MSI Z77 MPower dead

[Nebulous]

I hated this board ever since it went bonkers for no reason locking itself into a code that would not release it. After going to MSI's site, following their instructions to reflash the primary bios to repair the issue, that was that. Primary bios was dead and to be able to run the board I had to use the secondary bios.

Because of primary bios issue I was afraid to overclock the board and having the secondary bios go bonkers too. So from the time I got the cursed board up until now I was running stock awaiting on an opportunity to get different board and deep six this MSI headache.

So just alittle while ago I was watching the football game (Go Patriots!), I decided to get online. Hit the pwr button, machine goes thru the boot cycle then all of a sudden it locks itself at the 9C error code. I'm like "great..it was only a matter of time.." I take everything out including the cmos battery. Put back just the bare minimum and again upon booting up locks itself at the 9C error. Nothing I do will release it from it's cold 9C death grip.

You would think these things would happen if I was benching it under some heavy voltage, but nope. Because of what happend in the beginning, I was very reluctant to overclock the board. Reason why I bought this board was overclock the pants off of it, not run stock. So from then on I was forced to run stock. But guess what? Not even running stock would save it

Luckily I managed to get a GIGABYTE G1.Sniper M3 enroute from another member here. Hopefully it'll be here within a few days.

I will never buy a review sample again and MSI is charted on my list of brands to avoid at all costs. I don't give a crap if it's free.

No warranty, no help, no nothing. An 'effin' paperweight. God I hate MSI.

 

[bmwbaxter]

Bummer, sucks to hear that

 

[S_I_N]

damn this bytes

 

[wingman99]

MSI needs to improve there quality control.

 

[Mandrake4565]

My MSI board went up in a cloud of smoke, by by VRM. Luckily it didn't take anything out with it. That was with a non OC 955be. No more MSI for me either.

 

[wingman99]

Msi has had VRM problems in the past, here is one from toms hardware.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/budget-p55-motherboard,2436-15.html

The third try is supposed to be charmed, but it wasn’t for MSI. The P55-CD53 blew out one power phase at a mere 1.36V under full CPU load. However, the circumstances surrounding that failure are a little more interesting, since a 0.371V offset voltage was required to get the system to boot at 1.44V, where the load of eight Prime95 threads pulled its voltage down to 1.36V. It stayed at 1.36V for several minutes before the failure occurred.

 

[Bobnova]

Pull it out of the case, disconnect everything, take the battery out, jumper the CLEAR_CMOS jumper if it has one, let it sit for a day or three.
If it doesn't have a CLEAR_CMOS jumper, put the battery back in upside down.

I've had MSI boards come back to life given a protracted clearing like that.

 

[Woomack]

I would try standard AMI recovery using cd/dvd or flash drive with amibios.rom file and maybe it will fix itself.
I also noticed that BIOS reset button on back is working better than jumper near battery.

My MPower is so far running without any problems. I had much more problems with MVG after higher oc and already made maybe 5x BIOS recovery as it was corrupted with ME part.

 

[Nebulous]

Honestly I've tried everything to no avail. I don't even want to look at it. I'm pretty much done with this board. I've got to get my car's brakes fixed this am, then when I return I have to dismantle the main rig and remove the board. While I'm at it I'll flush the loop and get everything ready for the Gigabyte board.

I know stuff happens, but dayum..

 

[Angry]

Im a big fan of MSIs stuff, but some of thier boards can be serious lemons, or half lemons. Others can be rock solid. And it can even be the same model board.

My P67a-gd65 Refuses to run older DDR3 memory higher then 1066. (4x4 Patroit Sector 5)
My K9A2 had to be RMAed when i got it, (and it was RMAed before then) Then it finally died of no known cause when I sold it to a friend.
My old Socket A K7N2 Plat was hung on a wall, fell, cracked a corner in the pcb. Still works solid.
My KA780g was rock solid till the time I sold it.
My 785gtm-e45 has been on, for well over 24/7 365, been benched hard till the VRMs smelled funny. And its still rock solid, it still has the liquid electrical tape on it on both sides. Never bothered to remove it.

