GA-Z68XP-UD4 , Irregular boot loop issue after installing Gigabyte 7850 GFX card

[sam0t]

My system (specs below) has been rock steady for over a year, but after I replaced Sapphire 6850 GFX card with Gigabyte 7850 couple weeks back, I started experiencing intermittent boot loop issues after couple days.

Believing that the issue must be due to the new GFX card, I returned it to store for check up and I continued using the old 6850 card without any issues for a week. My local store could not find anything wrong with the 7850 card, returned it and I installed it back to my system few days ago. Everything worked alright again for couple days, but now I boot loop issue has started reoccurring, mostly on cold system boots. Boot loop has taken place maybe once when resuming from sleep mode, but mostly on cold boots.   

I have read through the other boot loop threads like, http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,7895.0.html , and applied its suggestions. I installed the latest official F6 BIOS for my GA-Z68XP-UD4 rev. 1.0 motherboard already some 6 months ago and have cleared the CMOS today. Now it is wait and see if the boot loop returns after CMOS reset but I am quite certain it will.

Any suggestions what I could do about this issue? Any BETA bios available for GA-Z68XP-UD4 to help with the issue?

Also found the following post, http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/49590-sapphire-7850-gpu-wont-detect-pcie-x16-z77-ud3h-works-fine-x8.html , which suggests this might be a known issue and installing the GFX card on on Gigabyte board's PCIe 8x slot would solve the issue. Can anybody confirm this?

All help is welcome, thanks for your time.

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System
Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD4 Rev. 1.0 with F6 BIOS
Intel i5-2500K CPU
2 x 2GB Corsair DDR3 1600MHz
Gigabyte 7850 GFX card
Vertex 4 256GB SSD + 3TB Seagate Barracuda HDD

[sam0t]

Unfortunately the boot loop issue, CMOS reset did not make a difference. Below a picture from the boot loop and where the POST process ends and system reboots.

When the boot loop start,  it goes through some 3-5 reboots, after which the system boots into Windows normally. There are times when I need to unplug the power cord from PSU to stop boot loop, but usually the system breaks off the boot loop on its own.

Next I am going to try the Gigabyte 7850 card on the PCIe 8x slot too see if it makes a difference.

PS.
Odd that while in boot loop the POST process claims my GA-Z68XP-UD4 has BIOS F1 installed. Once the system boots normally and gets off the boot loop, system again states BIOS version as F6.

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[sam0t]

Well unfortunately the boot loop also occurs on my GA-Z68XP-UD4's PCIe x8 slot, so much for that theory.

There is some chatter over at random forums about faulty/non-standard DisplayPort cables causing all sort of issues. Admittedly the miniDP-DP cable I am using is cheap (Deltaco), so I look into this and try to boot the system without DP cable attached.

[sam0t]

Must confess that I had not read thread http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php?PHPSESSID=huegco9s68m6kfvteeto4muk14&/topic,7895.0.html carefully enough.

I have now disabled CPU PLL Overvoltage feature in BIOS and set extreme memory profile X.M.P to Profile 1. Let's see if these tweaks make a difference.

[dmdilks]

What do you have your memory set at. Or do let the MB set it for you.

Try moving the memory to other two slots. Do you another set of memory you can try.

[sam0t]

I let the MB set memory timings. The boot loop did not occur for couple days after disabling CPU PLL Overvoltage feature, and I thought that solved it, until today.  

Today the system crashed after Sleep mode and went into a boot loop. I then upped memory voltage from 1.5v to 1.6v and raised QPI/VTT voltage to 1.10v . Afterwards I fired off four session of HCI memory tests and after about an hour got a memory error:



This starts to feel like a memory issue, but I am open to all suggestions. If this could somehow be fixed by BIOS tweaks, all the better.

Next I will try to change memory slots to see if it makes a difference.

[sam0t]

Yesterday kicked up voltages to:

Mem voltage: 1.60v
QPI/VTT voltage: 1.2v
CPU voltage: 1.280v

With these settings HCI memory test passes some 200% what I have tested and sleep mode works, yet  boot loop occurs from time to time on start up. I have now changed memory slots from slots 1&3 to 2&4 to see if that makes a difference.

Forgot to mention earlier that have updated the backup BIOS couple days ago, just to make sure I have followed all best practices in solving Boot Loop issue.

In case changing memory slots does not work, I am starting to be completely with this problem. Boot loop appeared after changing the GFX card from Sapphire 6850 to Gigabyte 7850 , but the new card seem to be fine otherwise. Logical thing would be that the new card is faulty, but I have tough time believing it as otherwise the card is fine and passes stress tests like Furmark with ease. Only thing that with this card Boot Loops occur

edit:

Changing memory slots and upping voltages across the board did not make a great difference. After few boots was again greeted by error on start up. Not exactly boot loop, but I am sure it is just time until one occurs :

[dmdilks]

When the computer loops does it do it from the windows Logo screen.

When you put the new card in did you just installed the card and let windows install drives.

If so I want you to try to uninstall all your video drivers complete off the computer.

That is if you have any drivers downloaded drivres delete everything.

Let windows reload the drivers and go into device manager and make sure they are using a standard driver.

The only reason I'm asking you to do this it is going to be two things a driver problem or a card problem.

If the computer boots without the loop and you do this many times. Then reinstall a new driver from Ati.

If it starts the loop thing again it will be more likey a card problem. Because your 6850 runs fine with those drivers.

I would be looking at a bad video card.

