Vengeance Titan suddenly won't boot due to possible...

[Moleyman69]

Hi,

My build number is 48300.

I powered on my machine this morning and I heard it suddenly **** down and reboot before I'd turned my monitor on.

When I turned on my monitor I had a message on the screen saying that the boot had failed possibly due to some issues with the BIOS settings (I have no idea about BIOS) and had 3 options available along the lines of "install recommended setting and continue boot", "install recommended settings and reboot" or "Enter BIOS". I selected the first option just to get the machine booted up.

Since I have had the machine (only 4 weeks) when it has booted there has always been an American Megatrends splash screen, but since this issue there is now a Gigabyte splash screen on boot instead of the previous American Megatrends one.

I really don't know what to do now. The machine appears to boot OK but I'm not sure if I have lost any overclocking settings or things like that. I am also very concerned over what would cause the machine to suddenly reboot itself? Is it a possible hardware issue?

i did notice that Windows installed some updates when I shut the machine down last night if that helps at all.

If anyone can offer any assistance that would be great.

Many thanks in advance,

Moley

[flatley]

You should see the CPU speed during the boot up phase. If not, try running dxdiag - that will tell you.

Also, you could go into the BIOS and see if there is an O/C profile still present. If the dxdiag reports you running at stock speeds, you may be able to load the O/C profile from the BIOS.

Sorry - not too good on this stuff but my rig sometimes reports that the O/C failed; reloading the profile works though.

Also, you could try this little program:

http://www.piriform.com/speccy

It tells you oodles of stuff about your hardware.

[Ben @ Scan]

Hi Moleyman69

It sounds like the bios has reset please try the following

Press Del to enter Setup as the system starts
Highlight the Exit section and load the appropriate profile you require
Profile 1 - Standard
Profile 2 - Overclocked

Then Exit Saving the changes and if prompted start Windows normally

If you have any external drives, USB flash drives etc please unplug these prior to allowing the system to reboot as these can alter the boot sequence so if in doubt only have plugged in what was first setup here at Scan.

Regards

[Moleyman69]

Thanks Flatley and Ben,

I have done as suggested by you both and restored the overclocked profile and this seems to have worked. I take it that i can use this method to switch between standard and overclocked settings if desired for some reason?

@Ben - what would cause the BIOS to reset like this? Is it something to be concerned about as the machine is only 4 weeks old?

Something else i have since noticed is that on the top front of the R4 case itself are 2 USB3.0 ports and 2 USB2.0 ports - currently only the USB3.0 ports work; the USB2.0 ports do not seem to work at all.

All the best,

Moley

[Moleyman69]

Hi Ben,

Are you, or another Scan employee, able to answer my additional questions please?

Many thanks,

Moley

[Rob @ Scan]

Hi Moley,

Yes, loading the profiles in your BIOS is the way to switch between standard clock speeds and your overclock.

The BIOS reset can be down to a number of reasons. A BIOS reset is a built in fail-safe by the manufacturer of the board.

It happens most commonly when the PC is suddenly powered off (without shutting down in windows) power cut etc.. or when power saving features are used such as sleep or hibernate.

Sleep and hibernate conflict with the manual settings inputted into the BIOS for the overclock and will cause the BIOS to reset on bootup.

Regarding the USB ports, depending on your system config / board etc.. there is a chance that there may not have been enough USB headers on the board to connect the front panel to the board. Card readers / Corsair H80I/100I all need to be connected to USB headers.

If you could mail your build and invoice no. to systemsupport@scan.co.uk we can check the spec of your system and see if there is any reason these where not connected.

Regards,
Rob

[Moleyman69]

Hi Rob,

I have sent the requested info for your attention to that email address.

Many thanks,

Moley

[Moleyman69]

Hi,

Just to keep the Scan reps up-to-date, the same problem has occured again, the second time in a week.

Is this something that you would expect to happen with a regular frequency? I am starting to get a little concerned after spending the best part of £2500 on the machine.

Any advice from anyone would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks,

Moley

[Moleyman69]

If anyone could offer any advice re the above post as to whether this failure to boot is a normal-to-be-expected I would be grateful - especially any Scan representatives please.

Thanks,

Moley

[Moleyman69]

Could any Scan representative please take a moment to answer my question above.

Please let me know if i should really be posting this question elsewhere.

[Ben @ Scan]

Hi

The bios can reset as a safety feature but if it keeps happening unless you are using power saving on an overclock system there may be an underlying issue with the system , maybe the power supply

Regards

Ben

[herulach]

when you're getting these messages are you also getting an 'overclock failed' message?

It sounds a lot like the behavior of my system when I was bringing the voltage down to find the best overclock, windows boots, then locks up under load as Vcore droops. you get a message at boot that the OC failed and do you want to reset to stock settings.