Z87 When will Gigabyte fix the 4 DIMM memory issue?

[No457 Snowy]

I am another of the multitude of people who have built a system based on the Z87-D3HP motherboard to then find their new PC is very unstable or won't  even boot when using the 4 DIMM slots. I have read many examples of this problem all over the net and there appears to be no fix coming from Gigabyte as yet. Every thread on this issue in various forums is filled with reports of different BIOS revisions that have not helped and none of those revisions apparently address this 4 DIMM issue as a documented target for fixing. As something to potentially affect so many customers you would think Gigabyte would be a little more pro-active in addressing the issue. Not only that but once the issue is revealed to the system builder It is extremely inconvenient to address by the poor retailer. I have read a large number of reports where the boards have been RMA'd by the retailer and the builder has chosen a different brand of motherboard to get around the issue and having to rebuild the PC again. This amounts to a massive waste of people's time.

So what's the word from Gigabyte on this issue? Will it even be fixed?

[flexmanta]

I'd suggest you change the title, as this problem is not exclusive to the D3HP. Many people with other Z87 boards are also having problems when using all 4 ram slots.

I have a Z87X-UD5H (BIOS F7). When I use 4 DIMM, I have guaranteed BSODs. If I use less than 4 sticks, the system is stable, no matter what sticks I choose or the slots I populate. No memtest86 errors or any other stress test issues at all. Just random BSODs.

All the solutions suggested might or might not work for some people but, honestly, lowering ram frequency, relaxing timings, increasing voltage or disabling C-States are not acceptable solutions, as we paid for a product we're not being able to use as advertised.

Gigabyte, please comment ASAP.

[No457 Snowy]

Hi thanks for your post, the more people that post about this ridiculous issue the more chance Gigabyte will get off their hands and fix it. In Australia there are laws regarding products that do not function as advertised and if I don't get satisfaction very soon I will be packing this product into it's box and sending it back for a refund. I was hoping for a fix from Gigabyte but I guess they don't care enough.

Unfortunately I tried to change the heading of this thread but I can't change the heading as apparently once some time has passed the option to edit posts is removed.

[flexmanta]

This morning the guys at Gigabyte recommended me to use their beta BIOS F8a. I flashed it this morning and mounted all my RAM in the mobo. That is a G.Skill TridentX 32Gb 4x8Gb kit at 2400Mhz and 1,65v CL10.

I have to say, today has been the first day in the history of this computer that I haven't had a BSOD will all 4 RAM slots in use. I've been working with it for about 12 hours non-stop.


EDIT: FALSE ALARM!!! Right after writing that, I got a bsod. Oh well... BSODS seem to be getting less frequent. I used to have about 4 per day and this one was the first one today. I'll give them one more week before calling this my last Gigabyte purchase. I'm going back ASUS!! The Maximus VI Formula is just... perfect!!

[unhealthy13]

Thanks for the update.

It's good to see that they do actually recognise the issue, although in my opinion a bit of transparency and openly acknowledging the issue would go a lot further towards preserving their reputation than trying to keep it hush-hush and pretending it's a couple of isolated cases.

[flexmanta]

I don't see where they recognise the issue. They recommended me to change my BIOS version to see if that helped... don't they know what they add to each bios?. If BIOS F8a just adds support for the 4771, then why would it fix RAM compatibility.

What I want from them is "Yes, we messed up. The DRAM VRMs are rubbish. Here's your fix... or, here's a new MOBO, you don't have to dismantle your current computer until you get the new one... or, here's your money, buy an ASUS"

[KonsG]

Hi, I specifically registered here to confirm that GA-Z87-D3HP is extremely unstable with 4 memory slots used, which is evident from frequent fatal system crashes, also known as Blue Screen of Death (BSOD).

Here's a discussion with many users experiencing this problem on the Corsair forums:
http://forum.corsair.com/FORUMS/showthread.php?t=119923&page=4

I shared my experience there. In short, I ordered a new PC 3 months ago, but got the aforementioned GA motherboard instead of the Asus I actually paid for. Wouldn't be a problem, if it was working. BSODs were occurring within 20 minutes of booting. After many days of driver and bios updates, OS reinstallation, component swapping and etc. I realized one simple thing - no crashes with 2 memory sticks (tested for 7 days). But as soon as all 4 Kingston modules were installed, BSOD within 20 minutes. The memory was thoroughly tested and replaced to rule it out. Finally, when I came across many other people describing similar experiences with the same motherboard, I had no more doubts - GA-Z87-D3HP rev 1.0 motherboard is faulty!

As soon as I requested the seller to swap it to the one I actually ordered in the first place (Asus Z87A), there were no more crashes with the same 4 memory sticks in 2 months of daily operation! Now I'm a happy owner of 32GBs of memory without any stability problems.

Searching Google reveals that too many people are having the same problem. The ones that are content would be those that don't use all 4 memory slots (the majority). But when they decide to upgrade in the future, they'll be out of luck. Gigabyte, do the right thing and issue a recall.

[TonyRoma]

Hi all, I work for an IT distribution company here in the UK. I work there as a system builder, I build PC's all day long.  Some recent builds have been created using Gigabyte Z87-HD3 motherboards.  They are built to a very high standard, I've even been criticized for being a perfectionist.  Many of those builds are being returned due to random BSoD's.  We have a returns department who are confused by this strange issue, but reading all your posts it seems the problem has been identified... using 4x sticks of RAM.  The spec of the PC is below...

