ga-z77m-d3h bios is crashing

[william]

This mobo never gave me any headaches, until I installed a ssd. I believe it has something to do with switching sata mode to  AHCI (I  first set sata mode to ahci, then installed windows). It seems to work for a while, but eventually the bios crashes, and I have to recover it from the backup bios - pressing and holding power switch for 10 seconds, then pressing and releasing it.


When the bios crashes it behaves like this: you press to power button, nothing shows on the monitor, then it turns off by itself - turns on by itself then turns off again - and keeps doing this.

Does anyone know what may be causing this problem?


mobo: ga z77m d3d rev. 1.0
bios version f4 (also tried f13) but still crashed
cpu : intel i7 3770
os: windows 10 pro
storage: sandisk ssd 240gb, hdd seagate 500gb , hdd wd 500gb
gpu: zotac nvidia gtx 560

[shadowsports]

Hi William,
Typically a BIOS doesn't "crash".  It may become corrupt, but doesn't crash. 

When you use the word crash, we assume you mean the computer stops, fails to respond or restarts when you are starting the system or using windows.

We see what you are talking about with SATA Operate Mode:
SATA Mode Selection
Enables or disables RAID for the SATA controllers integrated in the Intel Chipset or configures the SATA
controllers to AHCI mode.
IDE Configures the SATA controller to IDE mode. (Default)
AHCI Configures the SATA controller to AHCI mode. Advanced Host Controller Interface
(AHCI) is an interface specification that allows the storage driver to enable advanced
Serial ATA features such as Native Command Queuing and hot plug.
RAID Enables RAID for the SATA controller.

IDE mode is Default (this is included for a legacy OS such as windows XP), but would not be the mode I would select with any SATA device.  You do want to use AHCI.  Now, if you installed windows vista, 7, 8 or later OS, you can't just switch the operate mode from IDE to AHCI as the driver your controller is using will not be correct.  You would probably see a blue screen with STOP error 0x0000007B [Inaccessible Boot Device] .  Switching back to IDE mode would allow the system to start normally.

Why don't you give us more information about your install and one of us will assist you with next steps, changing operate mode/driver, etc.

[Peck1234]

 Was just searching the same issue and found this post I have never been able to use AHCI with this board and an SSD because the same exact thing has happened to me the bio simply gets corrupt and then needs to recover with dual bios.

[Peck1234]

 Was just searching the same issue and found this post I have never been able to use AHCI with this board and an SSD because the same exact thing has happened to me the bio simply gets corrupt and then needs to recover with dual bios.

[shadowsports]

Not being familiar with this specific board, the description provided in the original post sounded like the behavior that occurs when the operate mode of a controller that supports IDE emulation through chipset was likely the problem.   

Vista and later disables alternate drivers for different controller operate modes in registry which is why you cannot switch between controller operate modes in BIOS and boot successfully. 

It is possible to change the driver windows uses after install by modifying the registry then changing the operate mode.   

There are slightly different steps for changing the mode if you are running windows 10.  (bcdedit) 

But back to the issue.  This could be a flaw with the board or BIOS.  I'd ensure my M battery was fresh and reset the BIOS to defaults.  Then test by leaving the 500GB IDE drive disconnected for a while.  Set the operate mode to AHCI and run the SSD with my OS.  If this works consistently, I'd reconnect the IDE drive.  I would disable all Boot devices except for DVD and the SSD.  Can't promise this will work, but worth a try.