Minor problems with using an ASUS Z97-A Motherboard
Solution 1:
I have the same motherboard and I would recommend to:
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.
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???!!"
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.
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.
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.