Z68 board saga with Gigabyte Australia need some advise

[paulojr]

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)

[autotech]

Number 2 and 5 you can put at the back of the line. Etron usb has had that issue since it first came out. The usb3  sometimes wont be seen on boot. Also having usb devices plugged in on boot can cause what you describe.

When your esata cause machine to freeze on boot do you have something plugged into it?

Unplug and esata and usb devices on boot except keyboard and mouse is number 1/ 3/ 4/ 5 still present. I didn't mention 2 because if you look thru this forum you will find that usb3 not being detected is common with that chipset.

[paulojr]

Hi
 Thanks autotech, Gigabyte has denied that there are any problems with this board or chipset including that there are usb 3 issues. Thanks for confirming they haven't told me the real story.

I was also speaking with a family member who has a GA-Z68XP-UD3 and also says he has lost the usb 3 ports a couple of months ago, board is about the same age and of course uses the same controller chip.

Yes eSATA is when I have external drives plugged in, i.e. vantec enclosure for example.. and no cannot disconnect during boot as this horrible board  will then not detect the eSATA at all in the operating system if I try to hot plug like I use to do with my Asus board.  I sadly went from an Asus board which worked perfectly with eSATA to this gigabyte piece of junk.  How can Gigabyte release a board that core on-board functions like USB 3.0 don't work properly.

So with just keyboard and mouse connected i can still generate issue 3 (and cycle boot with reset).  In fact disconnecting keyboard and mouse still generates 3 and cycle boot hitting reset, I haven't tried the other issues in such a configuration.  USB 3.0 woes are extremely unpredictable... i.e. usb 3.0 ports were dead for a whole week and now operational again..

Paul

[autotech]

3 I cant add a lot to has been to long since I dealt with a cold boot issue except for usb drives and storages or usb controlled mousepad and so on. I found that disconnecting all usb except for keyboard and mouse got me past that one. Really weird never had a problem with my usb printer causing issues.

5 when certain usb things were plugged in would also freeze bios on me and oh the last one I remember to well. I had a DFI board that after 2 years would do that to me even if everything was set at stock. I think the motherboard was going out or bios was junk. Best part of that was had a 3 year warranty on it but DFI went out of business so nothing I could do.

Put it in my daughters cheapo build for school have left everything at stock and  it has run ok since but don't try to oc the black edition 3.0 quad core in it or it might not start again.

If you do a forum search on etron usb issues it should turn up a lot of post. Link for it following. Also ABSIC or DARK MANTIS will pop in and they can add more to what little I know.


http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php?action=search2