For everyone with boot problems and or cannot enter the bios.

[elstevarino]

For those users that cannot enter the bios without removing the C: drive, or have lost their boot file:

I have been doing a crazy amount of troubleshooting as I service many machines with this board. I am thinking there may be an issue with the UEFI and Windows 7 specifically. I have not had any problems with any motherboards or chipsets in the past with this, but it seems to be narrowing down this way.

Could users with this problem possibly check if Windows 7 is installed on a UEFI. The system installs this way by default, so unless you specifically changed the settings needed before installing Windows, it probably is. The easiest way to check is by going to your Disk management.

Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer management > Storage > Disk Management.

On the disc your OS is installed on should have a small "System Reserved" partition in front of it. In this "System Reserved" area, it should say something like:

Healthy (System, Active, Primary Partition)
or
Healthy (EFI System Partition) 

Curious if those of us with troubles have this in common.

If you could check and just drop a quick note and say What OS and if its EFI or not.

Thank You

[digital nomad]

Windows 7 setup as NTFS on the "System Reserved" partition on a Western Digital 250gb. Did not change any options at setup.

I only have booting problems with USB devices connected. No problem getting into BIOS with hard drive connected though.

[elstevarino]

Windows 7 setup as NTFS on the "System Reserved" partition on a Western Digital 250gb. Did not change any options at setup.

I only have booting problems with USB devices connected. No problem getting into BIOS with hard drive connected though.

Beside System Reserved does it say:
(system,active,primary partition)
or
Healthy (Efi System Partition)

I am guessing the first since I believe the EFI don't even say "System Reserved"

Have you found any workaround for the USB boot problems other than plugging and unplugging the devices?? is on only on front port panels or anywhere?? Which Bios are you on?

[digital nomad]

System Reserved 100mb NTFS Healthy (System, Active, Primary Partition)

Workarounds...

I bought a Orico 4 port external powered USB Hub with a power switch. They have 4, 7, or 10 ports.
I got it for my 3 CH Products Flight controllers and a Fanatec ClubSport Wheel, Pedals and Shifter. I leave the Hubs off when booting, and turn them on at the Windows desktop. That way you don't have to keep plugging/unplugging a bunch of USB cables when you need to cold boot/reboot. It is connected to one of the front USB 3.0 ports.

I also turned off the XHCI (USB 3.0) BIOS settings. I have 5 Saitek Panels (plugged into a Orico 10 port hub) and 8 Saitek Instruments (plugged into another Orico 10 port hub) that I use for Flight Simulator X. If I don't turn the XHCI off in the BIOS, the Intel USB 3.0 driver says I have too many devices connected. The only USB 3.0 device I have is a Startech external hard drive enclosure for my 1tb WD drive. It booted connected and powered on with F8g BIOS, but now hangs up on the F8 BIOS.

I'm on the F8 BIOS only because it doesn't seem to make much difference what BIOS version I use. They all have USB issues. I hope Gigabyte fixes this because once in Windows this board runs great. I was going to go with another brand motherboard but the slot layout on this G1 suits having 2 GPUS and a Creative ZXR in between plugged into a PCIE x1 slot. All the other boards you can't use a PCIE x1 slot because they are covered by a GPU. 

I thought the UEFI thing was for Windows 8 anyways, not Windows 7

[elstevarino]

System Reserved 100mb NTFS Healthy (System, Active, Primary Partition)

Workarounds...

I bought a Orico 4 port external powered USB Hub with a power switch. They have 4, 7, or 10 ports.
I got it for my 3 CH Products Flight controllers and a Fanatec ClubSport Wheel, Pedals and Shifter. I leave the Hubs off when booting, and turn them on at the Windows desktop. That way you don't have to keep plugging/unplugging a bunch of USB cables when you need to cold boot/reboot. It is connected to one of the front USB 3.0 ports.

I also turned off the XHCI (USB 3.0) BIOS settings. I have 5 Saitek Panels (plugged into a Orico 10 port hub) and 8 Saitek Instruments (plugged into another Orico 10 port hub) that I use for Flight Simulator X. If I don't turn the XHCI off in the BIOS, the Intel USB 3.0 driver says I have too many devices connected. The only USB 3.0 device I have is a Startech external hard drive enclosure for my 1tb WD drive. It booted connected and powered on with F8g BIOS, but now hangs up on the F8 BIOS.

I'm on the F8 BIOS only because it doesn't seem to make much difference what BIOS version I use. They all have USB issues. I hope Gigabyte fixes this because once in Windows this board runs great. I was going to go with another brand motherboard but the slot layout on this G1 suits having 2 GPUS and a Creative ZXR in between plugged into a PCIE x1 slot. All the other boards you can't use a PCIE x1 slot because they are covered by a GPU. 

I thought the UEFI thing was for Windows 8 anyways, not Windows 7

The UEFI was a common denominator in systems I had been troubleshooting and I had a system with no problems that was set as legacy. I had thought this was a good possibility. I also had booting issues with these machines which also led me this way.

After more troubleshooting I have got a workaround. Unplug the C: drive. go into the bios. Set the Sata mode to Raid and change the Windows install to Raid start. It is just a single registry parameter change I found at overclock.net.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStorV
modify the start parameter from 3 (default) to 0.

