So let's see what happens in a few days. May be Gigabyte will use HDD's this time during a test with these cards i.e. in UEFI mode.
The symptoms (erradic mouse, resume problem, sudden blank screens, boot/start problem with blank screen) have been widely documented - and can now after many, many tests be connected to the UEFI firmwares problem with HDD interactions - may be when initiating interactions?
Hey, may be its a problem Gigabyte can not fix? May be it is tested ... may be thats why the GA-X99-UD4 and the UDx series was some of the first cards out there? With Gigabyte keeping silent? I've seen that with Seagate (design flaw on HDD case cooling - with End-Of-Life in the design flaw - disk running above 40 degress Celcius. A guarenteed quick kill. Version 2 of the new disk did not have the flaw - and could get rid of the hot air. But they shipped version 1 anyway ... and made it an "offer". I unpacked the disked from the casing - so they survived. And went with WD from there instead ...)
So get ready to RMA ... may be its a design error?
If nothing happens within the next couple of days I will assume it may be a design flaw and I am crapping the card and RMA'ing it with the fact that the X99 series does not support HDD's with UEFI as advertised and have a built in error - and requiring a money return from the reseller according to the consumer law here. Then the reseller wil have to handle the return flow themselves.
The likely scenario however - because its THE central component in a computer I need I can not wait for a new card - and will have to sell that on EBay with a loss.
So in any case it seems bye bye from me to the GA-X99-UDx series (if Gigabyte does not get HDD into their testing - what did they forget else ... I am getting very reluctant to base my "to live for the next couple of years" HASWELL-E build based on this card ... every component is rather expensive in there ... even the mem ... but since those symptoms from my testing and others like the reviewer ... goes away with disconnecting the HDD's it seems the problem can be isolated to HDD's. It's just not an option though - that I can not use storage on this computer ... kind of idiomatic ... naturally, for a computer such a mobo without support for HDD's in a UEFI build would have to be wasted)
So I am ready to accept the loss. It's a builders risk. I am building myself to get a good machine - free from important problems. And these findings are as I already stated published here to help others do their similar build free from important problems.
Still I hope Gigabye will fix this. Then I will no have problem recommending them as well as AsRock (which currently is my favorite brand). Gigabyte may come back on my list (not this mobo ... which I actually like on the specs/price combination - but another bad experience previously) if Gigabyte get this firmware together (fix the HDD problem in UEFI mode). As least that will show Gigabyte are ready to support the business they are in ... supplying mobos and fixing the important problems on those shipped mobos. That's what a good vendor will do.
It may seem impatient - however it's been over a month's worth of testing. Even demoing the machine with a black screen coming up ... wow. It's just appalling getting such reactions from users and reviewers - that Gigabyte is not able to come up with the fix. Anyway, in some cases "s***" just happens ... an unfortunately they forgot to execute tests with HDD's in UEFI mode? Does that seem likely? ... with so many tests being conducted for the test plan on such a card?
Seems (really) far out that could be the case ... that this case with the GA-X99-UDx series would be a lack of HDD testing ... So it is a very serious concern that these mobos may have an important design flaw that can not be fixed. Meaning ENTHUSIAST builders (naturally very concerned builders) should crap the card if a design flaw is the case.
... but of course far out incidents can happen in some cases
Let's see now.
