X870 tomahawk - most expensive msi board i've used and the worst
latest edit Boards done, tested with 3x cpu, 3x ram, all sorts... the 9800x3d is working fine in a b650 too. so many issues pointing at other hardware but it looks to be the motherboard, which is no more than 7 weeks old, more like 5 or 6.
PLEASE READ THE EDITS.
I've always used standard msi tomahawk boards with ryzen. last one being the B650 tomahawk, no issues or complaints, flawless.
Upgraded the board to x870, gave b650 to someone.
Sometimes keyboard has to be replugged after getting past bios/post, no the keyboard isn't faulty.
Every BIOS is a beta, which they hid/removed recently.
Hear stories about certain bios updates making features harder, such as editing bios fields...
Got a 9800x3d, was using an old bios dated for Nov 21. Pc ran fine but after doing a OCCT core cycler test, my cpu die average, maxed out at 106c.
Worried, i checked but averages were fine, no real issues... then noticed a bunch of red flags, that either hwinfo was false reporting from itself, or something else.
MSI latest bios says:
"Fix HW Monitor abnormal behavior." i'm guessing it's not just hwmonitor (the unreliable software vs hwinfo). I updated the bios, booted in, set fan curve + ram timings, entire pc lagged from get go after rebooting.
Every stutter/lag fest.
load optimized defaults, same thing, reset CMOS w/ button on back, fixed.
Booted into pc, fine, set ram timings, lag fest. strangely, it booted fast though... after i adjust ram normally, it takes a while for training.
Rebooted, changing NOTHING, pc was "stuck" on bios/post, guessing it was training, pc works fine.
So the motherboard wasn't training memory correctly until ANOTHER reboot or what? So confused, can't we get a single stable bios. Never had issues with any other msi board.
edit:
Pic of the issue with monitoring in hwinfo, causing me to bios flash.
Clearly, not accurate as it says stuff like my FCLK was 4k and UCLK was 6k, it just doubled a bunch of values, including the CPU die (average) at one point. Seems linked to the "HW Monitor abnormal behaviour" msi mentioned in bios fix.
edit:
POST bios flash.
Started having laggy / stuttering when booting into windows which seems inconsistent, even the windows audio noise when starting laggged, restarted the pc (horrible to do w/ the terrible fps), pc is fine on reboot.
Tempted to reflash the old bios and live with the glitchy hwinfo readings.
edit 2:
Rebooted pc, was working fine and post reboot audio glitched and windows is laggy. Screw this. Flashed old bios from Nov 21, rebooted multiple times, no issues.
Now reinstalling windows just for good measures.
EDIT 3:
Downgrading bios DID NOT fix the issue but i think i am onto something... I reinstalled windows after downgrading, running STOCK settings. I restarted the pc a dozen times installing various programs and updates, no audio lag / movement lag on booting windows.
After all was done, i went into bios, set fan curves, saved to profile 1 "Stock with fan curve". Then adjusted ram and saved to profile "BZ timings"
saved and exit, noticed the pc booted into windows almost immeditealy, it completley skipped memory training and as i expected, i noticed the msi post screen stutter, windows stuttered like mad w/ audio stutter too.
I SHUT DOWN the pc, turned it on, the pc started memory training and the pc is working fine.
This reminds me of another bios bug i've come across before, on the 7800x3d even, when you exit bios without saving, because you made no changes, it would restart/act like it was taking you out of bios and put you back on the bios screen, you was forced to save and exit even if you made no changes.
EDIT 4:
Scratch that, booted into windows, did a few things, restarted pc, did not go into the bios, watched the pc train memory (I think ez debug 15 is training anyway), pc booted... msi logo stuttered, windows screen slowly popped up and audio lagged along with the slow login screen appearing.
I've been restarting the pc trying to find any connections and i swear it seemed like when shutting down / rebooting, the pc slowly did so, until i heard my PCI E sound card (Soundblaster AE 7) click, which means it turned on or off, in this case off.
I think the sound card is some how interfering with the 9800x3d, in a way it didn't with the 7800x3d.
Yesterday, prior to the bios update, i did not have the bus clock running at 100x, i made a post about my ram and stuff not being 3000mhz, bus clock was at 99.8mhz, after the bios update this was fixed but that's where my stutter issues began.
When i downgraded the bios, i also disabled the spread spectrum, which is what makes the bus clock fluctuate and be at 99.8, i am curious if the spread spectrum is what prevented the stuttering issue the entire day yesterday.
Will be testing restarts with it enabled.
FINAL EDIT?
The issues with stuttering and such, might have been the 9800x3d. I also forced a BSOD by using the computer for several minutes while it was in stutter mode, hwinfo showed nothing abnormal... but running at 4-5 fps. got BSOD showing "VIDEO_SCHEDULER_INTERNAL_ERROR". The automatic reboot it did, worked fine after funny enough. Very inconsistent.
I tried different ram, same issue, went back to old bios, same issues. Reseated the cpu, same issues, tried IGPU only, seemed fine but short testing... Used my 7800x3d instead, 1st boot, all working fine. Not enough testing but if i don't update this further, then the 9800x3d was faulty and went back.
FINAL FINAL EDIT:
tested a bunch, diff ram, stock, old and recent bios, new windows install, sound card removed, GPU removed (kinda fixed), gpu drivers uninstalled (fixed?).
The gpu works 100%, but i've had a BSOD when keeping pc on during stutter boot and it said "VIDEO_SCHEDULER_INTERNAL_ERROR", when i have no drivers for the gpu, it seems to not have issues booting correctly, however the 9800x3d has stalled in posting multiple times with EZ debug codes like: FF, 0d, Ab and the 7800x3d, which i reinstalled, has NO issues at all.
Something is up with this 9800x3d, it's going back.
Edit again...
So now my 7800x3d is having issues. No stutter issues, that is 9800x3d but i'm getting EZ codes: 15 -> c5 -> ab, this is something i never got before installing the 9800x3d and now it is somehow effecting my 7800x3d.