Boot loop z77 extreme 4

[wotevajjjj]

Hi folks
Some time ago we build a friend a new pc, it worked fine for some time but this morning it wouldn't boot.
The fans spin up for a second but then power down again. The cpu fan (connected to the mb 4pin) also spins up. There is no led post however.
This continues in a loop until we turned the psu off. CMOS has been cleared multiple times using both the button on the back and the 3pin connector thingy on the mb itself. No succes though :'(
We took apart pretty much everything and tried with another psu aswell, still doesn't work. We also removed the battery and let it rest for a while.
Once, all fans started spinning and kept spinning but no post.

Specs are:
ASRock Z77 Extreme 4
3770K
4*4gb Vengeance LP 1600
7970OC
Samsung 830 ssd
BQ Dark rock pro 2
BQ Pure Power 730w

We already contacted ASRock and Caseking but your brilliant advice is also welcome

 

[airdeano]

the BIOS is corupt. either the RAM information is lacking or incorrect.
try just 2 sticks of RAM.
there are a couple of goole hits on this exact issue. reflash BIOS using the 2.0 version.

airdeano

 

[wotevajjjj]

We tried with only 2 sticks but it made no difference. Also, we can't flash because we can't get into bios. The loop only powers the pc for a second.

 

[airdeano]

you can remove all RAM and CPU to flash BIOS...

airdeano

 

[wotevajjjj]

Not possible with this board. Also no power without cpu.

 

[Ru5ty_t00l]

try disconnecting all fans and with only one ram stick.

 

[kilobravo]

No post led,sounds like a dead cpu and/or the mobo is damaged as well.
If you use cable extensions,try without.

 

[Straydox]

Solution

1st post here..

I kind of felt I had to come back and add a post to say thanks for pointing me in the right direction - and maybe help for someone else with a Z77 in a boot loop...

An upgrade job - Asock Fatality Pro Z77 Mobo, 3770k i7 CPU and 16GB of Patriot Viper Extreme DDR3 1866 RAM (PXD38G1866ELK)- listed as compatible on the Asrock web site..what could possibly go wrong??

Got it all installed and back in the case - reusing my existing GTX470 graphics card.

1st Boot - no video output (apparently) - digital display said 'A2' for a clean boot. Seems that the 2nd DVI connection on the on the 470 (not the one that had previously worked pre-upgrade) was needed - weird. Great - got the BIOS display up.

At this point I thought 'Great install the drivers off the CD and I'm sorted', wrong! Installed the chipset drivers and rebooted.

The fans started and ran for maybe 10 seconds (SSD boot disk), stopped, auto reboot - repeat.... Discovered that if I pulled the powerlead it would boot to windows and then BSOD - and then back to the boot loop.

Surfed the web and found this site - saw the post about RAM. Took a close look at the BIOS. Curious - the DDR3 1866 memory was shown as DDR3 1600 - right stick size ( 4gb ) though. Tried selecting a new memory profile i.e. 1866 - no difference and back to the boot loop.

Took a look at the Patriot web site - loads of stuff there about fantastic QA, hand selected and matched and the memory timings of 9-10-9-27....went back to the BIOS and checked - the mobo had defaulted to 9-9-9-24.

Could it be so simple? Manually changed the memory timings to match Patriot's spec and rebooted - perfect, rock solid stable.

I have to admit that although I've probably built 6 or 7 PCs over the last 15 years it's the first time I've encountered a mobo that didn't identify the memory correctly... I hope this helps someone...