AB350 Gaming-ITX/AC Issues - Need Advice

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   Hello Everyone,

I wanted to throw this out here before I return the board.  I got a new AB350 Gaming-ITX/AC board with an A8-9600 / 8G DDR4-2400 Ballisticx Memory / WD Black PCIe M.2 NVMe drive.   I put everything together like normal and booted up.  The boot screen seemed to take longer than I thought it should and the keyboard didn't seem responsive when I tried to get into the config menu.  After a minute or so I got an error about the boot device.  I restarted and was able to get into the config.    Everything looked good so I popped in my USB drive and tried to throw LibreElec on it.  

I could never get the install screen to come up as the system would either reboot or shutoff before it could.  It was very random and sometimes would get father than others.  I created a Win10 install media and it did the same thing.  Thinking it was the memory, I ran a copy of memtest and everything tested clean.

I noticed that if I had the thumb drive in the same group of USB ports it wouldn't boot at all.  If I took out the NVMe drive I could get it to fully boot to a windows install.  I also have an X370 Taichi so I threw the NVMe in that and was able to format (did not try to boot) in an existing install of windows.  I even ran some speed tests and got impressive results.  

I tried running a SATA DVD drive and running the install from that and got the same results as the USB.  It seems like I got the best results with the NVMe not installed.  

I contacted support but basically got a generic "if you think it's bad, contact the place you got it and send it back" with no additional troubleshooting.  The board came with BIOS ver 4.50 installed so I threw 4.60 and 3.40 on, all with the same results. Given my other system booted with the NVMe installed (and booted the normal time), I don't think the issue is the NVMe.  I also cleared the BIOS through the jumpers and loaded and saved the defaults after each bios load. 

I've tired the memory in different slots and different keyboards just in case.  The only thing I haven't been able to test is different storage as I don't have anything else available and I really want to run off the NVMe.  

Anyone have any other ideas before I RMA this thing and consider my other options?  From what I've seen the X370 itx may be a better choice but I don't need the few extras it offers.

Thanks!

Edited by ecornwell - 21 Jun 2018 at 9:45am

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ecornwell Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 21 Jun 2018 Status: Offline Points: 7	Post Options Post Reply Quote ecornwell Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: AB350 Gaming-ITX/AC Issues - Need Advice Posted: 21 Jun 2018 at 9:42am
	Hello Everyone, I wanted to throw this out here before I return the board. I got a new AB350 Gaming-ITX/AC board with an A8-9600 / 8G DDR4-2400 Ballisticx Memory / WD Black PCIe M.2 NVMe drive. I put everything together like normal and booted up. The boot screen seemed to take longer than I thought it should and the keyboard didn't seem responsive when I tried to get into the config menu. After a minute or so I got an error about the boot device. I restarted and was able to get into the config. Everything looked good so I popped in my USB drive and tried to throw LibreElec on it. I could never get the install screen to come up as the system would either reboot or shutoff before it could. It was very random and sometimes would get father than others. I created a Win10 install media and it did the same thing. Thinking it was the memory, I ran a copy of memtest and everything tested clean. I noticed that if I had the thumb drive in the same group of USB ports it wouldn't boot at all. If I took out the NVMe drive I could get it to fully boot to a windows install. I also have an X370 Taichi so I threw the NVMe in that and was able to format (did not try to boot) in an existing install of windows. I even ran some speed tests and got impressive results. I tried running a SATA DVD drive and running the install from that and got the same results as the USB. It seems like I got the best results with the NVMe not installed. I contacted support but basically got a generic "if you think it's bad, contact the place you got it and send it back" with no additional troubleshooting. The board came with BIOS ver 4.50 installed so I threw 4.60 and 3.40 on, all with the same results. Given my other system booted with the NVMe installed (and booted the normal time), I don't think the issue is the NVMe. I also cleared the BIOS through the jumpers and loaded and saved the defaults after each bios load. I've tired the memory in different slots and different keyboards just in case. The only thing I haven't been able to test is different storage as I don't have anything else available and I really want to run off the NVMe. Anyone have any other ideas before I RMA this thing and consider my other options? From what I've seen the X370 itx may be a better choice but I don't need the few extras it offers. Thanks! Edited by ecornwell - 21 Jun 2018 at 9:45am

ecornwell Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 21 Jun 2018 Status: Offline Points: 7	Post Options Post Reply Quote ecornwell Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 22 Jun 2018 at 7:17am
	I have to make the decision if I'm going to send it back tonight. There was another thread mentioning a similar problem with the same chipset. I think at this point I'm just going to RMA it.

TooQik Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 06 Apr 2017 Location: Australia Status: Offline Points: 104	Post Options Post Reply Quote TooQik Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 22 Jun 2018 at 7:25am
	Have you read through this to see if anything in it helps: http://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=1236&title=how-to-install-windows-on-a-pcie-ssd Edit: can't get the hyperlink to work for some reason so I removed it. Edited by TooQik - 22 Jun 2018 at 7:31am

ecornwell Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 21 Jun 2018 Status: Offline Points: 7	Post Options Post Reply Quote ecornwell Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 22 Jun 2018 at 8:25am
	Thanks for the suggestion. The drive showed up in the boot menu and it would try to boot. Now that I think about it, it seemed to get progressively worse the more I tried to boot. The first few times it would boot to a "no boot device" but it got to the point I had to wait over a minute.

ecornwell Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 21 Jun 2018 Status: Offline Points: 7	Post Options Post Reply Quote ecornwell Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 27 Jun 2018 at 9:18am
	Hello Everyone, Here's an update. I ended up RMAing the board and got an X370 GAMING-ITX/AC and am having the exact same problems. I've gotten it to boot to the Windows install a few times just to have it shut off before I get to the main screen. I'm at a loss and very frustrated at this point...