Very weird Aorus X570 problem

H1ghland3rUK · 12 Dec 2019 at 17:43

Hi folks, hoping for some insight here,

Trying to build up an x570/3700x system and am having a very weird issue with boot up. I currently have only MB/CPU/RAM/NVMe (all new), GPU installed and I am unable to reliably boot to UEFI.
Cold booting the system will result in black screen and no boot every other time, all fans (including MB) will run nonstop at this point and the system cannot be shutdown, PWR BTN does nothing even when held down, I have to switch the system off at the PSU. After many hours of troubleshooting I have discovered that switching the DP to the other input on the GPU results in a successful boot to UEFI, system is then completely stable (in UEFI, no Windows or anything else installed at this point).
If I shut the system down and attempt to restart I get the same no screen, no boot issue, cannot shutdown, have to switch off at PSU. Switching the DP input back to the original one used then results in a successful boot...?!?!?!
This can go on and on.

PSU is a Corsair HX620
GPU is an MSI 1070, RAM is new T-Force 3600Mhz 8Pack edition (16GB)
NVMe is in slot 1 and is a Samsung 970 Evo 500GB

Due to troubleshooting this issue I haven't even changed anything in UEFI from defaults although I did manage to update it to F11.
Both PSU and GPU were working fine in the old system.

If anyone has any clues what the heck is going on I'd appreciate some insight before I think about RMA.

H1ghland3rUK · 12 Dec 2019 at 18:01

Ok this is getting weirder and weirder..
Further testing shows that I don't even need to switch DP inputs between boots. If, after a successful boot I shutdown the system, pull the DP cable, re-insert the DP cable in the same port, then switch on.. successful boot.. Cold boot without pulling and reinserting the DP cable.. no boot.. WTAF.!?!?!

H1ghland3rUK · 12 Dec 2019 at 18:16

Still trying to find another DP cable. But it seems to be booting fine through an HDMI cable i have. Only other DP cable I have is miniDP-DP, will try that and see what happens.
Not sure I understand how the cable would have developed a fault that would cause the system to hard freeze until the cable is pulled and reinserted and then work fine.!?!?
Will post back once I've tried the mDP cable.

H1ghland3rUK · 12 Dec 2019 at 18:30

Huh.. Well whaddya know. mDP cable seems to be working as far as i can tell.. 8-9 reboots without issue so far.
Do you have a link to that reddit post, I am suddenly very interested in DP cable specs.! :cool:

I am now wondering if this has been the cause of the boot loop issues I was having with my old system (z97/4970K) in which case my kids PC will be getting a hefty upgrade.!!
And now I read it I was never able to get the old system to resume from sleep either..!! :eek:

H1ghland3rUK · 12 Dec 2019 at 18:35

Joxeon said:
Have you tried pulling the cmos battery for a minute or so since installing all your components?

Yep, was initially doing that to get a successful reboot before I figured out switching the DP cable allowed a successful boot. Didn't fix anything beyond the immediate boot success.
It's looking like an out of spec DP cable is at fault. I'm assuming newer boards are maybe more sensitive to it.? Aside from the boot loop and sleep issue the old system with the same cable and GPU worked fine for years.

H1ghland3rUK · 12 Dec 2019 at 19:07

Thanks very much for that..
Trying to find cables that are actually VESA certified is a wee bit harder than I expected, and I notice that hardly any of the supposedly 'quality' cables (braided cord, gold connectors etc.) are actually certified.!

Thanks again for the help, I was about to start tearing my hair out.!

H1ghland3rUK · 13 Dec 2019 at 14:23

Thanks for the help folks.
Got a VESA certified cable on the way and the system seems to be reliably booting up now with the temporary mDP cable I'm using. I'll update this thread if the problem re-appears once I've got Win10 sorted and whatnot but otherwise I think we can call this problem solved.