I’m in the south Charlotte, NC area and hitting a wall with a Threadripper 7980X + ASUS WRX90E-SAGE SE build that refuses to load OS. I’ve tried everything I know and even manufacturer support was useless.
The specs:
AMD Threadripper 7980X
ASUS PRO WS WRX90E-SAGE SE
4x128GB ECC DDR5 RAM (512GB total)
RTX 6000 Ada
Seasonic Prime TX-1300 PSU
4x Crucial T705 PCIe 5.0 SSDs
What I’ve tried:
Minimal configuration (CPU, 1 RAM stick, no drives, 1 drive, combination of drives and memory, multiple OS versions, low end graphics card only, etc)
Multiple BIOS version updates and factory resets
Different PSUs
RMA’d motherboard (ASUS said it was fine, escalated to their premier support)
Every RAM slot combination
The system powers, access to BIOS, no error codes.
I’m looking for someone in the Charlotte area who actually enjoys this kind of troubleshooting challenge.
This is for my son who started college this year studying CS AI for his education. The only education so far is mine, finding out ‘Threadripper’ refers to what it’s done to my sanity.
If you’re local and want to tackle this, please reach out!
Hey bedHedd, thanks for your reply. Tried. Yes and Yes. That’s exactly what ASUS support suggested as well. No luck. They also suggested using an older OS version then upgrading once installed. No luck.
Yes, USB shows up, with the help of the ASUS tried formatting it a few different ways , they were focused on windows, my preference would have been linux/Ubuntu.
I run threadripper, and have done a few unraid builds using threadripper systems over the past few years. One of the things that caught me in the past was “thinking” it wasn’t booting, when it fact it was just switching display outputs during the post/boot process. Your board looks to have IPMI on board and you have that VGA output on the back on your motherboard. If you are also using a discreet GPU it could be switching it’s display out during the boot process and will give you the impression that you’re just starting at a frozen black screen.
May not be your issue, but figured I would share a gotcha that caught me in the past as this feels very familiar
Yes, very common issue in Linux if using the X-server windowing system. If using multiple gpus, just move the monitor cable to each of the installed gpu outputs to find your Desktop output. You can sort out the issue by adjusting the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file after you get a display and correct the assigned busID’s for the correct main diplay card so it will not switch outputs at reboot.
Or just use the VGA motherboard output for the initial display so you can sort out the issue as mentioned.
Interesting, I did not even think about using the VGA port. I did remove all GPUs, based on a suggestion and bought an old MSI HDMI card just to connect hdmi to monitor. I am out of town a few days, will test using the VGA port this weekend. Thanks!!! I guess it best to reduce the number of variable, test bare bones, no cards (GPU), one stick of NEMIX RAM, and one new Crucial T705 4TB PCIe Gen5 NVMe M.2 SSD. I will pickup a VGA to HDMI cable. If there anything other suggestions for the test let me know. Thanks for the tip!
I’m not specifically endorsing that one exactly, was just the first hit on Amazon that seemed to have the direction (bidirection) correct where it’s VGA in to HDMI out.
But adding a different discreet GPU into the mix won’t fix the issue if your system is defaulting to the IPMI VGA port on boot, you would be just trading one evil for the next going from your Nvidia 6000 discreet card to the old MSI card, you’d still not be using the VGA (which is probably where the output is).
Borrowed a VGA monitor from a neighbor, so no need for an adaptor. Figured one less possible point of failure. Will let you know! Thanks for all the help!
Thanks all tested, still no luck. But truly appreciate all the suggestions. I see if I can find someone int he charlotte nc area to get a second set of eyes on the problem!
Prob just need a fresh set of eyes like you’re calling out. The way I see it, the fact that you can get the system to post and you can get into the BIOS tells me the system IS working, so that’s 50% of getting to the end goal already. Now it’s just a dance of messing with secure boot vs no secure boot, legacy vs UEFI boot mode and picking the right boot order. Then making sure you’re plugged into the right display output at boot to see what’s going on. I have a monitor that has DP, HDMI and VGA and there have been times where I have the same system plugged into all of them just to make sure I get the right one…
Thanks for all the support and comments. Turns out bad hardware. Since my last post I took it into a custom build shop; they used their CPPU etc, marked it as a bad motherboard. Also took it into Miicrocenter test and said same bad motherboard…cost me an extra $150 between the two to find that out…insured and they offered me a swap or trade-in…sounds like I should go the safe route and go for the TRX50 to be safe.