Coolermaster Silencio 550 case
Gigabyte Z87-HD3
4x 8Gb Kingston RAM
Intel i7-4770k
Samsung 840 250Gb SSD
Seagate 2Tb HDD
Coolermaster 600w PSU

Unless a reasonable response is forthcoming from Gigabyte with an explanation and intend fix for this issue, all builds using Gigabyte boards will be halted. In fact, I cannot allow these builds to continue.  Any return is considered a fail for me, it's a money loser.  A big thanks to you guys posting here for highlighting this fundamental issue with these Gigabyte motherboards.


 

[runn3R]

Hi All

Please note this forum is a place where users help each other or share their experience, etc.
If you want to submit a question directly to GIGABYTE then please use the following link:
http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/technical-support.aspx

Thanks

[tbessie]

I have a GA-Z87X-UD4H and haven't yet seen this happen; I haven't had it up and running a long time, tho', and have installed Windows several times for some experiments I'm doing (so Windows hasn't been up for longer than a few hours so far).

I have 4x4G 1333Mhz Crucial sticks in it, and I haven't seen any BSODs yet.

However, I have 4x8G 1666Mhz Crucial sticks on order - I wonder if I'll start seeing this when I try that.  Ugh.

- Tim

[dmdilks]

People have short memory's. This was there with the Z77 boards too. Some people can use 4 sticks and some people can only run two.

Is it the hardware people are using. I don't think anybody really knows at this point even Gigabyte.

Plus I have see this on other brands of boards too. I have been using Gigabyte boards for over 7 yrs.

I have never really had a board that did boot from using 2, 4, 6, & 8 slots of memory. I have had memory brands that didn't work.

I have see BSOD when using the XMP profile. Is this one of the problems. The memory list I have never used for ea board.

How do they do the test. Just slap some memory in and if boots OK that memory works next.

I mostly use G-Skill and a little Kingston. Does it really matter what speed of memory you use NO.

Do really see any performance change when going from 1333-mhz to 2400-mhz about 95% of the people will NOT.

Plus people come here start a thread tell us that they are having a problem. But how many of the them put up their SPEC"s too. "ONE"

http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,2195.msg10772.html#msg10772

[tbessie]

... However, I have 4x8G 1666Mhz Crucial sticks on order - I wonder if I'll start seeing this when I try that.  Ugh.

- Tim

Sorry, of course I meant 1600Mhz :-)

- Tim

[flexmanta]

People have short memory's. This was there with the Z77 boards too. Some people can use 4 sticks and some people can only run two.

Not everybody tests all systems. Most people skip chipsets and CPU generations. This ud5h is the first board that I've had problems with. It's ridiculous that a 4 dimm memory kit listed in the compatibility list cause problems with a computer. I mean, using 4 DIMMs isn't an outrageous thing to do and memory should be so standard that it should always work, unless there was a hardware fault. It's not like we're trying to fill our ram slots with pretzels and expecting things to work.
We're using RAM -> 4 dimms -> 4 slots... should make sense.

Here I am, still using only 16GB of the 32GB that I bought. I don't care that it's happened before. I don't care that this is a common thing. All I know is that this isn't working as advertised, Gigabyte didn't help me and only offered assistance like "did you make sure the computer is turned on?" (they offered a beta bios, as if they didn't know what the enigneers changed in that BIOS version).

I can't afford the downtime of having to RMA the mobo and wait for a new one to arrive. I could buy an ASUS right now, but then I'd have to rebuild the system from scratch and, again, I can't afford downtime. At least they could be honest and admit that this isn't an isolated problem and that there's nothing they can do from the BIOS side.

Well, at least the build is 100% stable when I use 2 dimms. Making a living here...

[tbessie]

Just an update - I received my Crucial 4x8g sticks last night and installed them (32g total).

I ran a couple of video benchmarking programs for a few hours to see if I could trigger SOMETHING (since I figured video benchmarking would get memory and processor used quite a bit), and everything worked fine (tho' I noticed the Intel 4600 GPU isn't the fastest in the world, but I don't game so there you go).

No BSODs as yet.

- Tim

[dmdilks]

The only person not having a problem here is thessie. He is run the memory that the CPU really supports without OC.

But the thing is  anything over 1600-mhz has to be OC. If there is anybody that is having a problem with 1333 / 1600 memory post it.

I'll say it again it is the hardware people are using. You just can't drop in 2400 memory set the speed or the profile and think it is going to work.

Yes Gigabyte advertised that you can run higher speed memory. But Gigabyte is telling you that anything over 1600 has to be Overclock too.

Support for DDR3 3000(O.C.) / 2933(O.C.) / 2800(O.C.) / 2666(O.C.) / 2600(O.C.) / 2500(O.C.) / 2400(O.C.) / 2200(O.C.) / 2133(O.C.) / 2000(O.C.) / 1866(O.C.) / 1800(O.C.) / 1600 / 1333 MHz

The OP never posted any of his spec's. The more memory you put in and the faster you run that memory the more it is going to stress the board.

The more you run the more you have to tweak the bios to support the faster memory.