Question Sick of these blasted cold boot issues so replacing my Gigabyte X570 I Aorus Pro WiFi. Recommendations?

[nedney]

My build:

Gigabyte X570 I AORUS Pro WiFi (mini-ITX)
AMD Ryzen 5 3600
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 DRAM 3000MHz
Sapphire Radeon Rx 5700 8GB GDDR6
Crucial P1 1TB 3d Nand Nvme Pcie M2 SSD
CORSAIR CX-M Series CX550M 550W
Cooler Master Elite 130 mini-ITX

I built this PC in 2019 and it's worked great for me since, by and large. However, over the last year and a half the motherboard is plagued with a cold boot issue that has become annoying enough that I'm ready to replace it (fixing the issue requires me to break down the PC almost completely in order to unplug and replug the CMOS power cable).

Are there any recommendations for a good board I can swap in for this one? It'd need to be a mini-ITX and hopefully one with built-in WiFi. Other bells and whistles aren't really important to me, so long as I can basically just drop the other components into it and go on with my day (assuming that's possible...?).

Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.

 

[In2Photos]

Well, there aren't many to choose from, do you need X570? The Asus B550 ROG Strix model has pretty good user reviews on Newegg.

 

[nedney]

Well, there aren't many to choose from, do you need X570? The Asus B550 ROG Strix model has pretty good user reviews on Newegg.

Honestly I'm not even sure what X570 means, so probably no I do not need it. The Asus board you mentioned does look like it would do the job, if a bit on the pricier end.

I've never swapped a different motherboard into an already-completed build, though. Am I likely to encounter problems doing that, or would it just be plug and play?

 

[Tech Junky]

The order of boards goes XE, X, BE, B.

The E boards tend to have more lanes to use than the non E. The X boards have more features or ports.

Swapping a board is straight forward. Just move stuff over from own to the other. Make sure you have the same number of sockets for things if you switch from X to B. Though on the itx format there's not enough space to make changes in layouts. One more thing to look for on the specs is the speed of the M2 socket as going from X to B might drop the speed.

 

[In2Photos]

Honestly I'm not even sure what X570 means, so probably no I do not need it. The Asus board you mentioned does look like it would do the job, if a bit on the pricier end.

I've never swapped a different motherboard into an already-completed build, though. Am I likely to encounter problems doing that, or would it just be plug and play?

Here's an explanation of the differences between the X570 and B550 chipsets: https://www.minitool.com/news/b550-vs-x570.html

Based on what you have listed as your full PC specs I don't see any issues running B550.

Amazon has a better price on the ASUS board: https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-ROG-B550-I-Motherboard-Addressable/dp/B089D34SZT

Or this AsROCK board may be worth a look: https://www.amazon.com/ASRock-B550M...x=asrock+b550+itx,electronics,120&sr=1-1&th=1

As for swapping out the motherboard, it's hard for me to say how difficult it would be without seeing the case layout. The pics on the CoolerMAster website don't show the insides, but my guess is that you will have to remove the GPU and the PSU since it's on top of the motherboard. From there you can remove the motherboard connectors and pull the motherboard out. At that point move the CPU, RAM, NVME and CPU cooler over to the new motherboard (don't forget to get some new thermal paste if you don't have any). If you go with the AsROCK motherboard you need to remember to put the I/O shield into the case before you put the motherboard in. Then reconnect everything to the new motherboard. Hopefully the connectors are in similar spots so you don't have to reroute wires. Install the PSU and GPU, then fire it up!

 

[In2Photos]

The order of boards goes XE, X, BE, B.

The E boards tend to have more lanes to use than the non E. The X boards have more features or ports.

Swapping a board is straight forward. Just move stuff over from own to the other. Make sure you have the same number of sockets for things if you switch from X to B. Though on the itx format there's not enough space to make changes in layouts. One more thing to look for on the specs is the speed of the M2 socket as going from X to B might drop the speed.

AM4 didn't have BE or E variants. Just X, B, and A.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

This and all the trouble demonstrated on that Reddit thread are the sorts of things I want to avoid from the beginning. But the OP says the machine had functioned perfectly fine since 2019 until more recent times. I'm not familiar with the chipset; I've had Gigabyte boards at some point "way back when". I had a helluva time diagnosing and fixing a random reset problem after I replaced a motherboard damaged by a static charge disaster. I say -- if we're going to build our own computers, we want to avoid these difficulties.

 

[Shmee]

OP, have you tried updating the BIOS? Just checking as sometimes that can help with issues like these.

 

[nedney]

I have not tried updating the BIOS, no. Never actually done that, is it fairly straightforward? This other reddit thread showed a solution that was supposed to solve it permanently, but the issue has persisted.

I wouldn't say the machine was perfectly fine, as the audio-in capability of the motherboard failed within a year of me having it (I had my turntable plugged into it). But it's done well enough up until about this time last year, when this cold boot issue started happening. I think this is the fourth time since then that I've had to disassemble the PC in order to reset the CMOS, and I'm just sick of having to do that.

As far as swapping out the board goes, I'm not worried about physically swapping it out. The two boards linked above look like they're almost identical in configuration to my current board, so I'm confident everything would fit fine. Rather I'm concerned with what happens when I plug all my other components into it and go to turn it on. Will the system and/or Windows read everything fine and I can continue on using it as normal? Or will installing the new board mean I have to do some tinkering with the software/drivers/etc?

 

[In2Photos]

Well in that case you need to try a newer BIOS first!

Also, you can get a small switch to install on the CMOS jumper and run it outside the case so you don't have to disassemble it!

Warmstor 3 Pack 2 Pin SW PC... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072FMVZJZ?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

If you swap out the motherboard you'll need to install the drivers for the new one, but everything will work just fine.

 

[nedney]

Okay I'll try updating the BIOS.

Bridging the CMOS jumper doesn't actually solve the cold boot issue so I have to further disassemble the I/O casing on the board to reach the battery plug, which I unplug and replug and then the PC will boot up normally.

So when I swap out the old board for a new one, everything should start up as normal, correct?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I'd swap the battery before swapping boards, if the bios update does not resolve the issue. It's old enough to potentially be flaky. If it comes to a new board, you may also need a new OS license.

 

[RLGL]

I'd swap the battery before swapping boards

I agree, my Asrock 570's battery failed earlier this year., assembled in early 2020. The first sign of that failure was the board's clock and the Windows clock were out of sync.

 

[lakedude]

If it comes to a new board, you may also need a new OS license.

This

If you bought an OEM version of Windows it is technically for the original computer which Microsoft considers to be the MB.

A full retail version of Windows would not have this issue.

A new license can be bought for cheap from Kinguin. Make sure to get one that includes online activation.