GA-Z97N-Gaming 5: No POST, boot loop

[MJCRO]

Hey guys, I having by far the most will-crushing experience ever with my new build. I'll start off with my build specs:

Corsair 250D
Corsair H100i
Intel Core i5 4670K
Gigabyte Z97N-Gaming 5 Rev 1.0 BIOS F3
16 GB Corsair Dominator Platinum 2133 Mhz CAS9
EVGA GTX 760 4GB SC ACX
EVGA NEX650G 650W PSU
Samsung 840 PRO 256GB SSD
Windows 8.1 x64

My system will fall into a reboot cycle when only the discrete GPU is hooked up. But when I switch to solely the iGPU, the system operates fine and I can stress test for hours on end, web browse, etc.

I've tried a older non-UEFI GPU and the system will POST fine. I've also tried a different PSU (Corsair RM650) and had the same problem. So I RMA'd the card to EVGA and received the replacement yesterday and I'm still having the same problem! I'm starting to believe it may be a BIOS incompatibility

Here's what I've tried so far:

- Tested system with discrete GPU and different PSU: No POST
- Tested system with only iGPU enabled and current PSU: Operates fine
- Tested system with a non-UEFI dGPU and current PSU: Operates fine
- Tried booting on every BIOS listed here on Gigabyte's website (F1, F2, F3): No POST
- CMOS reset for 10 min, 30 min, and 12 hours: No POST
- Tried many multiple settings changes in BIOS, including disabling the iGPU previous to plugging in the dGPU: No POST
- Tried running 1 stick of RAM, no peripherals hooked up, system on outside bench: No POST

I've checked the forums, but there doesn't seem to be any new beta BIOS for the Z97N Gaming 5.

Any and all advice is appreciated guys, I really don't want to change out the motherboard since I've always been loyal to Gigabyte.

[MJCRO]

Okay this is really weird!

I got the system to POST to the BIOS with the GPU!

I was just randomly trying anything so I thought to just keep pressing the reset button to see if I could keep the computer from boot looping... and it worked! I just held down on the reset button for about 1 minute or so and then it POST'd to the BIOS. This was after I had cleared the CMOS with the jumper and left the battery unplugged for about 10 minutes. I'm in Windows now and everything is working great, still haven't restarted it yet, but I will post my results for others in the future.

[MJCRO]

Just restarted it and everything seems okay. But once I make any significant change in the BIOS requiring a power cycle, the same symptoms come back. GPU-Z is reporting my PCI-E slot as running at x16 1.1 which is weird. I just set it to be Gen3 in the BIOS settings too. I'm able to reproduce the bug to get it to POST, I have to press the reset button about 10 seconds in after the machine switches on. I think their is some conflict going on between all the PCI-E devices on this motherboard maybe? I'm gonna probably pull out the Wi-Fi module to see if that causes any change. I'm gonna pass my findings along to Gigabyte support once my ticket is processed.

[autotech]

Thank you for keeping us updated. I have the soc force and a gaming g1 both by gigabyte but I am using a amd r9 280x card and a 6950 in other one.

[MJCRO]

NP autotech,

Still having the same issue though. I can consistently get the machine to boot through this method of hitting the reset button once the fans slow down after booting up - so annoying. I've been stress testing the hell out of this machine with AIDA64 Extreme and FurMark running simultaneously to see if I could get a BSOD to happen, but the system is stable as a rock once in Windows.

Plus, I've got the machine OC'd to 4.5 GHz 1.225v, RAM @ 2400 MHz, and the GPU +50 core, +300 memory, (PL 115%). I can game for hours with zero signs of instability.

I'm pretty positive now it may be an issue with the board and video card. Maybe the 4GB memory density on my GPU is too much? Hoping this information can be passed on to Gigabyte's BIOS team to see if they can test out 4GB GTX 760 cards on there boards. Although, I have read that these EVGA PSU's have had compatibility issues with Gigabyte motherboards too... but seeing how I tested a Corsair 650W PSU with same setup, still had the same problem.

[MJCRO]

Finally found the thread that validates I'm not going crazy and that there is a hardware level issue with the Gaming 5 motherboards and PCI-E Gen3 GPU's.

Link to thread that sorta fixed my issue: http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,14711.0.html

[MJCRO]

Final update to anyone having this issue:

The problem is related with the board. Setting your PCI-E speed in the BIOS to Gen1 or Gen2 may solve your issue, but that's not good for enough for me. Decided to go with an Asus board and everything is working as it should now, the quality of Gigabyte has really gone down these past few years.