From here, no problems getting in the bios. There is a flash of the Raid configuration when booting, but small price to pay.

I have another machine to try and fix that along with this issue is also having the USB issues you have. Hoping I can find some sort of resolve as I am not going to be able to let the customer deal with the issue like you unfortunately have to do.

[computermensch]

Hi.

I have a UD4 system running in UEFI now without any major problems. Think I even managed to fix the problem with game controllers also.

You can take a look at my previous posts from around early october. I did several posts in detail (the only one left seems to be one from late october discussing incompability with Storage Spaces ... but the ones about setting up UEFI has been deleted by Gigabyte)

However, Gigabyte decided to delete most of them because they basically thought I was writing too much ...

... anyway, as the real World now shows you're all into those problems with these boards ... discussing the same things as in those previous posts. May be the forum moderator just disabled them instead of deleting them.

Since october I have been pretty stable. Even wake-on-lan working. I was close to throwing the board out though (because of all the details not working on that board). Hopefully the last posts I did still holds and explains some of all those test I did - and explains how to repeat them to find your exact problem. If not, just throw your board out and buy a new. Consider it a risk of buying Gigabyte Cards now. Stick with Asrock and Asus. After this experience ... and the profound lack of help/support too ... and lack of claiming responbility for those boards, never ever Gigabyte Again. Sorry that I got tempted to try out Gigabyte again.

Hm, a reminder that may be I should dump that board and just buy a new one. After 3 months I am ok now with ripping the machine apart again. Just to be sure. UD4 is a crap board ... so would like to get rid of it from my rather expensive machine. I get that terrible feeling each time I take a look at that PC ... oh, Gigabyte UDx

[digital nomad]

Think I even managed to fix the problem with game controllers also.

Mr computermensch you got my attention... care to elaborate?

http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php?topic=15436.0

[elstevarino]

Think I even managed to fix the problem with game controllers also.

Mr computermensch you got my attention... care to elaborate?

http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php?topic=15436.0

I am having issues with a customer where his computer wont boot with a Keyboard (piano style) connected via usb. Probably a related issue. I would be curious the resolve as well.

[Curvin]

I am navigating the issue of not being able to enter the BIOS with C: drive attached as well, but have posted in the other dedicated thread.

http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php?topic=15324.0

FWIW - Install is not UEFI , its a standard Windows 7 install , and there is a report on Windows 8 as well.

I can re-image to a base optimised Windows installation and the issue does not occur, so it is something being install during a final configuration after operating system installation is complete.

Gigabyte need to clarify and resolve this ASAP , and tell us how a configuration of Windows could possibly cause the inability to access the BIOS !

[kokimk]

I have 1xIntel SSD and 2xWD HDD attached. After detaching the two HDDs I can enter the BIOS, with those attached I can not.
I've tried diferent SATA and sSATA slots, same problem...

Windows 7 64bit.
The System Reserved partition is: Healthy (System, Active, Primary Partition)

[fresH]

Hi all!

I am glad, that i am not alone whit this issues.
Got my Gigabyte board yesterday because I hoped that it will be better  then the other x99 board i still have but I have now more problemts .

I was not able to install windows 7. In boot every time the loading screen crash and hangs.
Somethins the bios crashes.

I have no installed the F7 bios which seems to work better then all others....
Have also tried to deactivate XHCI in the BIOS but still gotting issues.

Are there any other suggestions what I can do to get the board running stable?

[digital nomad]

Hi all!

I am glad, that i am not alone whit this issues.
Got my Gigabyte board yesterday because I hoped that it will be better  then the other x99 board i still have but I have now more problemts .

I was not able to install windows 7. In boot every time the loading screen crash and hangs.
Somethins the bios crashes.

I have no installed the F7 bios which seems to work better then all others....
Have also tried to deactivate XHCI in the BIOS but still gotting issues.

Are there any other suggestions what I can do to get the board running stable?

The XHCI is USB 3.0, I doubt that is your problem. I found I had to turn it off to get about 20 USB 2.0 devices to work at the same time.

Be sure you don't have any USB devices plugged in (except for keyboard/mouse) when your trying to setup Windows. Don't try to over-clock it during setup also. Using BIOS defaults usually works best.

[Kevin]

For those users that cannot enter the bios without removing the C: drive, or have lost their boot file:

I have been doing a crazy amount of troubleshooting as I service many machines with this board. I am thinking there may be an issue with the UEFI and Windows 7 specifically. I have not had any problems with any motherboards or chipsets in the past with this, but it seems to be narrowing down this way.

Could users with this problem possibly check if Windows 7 is installed on a UEFI. The system installs this way by default, so unless you specifically changed the settings needed before installing Windows, it probably is. The easiest way to check is by going to your Disk management.

Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer management > Storage > Disk Management.

On the disc your OS is installed on should have a small "System Reserved" partition in front of it. In this "System Reserved" area, it should say something like:

Healthy (System, Active, Primary Partition)
or
Healthy (EFI System Partition) 

Curious if those of us with troubles have this in common.

If you could check and just drop a quick note and say What OS and if its EFI or not.

Thank You

Have a look at my recent post.

http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php?topic=16246.0