X99 Extreme4 Issues

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   Hi,
I am really in need of some assistance.  I am building a computer using the X99 Extreme 4 motherboard and when I turned on the computer I am not getting any display to my monitor.  All of the fans seem to be working, including the ones built into my video card, but aside from that all I get is a solid red light down towards the bottom next to the little blue box that says "HDD Saver".  And I don't know if it is relevant but I have the computer connected to my monitor using the HDMI slot on the video card.  And the video card is inserted into the PCIE 1 slot.  

Here is what I am using for everything

MOBA: ASRock X99 Extreme4 LGA 2011-v3 Intel
Processor: Intel Core i7-6800K 15M Broadwell-E 6-Core 3.4 GHz LGA 2011-v3
Ram: G.SKILL Ripjaws 4 Series 32GB (4 x 8GB)
Power: Corsair AX Series, AX760, 760 Watt (760W)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB FTW GAMING ACX 2.0+

The only other posts I saw like this were being caused by the memory being in the wrong place or not fully slotted.  I don't believe that that is what is happening with me.  They seem to be fully slotted in and locked, and I have the 4 cards in A1, B1, C1, and D1 (all four of the black slots). And I also have both spots on the board connected to the PSU.

If anyone has any idea what the problem could be I would greatly appreciate it.  Or at least some steps to try to see if I can figure out if a particular component is bad. Let me know if there is any other information you need also.  

Posting a couple pictures of it, probably won't help much but maybe there is something clearly wrong that I did and someone will notice. 

This just shows the light that is staying solid red

These two just show how I have the memory inserted. 

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bill4364 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 16 Jun 2016 Status: Offline Points: 5	Post Options Post Reply Quote bill4364 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: X99 Extreme4 Issues Posted: 16 Jun 2016 at 10:44am
	Hi, I am really in need of some assistance. I am building a computer using the X99 Extreme 4 motherboard and when I turned on the computer I am not getting any display to my monitor. All of the fans seem to be working, including the ones built into my video card, but aside from that all I get is a solid red light down towards the bottom next to the little blue box that says "HDD Saver". And I don't know if it is relevant but I have the computer connected to my monitor using the HDMI slot on the video card. And the video card is inserted into the PCIE 1 slot. Here is what I am using for everything MOBA: ASRock X99 Extreme4 LGA 2011-v3 Intel Processor: Intel Core i7-6800K 15M Broadwell-E 6-Core 3.4 GHz LGA 2011-v3 Ram: G.SKILL Ripjaws 4 Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) Power: Corsair AX Series, AX760, 760 Watt (760W) Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB FTW GAMING ACX 2.0+ The only other posts I saw like this were being caused by the memory being in the wrong place or not fully slotted. I don't believe that that is what is happening with me. They seem to be fully slotted in and locked, and I have the 4 cards in A1, B1, C1, and D1 (all four of the black slots). And I also have both spots on the board connected to the PSU. If anyone has any idea what the problem could be I would greatly appreciate it. Or at least some steps to try to see if I can figure out if a particular component is bad. Let me know if there is any other information you need also. Posting a couple pictures of it, probably won't help much but maybe there is something clearly wrong that I did and someone will notice. This just shows the light that is staying solid red These two just show how I have the memory inserted.

bill4364 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 16 Jun 2016 Status: Offline Points: 5	Post Options Post Reply Quote bill4364 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 17 Jun 2016 at 4:33am
	Well no one here seems to know what the situation might be. But in another forum someone noticed that the x99 extreme4 motherboard I am using needs to have a BIOS update to work with the brand new i7 processor I bought for this computer. Obviously I cannot update the BIOS if I cannot get the display to work, so my follow up question, that maybe someone here will know, is can I buy an older processor for this moba, update the BIOS, then put my new one back into the board??? The processor I got is non refundable, the problem is that the cheapest processor I can find that will work with this build is still around 250. Not bank breaking but considering how much I am into this computer for I would really appreciate it if someone more knowledgeable than I could weight in on if this even has a chance of working before I start throwing good money after bad. Thanks for all your help, Bill

