Gigabyte X99 UD4 Won't Boot Into Bios Problem (I found out the cause it)

[kangking]

I'm sure by now a lot of people who have this board are complaining about not being able to boot into the bios after installing windows or connecting their hard drives. Bios will boot to a black screen if any drives are connected especially after windows is installed. I have now found out the issue as to why it is doing that, but before I explain let me give some background on the situation.

I have been talking to customer support, and while they have been some what helpful, they are dodging the issue. They know some of their boards are not fully working at this time. They are trying to tell me "we shipped a lot of boards with no problems" and I'm sure they did, but when I look at online reviews tons of people seem to have this problem, so it look like they shipped a lot of buggy boards, or shipped them with a BIOS revision that we are not using.

Let me say that I think Gigabyte is a great company and in my opinion I think they make the best motherboards. For x99 systems, none of the motherboard manufacturer's have come with a perfect board yet. I've looked at every board out from every manufacturer and they all have mixed reviews and tons of bugs. I think this comes with the territory of buying the newest technology, so I'm not too upset. I just don't like when they try to downplay the issue to the customer. This black bios screen is annoying to me, but at least it doesn't affect functionality after setup.

Ok so heres the solution. It turns out this is a file system issue. NTFS Formatted drives are the cause. How do I know this? Because I have a bunch of HFS+ drives that work with the system no problem. As soon as I connect ANY NTFS drive bios will not display. Gigabyte tried to tell me "oh only certain drives are compatible" (yeah right) so I reformatted some of my NTFS drives to HFS+ And vice versa. Every time bios would work with HFS+ drives and not with NTFS. I can have as many HFS+ Drives connected as I want and bios boots perfect. If i connect even 1 NTFS drive it will boot to black screen. No matter the bios settings, I have tried each bios page as well. From the starting page, to the classic, to the HD tweak page etc. I have went as far as trying EVERY bios revision from the default (f8 i believe) to F12, no go. Some people are saying if you change SATA Controller to Raid this is a workaround that will make the bios boot right, but I haven't tried that yet, nor does it sound like something I want to try as I don't use raid.

So thats the issue here. Not the drives, something about the NTFS file system and the bios. Seems like this could easily be fixed in a bios update. I hope someone else who I haven't talked to reads this message from Gigabyte so they can release a fix as soon as possible.

If you dont know HFS+ is the Mac file system, NTFS is for Windows. That's all it is. Just a filesystem issue. Doesn't seem too hard to fix at all.

[kangking]

let me update this post by saying that on the test I did, I would use the effected drives that would not boot.  if i put effected drives to HFS+ filesystem it will boot into right into bios no problem, but if I reformat it and put any of them back to NTFS bios will boot to black screen. Every drive that was effected worked perfectly going into bios under HFS+. So its not the drives themselves. it's the file system on the drives not working with the motherboard for some reason. I can disconnect all the drives and connect only NTFS and it still wont boot into bios. So it's also not an issue where it is having trouble with 2 types of drives with different filesystems. It's just not working right with NTFS drives for some reason.

Some motherboards may not have any problems with NTFS drives and thats what the support was arguing with me about. But they cannot deny the issue that this is more of a widespread problem than they are letting on. Tons of people are experiencing this issue. I say, release a bios update with more stable settings for all motherboards. I'm sure there would be a lot of customers who would really appreciate it

[HT]

Interesting.
As always, I will return to see if 'our' problem gets addressed.

Very quirky motherboard. Like you, mine has now stopped me from entering the BIOS. It still won't boot from cold until it has done a self restart then it works fine.

I forget all about it until the next day.

[kangking]

Interesting.
As always, I will return to see if 'our' problem gets addressed.

Very quirky motherboard. Like you, mine has now stopped me from entering the BIOS. It still won't boot from cold until it has done a self restart then it works fine.

I forget all about it until the next day.

I feel you. Since I dual boot and have a lot of drives not being able to access the bios is annoying. The other day i accidently half pressed the power button on my computer. Like Barely touched it. I got worried that it might mess the computer up so I pressed it in again and the computer shut down, then when it booted back up it automatically selected an NTFS Storage drive i use with no operating system on it. So it booted to a black screen and I couldnt go into the bios and change 1st boot drive. So i had to open the computer up again, disconnect ntfs drives, then select boot device, then connect them each 1 by 1 to get the correct boot order. Annoying!

[dmdilks]

I have the same board with 2-SSD in array, 4-600gb raptors, 128gb SSD with windows 10 and I'm not having any problems. I can get into the bios with no problem. Plus I have F9c bios too.

The only problem I have is the USB thing. Where if you have a USB drive connected it will boot slow on me. So I must be one of the lucky ones that has a good board. Plus I got this board when it first came out too.

[kangking]

I have the same board with 2-SSD in array, 4-600gb raptors, 128gb SSD with windows 10 and I'm not having any problems. I can get into the bios with no problem. Plus I have F9c bios too.

