GA-Z97P-D3

[R0bMozza]

OK, so I've been building a PC for a friend, I've built over twenty PC's so I'm fairly well versed in what to do and what not to do, although I'm always willing to learn more! 

So the specs are as follows : GA-Z97P-D3, no RAM as yet but Corsair CMX8GX3M2A1600​C11 XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) is ordered and awaiting delivery. In the mean time I've robbed my own RAM which is Corsair CMX16GX3M2A1600C11 XMS3 16GB (2x8GB), 120GB Kingston SSD, SATA DVD+R, Intel Pentium G3258 + Stock HSF (which only just arrived today hence isn't on the pics), Corsair Modular 600W PSU, HDMI straight from motherboard into Toshiba TV.



I thought today (whilst waiting for the actual RAM to arrive) that I would make a start and install an O.S, get the PC all ready for my friend, then when the RAM arrives it's a two second job to drop that in and he's ready to go. BIG MISTAKE!! 

Switching the PC on and the fans spin up, no noticable LED's on the motherboard which I thought was unusual, then I noticed a lack of any POST beeps, seemingly at this point the PC powers itself down and powers on again (almost like it's trying to resume itself after a bad overclock) but nothing actually happens.

I thought there was something I missed so one at a time I started unplugging all unnecessary components, front USB, front sound, SATA1, SATA2, taking one of the RAM sticks out, altering the slot that the remaining RAM stick was in, double checking all the connectors left, unplugging the PSU and testing it with my Antec PSU tester (which was fine) and then having a think.

After checking supported CPUs' from Gigabytes site I think I could of found the problem? F5 BIOS update is needed to support this processor and I assume I've got F3 BIOS installed? I did try and decipher Gigabytes serial number codes to try and find out when my board was manufactured but got stuck doing this and gave up. Just for reference the first four after SN are 1433.

So, I've raised a support ticket with Gigabyte to try and confirm what I think is true, obviously this will take sometime so I thought I'd post the question here and replies may be quicker?

I'm left with two choices, neither are to my liking.. (A) Buy a Celeron 1850 + update the BIOS to F5 and then sell Celeron and install the G3258 or (B) RMA the motherboard. Of course my G2020 isn't compatible so I cannot use that, nor do I know of anyone with a suitable CPU in the locality 

Should I decide upon option A, what are the chances that the board itself is actually bad and then I would of wasted the time and money getting the Celeron? As is always the way, time is crucial on this as my friend needs it done quickly and now I feel embarrassed and that I should of looked a little better when telling him what to buy (i.e. a F3 compatible processor!) 

Any help or suggestions would greatly be appreciated, thanks in advance.

[dmdilks]

You are kind in a pickle. Where did you get the board maybe they can update the bios. Yes it sounds like a problem with the CPU. When you get the startup and shut and start back up again.

It is looking for the CPU. There are no bent pins in the CPU socket. 1 CPU, 2 Memory, & 3 Video that is the steps it does when it starts up. Yes you could buy the CPU but what if there is something wrong with the board.

I would call or email the people you got the board from and see what they can do.

[R0bMozza]

You are kind in a pickle. Where did you get the board maybe they can update the bios. Yes it sounds like a problem with the CPU. When you get the startup and shut and start back up again.

It is looking for the CPU. There are no bent pins in the CPU socket. 1 CPU, 2 Memory, & 3 Video that is the steps it does when it starts up. Yes you could buy the CPU but what if there is something wrong with the board.

I would call or email the people you got the board from and see what they can do.

Hence the whole 'build this for a friend' which is likely to cause complications, would need him to forward an email that I send him to the seller (Amazon, who I guess are only acting as a reseller so they in turn would need to forward it on to the actual seller). I gave this some thought last night and think I will have to bite the bullet and order a Celeron (F3), then at least if that doesn't work I can get my friend to RMA the motherboard with the knowledge that we tried everything. Yes I will be out of pocket for the price of the Celeron however I should be able to get back 3/4's of the cost by eBaying that after the event. Thanks for your reply, unlike most other people I will update this thread with the outcome so at least other people in a similar situation will be advised.