parsec Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Moderator Group Joined: 04 May 2015 Location: USA Status: Offline Points: 4996	Post Options Post Reply Quote parsec Report Post Thanks(1) Quote Reply Posted: 17 Jun 2016 at 7:17am
	The Broadwell-E processor is the problem, period. A fix for this below, discussion first. You'll need the UEFI version 3.30 for your board, for Broadwell-E support. This situation, where two processor generations (Haswell-E and Broadwell-E) can be used with the same chipset (X99), but the first generation processor is required for the UEFI update, is the same as the previous HEDT processor chipset, X79. The problem is the CPU microcode, that is part of the UEFI/BIOS file, is so different between the two processor generations, that the new generation processor is unable to work with it. Intel has not been able to provide a work around of some kind to fix this issue. There are no cheaper socket 2011 v3 processor that you can buy, unless you could find a used Haswell Xeon. $250 would be a decent price for a low end Xeon. But there is another method of fixing this situation. Replacing the UEFI/BIOS chip with the appropriate UEFI version. The UEFI chips are in sockets, so can be removed (carefully) without any soldering. Two ways of getting the UEFI chips. One is directly from ASRock, they are $15 each plus shipping. You can order them with this form: http://www.asrock.com/support/index.asp?cat=RMA Another source is eBay. I will only give you this source in general, as there are several providers of UEFI/BIOS chips, and I don't want to advocate one over another. I've had no experience with these sources anyway. Your board has two UEFI/BIOS chips, the main (A) and backup (B). You can get away with just replacing one of them, but since the backup chip cannot be updated, if you don't replace both chips, you won't have the backup UEFI feature available. That is up to you. If you have any more questions about this, please let us know. This situation is not unique to ASRock boards, all mother board manufactures are stuck with this issue too. Also, FYI, expecting a response in under 24 hours is a bit unrealistic. I saw your post for the first time today. I don't live in the forum, and other moderators are on vacation. Why other users did not reply, I can't tell you. Either they missed the Broadwell-E in your PC specs, or don't understand this situation with X99 and X79 boards. X99 is not a mainstream platform, and is not used by anywhere near as many people as other chipset platforms. The situation with X99 and the multiple processor generations being incompatible without a UEFI/BIOS update is very uncommon.


bill4364 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 16 Jun 2016 Status: Offline Points: 5	Post Options Post Reply Quote bill4364 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 17 Jun 2016 at 11:31am
	Awesome, I greatly appreciate the response man. And yea sorry I have an impatient nature, and as I see that thread go lower and lower it compounds :D So replacing the chip would obviously be a much cheaper option but how hard is that process? This is the first computer I've built, I'm pretty decent at stuff like this but I don't want to destroy the board obviously. edit: though honestly I could buy 2 replacement chips and a whole spare board for the same price I would have to pay for any other acceptable processor, so I'd have to screw it up twice... Edited by bill4364 - 17 Jun 2016 at 11:34am

bigphil Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 26 Aug 2016 Status: Offline Points: 2	Post Options Post Reply Quote bigphil Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 26 Aug 2016 at 12:18am
	Hi bill4364, I just bought the same motherboard and processor, and have the same red light no display problem. Did you replace the Bios chips? Did it work? Thanks

bigphil Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 26 Aug 2016 Status: Offline Points: 2	Post Options Post Reply Quote bigphil Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 19 Sep 2016 at 4:34pm
	FYI, I replaced the BIOS/UEFI chip (upgrading from v2 to v3) and now everything works fine. Thanks to ASRock support.

Xaltar Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Moderator Group Joined: 16 May 2015 Location: Europe Status: Online Points: 24713	Post Options Post Reply Quote Xaltar Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 19 Sep 2016 at 5:36pm
	Fantastic, thanks for the update Bigphil