The only problem I have is the USB thing. Where if you have a USB drive connected it will boot slow on me. So I must be one of the lucky ones that has a good board. Plus I got this board when it first came out too.

Nice! is it rev 1 or rev 1.1? By the way how do you have your sata controller set? you mentioned a raid array. If i set Sata controller to Raid, I can enter bios no problem - even with NTFS drives! But I am using ahci and will continue to use that setting - I dont use raid, and if I did it would be an external array

[dmdilks]

Sorry I didn't get back sooner. But I run a Raid Array. But the funny part it AHCI and Raid are really the same controller.

[kangking]

Sorry I didn't get back sooner. But I run a Raid Array. But the funny part it AHCI and Raid are really the same controller.

Does it make a difference if hard drives are plugged into sSata (the grey ports) or the regular sata 3 ports (the black ports). i noticed they are using 2 different controllers. could this be the issue?

[dmdilks]

I use both controllers. Plus I'm using M2-10g sata controller too. My 2 SSD are on sata 0/1. My DVD & DVD/rw are on sata 2/3. My 4 raptors are sSata 0/1/2/3. I lose the sata 4/5 when you use a M2 SSD.

[kangking]

I use both controllers. Plus I'm using M2-10g sata controller too. My 2 SSD are on sata 0/1. My DVD & DVD/rw are on sata 2/3. My 4 raptors are sSata 0/1/2/3. I lose the sata 4/5 when you use a M2 SSD.

ok have you tried setting sata controller to AHCI on both and seeing if you can still access bios? Let me know if you can. Thanks.

By the way the USB bug may come from XHCI hand off. Try disabling XHCI Hand off and see if it makes a difference. Also try setting XHCI Controller to "Auto" not "smart auto" or even "Manual". I was getting blue screens with older usb devices until I changed those settings.

[dmdilks]

I'll have to try that. Right now it set to Raid on the Sata controller and AHCI on the sSate controller.

[kangking]

I'll have to try that. Right now it set to Raid on the Sata controller and AHCI on the sSate controller.

Just a thread update, I got the problem figured out now. I am now booting into bios with all drives connected no problem in AHCI Mode!

I used a PCIE Sata card that lets me hook up sata drives to it. I it had sitting around from my old system that didn't have enough sata ports. Plugged it in today and got the drives connected. Now the computer has no problem booting into the bios @ all with all drives connected! I now know its just a problem with the Gigabyte sata controller not working properly with NTFS Drives in AHCI mode. Please if someone from Gigabyte who actually cares about their customers is reading this. Please look into this issue. Your sata controller on the X99 UD4 motherboards needs an update asap. I shouldn't have to find workarounds just to connect my windows hard drives!

[dmdilks]

OK how many of you people are having problems using UEFI to boot from? If you installed windows using the UEFI DVD drive again that could be some of your problem. I don't use that part of the bios. 

[kangking]

OK how many of you people are having problems using UEFI to boot from? If you installed windows using the UEFI DVD drive again that could be some of your problem. I don't use that part of the bios.

Nah I dont use the UEFI i have it selected as "other OS" and i installed windows from a flash drive.

[Hans]

I am brand new to GIGABYTE MBs after years of really good luck with ASUS.

I build systems for clients (low volume) and for myself - both mostly as a hobby.  This is my first Gigabyte build.

HAVING THE EXACT SAME PROBLEM - GOING INTO BIOS at boot HANGS THE SYSTEM AT A BLANK SCREEN! I have tried bios versions F12, F11 and F10 - all producing the same result.

My system:  Win 7 x64 SP1; X99-UD4 MB; i7 5820K; PNY GTX 780; 850watt Thermaltake; some model of Titan CPU cooler    (well, it works well); 8GB ballistic sport DD4 2400 (will add more ram when everything works)

EVERYTHING works great except for getting into BIOS, which is a big deal to me.  The overclocking available between the MB, CPU and cooler is incredible.  About to try booting with all drives connected to see if this looks exactly like what you all saw


==================

And removing all the SATA hard drives (all NTFS) DOES indeed allow me to get into Bios.  Setting the type to RAID (instead of AHCI) does not help me as I do not have a RAID arrangement.

WOW....Cannot believe that after more than 1/2 year Gigabyte has not fixed this!  Surely, if the BIOS is accessible without drives, there is someway to get into when they are connected...UNLESS...there is hard-coded instruction that looks for drives before they reprogram-able instructions begin to execute...hard to imagine, but maybe THAT's why there was a rev 1.1 board issued.

And IF that is the case, they sure as heck better not leave the early buyers hanging.  That is something you expect from a cut-rate supplier.  (Almost three months since any BIOS update.  Not hopeful. )  If in the end they don't fix this and they don't swap out the boards (assuming no bios fix) I will never use them again and make darn sure as many people as possible know about what they did....we'll wait and see.....