I believe I damaged my $700 motherboard.
I believe I damaged my $700 motherboard.
last night while trying to sleep, I kept several tabs open. When I pressed the power button meant to put the PC to sleep, it didn’t shut down properly. The screens went dark, but the monitor stayed on. The keyboard and mouse lights faded too. However, the actual computer didn’t turn off completely. The colors remained bright, not just a faint white. It was the default “rainbow puke” before Windows’ center screen appeared, which sets everything to white. So the PC stayed on.
I went to bed thinking it might be fixing itself, so I left it on for about five minutes. When I returned, it wasn’t fully powered down. I pressed the power button again to restart it normally, but nothing happened. It just sat there, unresponsive. I waited a second and still got no response. Eventually, I held the power button until it reset and shut off completely. Then I turned it back on. But when it came back up, it displayed a black screen asking me to select a boot device and press any key. My keyboard and mouse were still off. I switched them on and off repeatedly without success.
Eventually, I remembered the 4-second power button hold that would bring me into BIOS. I accessed BIOS and reset the boot order. That fixed it. Now everything worked properly. So I had to restart from scratch.
Now it was acting up again the next morning. To enter BIOS, I had to hold the power button for four seconds. I had to reconfigure the boot priorities. After that, the PC booted normally. I shut it down and went to sleep.
Now I’m still confused. This old machine—worth over five thousand dollars—was supposed to be flawless. But every time it crashed, it felt like something was wrong. What’s happening? I’m about to switch back to my old i7 4790k PC. Lol (not really), but what the hell?! HELP!!!
I haven't attempted to reset the CMOS, and I've only downloaded the latest BIOS files, which are a .190 format. Since I've never updated the BIOS via USB before, I'm a bit anxious about making mistakes. At the time of downloading, everything seemed normal, and the MSDS site explicitly advised against updating the BIOS if it's working properly. So I didn't follow their guidance. If a CMOS reset and a BIOS update can resolve this issue, I'll definitely try the Sandisk.
It might work better to reset the CMOS first, then upgrade the BIOS. Also, why are high-end motherboards so expensive?
Consider trying a CMOS reset first. It's strange they advise against updating the BIOS if they truly do. Early BIOS versions often cause issues (like with the Z490). Updating shouldn't be too much of a concern here, especially with an UPS in place. Even if it fails, Godlike supports BIOS Flashback, which can help resolve corrupt updates. In fact, MSI's Godlike boards aren't very popular outside niche circles.
MSI MEG Z390 is amazing! It’s way beyond what you need, especially with all the future-proofing I considered. Built it for long-term use, costing around $683 including taxes and shipping.
yes they "really did" lol.. But ok cool.. youre the second person who suggested these steps so ill try that right now and see if it fixes it. And ive always updated the bios to whatever the newest one was. it just threw me off seeing weird file formats and seeing the msi website say that.
Ensure the USB thumb drive you insert has FAT32 formatting; otherwise, it may not be recognized.