Hi all,
I've had ongoing issues with a Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD4-B3 motherboard which initially started with trouble with the eSATA interface locking up the board but has progressively gotten worse as time has gone by and as I have tried newer firmwares to resolve issues.
I'm now on the latest and seemingly final firmware for this board and I have all of these issues now.
1. intermittent eSATA issues causes machine to freeze on boot
2. intermittent loss of USB 3.0 ports (aren't detected for certain boots and then detected on other boot cycles)
3. cold boot double loop (phase LEDs lock on) and cold boot loop cycle
4. warm boot looping on occasion
5. bios freezes dead when entrying it with certain usb devices plugged in, particularly a Logitech Gaming wheel does it every time (but the wheel works fine after boot)
6. Prior to the latest bios update I was getting regular messages saying Overclocking failed and the bios was losing values. I had not yet looked at overclocking so most settings were near stock settings.
Once the board is up and running, apart from the usb 3.0 issue that is unpredictable (and temporarily clears after a firmware boot for a few weeks), it is rock solid running, the issue is only when it boots or is restarted. Sometimes the cyclic boot issue is so bad I have to walk away from the computer, calm down
as its extremely frustrating and come back a couple hours later and try again.
I've done extensive testing by removing components such as PSU, Graphics card, SSD drive, memory, disconnecting case fans, and even tried a few of the suggests on the other forums around tweaking settings but nothing fixes it. I have recently discovered hitting the reset button while the machine is running almost always puts it into a cyclic boot.
I HAVE sent it to Gigabyte Australia through Scorptec Computers. They lost my accessories and returned the board a month later with no information on what they had done to it. (and still Gigabyte haven't told me what they did) It was not fixed and in fact is worse. Gigabytes responses have been pretty strange, suggesting its the SSD, PSU or memory, all three components I've now changed at my cost! and no improvement.
I have no idea what to do next as I'm not getting much in the way of responses from Gigabyte or Scorptec with a clear way to solve this and hoping not to have to rely on consumer affairs to resolve what should be a simple warranty issue.
Based on reading many other forums posts I believe this is a combination of faulty hardware and bios / firmware issues.
Looking for advise from others on how to get either the board working or get resolution.
My specs:
GA-Z68X-UD4-B3
Intel i5 2500K CPU / Noctua CPU Cooler
Sandisk Extreme II SSD 240GB
16GB (4x4) Corsair XMS3 1600Mhz CL7
Gigabyte Nvidia GeForce 560 Ti
ThermalTake TR2 700W
Win8 Pro
Running the lastest BIOS (which is beta apparently)