Automatic restart during power cycle on a Z270 board
Automatic restart during power cycle on a Z270 board
I purchased a motherboard and CPU from eBay (ASUS Z270-A and Intel Core i7-7700K). I installed my own DDR4 RAM and a Corsair RMx 2018 power supply, and everything functioned perfectly—until I changed the BIOS settings. Whenever I booted a live Linux USB stick or an existing Linux installation on an SSD, the system would briefly restart before stabilizing. This pattern repeated every time I tried. I suspected a power supply fault, so I switched to another Corsair HX 2021 PSU. The issue persisted. Thinking the RAM might be the culprit, I replaced it with a faster Corsair model. Still no improvement. I confirmed overclocking was off and RAM was running at JEDEC speeds. Interestingly, using the command-line or GUI with framebuffer instead of GPU also resolved the problem, albeit slowly. At that stage, I assumed the motherboard or CPU were damaged and returned it to the seller. I wondered if I had acted too quickly; perhaps using discrete graphics could have helped, but if the integrated graphics were faulty, it would confirm CPU failure. I also checked to ensure I hadn’t improperly seated the RAM initially. Could that have damaged the board? Might it have harmed the RAM, making me avoid using it again? Although I tested with other known-working RAM from another machine and faced the same issue, I’m still unsure. The screw in the first PSU caused it to fail under stress—had shaking dislodged it. Could that have damaged the PSU or nearby components? These are plausible explanations, but I’m leaning toward the board and CPU being faulty. Thank you!
Turn off CPU states in BIOS and attempt again. This appears to be a frequently overlooked problem.
I would, but as mentioned in my previous message, I sent it back to eBay already. I was mainly thinking about whether I should be concerned about my power supply and/or RAM sticks. If that situation arises again, I’ll remember to pay attention next time, thank you.