Troubleshooting Z270 Extreme 4 Help

Pasquale wrote: I built a system with this MOBO in March 2017, and it worked great... until I tried to install another HDD drive.  After securing the connections and whatnot, I tried to reapply power, but the computer was dead. Since then, I've broken it all down and am breadboarding (so to speak). The mobo is still attached to the case tray, which has been removed from the case.  The only things currently attached to the mobo are: 1) CPU (i7-7700k) 2) CPU Cooler (Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO), and its fan is plugged into the mobo. I've removed everything else. I've tested the PSU (Cooler Master G750M) by: - Placing a jumper between the green wire and common (ground) - Reading all of the output voltages on the main 24-pin ATX and 8-pin CPU plugs.  They are all within spec. I attach those 2 plugs to the mobo and turn on the PSU.  The RGB LEDs flash briefly, and nothing else happens. Since the PSU voltages check out, I'm starting to think the mobo is bad.  Is there anything else I can do to verify a bad mobo before I seek a replacement? Thanks.

Your PSU may be fine, but testing it under a zero load condition is not a complete test. No load puts no stress on a PSU, so voltage levels alone do not verify a PSU's health. Some PSUs even react badly with no load connected.

It's not easy to put a load on a PSU without being connected to a mother board, etc. You could connect some PC fans to it with molex to fan adapters, but that will only load the +12V rail, and most fans at full speed won't draw more than six Watts, usually less.

Question, with the board removed with only the CPU remaining in the board, meaning no memory I assume, when you turn on the PSU switch only, what did you expect to happen?

If you then briefly short the two terminals on the header where you connect the PC case power switch with a screwdriver, the board should start. All you would see is the CPU cooler fan spin.

To truly know it is not the original PSU, you should try another PSU.

If you connect a network cable from an active router/Internet connection, you should see at least one of the LEDs next to the network cable input come on or blink, with the PSU switch on. That is not a complete test of the board, but shows the +5V Standby power is reaching the board and the board is not completely dead.

There are too many components on a mother board that perform different duties for a general test to cover them all.

This isn't drive related.

Borrow a friends PSU or take it to a shop that can.

Note that at the time I was trying to boot from the M.2 SSD, it was the only storage media installed.  So BIOS recognized it, set to boot priority 1, and tried to boot it.  The message displayed was not very informative, it basically just said it can't boot from that drive.

I seem to be back in business now - I'm typing this on the rig I just re-built.  In case it might help anyone else, I'll go back through the steps I took, and their results.

1) I had the mobo stripped down to the point where the only thing installed on it was the CPU and its cooler.  Attached ATX and CPU power from the PSU, put a screwdriver across the power pins, and it started.

2) I turned off power and connected some peripherals - mouse, keyboard, and monitor, and reinstalled the RAM sticks I'd removed.  Turned it back on, and got to BIOS.

3) Power off, installed the SSD drive in the M.2 slot, and turned it on again.  This was my primary drive, the Windows boot drive.  BIOS recognized it and tried to boot from it, but was not successful.  It tried multiple times and the error message it provided was not helpful.

<then several other steps>

4) I installed an optical drive with the Windows 10 installation disk and the SSD drive again.  I went through the steps to get Windows to re-install on the SSD, and here's where things got a bit interesting.  Windows installation showed 2 partitions on that drive, and I wasn't allowed to install on either.  Here's the message displayed:

Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk has an MBR partition table.  On EFI systems, Windows can only be installed to GPT disks.

The other (much smaller) partition had the same message, with this additional text:
Windows cannot be installed to this hard disk space.  The partition was reserved by the computer's Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM).

I told Windows to format the large partition (and I'll be paying for that for awhile - I lost quite a bit), but it still would not install, and provided the same message.

I had noticed the optical drive was listed twice in BIOS - one with its usual designation, and the other was preceded by UEFI.  It seems like UEFI and BIOS don't play so well together.  In any case, I changed the boot order so that the optical drive that was NOT preceded by UEFI would boot first - and then I was able to install Windows.

I suspect things went awry when I took out the CMOS battery for awhile when I was tearing everything down.  I thought a complete reset might be helpful (I was pretty desperate), but now I'm thinking maybe ASRock had done something with the interplay between BIOS and UEFI in the manufacturing process that I interrupted when I removed the battery.  I'd never before seen any devices in BIOS prefaced with UEFI.  This might be the reason why it wouldn't boot from the SSD.

As for the original problems - must have been gremlins that have since been vanquished.  Everything seems to be working pretty well now.

