XMP profile damages GA-Q77M-D2H mainboard !!!

[marianpro]

Hello all.

I bought mobo GA-Q77M-D2H rev. 1.0 on which I installed Intel i7-3770 and Kingston HyperX 2x4GB 1600MHz RAM (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX).

When I set (and saved) XMP profile in the BIOS (rev. F2) and restarted system, such a message has appeared at boot: „The system Has experienced a BOOT failure possibly due to incorrect configuration. Previous settings in BIOS may not be compatible with current hardware state.”

When I entered the BIOS, RAM settings were changed to previous state which was 1333Mhz. I changed settings again and after boot procedure mobo has stopped respond completely.

I sent board for repair. They reported that they had exchanged BIOS chip.
Next I set timings manually leaving rest (i.a. 1.5V). Unfortunately, the same boot message comes back after few restarts.

I bought second RAM KHX1600C9D3K2/4GX – it's on the QVL list.
The same problem appeared.

I bought second mobo GA-Q77M-D2H rev. 1.0 and I broke it down in the same way.

I have tested the memory modules with memtest and they have no errors.

The motherboard supports DDR3 1600/1333/1066 MHz memory modules and in manual I have read that it supports XMP to.

Did someone have a similar problem and has solution for this?

[najiro]

Have you tried "manual" profile? the kingston ram runs @ 1.65V
undervolting it to 1.5V would lead to problems. Try raising the voltage to 1.65 and see what happens.

[marianpro]

Thank you for the answer najiro.
Unfortunately, there are no manual settings for RAM voltage on this motherboard.
1.65V = XMP profile
1.5V = without XMP

[dmdilks]

Try and disable the X.M.P. and set system memory multiplier to manual than just set the memory to 1600 and see what happens.

 Don't change everything else. I had a board from Gigabyte doing the same thing. 

[marianpro]

Hi dmdilks

I've tried it and it works fine until 3rd-5th restart.

Btw I'm not sure what the left column of BIOS CL settings shows and what are the Auto values in right column.

CL Auto mode at 1600MHz:
BIOS CL (left column): 9-9-9-24, right column: (Auto)
CPU-Z, HWinfo and Aida64 shows: 9-11-11-29
If I set CL manualy (right column: 9-9-9-24)
CPU-Z, HWinfo and Aida64 show properly the same values as BIOS: 9-9-9-24

[dmdilks]

Hi dmdilks


CL Auto mode at 1600MHz:
BIOS CL (left column): 9-9-9-24, right column: (Auto)
CPU-Z, HWinfo and Aida64 shows: 9-11-11-29
If I set CL manualy (right column: 9-9-9-24)
CPU-Z, HWinfo and Aida64 show properly the same values as BIOS: 9-9-9-24

All I change is if it is set at 1333 and the speed is suppose to be 1600, 1866, & 2133.

That is all I change on memory is set to the right speed. I don't change the timings at all.

Most boards will pickup the memory to be 1333 most of the time.

[marianpro]

I'm not sure if you understand my problem dmdilks.
I want set RAM at 1600MHz.
It works fine at 1333 and didn't work properly at 1600 (Other settings are left as default).

[dmdilks]

I understand what is happening here. I have a GA-990FXA-UD3  supports this DDR3 2000(O.C.)/1866/1600/1333/1066

I have the 1866 memory and no matter what I do it will not run at that speed. I would try a different brand of memory.

I just went into the backroom to check my spare X79 and it is running Kingston memory set at 1866 with a profile and in auto too.

I change profile to disable and set the memory to 1866 and everything is fine. Yes the memory does runs at 1.50v with no profile.

Plus it is reading at the left 1333 & to the right it is set to 1866. Plus if I just leave everything at default setting.

It has a profile with the memory running 1866 and 1.65v. That is why I said try a different brand of memory to rule out memory.



 

[marianpro]

I have other models of Gigabyte mainbord like e.g. GA-B75M-D3V (rev. 1.1) and they work fine like yours mb.
Gigabyte support said that XMP proffile isn't recommended for their Q77 motherboard and they assert at 1.5V it will works ok...
I have ASUS P8Q77-M and it works great at 1600 & XMP with the same components.

Something is wrong with GA-Q77M-D2H (rev. 1.0).

