Rotating Debug Codes but system appears to work fine?

[GaiusMaxwell]

Ok, let's start from the beginning.

I recently made several upgrades to my PC but kept the same motherboard, RAM, and CPU which are:

• MSI Mpower Z87
• i7 4770k
• 2x8gb Adata DDR3

This build ran flawlessly for a couple of years but I recently switched cases and at the same time I switched out my 780ti for a GTX 1080, I also added:

• 2tb Seagate HDD
• Elgato HD60 Pro (PCIe)
• TPLink AC1900 PCIe Network card

I also switched out my unnecessarily large Corsair AX1200 PSU for a Coolermaster 650w.

The system boots fine, it seems to run fine, but the debug LED codes rotate like clockwork on every restart.

I will boot up and once I'm in Windows it will read "A0" which the debug LED table doesn't specifically list though it could mean "Onboard devices initialize and detect" - I am lead to believe that this is normal but I was sure that it used to simply read "00" prior to the changes.

The next bit is the strange bit though, because the next time I boot up it will read "04" which is listed in the debug table as "Power on South Bridge Initialization".

The debug codes rotate, from A0 to 04 on every restart, in both cases the system appears to run fine but it still concerns me and I couldn't find anybody with a similar problem, I've switched PCIe slots for the devices, unplugged devices individually, switched the RAM slots, I'm not sure where to go from here.

I should also add that in total for storage I have:

• 2x Samsung 840 EVO SSD
• 1x 3TB WD Black HDD
• 1x 2TB Seagate HDD (Recently added)

[scr4wl]

This sounds completely normal

 

Edit:

 

It cycles through the codes because it is letting you know what it is doing...

Edited July 10, 2017 by scr4wl

[GaiusMaxwell]

This sounds completely normal

 

Edit:

 

It cycles through the codes because it is letting you know what it is doing...

Perhaps I didn't quite explain it right.

 

What I mean is that right now, while I sit here typing on my PC the debug code is "A0" permanently.

 

But if I restart my PC right now, it will boot all the way into Windows and the debug code will be "04" permanently.

 

It will then revert back to "A0" the next time I restart, and then back to "04" the following time.

 

The debug LED table cycles like normal to boot up but once I'm fully into Windows it sticks at either A0 or 04 and I can make them switch like clockwork just by restarting but nothing short of a restart will make them move off A0 or 04.

Edited July 10, 2017 by GaiusMaxwell

[scr4wl]

That is weird. It should be A0 after normal boot.

 

After a quick google search it looks as though this has happened with other MSI boards in the past.

 

I wouldn't worry about it if you can boot and everything seems normal. You could try a bios update, sometimes they fix weird things like this.

[GaiusMaxwell]

That is weird. It should be A0 after normal boot.

 

After a quick google search it looks as though this has happened with other MSI boards in the past.

 

I wouldn't worry about it if you can boot and everything seems normal. You could try a bios update, sometimes they fix weird things like this.

Thanks for the peace of mind, just the 04 meaning something with the south bridge was getting me worried but I figure I just reboot once more to get the A0 to be as safe as possible

[xenkw0n]

MSI has had notoriously odd BIOS issues.  Probably an update out there that addresses this.  It could be a number of factors based on all the parts you moved around.  Each one of those items could potentially cause an issue.  When I upgraded a friends MSI Z68 board with a newer GPU it would take a full minute for the BIOS to move past that part of initialization.  Even updating the BIOS was a hassle on that board.  A lot of their BIOS updates are related to new product releases oddly enough.

[wevsspot]

On many motherboards with LED status readouts, the AO simply means that the BIOS has handed over control to the OS (boot drive).  This happens after all of the devices and hardware have been detected and initialized.  I always though of it as "A-OK".  

 

I can't explain why you get different the two different random AO or 04 codes, but if the system is functioning properly I wouldn't worry about it.  Remember, there are literally billions of motherboards out there that don't have onboard diagnostic LEDs     And the ones that are still in service seem to work ok.

[ccokeman]

As long as it works black tape works to cover up the issue! You could try to update the BIOS to the latest for that board and see if it still does it.  

[GaiusMaxwell]

Update: So I actually figured this out.

I booted up this morning and my PC froze before fully booting into windows, debug code showed "04" but I'd never not made it to the desktop before.

I restarted and got to the desktop with "A0" and ran a disk check, sure enough there were errors on my boot drive, it restarted and repaired, and after 20 or so reboots now I haven't yet seen the "04" error code.

So it looks like it was a disk problem the whole time, and "04" which was something to do with the South Bridge Initialization did absolutely nothing to point me in the direction of the actual problem >.<

Edited July 12, 2017 by GaiusMaxwell

[scr4wl]

Strange, glad you got it working though.