Reboot to black screen with ROG STRIX Z690-E GAMING WIFI

[Oafed]

Rebooting will very often result in the monitors never coming on (including seeing the bios boot screens) and the computer boots into a weird state with no way to get the monitors on. It does this when rebooting from Windows or from Linux.

I've seen a couple misc forums and other places on the internet describing this same exact issue- but nobody has found any workarounds (different video cards, XMP off, etc...). Normally I just turn off the computer now and try to never use restart, however the 22H2 Windows 11 install just got botched because it tried to restart, went black, I force power cycled after quite some time and when it came back on it said it was undoing the update and showed as failed when Windows loaded (*22H2 update worked on second try when I explicitly chose 'update and shutdown').

This issue might be related to I9 12900k or I9 12900ks as others who had this issue shared that in common with me? I keep installing the new bios updates as soon as I see them in hopes that it finally gets fixed, as this is a rather severe issue. Has anyone found any workarounds to this problem? I am actually rather disgruntled by this issue.

[RogScott]

What video card? VBIOS and drivers all up-to-date?

[Oafed]

What video card? VBIOS and drivers all up-to-date?

I currently have an EVGA 1080 FTW3 in there, everything is up-to-date with it. The same card has worked fantastic on multiple other computers as well. Others who have posted about the same reboot to black screen problem have different cards than I have.

[RogScott]

I currently have an EVGA 1080 FTW3 in there, everything is up-to-date with it. The same card has worked fantastic on multiple other computers as well. Others who have posted about the same reboot to black screen problem have different cards than I have.

Great card (EVGA 1080 FTW3). I had one in my last system and initially moved it into my Z690-E when built in March. Replaced it with an EVGA 3090FTW3 a couple months later. No issues with monitors coming on with either the 1080 or 3090. I have two monitors (MSI RPM321U and Dell U3014), both connected via DP, and running Windows 11.

Are you using DP or HDMI? When the problem occurs, have you tried disconnecting/reconnecting or power cycling the monitors? Are your cables current (i.e., newer and spec'd for current DP/HDMI versions)?

Are you using the integrated GPU as well? If not, is it disabled in the Z690-E BIOS?

I did have some weird issues (but not monitor wakeup) when I had one monitor on the i-GPU and one on the 1080. The Z690-E bios just couldn't seem to keep straight which one was primary and didn't respect the PEG/PCIE/Integrated "primary" bios setting. So you might see if iGPU being enabled/disabled, or its primary/secondary setting changed in bios, changes anything with your symptoms. I gave up using the iGPU when a version of Armoury Crate wouldn't display its "dashboard" with the iGPU enabled but no monitor connected to it -- so I just disabled iGPU in bios and connected both monitors to the 1080 (and later to the 3090). That was on bios 1304, so it could have been fixed in a later bios -- but I have not retested.

Good luck, be sure to report back with any additional findings.

[STARRAIN@ROG]

Hi Oafed,
Did the issue occur after any settings or components changed? or since first build?
May I have the bios version and bios settings?
Do you only use one monitor or two?
Thank you.

[Oafed]

- The problem has been happening since day one, not after any changes
- I although thought that it might be switching to iGPU so I did ensure that was disabled in bios, which didn't help
- Currently on bios 2004 (I have been aggressively updating it hoping for a fix)
- I keep the bios settings pretty default. The only thing I've really tried is explicitly disabling the integrated GPU and both enabling / disabling XMP profile)
- I use two monitors connected via display port, all the cables and everything are good.
- Power cycling the monitors or unplugging and replugging the display port doesn't correct the issue

Here are a couple other links of people with the same problem.

In this discussion the poster and several commentors have the issue:
https://forums.tomshardware.com/thre...times.3752797/

Is this post his third point sounds exactly like this issue:
"-Reboot sometimes doesnt work...it ends windows, screen turns black, fans increase speed, nothing happens."
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthrea...0+reboot+black

And another guy with the exact same problem:
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthrea...ghlight=z690-e

[RogScott]

Are you sure Windows is actually booting up when the monitors remain black?

Can you enable Remote Access (RDP), then try connecting to the machine the next time the monitors come up black? That would verify whether Windows is actually booting fully, and (if it is) give you a way to check current status of drivers and services.

Although maybe that's all irrelevant -- since you aren't seeing the BIOS during boot.

[Oafed]

Are you sure Windows is actually booting up when the monitors remain black?

Can you enable Remote Access (RDP), then try connecting to the machine the next time the monitors come up black? That would verify whether Windows is actually booting fully, and (if it is) give you a way to check current status of drivers and services.

Although maybe that's all irrelevant -- since you aren't seeing the BIOS during boot.

Yeah I hear the windows start sound and I memorized the key stokes needed to shutdown from the lock screen and that key stroke combo works to shut it down when it boots black - but yeah I don't even see the bios so its pretty dead in this mode.

Having said that - the 22H2 update reboot to black actually botched the update (I gave it plenty of time before I power cycled it)... so something isn't quite right when it boots in this mode.

[STARRAIN@ROG]

Hi Oafed,
May I double confirm you can't see RGO logo after restart and just black screen?
Have you tried only one monitor connecting and with HDMI? Did you get same black screen?
Does black screen also occur with iGPU and other graphics card?
Have you tried enabled CSM in bios?
Thank you.

[Oafed]

Hi Oafed,
May I double confirm you can't see RGO logo after restart and just black screen?
Have you tried only one monitor connecting and with HDMI? Did you get same black screen?
Does black screen also occur with iGPU and other graphics card?
Have you tried enabled CSM in bios?
Thank you.

I did more testing.

- No ROG logo when it boots black
- Problem exists with one or two monitors
- Problem exists with display port or HDMI
- The problems does NOT exist with the iGPU

Big new insight:
- When it 'boots black' I can switch the HDMI cable from the GPU to the iGPU and see the computer actually did boot with the iGPU and is fully functional using the iGPU.

So the problem seems to be narrowed down to when I reboot the motherboard doesn't recognize the GPU sometimes and SWITCHES to the iGPU. It does this in spite of me having set PCIE as the primary GPU in bios. When I look in bios after it 'boots black' that setting is reverted to the CPU iGPU.

It never has this problem of recognizing the GPU on a cold boot, only on restarts.