I know your stance from your posts on Tweaktown. Mine is that I own certain Gigabyte products and try and reach a fair viewpoint on each matter as it arises. I do like Gigabyte on the whole (I just moved over from ASUS where I help on their forum) but that doesn't mean that I will just accept what they do because it is Gigabyte. runn3R will be the first to tell you that I am a thorn in their side a times but I also stand up for them when I think it is called for.
The DualBIOS saga is something we have noticed recently where the Backup BIOS isn't kicking in to take over in the event of the Main BIOS becoming corrupted by bad flash or whatever. I asked GGTS for an explanation and they replied that it didn't work if the main BIOS was corrupt. So I ask you what is the point of it?
I agree with you on the noise/motherboard/PSU front to a greater extent. I am sure that it is a combination of factors that causes the noise. I do appreciate you not wanting to name brands for obvious reasons.
I am not sure however that we are in agreement over the I would always buy based on technology itself not specs on a box anyway, as I think most people do, and then either do their own testing
as the hardware is generally more expensive over here and most people are not in a position, money wise, to buy to test. They have to rely on the advertising and reviews(which can also be misleading as we all know).
That can be corrected a few ways, MAIN BIOS Corrupt or not. I've actually purposely corrupted my MAIN BIOS 10+ times in a row one night trying to flash a special BIOS (Which was bad) that the engineers were trying to convince me that it flashed just fine for them. They finally gave in several days later and realized I wasn't kidding when they gave the BIOS to JZ and he found the same issue. I probably flashed the BAD BIOS at least 15 times trying different methods and hardware, just because they assured me it flashed fine for them. It will recover no problem with a MAIN BIOS corruption, you just have to know the many ways to do that, and Gigabyte probably just did not want to mention them as some may be risky, but they could have at least told you a few ways it can be fixed instead of what you mentioned their reply to be.
The above mentioned BIOS is the only thing I'm bothered with Gigabyte about, not really upset, but just rather sad, and it's not about the bad flash or bad BIOS either, it's the issue that brought it all into light. I have accepted it and moved on though.
The problem, and why they gave me the above mentioned BIOS, is QPI Slow mode. It does not work on ANY Gigabyte X58 board, and has not since day one. You can select it in some BIOS and it appears to work but once you are in windows x36 QPI is always used. I even told them how to correct it and what values to use, but still no luck. I've had Colin look into getting this fixed, for months, then finally Hicookie, Dinos, and the Motherboard Product Manager as well, and the BIOS engineers just say "sorry no time, or sorry can't fix", when it could easily be fixed! I could fix it myself if the tools that worked on older p35/p45 and earlier BIOSes would work on X58/P55 but they just don't work so there isn't any way for me to make the needed edits myself.
Sorry to rant
You can kick in the backup BIOS by shutting down the PSU from the wall, then hold down your case power button in and then turn on the power supply button, a few seconds later the board will start, shut off the power supply then. Then you can turn on the power supply again and power up the board normally and DualBIOS will kick in.
You can also recover by manually shorting BIOS pins on the MAIN BIOS Chip, 5+6 or 4+7, if you would like further information on how to do that or procedures for each method let me know. I'd rather not post it into a thread so we don't have everyone jumping to use it as their first solution to a problem. I normally PM this information to users as a last resort if they cannot recover via power switch method, or another method using CD drive ONLY (NO Hard Drives) connected to SATAII_0 or IDE Master with motherboard driver CD inserted.
The pin shorts work every time, you just have to do them properly and they both have a certain method to doing them right.
Ya I know what you mean! I didn't really mean buy to test, I mean most buy just because of new technology or new hardware, regardless of specs on a package. And we as end users should reply on reviewers and or other end users tests before making a final purchase decision. I do know what you mean about reviews too, that's why I always look also at end users reports as well which is why I always love to post my results or findings too because I know some people buy based solely on end users thoughts.
Insert Quote
Most people purchased it because it was new, or had new tech (SATA 6Gb/s), which always has it's risks. I would always buy based on technology itself not specs on a box anyway, as I think most people do, and then either do their own testing or look at actual reviewers testing before making a purchase
I don't know about anyone else but I do understand the risks of buying into new tech and before buying any product I do a LOT of research. Unfortunately, with SATA3, the initial feedback from the vast majority of sites was actually very positive especially with regard to Gigabyte boards and the Marvell 9128 Chip, so I bought based upon this and also my trust in Gigabyte. The reality hasn't lived up to the promise and I can, to some degree, accept this. The issue I have, however, is in the slow response when problems have been pointed out. I think this is the biggest annoyance and cause for frustration that is being expressed on the forum. Even a direct yes or no question can take ages to be answered.
I too, am a strong Gigabyte supporter but in no way do I feel constrained by this loyalty, to say when I believe something is amiss and Gigabyte have recently shown that they are unable to respond quickly or adequately enough to their customer's complaints or queries. Why this should be I do not know, unless of course they have grown too quickly and do not have the infrastructure in place to deal with the increased demands on their Technical Support Staff. This UK forum only has one "official" Gigabyte employee and, with the best will in the world, he cannot be expected to handle the increased volume of traffic that this site has seen over the past year or be in a position to answer all of the technical issues raised here.
I do know what you mean, but we now know a lot of that must have been with the slower Indilinux drives or just over-exaggeration/excitement at the speeds, not sure?
Brand loyalty when it comes to this issue really doesn't matter, as all the SATA 6Gb/s boards use the same controller, so they all have the same issues and I'm not sure why they do not make a larger public announcement accepting our findings? I'm proud to see at least Gigabyte has made changes to their websites in regards to this, even it they did so quietly, no one else has yet.
I think the best person we could get to look into this issue would be Adand, but he may not be able to get any answers either and may just end up confirming our thoughts without any solutions. I do not think this can be solved due to the chip used, maybe it's possible but I doubt it as if it was someone would have already corrected it IE Marvell or X Motherboard manufacturer - I just don't see anything that can be done
