X399 Taichi Boot Loop After Flashing to BIOS v1.80

I've tried contacting ASRock regarding this issue, but they don't ever seem to respond, so here I am on the forum. Before I dive right into the current issue, let me give you a little background. First, the specs of my system:

-- Asrock X399 Taichi MB
-- AMD Threadripper 1950x  w/ Enermax Liqtech TR4 240 liquid cooler 
-- 128GB G.Skill F4-3200C16D-32GVK RAM 
-- Samsung 960 EVO 250GB PCIe NVMe drive 
-- Eight Seagate 8TB SATA drives, RAID10 (ST8000NM0055)  
-- Two Samsung 850 EVO 2TB SSD volumes 
-- Visiontek Radeon HD 7750 
-- EVGA SuperNOVA 850w G2 Power Supply 
-- Antec P9 Case 
-- Arch Linux (4.13.9-1-ARCH)

The system above boots fine with BIOS version 1.70 if less than 8 DIMM slots are used (7 populated: boots; 6 populated: boots; 8 populated: doesn't POST). Alright, fine, I can't fully populate the memory just yet. So I throw 4 sticks in and I'm faced with the same issue so many people seem to be facing: The full amount of memory does not show up in the OS as usable (48GB is available with 64GB physically in the motherboard).

Reading other threads elsewhere on here, I found a few people with the same memory as me saying that BIOS v1.71 fixed the issue. I quickly emailed ASRock and they responded a few days later (the only response I've received from them) with the file. I flashed the BIOS, booted and was faced with a boot loop. I emailed ASRock again, and never received another response.

I've been checking the BIOS download page frequently, and today I noticed v1.80 is out. Excitement! Downloaded it, did a Quick Flash, and when I went to boot the system I was stuck in the same state as I was with v1.71 (i.e., boot loop).

Here's what I've tried:

-- Unplug USB connector from MOBO, boot (result: boot loop).
-- Remove NVMe drive, boot (result: boot loop).
-- Unplug all SATA drives, boot (result: boot loop).
-- Remove video card completely, boot (result: boot loop).
-- Replace video card with a 1070, boot (result: boot loop).
-- Try booting with all the above done and only a single stick of RAM (result: boot loop).
-- Same as above, except now booting with liquid cooler unplugged (result: boot loop).

I'm at my wit's end here. I have no idea what else to try, and with ASRock not responding to my emails, I figured I would try here to see if anyone has any ideas, or is in the same situation. See below for a video of my system doing the boot loop.

a bad flash ?

i suggest back flashing to earlier version and try then flashing to new

to make the safest flash
reset everything to stock bios (cmos clear even better)
and according to a ryzen/ amd guru named chew

just use one single ram stick when flashing to minimise risk of corruption

damaya1982 wrote: Hello datonyb. A while back you were involved in this thread: http://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp%3FTID=6214&PN=9&title=fatal1ty-x399-wont-post-with-128gb-ram In that thread, a user threadrippera came back to report that after flashing to v1.71 (beta) the memory s/he was using finally worked (model: F4-3200C16D-32GVK). I can't find it now unfortunately, but I also read the same thing from another user elsewhere (i.e., that memory worked in their X399, this time it was Taichi). Alright, so I've been testing extensively today, below are the results for v1.8: Slots A1 / A2 / B1 / B2: Works. BIOS reports Dual Channel memory, 64GB. Slots A1 / A2 / B1 / B2 / C1: Boots, BIOS reports Single Channel, 82GB. Slots A1 / A2 / B1 / B2 / C2: Boots, BIOS reports Single Channel, 82GB. Slots A1 / A2 / B1 / B2 / C1 / C2: Works. BIOS reports Single Channel memory, 98GB. Slots A1 / A2 / B1 / B2 / C1 / C2 / D1: Boot Loop. Slots A1 / A2 / B1 / B2 / C1 / C2 / D2: Boot Loop. Slots A1 / B1 / C1 / D1: Boot Loop. Slots A2 / B2 / C2 / D2: Boot Loop. Testing with v1.7 results: Slots A1 / A2: Doesn't boot. Slots A1 / A2 / B1 / B2: Works. BIOS reports Dual Channel memory, 64GB. Slots A1 / A2 / B1 / B2 / C1: Boots, BIOS reports Single Channel, 82GB. Slots A1 / A2 / B1 / B2 / C1 / C2: Works. BIOS reports Single Channel memory, 98GB. Slots A1 / A2 / B1 / B2 / C1 / C2 / D1: Works. BIOS reports Quad Channel memory, 98GB. Slots A1 / A2 / B1 / B2 / C1 / C2 / D2: Works. BIOS reports Quad Channel memory, 98GB. Slots A1 / A2 / B1 / B2 / C1 / C2 / D1 / D2: Doesn't boot, gets stuck at C0. After going with your suggestion and reverting back to v1.70, then flashing again with only one DIMM and a cleared CMOS, I find the same results as above. Here's my conclusion: v1.80 fixed the issue I was having with the OS reporting the incorrect amount of memory; however, I can now no longer get Quad channel working with v1.80.

did you try the recommended quad channel at A2/B2/C2/D2


Edited by JUANNY - 09 Nov 2017 at 10:17am

damaya1982 wrote: > did you try the recommended quad channel at A2/B2/C2/D2 Sorry, my edit didn't seem to show up. I added in there that with v1.80, I tried the following (both before and after reverting back to v1.70 and reflashing as per daytonb's suggestion): A1 / B1 / C1 / D1: Boot loop. A2 / B2 / C2 / D2: Boot loop.

Since other users have gotten at least quad channel config working that would leave your memory as the most likely culprit otherwise there would have been more reports posted

so you have 8 sticks of 16gb ram ?

did you buy them as 4 packs/kits of 2x16 gb sticks ?

if so can you try and first find out the matching pairs ?  eg which ones came as paired up sticks

then try each pair in a set of channels

eg for example try a pair in a2 and b2
test for booting /test for xmp. then run a quick memtest
then select next pair and repeat this teps 3 times for each pair

see if that throws any unusual event with a pair

your ram is made with hynix m dies which have been a pain since amd launched ryzen

but they should be playing ball ok at stock settings

(you have been trying at 2133 stock and not 3200 xmp havnt you ? )