Thanks again.

Pasquale wrote: Note that at the time I was trying to boot from the M.2 SSD, it was the only storage media installed.  So BIOS recognized it, set to boot priority 1, and tried to boot it.  The message displayed was not very informative, it basically just said it can't boot from that drive. I seem to be back in business now - I'm typing this on the rig I just re-built.  In case it might help anyone else, I'll go back through the steps I took, and their results. 1) I had the mobo stripped down to the point where the only thing installed on it was the CPU and its cooler.  Attached ATX and CPU power from the PSU, put a screwdriver across the power pins, and it started. 2) I turned off power and connected some peripherals - mouse, keyboard, and monitor, and reinstalled the RAM sticks I'd removed.  Turned it back on, and got to BIOS. 3) Power off, installed the SSD drive in the M.2 slot, and turned it on again.  This was my primary drive, the Windows boot drive.  BIOS recognized it and tried to boot from it, but was not successful.  It tried multiple times and the error message it provided was not helpful. <then several other steps> 4) I installed an optical drive with the Windows 10 installation disk and the SSD drive again.  I went through the steps to get Windows to re-install on the SSD, and here's where things got a bit interesting.  Windows installation showed 2 partitions on that drive, and I wasn't allowed to install on either.  Here's the message displayed: Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk has an MBR partition table.  On EFI systems, Windows can only be installed to GPT disks. The other (much smaller) partition had the same message, with this additional text: Windows cannot be installed to this hard disk space.  The partition was reserved by the computer's Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM). I told Windows to format the large partition (and I'll be paying for that for awhile - I lost quite a bit), but it still would not install, and provided the same message. I had noticed the optical drive was listed twice in BIOS - one with its usual designation, and the other was preceded by UEFI.  It seems like UEFI and BIOS don't play so well together.  In any case, I changed the boot order so that the optical drive that was NOT preceded by UEFI would boot first - and then I was able to install Windows. I suspect things went awry when I took out the CMOS battery for awhile when I was tearing everything down.  I thought a complete reset might be helpful (I was pretty desperate), but now I'm thinking maybe ASRock had done something with the interplay between BIOS and UEFI in the manufacturing process that I interrupted when I removed the battery.  I'd never before seen any devices in BIOS prefaced with UEFI.  This might be the reason why it wouldn't boot from the SSD. As for the original problems - must have been gremlins that have since been vanquished.  Everything seems to be working pretty well now. Thanks again.

I'm thrilled Windows 10 is finally providing some decent error messages about NVMe SSDs. Yes it is true that an NVMe SSD used as the OS drive must be GPT partitioned. Unless you have the NVMe SSD partitioned into say two separate partitions with their own volume/drive letters, of course you would be stuck deleting the existing partitions on it.

Also, God only knows what is on the OEM partition on this mystery NVMe SSD you are trying to use. Where did you get it from, and what model is it? That is pretty standard stuff for Windows to warn you about an OEM drive partition, since it was created with Windows, using Windows tools to do so.

If you really want to use that drive, you need to clean it out completely on another PC using the diskpart command in a Command Line prompt or Windows Power Shell window. Meaning run the diskpart clean command on that drive to remove everything. Don't run a full format or HDD erase on an SSD, it works but tortures an SSD unnecessarily.

"UEFI and BIOS don't play so well together...". Modern mother boards only use UEFI firmware, but it is run in emulated BIOS mode with the CSM option, enabled by default. So there is no BIOS firmware in your board.

The multiple entries you see for your optical drive are there to give you the choice of using it in Legacy/BIOS mode, or in UEFI mode. If you are installing Windows 10 on an NMVe SSD, you MUST use UEFI mode, and boot the Windows 10 installation disk from the "UEFI: <optical drive name>" entry in the boot order. NVMe is not SATA, and will only work correctly as an OS drive with Windows installed in UEFI booting mode. Really only semi-UEFI booting, but at least the EFI bootloader will be used, as required. Regrettably, we are still semi-stuck with the ancient BIOS firmware limitations, and finally NVMe SSD are forcing users to live in the 21st century.

So nothing is wrong or awry, you are just getting your first experience with an NVMe SSD, and actually using UEFI firmware capabilities. I'd need to see every partition on that SSD, which Disk Management will NOT show, IF it was intact as removed from wherever it came from, to know how it was set up. GPT partitioned UEFI booting NVMe installations, if done correctly, also have a protected, hidden, MBR partition on them to allow older Windows tools to run.

But you didn't use the UEFI: entry in the boot order! Oh well...