GA-990FXA-UD3 Issues

[mbalod]

I recently purchased new parts for an upgrade to my current machine.  I got everything setup and built last Friday and the computer ran like a dream over the weekend.  I woke up on Monday morning to find that while the case light were on the computer itself was off (although the  fans were running).  I powered down the computer, waited and tried to turn it back on but it would not respond.  After several attempts I managed to get the BIOS splash screen and it stated that the BIOS had become corrupted and was being fixed.  That finished and the computer rebooted back to the BIOS splash and then booted windows.  I got into windows for about ten minutes and the computer seemed to shutdown again ( no video, no keyboard/mouse) but the lights on the case and the fans are still running.  I have tried clearing the CMOS by removing the mobo battery but the problem still persists.  Now the machine will only POST if I let it sit there for about two hours and then cold boot.  Then it will boot and load windows only to cut off again randomly, normally within 3-5 min. The only software that is loaded on this computer was the OS, MS Office 2K10, and DCS - A10C.

I know that there is a BIOS update for the mobo, but with the random occurances of the computer shutting off I think that it would be VERY risky to try to update the BIOS. 

Please HELP!!!!  



Hardware:  Everything listed below is brand new except for the RAM, CPU, and HDDs which worked fine in the last computer.

CPU (AMD Phenom X4 955 Black Edition w/ Antec KUHLER H2O 920 Liquid Cooling System)
RAM (OCZ Gold AMD Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
Motherboard (GA-990FXA-UD3 Rev 3.0 FA)
Video Card (PNY GTX660 TI 2GB)
PSU (Corsair CX750 750 Watt)

Other Hardware Information :
Monitor - (ASUS 24in Wide LCD)
HDD/SSDs - (Samsung 128GB SSD x 1, WD 1 TB HHD x1, WD Raptor 180 GB HDD x1)
Other PCI/PCI-X Cards
Optical Drives - (DVD/RW Drive)

Software Information:
Operating System : Windows 7 Pro 64

[Vezina]

Take the board out of the case
DO CLEAR CMOS removing the battery
Re attach minimum configuration: PSU ,video card and one stick of RAM
See if it boots
If it boots ,put on a different PC the latest BIOS on a USB stick formatted FAT 32 or FAT and update.

If it doesn t boot either try the BIOS recovery procedure either RMA

I would also test the OCZ RAM in some other PC to see if it s ok.
I ve only seen the recovery BIOS happening by itself while i was having some crapped RAM stick.

It may be that the BIOS got corrupted due to some virus as well ,maybe you should get some Live CD antivirus distro like Bitdefender ,Kaspersky or Dr WEB and scan the HDD-s for viruses before booting from them again .

[mbalod]

The RAM worked fine in the PC before i upgraded the MOBO last week.  Also I dont think it would be a virus as this is a brand new clean install of the OS, Office and DCS.  The HDDs and my SSD were "zeroed" out prior to this build.  I will try breadboarding the PC tonight.

[Vezina]

You can very well RMA it or return it if updating BIOS can t be done or the board does the same with the latest BIOS.

[mbalod]

OK so here is an update:

Tested RAM on friends machine and RAM works fine. 
Tried with booting with 1 stick of RAM, same issues.

However now after I plug the power cable back into the PSU and turn the PSU on, the computer automatically start up without me touching the power button on the case. Very weird indeed.  I double checked to make sure that I hadn't gotten my front panel connections messed up and they are correct.  PC still will only boot after a cold boot and then randomly shutdown.  With this new problem could it be a bad PSU?   It is brand new but maybe its not powerful enough?  I also tried booting the machine without any drives connected, I could get into the BIOS but after a few minutes the same problem occurs.

[Vezina]

Try once more with a different, known to work power supply.
Re-seat CPU and use the stock /box CPU cooler and see what happens.

[mbalod]

New update:

Bought a new Thermaltake 900W and the issue continued.  So that only left me with the mobo or CPU.  since my CPU was from my previous machine I bought a new FX4300 Vischera 3.8 Ghz.  To my surprise the computer booted and ran fine all day yesterday, even managed to get some flight sim time in.  Left the computer on overnight as I was confidant that all my problems were solved.

I woke up this morning to find all the case lights on but no response from the computer.  PC would not respond to niether pressing the power button on the case or holding it down to power off.  I had to kill the power by flicking the switch on the PSU.  I waited for about an hour and turned the PSU back on and hit the power button and the PC started and got to the Gigabyte splash screen and then back to a black screen.  Shut it down again and now Im back to the original problem.

Very unhappy with this product    I have used several Gigabyte boards in the past with great success, but after my experiences with this board, as well as reading countless others problems, I must say that Gigabyte has really dropped the ball on this board.

[Lucastorn]

I have had a very similar blank screen problem 3 days ago. I had to make hard reset & shutdowns to resolve the issue, that also did not resolve. I shut the computer down.

Next day I tried using the computer, everything was fine. I do not know what the issue is but I suspect, we both have faulty mobos. I will wait for a few days and if I experience the same problem, I will request an RMA.

[mbalod]

New symptom from over the weekend.  If I let the PC sit there unplugged for about an hour and then cold boot it it will run for about an hour but now it shuts down but the fans run at max speed until I kill the power by turning the PSU off and unplugging it.

[Vezina]

Can you make a picture with the inside of the PC ?!

[mbalod]

Yes I will take one when I get home from work tonight.

[deadsage]

GA-990FXA-UD3 Rev 4 here, I have the same corrupting bios issue but it only happens intermittently.  I've disabled hibernate presently. 

I'd love to see an actual fix to this problem as the idea of RMAing my MOBO out isn't particularly appealing.

[dmdilks]

How hot are the heat sinks on the board? You should be able to touch them. If they are to hot to touch that could be you problem.

It sounds like a over heating problem. By any chance when you put the board in, did you hold on to one of the heat sinks.

[Squibby]

I have been having the same problem since day 1 of a build I did for a friend. When I put the computer to sleep or it goes to sleep by itself, the computer gets hung up in some weird sleep state and I can't get it to wake up. The reset button does nothing. Holding down the power button shuts it down but I must turn off the PSU, and turn it back on again, then push the power button to start it back up. If I don't turn off the PSU and try to turn it back on using the power button it will turn on but only go into the hung up state it was in before. I repainted the heat-sinks and added a system fan to the NB heat-sink because I thought it was a heat issue. The board runs cooler but has the same sleep problem. I have re-flashed BIOS more than once. This is all after the standard checking/exchanging of each part to ensure each part works. Maybe they will introduce an FD bios to address this issue. I have recently built myself a computer using the UD-7 and am having no such problems. No overclocking but I set the memory timings.
My Solution has been to disable sleep but it would be nice for to not have to do this.
GA-990FXA-UD3
FX-8320 stock speeds
2X8@1866 G-Skill Sniper
ASUS GTX-660ti
Samsung 840 256G SSD not the pro or the evo the regular one
Toshiba 7200.14 (I think) 3TB HD
Windows 7 Home Premium
Thermaltake 850W