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zeroDivisible · ‎10-26-2015

Hey Guys,

I had been using Maximus VIII Gene motherboard for few weeks so I know that the build which I have works (well, not now but you get the idea.)

Long story short, I had been playing with PCI-passthrough so my Windows 10 VM (linux is the only OS which I have) would have full use of 980ti. I managed to get it to work, played few games but then stumbled on SecuRom issue when trying to play GTA IV.

I wanted to sort this by doing bios upgrade, hoping that it's resolved in one of the latest updates but I think I had killed my motherboard 😕

Firstly I put 0907 BIOS on the USB stick, booted to BIOS and started an update. It restarted the box in the end but boot process was hanging, giving "99" QCode. I tried few times, did CMOS reset, no change. So I tried flashing some older bios using USB Bios Flashback - but right now after powering on, motherboard just hangs, showing "00" QCode.

Is there anything which I can do to fix the board? Would it be the case of getting new BIOS chip? If yes, where? Could I do anything else maybe for this to work?

As a side note, I think there's a bug in the manual for this board as the image on page 2-12 shows different USB port for doing flashbacks than the table on page 2-13 describes (tried both when doing USB flashback, only the one from 2-13 was working).

Thanks,

-- michal.

Arne_Saknussemm · ‎10-26-2015

I would remove all power from the board....take out battery for a few minutes....then replace battery and clear CMOS and then restore power and flash the latest BIOS using BIOS flashback method...

Then try to boot

Make sure BIOS flashback is working...i.e. bios light flashes for over a minute...not just once or twice....

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zeroDivisible · ‎10-26-2015

Arne Saknussemm wrote:
I would remove all power from the board....take out battery for a few minutes....then replace battery and clear CMOS and then restore power and flash the latest BIOS using BIOS flashback method...

Then try to boot

Make sure BIOS flashback is working...i.e. bios light flashes for over a minute...not just once or twice....

Hey there! Thanks for the reply - I thought that I did similar order of steps already, but just to be sure I tried them again, now. Sadly, no avail.

I think that BIOS flashing is going ok - after holding the button which triggers it, light pulsates slowly in blue, then starts to go faster and faster until it turns itself off. I think that the whole process takes around a minute too, but I didn't measure it.

At this stage I'm quite certain there's not much which I can do, beside maybe trying the same process again tomorrow, after leaving the mobo without CMOS battery and power for the night. Just to be sure that I'm not missing anything - would you maybe know a way to rule out that this is not i.e. a CPU issue, but really a motherboard one? I'm guessing that this must be BIOS, as nothing else changed - but you can never cross out things failing at the very moment of me doing a BIOS upgrade 🙂

Thanks again.

zeroDivisible · ‎10-26-2015

Ok, one other small update: I had checked LEDs described in the manual on page 1-23.

BOOT_DEVICE_LED, VGA_LED, DRAM_LED, CPU_LED - all of them are off.

juzz86 · ‎10-27-2015

Seems weird mate. 00 is usually a code for CPU INIT FAIL, so it's possible that your CPU isn't supported by the older BIOS you have flashed (only really likely if you're using a Xeon, 1151 isn't old enough for real CPU compatibility issues yet).

I'd take out your CMOS battery while you remove and re-seat the CPU, checking LGA pins as you do.

I dunno if the Gene has it, but switching to the secondary BIOS should get you out of trouble, if possible.

Let us know how you get on. Signed up just for you, but long-time lurker 🙂

Justin

EDIT: It seems code 00 isn't related to the CPU on newer boards - I learned today. Other users running into 00 have had luck re-seating DIMMs and setting DDR voltages manually. Try your RAM first, sorry for leading you up the garden path 🙂

Chino · ‎10-27-2015

zeroDivisible wrote:

Firstly I put 0907 BIOS on the USB stick, booted to BIOS and started an update. It restarted the box in the end but boot process was hanging, giving "99" QCode. I tried few times, did CMOS reset, no change. So I tried flashing some older bios using USB Bios Flashback - but right now after powering on, motherboard just hangs, showing "00" QCode.

When you tried to update the BIOS for the first time, did you let it finish?

zeroDivisible · ‎10-27-2015

Chino wrote:
When you tried to update the BIOS for the first time, did you let it finish?

I think it went till the end - i could see the progress bar, the machine rebooted, then it was hanging for ~20 mins on the 99 error, before I did anything.

juzz86 wrote:
EDIT: It seems code 00 isn't related to the CPU on newer boards - I learned today. Other users running into 00 have had luck re-seating DIMMs and setting DDR voltages manually. Try your RAM first, sorry for leading you up the garden path 🙂

No worries and I'm appreciating that you thought it worthwhile to reply 😄

So I tried what I could - multiple resets of BIOS, removal and resocketing of RAM, CPU & Graphics and now avail. I even booted the board with none of the above present in sockets and it appeared to be dead (not a single of mentioned leds blinked). Sadly, I can't think of anything else, so right now I will need to work out how I can send it on warranty:)

Thanks for the help guys.

Chino · ‎10-27-2015

zeroDivisible wrote:
I think it went till the end - i could see the progress bar, the machine rebooted, then it was hanging for ~20 mins on the 99 error, before I did anything.

The second stage of the update process consists of a completely black background actually. But there should be a message at stating it's updating still and don't turn off the PC. I think you might have bricked your BIOS chip.

juzz86 · ‎10-27-2015

Yeah, it sounds like it. Sorry bud, delays on new rigs suck ☺

Maximus VIII Gene: "00" QCode after a bios upgrade / flash