacting. Before sending it off, I did my due diligence and having a different card in the system showed no artifacting.

Disconnecting USB is because if a device is causing the issue, it is easy to find when removing devices one by one.

The reason why I'm saying the issue is in post rather than boot is because the issues occurred on a clean install, though if something went wrong during my install or my drive is failing then it would be boot.

I'm not trying to seem out of my element, but I've exhausted all my usual attempts. I didn't list a good deal of the processes I've done just because it's tedious.
 
#7 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by billbartuska View Post

To me your issue sound like a drive issue.

There's also the possibility they they re-flashed the BIOS in the RMA'd card.
I'll drop in one of my spare drives and install Windows to see what happens. I'm going to check my GPUz as well to see if they flashed the card.
 
#8 ·
Ok, so I have realized it's not "slow to post". It's not displaying my screen until well after boot. I put in a different card with no different results.

So what I've done recently before figuring out what it's doing:

Reset CMOS
Flashed BIOS
Traded out current RAM for backup kit
Used a spare GFX card to see if boot showed
Hooked up speakers to the rig after setting Windows to make a really obnoxious sound on splash screen/login screen

The final one is what did it for me. It's not slow to boot necessarily. It does get hung up on something in POST for a second, but it boots quickly after that exception is handled.

Thanks for all the advice billbartuska!
 
#10 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by billbartuska View Post

U DA MAN! We knew you could do it..............
No U DA MAN. You got me to thinking about it in a different way. Now all I have to do is resolve the whole "I'm not going to show you anything until Windows has been up for a solid two minutes". XD
 
#12 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by billbartuska View Post

Start > Run > msconfig > Startup. ...Start shutting off stuff.

What Windows version?
Windows 7 x64 with all the updates. It also flashes the the ASUS splash screen for a moment (shorter than the 2 seconds that it should) before going blank.

I thought I had it down to bare minimum in startup services and programs, but I'll check that. It also does this with msconfig>boot> Safe Mode.
 
#13 ·
I know this is likely a long shot, but I thought I'd mention it here as I own this same Mobo.

Try looking in BIOS for the Quick Boot setting and enable or disable, and check to see how long the splash screen is set to delay.

Also just for the sake of doing so, check which BIOS version you have. Latest is 2501.
 
#14 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Destrto View Post

I know this is likely a long shot, but I thought I'd mention it here as I own this same Mobo.

Try looking in BIOS for the Quick Boot setting and enable or disable, and check to see how long the splash screen is set to delay.

Also just for the sake of doing so, check which BIOS version you have. Latest is 2501.
I'll check it, since CMOS reset may have changed that setting and I just didn't notice.

BIOS should be 2501 since I just flashed it, but I'll check to be sure it took.
 
#15 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Terrere View Post

I'll check it, since CMOS reset may have changed that setting and I just didn't notice.

BIOS should be 2501 since I just flashed it, but I'll check to be sure it took.
I thought it worth mentioning because I had a few cases where resetting the CMOS actually reverted a BIOS flash on me.

And I can't remember if that Quick Boot setting is Enabled or Disabled by default. But I remember there being a few options related to POST in there along with it.
 
#16 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Destrto View Post

I thought it worth mentioning because I had a few cases where resetting the CMOS actually reverted a BIOS flash on me.

And I can't remember if that Quick Boot setting is Enabled or Disabled by default. But I remember there being a few options related to POST in there along with it.
Good deal, I'm going to take a look at it tonight just to be sure.
 
#17 ·
Well, after a weekend of fun, here's where I'm at:

It's not power settings.
It's not Windows.
It's not the board.
It's not my RAM.
It's not my USBs.
It's not my PSU.
It's not my drives.
It's not the graphics card.

I'm seriously confused as the only hardware that hasn't been tested is the chip! My buddy and I stripped down my rig and tested it in a cardboard box, then replaced it piece by piece until all but the processor had been replaced. He had a spare M5A99FX board from a previous build without a chip, so we even replaced the board in our testing.

We didn't start out with the board outside of the case, but when we had done all the CMOS Clearing, Windows reinstallation, and easy replacement, it just became too much of a hassle to deal with the hardware.

The only place left to check is the chip and I've done my stress testing. The chip passes after 6 hours of benching at 4.6 GHz overclock... I don't know that it's hurting anything, so I'm just not going to worry about it. It's just a minor annoyance at this point.

No bad lights during POST, no errors in Windows.......... I'm going to end this thread since nothing is quite as it seems lol.

Thanks all for the help!
 
#18 ·
I never updated this thread. The mystery of the disappearing screen was solved and the problem was simple and unexpected.
My screen was going black because of the settings on the monitor. -.- It had a "Game" preset that a friend had decided to use that for whatever reason would make the screen not process full-screen black properly. This was the reason why it never would come out of sleep until well after the splash screen.

The graphics card was still needing to be replaced as well, so it's just a coincidence that the monitor preset was changed during the system down-time.
 
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