Help: POSTs from cold boot, but not from warm boot

[chrsmrrtt]

Hardware:
- Motherboard: Maximus VI Hero
- CPU: i7-4790K
- RAM: 2 * 8GB Kingston Hyper-X Beast Dual-DDR3 2400MHz X.M.P
- GPU: 3GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 780Ti (Palit)
- Cooling: Cool Master Hyper 212 Evo

Hello.

A number of months ago I swapped out an i5-4670 with a i7-4790K. The upgrade's been great; a noticeable difference. However there is one lingering issue that's haunted me since the switch, related to when the machine reboots.

Turning On the machine from a state of Off, there is no problem; it POSTs and Windows appears a few seconds later. All is well.

The problem is when the machine is rebooted - for example, Start Menu > Power > Restart.

Windows shuts down and the machine is at that very beginning state when it's just about to POST, but then... Nothing. Under these circumstances the machine to all intents and purposes is running (albeit with a noticeably higher fan speed), but it's unresponsive - no signal to the monitors, no response to keyboard stimuli, etc.

At this point the only option is to hold the power button down to force a power off, wait a couple of seconds, then power on, which, because this a cold boot, works fine - POST + Windows.

This is an always-on machine - it serves me with a number of things when I'm not at home - therefore it's pretty important that automatic updates that trigger a reboot (thanks Windows) get all the way through the cycle so my automatic services can kick back in.

Some extra details:
- The status code on the motherboard after a failed reboot reads "00". It doesn't quickly flash through the other codes I usually see on a successful cold boot.
- All the BIOS settings are currently at the "optimised defaults".
- This issue does not exist when I swap the old CPU back in. It's only while the I7 chip is loaded that this issue rears it's ugly head.
- There's no other notable issues with the machine.

If anyone has any suggestions to help me solve my issue I'd be glad to hear them. Or if you need any further screenshots, info about BIOS settings, or anything else, just ask.

I hope you can help!

Chris.

[NemesisChild]

Try disabling (uncheck) fast srartup in the Control Panel under Power Oprions.

[chrsmrrtt]

Thanks Nemisis, but no luck. The outcome is still the same; nada from a reboot.

To clarify, I set the Fast Boot to Disabled in the BIOS - I think that's what you mean because I don't know of a "fast startup" option in Windows' Control Panel Power Options.

Any other suggestions?

[NemesisChild]

Thanks Nemisis, but no luck. The outcome is still the same; nada from a reboot.

To clarify, I set the Fast Boot to Disabled in the BIOS - I think that's what you mean because I don't know of a "fast startup" option in Windows' Control Panel Power Options.

Any other suggestions?

Two entirely different settings. Please enable fast boot in the bios.

It's there. Control Panel, Power Options, Choose What the Power Buttons Do.

[chevell65]

I'm still running the 4790K on my old Z97 system.

The only issues I had were related to not having the correct Intel MEI firmware which caused quite a few issues such as random reboots and stalled reboots etc. until I found the right ones. The MEI firmware from the Asus support site turned out to be not working right.

[chrsmrrtt]

@Nemesis:
Thanks I found the "fast start-up" option, disabled it, but no effect I'm afraid.

@Chevell65:
Thanks for the info. The BIOS is reporting an ME version as 9.0.22.1467, along with a BIOS version of '1603' - the latest according to the ASUS drivers list.

How can I tell if this is an appropriate ME version? And if it does need updating where would I source the firmware from?

Thanks,
Chris.

[chevell65]

These are the ones that worked to fix all issues with my 4790K on Z97 but many other chip sets are on the list. The versions on the Asus site were FLAT OUT incorrect and never worked properly.

[chrsmrrtt]

@Chevell65:
Thanks for the suggestion. I took your advice and installed the MEI. I ran the installer for 11.6.0.1047. Fine. No problems there.

Do you know if there is a difference between the ME version I install via Windows and the ME version that's installed on the motherboard?

However, my BIOS still reports the same ME version as before: 9.0.22.1467

Thanks,
Chris

[chevell65]

The version shown in device manager is different than one they show in bios. In device manager, under 'system devices' then to 'intel Managment Engine Interface' I'm showing 11.7.0.1045 dated 10/3/2017.

It's not the same version number as the link I posted but they don't always match I've noticed.