I really need help with my new rig.
Hardware list at the bottom of this thread.
The first problem I got was an undocumented beep signal during POST: one long, four short, one long. After connecting a screen to the PC I saw that I had a CPU fan error. Appears common with the H100i. The PSU fan did also sound like a farmers old tractor, but this noise stabilized and went away after a time. Didnt find any solution to this H100i problem though - but found some inconsistencies in ASUS installation guides: My H100i does NOT have a SATA connector. It only has a 3-pin CPU-fan cable, a fan cable splitting into two meant for the radiator fans and the Corsair link mini-USB. The Corsair link cable is optional (plugged to a USB2 internal header) but the other cables are stuck to the pump. My mobo has a 4-pin header so I attached the 3-pin anyway into the CPU_FAN header (to the far right - and the only position it can be placed in). I googled a lot and couldnt find much info about this. Someone said that Corsair stopped using SATA for power and just went with it via the CPU fan header for later versions of the H100i
Also during this time, the onboard diagnostic LED-lights on the mobo turned on, waited a sec and then turned off - one at a time, ending with the red BIOS-failed LED. On top of this I´ve also experienced situations where I didn´t get past POST - or there didn´t seem to be a POST: sometimes nothing really happend when pressing the power button (other than fans running). This situation also happend a few times when the system performed an automatic reboot - such as after changing BIOS-settings.
Either way, I went into BIOS and disabled the Q-fan stuff that I read others had done. I also put the CPU fan monitoring to IGNORE. Now the beep code went away but now I got a "Overclocking failed" error during POST. I resolved this by turning off XMP on the motherboard hardware switch. (It appears that the hardware switch overrides software settings in BIOS).
Ok so now the PC boots, and I am able to install the mobo chipset and other drivers, as well as the drivers for the graphics card +Corsair link software for the H100i.
Now I experienced other errors: Random BSODs (always different error codes) and screen freezing. I knew this wasnt due to overheating because out of sheer paranoia I made sure the CPU temp was fine in BIOS before booting into windows. The H100i LED light is shining, and the pump is working around the water!
Worth noting here: I did not perform a clean install of windows. I migrated it from my previous PC setup. (I was actually surprised the OS thought it was fine with this new hardware.)
Other thoughts and comments:
-It´s not the RAM which caused the POST-errors. I´ve successfully booted with one stick of RAM into windows. 1 stick or 4 doesnt matter - I still get freezes.
-The fans on my graphics card are not running. Possibly normal, as some say the DirectCU-II fans only start running at a GPU temp of above 50C (or maybe 60C?)
-Corsair link reports that the H100i fans are not running. These are the ones at the radiator which goes into the splitter (which goes into the pump). So neither the CPU header nor the radiator fans are detected by the mobo.
-Corsair link reports that my SSD drive is exactly 100C hot. I gently touched the SSD with first a pen, and then a finger. It´s definetly not a 100C.
-My temps are good. The CPU is at a stable 27-30C idle which is 6-10C above ambient temp. Mobo reports a steady 25C.
What I need help with:
-Getting the H100i fully functional
-Stop the random freezing and BSODs
My suspicions:
-Faulty PSU as it is 4 years old. Will check voltages via some hardware monitor. Will also try booting without gcard and run with the internal one on the mobo.
------- HARDWARE LIST:
Memory:
Corsair Vengeance Pro DDR3 2400MHz 32GB 4x8GB CL11
New
Graphics:
ASUS GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX DC2 OC
New
Motherboard:
ASUS Z97-A
New
CPU:
Intel Core i7-4790K 4,0GHz
New
CPU cooling:
Corsair Hydro H100i GTX
New
PSU:
OCZ 700 MXSP - 700W, modular
Almost 4 years old
SSD:
Some PNY @ 240gb
Almost a year old
Hardware list at the bottom of this thread.
