Z170 M-ITX gaming boot issue.

Snipeuout wrote: New Z170 M-itx fatality gaming board has a weird boot issue. When running bios version 2.1 or 2.0, when the PC is shut down or put to sleep and then turned back on the graphics card lights up in some partial power mode where 2 of 3 of the fans spool up and the CPU fan will not spin and then no boot occurs. I then have to cycle off the PSU switch in order to boot the PC. When running 1.8 bios it so far seems to have alleviated the issue, however I'm curious to know if this is a hardware or a bio issue. Specs: I7-6700k Corsair vegennce 3200 16-18-18-35 2x16gb Evga 650watt GQ PSU ASUS 1080 Strix Samsung M.2 500GB 850 EVO System stress tests ok and benchmarks well.

Just to be sure, you have the Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming-ITX/ac board?

There aren't and Fatal1ty Z170M boards, and the UEFI versions you mentioned match this board:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Fatal1ty%20Z170%20Gaming-ITXac/

It seems you have this issue with the 2.00 or 2.10 UEFI versions, but if you change back to the 1.80 UEFI version, you don't have the issue anymore?

What CPU cooler are you using?

What version of Windows, or other OS are you using?

Wake from Sleep issues are common, and can be difficult to fix, but you have the same problem when doing a cold boot after a standard shutdown, correct?

I find it hard, very hard, to believe this could be BIOS related.

That two of the three STRIXs fans, its LEDs, and the CPU fan are affected, well, to me that's seemingly a power issue.

OP, have you preformed an out of the case minimal build?


""The PC only booted if power has been completely removed from the mobo.""

If that is literal, what happens when power is separated  from only the wall outlet and the PSU cable

Snipeuout wrote: wardog wrote: I find it hard, very hard, to believe this could be BIOS related. That two of the three STRIXs fans, its LEDs, and the CPU fan are affected, well, to me that's seemingly a power issue. OP, have you preformed an out of the case minimal build? ""The PC only booted if power has been completely removed from the mobo."" If that is literal, what happens when power is separated  from only the wall outlet and the PSU cable   To be as specific as possible, I cycle the switch on the PSU to resolve the issue. That is the only way to resolve the issue, pulling the plug would probably work the same.   I did not bench test (min build). However all I have is a MOBO, CPU, COOLER, RAM, M.2 HD, VGA Card and PSU all inside a case. wardog wrote: OP, do you power this from the wall, or from a power strip?   Actually it is plugged into a power strip. Why would that matter thou? Why would it work from a "just plugged in" cold boot but not a shutdown/boot cycle?   Either way, I'm going to flash back to 2.1 and plug it directly into the wall and see if the issue still exists.   Its a very conditional issue that only occurs after a sleep/shutdown after the first boot. Rebooting/restarting works fine, anytime, all the time. To be as specifics as I can during the failure mode here is what happens. Only two of the GPU fans spin and stay on, and the LED lighting on the card stays whiteish/baby blue. Normally all 3 fans spins for a second and turn off and the LEDS glow orange. That?�s it, that?�s all the happens. No CPU fan, no displays, no case fans. As soon as I cycle off (and keep it off for a few seconds) the PSU switch it boots fine after. It?�s almost like when the boot circuit is triggered after the system was command to shutdown/sleep the system just turns on the GPU partially. Maybe the NB, CPU and RAM are powered but I have no way of knowing.   It?�s super strange. My gut tells me it?�s a bug in the BIOs. The error is so easily repeatable. Could this be a power supply, mobo power issues or a bio bug?

You can test if the BIOS versions make a difference, as you suspect.

When doing that, I would suggest changing to 1.80, which you said works normally, right?

If so, use 1.80 for at least two days, a week would be better. You said you were concerned about a potential problem with the board. IMO, letting it run with 1.80 for a week, and logging your results even just once a day (ie Day 1: Ok, woke from Sleep twice, shutdown and restarted once fine) will help you know if it is the board, and if 1.80 does not have the problem.