[sam0t]

The Boot Loops occurs irregularly when I reboot the system. On the POST screen I either get the infernal "waiting for ME ready" countdown after which the system either jams or reboots itself. I do not see how this could have anything to do with Windows drivers 

Once the issue takes place the reboot can loop con go on through countless iterations and usually I have to take the power cord and clearing CMOS to stabilize the system.

Also on other times on boot I am greeted with the other more minor inconvenience "System experienced boot error due to overclocking etc". The thing is that both these events take place with totally stock settings which is confusing.

So far nothing I have done has elevated the situations, these are:
* Disable CPU PLL Overvoltage BIOS feature.
* Overwritten backup BIOS with Optimized Defaults settings for F6 BIOS.
* Increase CPU,memory and QPI/VTT voltages.
* Switch memory slots for my Corsair 8GB (2x4GB) Vengeance Dual Channel Kit, 1600MHz DDR3, Low Profile (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) memories.
* Switch Gigabyte 7850 GFX card to PCIe x8 slot with my GA-Z68XP-UD4 MB.


I think I will give my old 6850 card a try once more. I am just trying to figure out would it be better to exchange the motherboard or GFX card. I am leaning toward motherboard as there are quite many people out there who have experienced this issue with Gigabyte motherboards.

[dmdilks]

Yes it could be the board but your 6850 works fine. Plus I didn't think about this before that the 7850 card is a 3.0 and the 6850 is a 2.0 card.

The board only supports 2.0 cards. Yes the 7850 should be backward compatible. But the board might not like it

I have seen a lot of this with people trying to use a 3.0 card on a 2.0 board.

[sam0t]

Good point dmdilks, did not thought of the PCIe version difference  between GFX cards. I have now made a trouble ticket to Gigabyte via GGTS, http://ggts.gigabyte.com.tw , and asked if PCIe version can be a factor here.

Getting bit desperate here and Reflashed BIOS with F6 just for the sake of it. Also noticed that the boot loop does not seem to occur when I have disconnected the mini-DP cable from 7850 during start up. I will test this more by booting the system only with DVI connected , then connecting mini-DP only once I reach Windows 7 login screen.

Voltage wise I have now dropped them to more normal levels, as they do not seem to affect the issue. There was one time I got HCI memory errors on stock voltages and thus left the voltages tad higher with QPI/VTT on 1.10v and memory 1.58v currently. Also enable the EXTREME MEMORY PROFILE X.M.P [ PROFILE 1 ] as it was recommended on tweaktown forums to make sure memory settings are correct.

edit:

Found a couple TweakTown forum posts which suggest that GA-Z68XP-UD4 rev. 1.0 might not be fully PCIe 3.0 compliant.

http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,8688.0.html
http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php?topic=8664.0

[sam0t]

Gigabyte support suggested that I tried the U1g, UEFI BIOS for my board.

Updated the BIOS to U1g as suggested and have confirmed system stability by running  HCI with stock settings to 600% . No boot loops so far, but have not yet tested enough to say anything for sure. At least the UEFI BIOS contains an encouraging option to choose PCIe generation, left it to Auto so far.

Let's see how it goes.

Edit:
Agh, just got the first boot loop with U1g BIOS. I hope Gigabyte support has some tricks up their sleeves to assist.

Edit2:
So my older 2012 Acronis backup solution did not work at all with UEFI U1g BIOS so reverted back to Award F6 BIOS. Got fed up with the situation and changed card back to 6850 and restored system backup from some 2 weeks ago.

Basically I am now back to start and got additional 7850 which I cannot return. I would very much like to hear why Gigabyte promised PCIe 3.0  support with GA-Z68XP-UD4  rev 1.0 while clearly it does not work. I will wait what Gigabyte support has to say, but if it is nothing short of miracle, think I need to try get this MB exchanged.

[sam0t]

Reverted back to using Sapphire 6850 PCIe 2.0 card and my system is again stable with no boot loops.

Then started again looking into this business about Gigabyte my board not being truly PCIe 3.0 compliant as suggested in following links:
http://www.techpowerup.com/151718/MSI-Calls-Bluff-on-Gigabyte-s-PCIe-Gen-3-Ready-Claim.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/msi-gigabyte-pcie-gen3-mobo,13377.html
User post: http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,8688.0.html

Then took a picture of my GA-Z68XP-UD4 , rev 1.0 board and found Pericom 2415 parts within:



Going to present this to Gigabyte support and see what they have to say about it. I honestly hope there will be software solution for this, but things are not looking too good at the moment  

[dmdilks]

Your board no matter what you try will never support 3.0. You need to upgrade to a 1.3 rev board with a 22mm Cpu to get 3.0 support.

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3977#ov

http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/cpu-support-popup.aspx?pid=3977

[sam0t]

Gigabyte support advised to check if my GFX card has VBIOS update available and indeed there is one for GV-R785OC-2GD card: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4155&dl=1#bios

Updated the card with latest VBIOS F31 which fixes things with HYNIX Memory. (Checked that my GFX has Hynix Memory). I have not had a single Boot Loops incident since, but will be testing extensively to verify stability before getting ahead of myself.

PCIe 3.0 is not really a factor for me and will be content with a 100% stable system. I started to look into the whole PCIe 3.0 support matter with GA-Z68XP-UD4 rev 1.0 board thinking that there might be an incompatibility issue with the MB and GFX causing boot loops.

I will update this thread later on after I have had time to confirm system stability.