BIOS freeze after two or more passes of MemTest86

[kangarou]

Hello,
I'am running ASUS Maximus Z790 Hero + i9-13900K CPU and G.Skill 6000 64GB memory.

I run the tests without XMP (DDR5 4800). I use MemTest86 10.6.
The tests always pass without errors.

However, when I exit from MemTest86 to the BIOS after two or more passes, the BIOS freezes for a while - I have attached a screenshot.
I can't move the mouse pointer, the keyboard doesn't work (except Num Lock, Ctrl-Alt-Del).
After about 5 minutes of waiting, everything returns to normal and the BIOS starts working.

This problem does not occur if I do a reboot or shut down from the MemTest86.

Is this normal? Could this mean a CPU or RAM or motherboard failure?

[David (PassMark)]

It isn't a known problem.

Some ASUS motherboard have Memtest86 built into the BIOS. Are you running Memtest86 from BIOS, or are you running it from a USB drive?

We only test the USB boot option. And leave it up to ASUS to test their BIOS versions.

What BIOS version are you using?
Also , are you saying it doesn't freeze if you just do 1 pass?

[kangarou]

I'm running MemTest86 10.6 from USB drive. There is an older version of MemTest in the ASUS BIOS.

BIOS version: 1501

Also , are you saying it doesn't freeze if you just do 1 pass?

No, it also freezes after 1 pass, but for a shorter period of time - about 1 minute.
If I don't do any tests(just run MemTest86 and Exit) then the freeze is hardly noticeable - 1-3 seconds.

[David (PassMark)]

So surprisingly, we tried this today and reproduced this on a ASUS Z690 Prime board we have here.

Our guess is that an attempt is made by the BIOS to access some resource, that doesn't exist, and then there is a timeout period (the freeze). Eventually after the timeout the system recovers. So pretty strange.

Of course this only happens if you pick the "Exit" option. Both the "Shutdown" or "Restart" options are fine.

It didn't happen on a ASRock board we tested. No one seems to have reported this before either.

We'll send an Email to ASUS and ask them to take a look.

[kangarou]

Of course this only happens if you pick the "Exit" option. Both the "Shutdown" or "Restart" options are fine.

Exactly that.

We'll send an Email to ASUS and ask them to take a look.

Thanks.