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I recently got a new ASUS Z97-A Motherboard which came with an Intel core i5 Processor and a new HDD. I installed Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS to the HDD. I was recently playing with the motherboard settings, which included Disabling Secure Boot, Enabling Fast Boot Mode, And running ASUS Optimal Tuning. But after doing all of that, Ubuntu Failed to start. Sometimes I was stuck looking at the Ubuntu splash screen, sometimes I was looking at a blank screen, and Sometimes my monitor would turn off saying that there was no video signal. I discovered later that restoring my motherboard to factory settings (excluding Secure Boot) made Ubuntu work again. Is there any way for me to take advantage of using all of the goodies this motherboard has to offer without it breaking my system?

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I have the same motherboard and I would recommend to:

  1. First learn the impact the change on the Motherboard settings will have. This is not only affecting Ubuntu but also any other operating system because you are literally changing how the hardware will behave.

  2. There are changes that can not be done AFTER you have install an operating system. For example disabling Secure Boot or EFI settings after an operating system was installed will confuse the OS since it thinks that "Wait a minute, I was installed with secure boot... What happened to it?? Am I crazy???!!"

  3. In the case of Ubuntu stuck on the boot process is because the motherboard told Ubuntu when you did the installation what type of environment it would have, what type of settings it should set by default and how it should behave to have a correct boot process. Changing that will simply make the boot process fail because the settings that it had do not correlate with the ones of the motherboard.

  4. Fast Boot disables several things (Depending how faster you want to boot). It could have disabled USB, FLoppy or even Sata connections not in use, but it could also disabled critical ACPI o APIC settings needed for the correct boot.

  5. The Asus Optimal Tuning is NOT recommended for systems that have already being installed. It changes so many variables. From memory clock frequency to sleep states, to cpu clock rates and more. If the system already had a fix setting for this, or even a dynamic one, the tuning would make a chaos of it. The same case happens with Windows 7 or 8 systems that the user wants to tweak but does not know the whole scenario of outcomes it can lead, some of which are literally burning the CPU, blowing a capacitor on the motherboard or damaging the memory (All cases I have seen first hand, the worst was the CPU on fire).

You do not need to tweak that many settings. You can change the fast boot to a moderate setting and do a firmware update which can about 2 weeks ago: http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Z97A/HelpDesk_Download/

which offer:

  • Improve system stability
  • Improve System performance
  • Enhance accuracy for DRAM frequency
  • And more...

But other than that, if you love the motherboard, don't try tuning it to have more power, because if something I had learned from that is that you can actually get more power, but you pay with lifetime. So the motherboard instead of lasting 5, 6 or 6 years in top shape. It would last 1 or 2 years, afterwards you would wonder why it resets or turns itself off randomly.

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  • ok this answers my question. I'll make sure that I won't play with the BIOS settings too much
    – thesuperbob49
    Jul 27, 2014 at 3:25
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    I find it totally ridiculous to suggest someone not to tune the PC with this mainboard. I mean you could save the overclocking for later but the Z97 chipset and the mainboard itself is specifically made for overclocking I would doubt that this board will only last 1 or 2 years over-clocked. If you not want to overclock, thats fine but you do not need a Z97 chipset then, well since this boards are cheap now you may as well take it but you certainly can get a 80-90€ Z97 board then and not a 150€ Gaming overclocker board. So why did you buy this board then?
    – redanimalwar
    Apr 8, 2015 at 23:34
  • @redanimalwar: True that.
    – shivams
    Apr 27, 2015 at 16:03
  • That's up to anyone to decide if they want to tune it or not. From experience of 15+ years of this I would never recommend tuning if the user wants to make the investment over this hardware last more (Which is the very first think anyone doing overclocking gets to know). My recommendation stands for motherboards that offer overclocking or not. I care not for overclocking. I care for making the cost of the motherboard last longer (Which is my personal opinion as it is this answer). If however, the user wishes to overclock, at least he has an idea of the benefits and costs of doing so.
    – Luis Alvarado
    Apr 28, 2015 at 1:21

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