The first problem I got was an undocumented beep signal during POST: one long, four short, one long. After connecting a screen to the PC I saw that I had a CPU fan error. Appears common with the H100i. The PSU fan did also sound like a farmers old tractor, but this noise stabilized and went away after a time. Didnt find any solution to this H100i problem though - but found some inconsistencies in ASUS installation guides: My H100i does NOT have a SATA connector. It only has a 3-pin CPU-fan cable, a fan cable splitting into two meant for the radiator fans and the Corsair link mini-USB. The Corsair link cable is optional (plugged to a USB2 internal header) but the other cables are stuck to the pump. My mobo has a 4-pin header so I attached the 3-pin anyway into the CPU_FAN header (to the far right - and the only position it can be placed in). I googled a lot and couldnt find much info about this. Someone said that Corsair stopped using SATA for power and just went with it via the CPU fan header for later versions of the H100i
Also during this time, the onboard diagnostic LED-lights on the mobo turned on, waited a sec and then turned off - one at a time, ending with the red BIOS-failed LED. On top of this I´ve also experienced situations where I didn´t get past POST - or there didn´t seem to be a POST: sometimes nothing really happend when pressing the power button (other than fans running). This situation also happend a few times when the system performed an automatic reboot - such as after changing BIOS-settings.
Either way, I went into BIOS and disabled the Q-fan stuff that I read others had done. I also put the CPU fan monitoring to IGNORE. Now the beep code went away but now I got a "Overclocking failed" error during POST. I resolved this by turning off XMP on the motherboard hardware switch. (It appears that the hardware switch overrides software settings in BIOS).
Ok so now the PC boots, and I am able to install the mobo chipset and other drivers, as well as the drivers for the graphics card +Corsair link software for the H100i.
Now I experienced other errors: Random BSODs (always different error codes) and screen freezing. I knew this wasnt due to overheating because out of sheer paranoia I made sure the CPU temp was fine in BIOS before booting into windows. The H100i LED light is shining, and the pump is working around the water!
Worth noting here: I did not perform a clean install of windows. I migrated it from my previous PC setup. (I was actually surprised the OS thought it was fine with this new hardware.)
Other thoughts and comments:
-It´s not the RAM which caused the POST-errors. I´ve successfully booted with one stick of RAM into windows. 1 stick or 4 doesnt matter - I still get freezes.
-The fans on my graphics card are not running. Possibly normal, as some say the DirectCU-II fans only start running at a GPU temp of above 50C (or maybe 60C?)
-Corsair link reports that the H100i fans are not running. These are the ones at the radiator which goes into the splitter (which goes into the pump). So neither the CPU header nor the radiator fans are detected by the mobo.
-Corsair link reports that my SSD drive is exactly 100C hot. I gently touched the SSD with first a pen, and then a finger. It´s definetly not a 100C.
-My temps are good. The CPU is at a stable 27-30C idle which is 6-10C above ambient temp. Mobo reports a steady 25C.
What I need help with:
-Getting the H100i fully functional
-Stop the random freezing and BSODs
My suspicions:
-Faulty PSU as it is 4 years old. Will check voltages via some hardware monitor. Will also try booting without gcard and run with the internal one on the mobo.
------- HARDWARE LIST:
Memory:
Corsair Vengeance Pro DDR3 2400MHz 32GB 4x8GB CL11
New
Graphics:
ASUS GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX DC2 OC
New
Motherboard:
ASUS Z97-A
New
CPU:
Intel Core i7-4790K 4,0GHz
New
CPU cooling:
Corsair Hydro H100i GTX
New
PSU:
OCZ 700 MXSP - 700W, modular
Almost 4 years old
SSD:
Some PNY @ 240gb
Almost a year old
Last edited:
Been looking at this one (which has a superb warranty): EVGA SuperNOVA G2 - 650W. According to PSU power calculators that should be more than enough for my stuff, with about 100W extra spacing/padding in case I wanna OC the CPU.
