GA-X79-UP4 R1.0 - Monitor wont sleep after F4 BIOS update?

[DeathCom]

I can't seem to figure anything else as the cause of this.

I was running the F3p beta BIOS for about a year. Windows 7 x64 SP1, all up to date. Catalyst 13.9 for my Radeon 7970. Had no issues. But recently I had some sound card issues (Recon3D PCIe), could not figure why it was dropping out. I was also having issues getting full speed out of my memory, so I figured, hey they finally released a non beta BIOS for this board. Using the latest @BIOS I updated. Got more speed out of my memory, the sound card ended up being an issue requiring a clean install of the drivers (manual removal of registry entries etc.). But ever since then, my monitors will not go to sleep!

I tried every Windows setting there is. Different plans, bumping the minutes, restarting with it on, off. It just completely ignores the power settings. Could this be a BIOS issue? Because I installed on F3p and now running F4?

Thanks in advance for any advice on this.

[dmdilks]

try this bios update at tweaktown http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/28441-gigabyte-latest-beta-bios.html

Other people had the same problems and you can of back or try the beta bios.

Here are some other bios too. http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/28441-gigabyte-latest-beta-bios-4.html#post270610

[DeathCom]

Thanks for the suggestion dmdiks,

I tried the latest F5c BIOS, and it did fix my monitor sleep problem. That seems all back to normal.

However, my sound card issue has returned. (I guess it wasn't a driver issue) Now my Recon3D PCIe (which I have in slot 4 / the 2nd 1x slot) just works randomly. It will sometimes work when windows starts, then it will sound like the power gets cut, making a slight pop sound, then nothing. Any app that attempts to play a sound will hang, even the windows logoff sound causes a hang while restarting.

I think I'll have to go back to F4 until another F5 revision.

[DeathCom]

Update: Apparently the F5b BIOS works with both the monitor sleep mode and keeping the sound card stable. So I think Im set for now.

[DeathCom]

I spoke too soon. For no apparent reason, sound card once again started acting up. I noticed it even getting power cycled during time in the BIOS. Literally, the board is cutting power to it randomly. I tested the card on my old board (also Gigabyte, EP45TUD3) and it seem to be totally fine. Its likely the UP4 and the Recon3D that do not get along.

Worse, I find the F5b BIOS has horrible overclocking. Setting the BCLK 1.25 and a multiplier of 36 = 3500? It just ignores gear ratio at certain multipliers. If I use 37 at 1.25 it gives me the proper 4.6Ghz, it won't boot windows, but its correct.  Even without messing with the gear ratio, using a multiplier of 43 results in it actually being 28, it's screwy as hell.

F5c corrects the multiplier issue, but messing with the gear ratio at all in conjunction with any memory tweaks results in repeating boot failure. F5c will not power the sound card at all either. But F5c can at least get my 3820 to 4.3Ghz AND use my intel XMP settings at 2133Mhz RAM and be rock solid. Just wish the damn soundcard would work... and that I could somehow get to 4.5Ghz

Overall I have had more OC issues with this board than ANY other Gigabyte board I've owned. It's been out for over a year, Gigabyte needs to step up support on this BIOS and get it 100%. Even the BIOS it shipped with ignored certain multipliers. This should not be hit or miss, multipliers should always give accurate results. Not saying it should work, but it should be what the math says it should be.