ASUS Pro WS W790E-SAGE Hangs On Boot from USB

Hardware Hub Motherboards
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Hey guys. I’m at a bit of my wits end here. When i try and boot an OS onto my new build I just get to a blank screen with the asus logo and the loading circle thing just spins a few time and hangs.

As far as I can tell it Posts just fine. (single beep from speaker)
I can get into the BIOS just fine and have updated it.
Secure boot should be off (OS type set to other).
Tried with with fastboot enabled and disabled.

I’ve tried everything I can think to try. Taken it down to just bare components single RAM sticks, single ssd, I’ve tried multiple GPUs. I’ve even replaced the motherboard. I have tried multiple USB sticks.

I get to that loading screen, it loops a few times then hangs, the readout says AA and it just stays there.

my build:
CPU: Intel Xeon Platinum 8468V ES2 QYFQ 48C/96T 97.5MB Sapphire Rapids

Motherboard: ASUS Pro WS W790E-SAGE SE

RAM: 128GB (8x16GB) Kingston FURY Renegade Pro 6000MHz CL32 DDR5 RDIMM ECC REG

GPU:
GeForce RTX 3080 Ti FE

DISK: 2 x 2TB Samsung 990 Pro NVMe SSD

PSU: Seasonic PRIME TX 1600W ATX3.0 SSR-1600TR2

CPU Cooler: Silverstone SST-XE360-4677 AIO Liquid Cooling

Case Fans: 4x Phanteks T30 PH-F120T30

Anyone got any ideas on something hopefully very stupid I have missed?

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What OS are you trying to boot? There were a couple of mainstream linux distros that were all messed up when I tried to boot them.

The AA Q-code is good/normal. Does the USB device show up as bootable when looking at it in BIOS?

As a last ditch effort you may also try to revert BIOS back to 0215, often times newer BIOS releases will break ES/QS CPU compatibility, not always but sometimes.

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I thought I’d be safe and try Windows 10(using the windows media installer they have).

I have also tried Fedora, also used their media writer. Neither worked.

The USB does show up as bootable. The AA thing being normal is what bothers me haha. Everything seems to be working just not this one last step.

What Im realizing now is I haven’t tried windows 11. Which may be my thing(I hope).

If that doesn’t work I’ll try the BIOS revert. Thank you.

I keep thinking it might have to do with that CPU but given the fact the BIOS works I’m guessing that might not be it.

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Try using ventoy for making the USB drive bootable, after that you can just drop .ISO files onto the USB to boot them; I don’t true the windows media installer.

I’m able to get Centos stream booted successfully on W790 Sage so that might be worth trying too.

What will bother you more is that there are one or two other codes that booting can end with that are also considered okay and you might not always get the same one.

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Yeah. Ventoy is on my to do list. I’m very quickly losing trust in the windows install media smh.

never a dull moment. I’ll try those tomorrow and see how we do. So painfully close to a working build lol

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If you’re not using USB 2.0, try it.

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Are you plugging directly into the Mobo on the rear of the PC or into the front USB connectors?

Reason I ask is the connectors on the front have a fiddley mobo connector. Try the rear USB.

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Going with the OG BIOS + ventoy worked. Not sure which exactly it was and questioning that is a tomorrow problem! but thanks so much for your help on this…honestly entire project. lol

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How is this going? I am thinking on buying this motherboard and a cheap 8490H ES. Would you recommend this setup, is there any advantage?

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Hey so far this set up is doing my quite well! Im a fan. You have to use an older BIOS (i’m using version: 0215 currently)

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Sorry to dig up this old post, but were you able to disable secure boot in the BIOS? I was not able to disable secure boot and had to use Ubuntu 24 instead of Arch like I’d planned. I contacted Asus support and they suggested I set Boot > Secure Boot > OS Type: Other OS… but this still will not show a usb or m.2 drive with a linux installer. As far as I can tell it’s simply not possible to disable secure boot and I’m not savvy or masochistic enough to install my own keys for Arch.

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I believe it is possible - I have OS setting at “other OS” and secure boot disabled, and without much trouble was able to install Windows 8.1 onto this motherboard.
Mint 22 with 6.8 kernel also installs without any hiccups.

@Bottleneck_Calculato I was not able to find CSM in BIOS 0215, what BIOS version are you using and what menu has the CSM setting?

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its year 2025 is the bios that will work with this cpu is only 0215 BIOS