New build:
Aorus Master x670e. Updated to latest firmware, F21a.
ASUS Nvidia Geforce RTX 4060 Dual
AMD Ryzen 9 7900X
Trying to use the latest Debian 12.4.
I’m very frustrated with this motherboard. It forgets settings (sometimes). It hangs with random error codes (sometimes). It takes forever to boot (before the BIOS screen shows, sometimes).
This is what has happened in the last fifteen minutes. No software or hardware changes occurred:
Freezes on “loading initramfs”. Hold down power button to force off (since it’s frozen). Reboot. Freezes again. Over and over. Try to reinstall Debian from USB. Installer freezes while loading.
Then randomly, you turn the computer on one time and it boots Debian in about 2 seconds from being off. Reboot. Works! Reboot. Works!
Turn off the power supply and leave the power off for two minutes. Turn the PSU on and attempt to boot.
Message 15 on the motherboard’s diagnostic LEDs for several minutes (something to do with DDR5?). The it cycles through 10-15 error codes, message 15 again for several more minutes. BIOS splash shows. Starts loading. “loading initramfs…” OK. Then some error about a USB hub not having any ports appears, followed by “failed to load lightdm.service”.
CTRL+ALT+DEL
Shuts down and reboots fast. “Loading initramfs…” freezes with code 70 on the motherboard LEDs.
Hold down power button to force off (since it’s frozen). Press power button to turn back on (PSU has stayed on.) Quickly gets to “loading initramfs”. Freezes with error 70.
Power cycle again (PSU on) Freezes on “loading initramfs” with error 70.
Reboot. Open BIOS. “Your BIOS has been reset!” it says, as soon as BIOS opens.
It resets itself a lot. No hardware has been changed.
“Load optimized defaults”, disable onboard graphics. Save and reboot.
The screen is black and stays black for five minuets (actually five minutes, not exaggerating) while many error codes cycle by on the LED readout. Eventually, it stops on error 08, with the screen still black. Stuck.
Force off by holding the power button. Press power button to turn on. Many codes flash by with a black screen for 20 seconds, then it quickly boots to Debian.
Shutdown. Power button. Boots up quickly and works again.
I don’t know what to do with this thing. It works just fine… when it works. If this were a driver issue or a misconfiguration, then it would never work, right?
I think I still have a few days to send this motherboard back for money back. But I don’t know what to do.
Is the Aorus Master x670e a flawed design where they all have random issues (I’ve seen reports of this behavior on other forums). Is there a better board (or brand) for AM5 that is reliable?
I know that the Geforce RTX 4060 graphics cards work on Linux, as I have one in another computer that is running a three+ year old version of Mint (I did have to install a new Nvidia driver to get proper resolution, but there was no freezing, even without the driver).
I’m trying to determine if the Aorus Master x670e is just a bad motherboard (overall design), or if the AM5 platform is a problem, regardless of motherboard?