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Is my Z170X Gaming 7 mobo corrupt, or just buggy as heck?

Leppermessiah

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Is my Z170X Gaming 7 mobo corrupt, or just buggy as heck?
« on: February 08, 2016, 04:17:10 pm »
So many issues...

1. When I hit "+" to increase the clock ratio, it immediately starts counting up and doesn't stop until something like 127 (Read: 12.7 Ghz)!  At first I thought this was a problem with my keyboard, but it isn't.  Everything goes wonky from this point as dialog boxes flash in and out.  Trying to exit without saving becomes a struggle.  Likewise, directly typing a number into the multiplier makes the menu goes berzerkers.
2. Exiting without saving displays error: "BlInitializeLibrary failed 0xc000009a."  It does this every time and I have to reboot. Saving and exiting displays no such error message.
3. Changing the vCore lowers my clock to 800 mHz.  It basically forced me into saving and resetting as this was the only dialog box that would flash (again with the flashing dialogs!) onto the screen,
4. The only reliable method I can find to overclock is the "CPU Upgrade," which, incidentally, shows all options as being "i7."  I selected the "i7 6600k 4.4 gHz" option for my i5 6600k cpu.
5. The Gigabyte app asked if I wanted to install a firmware update (was it for the bios?  something else?).  I had just flashed my bios to the latest version already (f6), but I accepted anyhow.  It downgraded my bios to f5, which I then had to reflash back to f6.

I feel like I'm forgetting something, but these are definitely the standout issues.  Not to mention that the board wouldn't accept my 2400 ram (Error 55) and I am awaiting 2133 ram to replace them with (It is currently running with a single stick of 8gb 2600).  Should I return this mobo?

Otherwise, Windows 10 and all of my other components are functioning as intended. I think all of the relevant specs are mentioned above.

Thanks.
« Last Edit: February 08, 2016, 04:24:48 pm by Leppermessiah »

shadowsports

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Re: Is my Z170X Gaming 7 mobo corrupt, or just buggy as heck?
« Reply #1 on: February 09, 2016, 07:30:51 pm »
Greetings,
Some of the issues you mention are known (have been experienced by others).  Others are likely the result of your memory choice.  I'm not saying it shouldn't work, I agree there are some bugs. 

I would be a little more cautious about what you accept and allow the Gigabyte App to "improve' or install things.  Especially true of BIOS upgrades.  You should always be using Q-Flash for this & have the upgrade file saved locally and not coming "real time" from the internet which can be prone to issues.  Flashing from within the OS is also "gambling".

None of us want to be the one responsible for reporting bugs, but if you have something that is reproducible across different BIOS revs, it might be worth it to report to Gigabyte Support.  Again however, if you are using memory that is not on the QVL, you shouldn't be surprised if you experience anomalies.  If you use the OC utility and select a different CPU that what you have installed, then everything the utility is basing operating on is skewed.     

I'll reiterate however, that there are some bugs.  Many of which are pretty glaring. Plenty of folks experience same/like growing pains with the Z170 boards.  :-\
Z390 AORUS PRO (F10) \850w, 9900K, 32GB GSkill TriZ RGB - 16-18-18-38, RTX 3080Ti FTW3 Ultra, 960 Pro_m.2, W11
Z370-HD3P (F5) \750w, 8350K, 8GB LPX 3200 - 16-18-18-38, GTX 970 FTW SC, Intel SSD, 2TB RAID1, W11
Z97X-UD5H \850w, 4790K, 32GB Vengeance, RTX 2080 FTW

Leppermessiah

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  • Z170X-Gaming 7, BIOS F7
Re: Is my Z170X Gaming 7 mobo corrupt, or just buggy as heck?
« Reply #2 on: February 09, 2016, 08:56:11 pm »
You're right, flashing the BIOS from within Windows is a mistake.  What happened was, I thought the "firmware update" was for something other than the BIOS, because the BIOS had already been flashed (using QFlash) to the latest version (F6), so it seemed innocuous enough at the time (I thought maybe it was a firmware update for the ethernet or something... which in retrospect probably makes no sense).  I'm actually very lucky it didn't turn out worse; I've heard horror stories before about flasing the BIOS from the OS. I do fault Gigabyte for there being such an unclear prompt.  It should have said: "Do you want to flash your BIOS to the latest version (F5)," to which I would have immediately declined.  To me anyways, "firmware update" and "BIOS flash" are not synonymous.  I have since disabled that feature of the App.

I appreciate your reply and that does give me some reassurance that it isn't just my mobo and it is something that will resolve itself in the future.  The (hopefully) correct RAM is arriving sometime today (G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2133), and when it does I hope that it will straighten out some of these bugs.

Will update then.
« Last Edit: February 09, 2016, 09:08:09 pm by Leppermessiah »

shadowsports

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Re: Is my Z170X Gaming 7 mobo corrupt, or just buggy as heck?
« Reply #3 on: February 10, 2016, 06:17:34 am »
Agreed.  Everyone does seem to be happier with the 2133 Mhz ram.  A shame your stuck and "safer" with it for now.  Let us know how it goes.
Z390 AORUS PRO (F10) \850w, 9900K, 32GB GSkill TriZ RGB - 16-18-18-38, RTX 3080Ti FTW3 Ultra, 960 Pro_m.2, W11
Z370-HD3P (F5) \750w, 8350K, 8GB LPX 3200 - 16-18-18-38, GTX 970 FTW SC, Intel SSD, 2TB RAID1, W11
Z97X-UD5H \850w, 4790K, 32GB Vengeance, RTX 2080 FTW