[marianpro]

I found the solution for RAM speed problem.
This motherboard tolerates only SPD JEDEC profile, so finally  I found Crucial Ballistix BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU and it works at SPD 1600Mhz/CL9/1.5V.
Mayby new Kingston HYPERX PNP also runs with that, but I haven't test it.

However, probem with XMP stick still exists.

[marianpro]

Unfortunately this solution also failed, motherboard had worked longer, but after some time it got damaged again.

[mikewse]

Hey marianpro, how did this turn out - did you ever get this resolved by Gigabyte?

I think I have the exact same problem with my GA-Q77M-D2H. When touching any RAM parameter in BIOS (even just manually setting the default frequency instead of the "Auto" value) it will reset BIOS settings on the fourth reboot and put up the message about incompatible hardware state you mentioned. In addition to this problem the board was also very unstable and would do spontaneous reboots in Windows. Eventually the board permanently "froze" and wouldn't start again.

After receiving from repair (6.5 weeks :-( ) the board worked for about an hour and then started to show the same problems, but now it would reboot Windows within a minute. The strange thing is that DOS tools like memtest86 could run for days without problems.

So I'm now two weeks into the next repair and when reading about your problems I'm starting to suspect this might be a product that was broken by design. Did you get a working board in the end, or did Gigabyte refund the broken one?

[marianpro]

Hi mikewse.

I've sent two my mobo's to authorized Gigabyte service four times and I've got them back whithout any repair (in their opinion the boards are OK).
I've sent them again and I've got a new one, but problem still exsists. 
They don't want to give my money back (via distributor), because service sais the boards weren't faulty.
 I'm testing for a week Kingston PnP RAM KHX16C9P1K2/16 and it seems be ok.

I agree whith you, this is very expensive but poorly designed product, RAM sensitive, where even QVL RAM doesn't work properly.

[scom]

I have bought 4 GA-Q77M-D2H and two of them are working fine with only one G.Skill  RAM and G2130 CPU. I have change in the bios only SATA ide to ahci option everything works fine. But with the last two the story it’s very different. The systems have two G.Skill RAM and I3 3240 CPU.  This time I have activate XMP profile 1 and first everything was ok but after 3-5 reboots a message has appeared at boot: „The system has experienced a BOOT failure possibly due to incorrect configuration. Previous settings in BIOS may not be compatible with current hardware state.” And after the last reboot the mobo has stopped respond completely. With the first mobo I thought that the mobo was defective but when the second one fails in the same way I have search for somebody with the same problem and ended hear. The strange thing is that I don’t think there is a hardware problem because if I don’t put any ram the mobo beeps and with the ram in I don’t have any error messages. So I have try everything. I have reset the bios, I have changed the CPU and the RAM but nothing works. I think it’s a bios software bug. The question is:  There is some way to revive this two mobos or I have to send them for repair ?

[mikewse]

Hi scom, I think I have some information you can use. I've investigated this subject a lot more than I wanted :-(

First, this is what Gigabyte Support told me about how to revive a frozen system:

• Remove all connected hardware, just leave the CPU, 1 x DIMM, Powersupply and 1 x Keyboard connected.
• Now start PC, and when power turns on press down power button and keep it pressed down even if machine is shut down. Now while still holding the button, cut the power to the power supply and hold the button for 20 more seconds.
• Then remove CMOS battery and let it be outside for 1 minute.
• Insert CMOS battery and boot up the system. If everything went ok, BIOS will recover itself from the BIOS_2 chip.
• If it does not work first time, please repeat the steps once more.

Second, yes, this is a BIOS bug. Eventually Gigabyte confirmed that this board's BIOS is not compatible with the memory controller of all the CPUs it lists on its compatibility page. Apparently I had one of the CPUs that they promised to support but in practice didn't. I would try to revive the broken boards with a CPU from the working ones.

Third, any fix? Yes or no. Gigabyte promised to create an updated BIOS version. As this was six months down the road for me I had already bought an Asus board that was working flawlessly with the same components so I ditched the Gigabyte board. As of today, eight months later, there still is no updated BIOS version for download (version F2 from 2012 is still the latest) but it is possible that you may have the update on request, I don't know. Either way I think this is arrogant and I will think twice before buying Gigabyte again.