If you complete a week on 1.80 without incident, then move on to 2.00 If you start getting the issue again, which will be obvious after a week without it, make note of that in your log. I would possibly see if 2.00 failed twice for you, but once is probably enough.

At that point, you could decide to go back to 1.80, or try 2.10. Unless you are getting some great new feature with 2.00 or 2.10 (which I doubt), stay with 1.80 until a new version beyond 2.10 appears. They you can decide if you want to test it.

Did you ever check the Windows Event log when 2.00 or 2.10 failed to wake from Sleep? I know you are not sure if the PC actually woke from Sleep, and only the video card failed to wake, but I have had that happen to me on an older, completely different system. I had entries in the Event log regarding the wake from Sleep error related to my video card and PSU. You have yet to determine if any exist in your Event log.

gusviper wrote: Dear Snipeuout, we have almost the same specs, and 100% the same problem. my specs I7-6700k Corsair vegennce 3200 16-18-18-35 2x16gb Corsair RM 550 PSU Samsung M.2 500GB 850 EVO UPS CyberPower Adaptive Sinewave CP900EPFCLCD The 1.8 Bios version fixes the problem. But if u want to use the latest version (2.10 ) without sleep mode problems, u have to raise from the bios settings, the CPU VCCIO Voltage from 0.95 up to 1.00 (1.00v-1.20v is safe). Give it a try, this worked for me.But i hope Asrock support give a permanent solution.

First I want to thank you for posting this information. If it is true (sorry but I cannot verify it myself, I don't use this board. I'm not saying you are wrong or giving false information, I simply do not know) it is useful for helping others with this issue. But this situation is not necessarily a problem with the 2.10 UEFI, as I will explain.

Your post implies that the default, Auto VCCIO voltage was changed (reduced) after UEFI version 1.80, in version 2.10.

UEFI 2.10 includes an "Improve DRAM compatibility" change, so that is possible.

Is that true? Do you know what the default or Auto VCCIO voltage was with UEFI 1.80? The VCCIO voltage can be different for several reasons.

Or do you think something else is happening?

VCCIO voltage is usually increased when using DDR4 memory at over clocked speeds, or the PC won't POST/boot. That can be done manually, or is set by the memory's XMP profile.

My ASRock Z170 Extreme7+ board, used with my G.SKILL 3200 memory, sets the VCCIO voltage (and VCCSA) automatically to much higher values when the memory speed is set to 3200. That is necessary for the higher memory speed, any speed beyond 2133 is an OC. The voltages were higher than necessary, and I was able to reduce them without any problem.

Since it is difficult to know what VCCIO and VCCSA voltage is needed for every model of DDR4 memory, and for the amount of memory being used, high values for these voltages are used to insure compatibility.

Your memory seems to be at 3200, obviously an OC beyond the standard DDR4 speed of 2133.

Are you using the XMP profile to set your memory at 3200, or did you change the memory settings yourself?

It is possible that the 2.10 UEFI includes reduced automatic VCCIO (and VCCSA?) voltage values used with memory at over clocked speeds. It seems that is what has happened.

If your memory at 3200 does not work perfectly (wake from Sleep problem) with the different, reduced value for the VCCIO voltage (assuming that is happening with UEFI 2.10), you need to adjust it, which you have done.

But that does not mean the 2.10 UEFI has an issue in general. UEFI 2.10 might be setting the VCCIO voltage to low in some cases, but that will take some research to verify.

I hope you understand that when we OC our memory or CPU, we are responsible for finding and setting the necessary voltages that provide stability. That is the only solution that is realistic. What other permanent solution is possible?

Yes it is frustrating that after a UEFI update, we find an issue occurring with our PC. You found the solution, but IMO we cannot expect the UEFI used in our boards to provide automatic voltage values that work for the over clocked memory we are using. Those voltage values will not work for all memory models. ASRock does provide memory OC settings for some models of memory, for some of their boards.

If the VCCIO voltage is being set to low at 2133 memory speed, then I would agree that should be fixed.

As I said above, all of this should be verified before we come to any conclusions.