Z68 Motherboard Issues

[Danno21]

I have an ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z with a 2500k @ 4.6Ghz and if I do not go into BIOS and "Exit and Save" every time my computer restarts or is turned on, it will hard lock five minutes after getting into Windows.

Also the USB ports are starting to die out. About 4 of them do not work and sometimes, I will have to sit and wait for a minute after waking my computer up from sleep for my USB devices to connect to my computer. I did have where my computer would every five seconds, make the USB device connect sound. I had to find the sound in the system sounds and disable it to shut it up.

Think it's time for me to upgrade? A part of me wants to, but it seems my 2500k is still doing a great job in my gaming. I am considering giving it to my family if I upgrade to replace their SB Celeron.

Any help/tips would be appreciated.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I have an ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z with a 2500k @ 4.6Ghz and if I do not go into BIOS and "Exit and Save" every time my computer restarts or is turned on, it will hard lock five minutes after getting into Windows.

Also the USB ports are starting to die out. About 4 of them do not work and sometimes, I will have to sit and wait for a minute after waking my computer up from sleep for my USB devices to connect to my computer. I did have where my computer would every five seconds, make the USB device connect sound. I had to find the sound in the system sounds and disable it to shut it up.

Think it's time for me to upgrade? A part of me wants to, but it seems my 2500k is still doing a great job in my gaming. I am considering giving it to my family if I upgrade to replace their SB Celeron.

Any help/tips would be appreciated.

When did you buy the board, and how long was the warranty? (I assume 3-years, but the ASUS Sabertooth has 5.)

Does the board use a PLCC BIOS chip, or similar chip that fits in a conventional IC motherboard socket? [The chip would look like a rectangular shaped insect with little metal legs].

Have you tried resetting the BIOS? And after that, have you flashed a new BIOS version?

Have you tried replacing the CMOS wafer battery, usually a model-code CR 2032?

MORE: What does your Device-Manager tell you under the USB and other nodes? Are there any "driver not installed" or "device not working properly" messages? Did you install the proper USB drivers for that board?

Check with the motherboard manual, to see if other resource usage might be pre-empting reliable usage of the USB ports. If you suspect that USB ports or USB controller are damaged or no longer functioning, you can disable it in BIOS and buy a replacement PCI and/or PCI-E card, install the drivers and use it instead. A PCI USB2 card with 5 -- maybe more ports -- might only be a few dollars these days. A PCI-E USB3 controller might run anywhere from $15 to $30, but you need the PCI-E bandwidth and resources to avoid causing more trouble to sort out.

How old is your computer's PSU? What type and model?

 

[Ketchup]

The front USB ports on my CM case do this. Pretty sure it is just the case though. A good test would be to only plug USB devices into the back and see if the sounds persist.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

The front USB ports on my CM case do this. Pretty sure it is just the case though. A good test would be to only plug USB devices into the back and see if the sounds persist.

Funny . . . I never had trouble with the case hardware in my CM's. But that's another hole in the sieve of possibilities, and if Ketchup's suggestion proves out, you could either get a front-panel 3.5" USB hub of the appropriate kind, or simply use the MB hardware to add ports to a PCI slot in the case-rear.

We've all made mistakes before: notably, declaring an old MB or other part dead or damaged, when the problem is some minor difficulty with small expense implications.

Impatience impairs good judgment.