[dmdilks]

unlike most other people I will update this thread with the outcome so at least other people in a similar situation will be advised.

That would nice because more than 50% of the people don't even reply to what you helping them with. So did they get it fix or what. Yes I do order from Amazon once in awhile. But I like to stay with the online computer stores.

One place you could check is Micro Center if you are here in the USA. They sometimes beat the prices of online store.

[R0bMozza]

That would nice because more than 50% of the people don't even reply to what you helping them with. So did they get it fix or what. Yes I do order from Amazon once in awhile. But I like to stay with the online computer stores.

One place you could check is Micro Center if you are here in the USA. They sometimes beat the prices of online store.

I ordered it from eBay actually, couldn't hardly believe it myself, I do tend to get most things from Amazon now due to eBay's seller rates seemingly going through the roof!. I actually inquired about getting it from a local retailer and the price was about the same (€55) however they didn't have any instock. As for my location I am writing this from the Emerald Isle (Ireland) but the CPU is coming across from the UK. We're quite limited here in terms of online stores, I used to use eBuyer.co.uk and Scan.co.uk however they had an issue with paying the postage for any returns and now seemingly don't send to Eire. I'm left with Dabs.ie (who ironically dispatch from UK) and eBay / Amazon. Of course I'm always willing to hear of any other decently priced Irish online stores if anybody knows of any? Thanks

[R0bMozza]

Nightmare..

Hmmm.. where to start?, this morning I got a email notification that Gigabyte have replied to my support request. Excellent I thought, we'll see what they have to say. I clicked the link and had to log in to see my request.. only problem was I had to support requests! When typing in the actual support request number I get this problem.



So I created a new request explaining my problem and of course I'll have to wait days for the answer 

Then, this afternoon the courier arrived with my new processor, so now I have a Pentium G3258 (which needs F5 BIOS) and Celeron G1820 (which needs F3 BIOS according to Gigabytes supported CPU's



So I wacked the Celeron in.. and.. emm nothing. 

Then I thought that maybe I should try the motherboard out from the case to eliminate any earthing issues..

Video available here

Exactly the same problem so I'm now going to have to RMA the motherboard. Really annoyed that a glitch in Gigabytes support + I'm possibly out of pocket for the Celeron (although this could still play it's part when the replacement motherboard comes out?)

Always the way when you need something done yesterday 

Again, I'll update and let everybody know if the Celeron is needed once we get then new motherboard, rant over 

[R0bMozza]

Resolution!

Motherboard was RMA'd and the replacement arrived very swiftly (thank-you Amazon).

Installed Celeron and booted PC, was a slight pain in the bottom as although I could now here the POST beep I could still see nothing using my 1080p Toshiba TV.. I then tried a 720p TV and to my surprise that worked.

BIOS was already F5, and because of all of the hassle I had been having I decided to update that to the latest F6 BIOS. Updating was a joy*, quick and easy to do. However once I had updated the BIOS both TV's refused to show me anything..

..a quick installation of an old PCI-E graphics card and lugged a monitor from my main PC and I could see everything needed (Horray!) Then it was just a case of installing Windows and once that was up and running both the TV's were displaying as supposed to.

So there are a couple of lessons to be learnt from this whole fiesco;

(1) If your building a rig with HDMI only, initially use a graphics card if you want to update your BIOS and to get Windows installed.

(2) If you have a motherboard possibly in need of a BIOS upgrade to accept your CPU and it doesn't POST beep, then chances are the motherboard is defective.

Happy boy now, and when running Windows performance test the GPU score went up from 3.6 to 5.1 by removing the spare graphics card which I had used to install and setup with. Quite a good score for integrated graphics I thought.

Thanks for all of your help and suggestions