I did however get a taste of Asus, with the M4A79XTD Evo i brought back to life, (oven bake+ BIOS reflash), and the ASUS Rampage II GENE I had awhile back.

MSIs support can be hit or miss as well, when I asked about IB support for my P67a-GD65, they said it never would. Said it couldnt.
IB gets released, and three weeks later theres a beta BIOs update that supports it.

 

[woboy]

BIOS chips are available, prices not attractive
(I see $21.98 ea shipped)

 

[Pierre3400]

If its any help at all, im unhappy with mine, should overclock like made, the highest i can get mine is to 4.2 and thats with OC genie, all others fail to boot.

I have given up on trying to understand what the manual says, nothing makes sense to me, and lack of explanations on what the different things in the bios are and do.

I have also had bios issues, which turned out to be a defective harddrive causing boot time to take more then 15/20 secs before i even saw the MSI screen. I have an AsRock on the side, and the bios for this board is must better layed out.

Maybe i should sell my board and get an AsRock?

 

[EarthDog]

You dont need to do much Pierre. Disable power saving features, raise multiplier and voltage... GO!

May be best to create your own thread for help. I would bet good money says its not the board holding you back, unless its defective, which I doubt as well.

 

[Pierre3400]

You dont need to do much Pierre. Disable power saving features, raise multiplier and voltage... GO!

May be best to create your own thread for help. I would bet good money says its not the board holding you back, unless its defective, which I doubt as well.

You have said this many times, but all i get is a long cycle of reboots and then it resets the bios to stock. Couldnt even get 4,3ghz stable. But i also got my eye on an AsRock Exteme what ever the number, its black with gold. I like it for looks

 

[EarthDog]

Have you upgraded the bios to the latest version? If you are on the latest, then the one prior?

 

[Pierre3400]

Have you upgraded the bios to the latest version? If you are on the latest, then the one prior?

The Bios is the lastest. I have given up on trying to understand this motherboard. Its now set for sale, and i ordered an AsRock Z77 WS.

But this is OT, and im sorry.

 

[Nebulous]

Pierre sorry you're not enjoying your board. The ASrock is a solid board so I'm sure you'll enjoy it alot more than the MSI.

I tossed mine in the garbage dumpster. Only things I saved were the sata cables. You can never have enough of those

Good luck with your new ASrock and keep me posted on your results

 

[Pierre3400]

Will do, its not the boards fault, its me, I just don't get along with it. Its an easy sell. The AsRock z77 ws is in basic a z77 extreme9, but with a few features missing. Wifi and blutooth, something I didn't even use on the msi. Then theres no internet flash and other software differences. I mainly want the better spaced pcie slots for dual gpus and also then x16 for dual gpus. I know the board will overclock, I like my AsRock B75M-itx board a lot, the bios is just easier to understand. I have noticed a lack of reviews on the board, since everyone buys extreme9, im not going to write one, as im not the elite, but will give you details on whats what, or just check out my build thread in cases and mods.

 

[Nebulous]

Just saw the AsRock z77 ws board here . Not a bad looking board. I like the black/grey scheme. Looks to be a wicked board that has everything you want and not all the xtra crap you don't need, lol.

Hoping my Gigabyte G1 Sniper M3 will be here today . I wanted the UD5H but the M3 will do because of my situation. Maybe I'll get the UD3H/UD5H sometime down the road and save the M3 as a back-up.

Will be looking forward to those results of yours

 

[wagex]

man and i thought my jiggabite board was bad sorry to hear that your board is dead mine just doesnt like to hold OC settings, i can run it at 4.9ghz all day long but when i reboot it it will go into a boot loop at the bios and keep going till the oc resets, after that its fine lol. so i run it between 4.0 and 4.5 depending on how much i want to mess with it.