gigabyte x58a-ud5 ver 2.0 shuts off before Post

[Dark Mantis]

But for the motherboard to beep, it would need to be on, like would it beep if it shuts itself off?

The motherboard should beep if there is a fault when it comes across it. That is the whole idea to give you an indication of the problem (hopefully).

[shimon]

I just got a piezo electric speaker and when I plugged it in the motherboard - there was no beep or sounds from it when turned on, and it shut itself off...

I verified that the piezo electric speaker works by plugging it into my old computer and it beeped once.

[Dark Mantis]

OK then but do make sure that it is plugged in the correct way round. Unlike a speaker it is polarity concious.

I would say that you have damaged your motherboard most likely from the USB problem. I would suggest RMAing it.

[shimon]

I just tested the device both ways, no sounds comes from it.  Also tried a different psu - corsair hx620, but that didn't make a difference.

I submitted an RMA on New Years, hopefully they'll respond to me by the end of this week...

[Dark Mantis]

If you purchased the motherboard and CPU from the same retailer I would see if you can return both for testing at the same time.

[shimon]

Unfortunately newegg only gives you 30 days, which is past unfortunately.    They won't help me, and referred me to gigabyte.

The bad thing is that since I'm in the US, I heard that the Gigabyte US RMA branch has poor service, but this is my first time rmaing, so I'll reserve my opinion until I try them out.  I tried to see if they had a forum, but it looks like you're forced to join their club before you can get to their forum... I wish we had the uk guys instead.

The RMA submitted said that it would be two business days before I get a reply, but this is the third business day, going into the fourth.  If they at least gave me an update or respond saying it'll be a week or even two weeks before they can get to me, I would be fine.  I'm just worried with no communication.  

[Lsdmeasap]

Gigabyte US RMA is great, not sure what you've heard or how old it was, but they are fairly fast for sure!

It should take 14-21 days for you to get a board back in your hands, depending on how busy they are, what they fix on the board, and where you live.

You can call them directly if you want, if they don't reply to your email soon.   Many of the staff is out of the offices right now for vacations due to the new year, and others are gone due to CES, so that may be why it's taking a while to reply to your email.

Here is the US office phone number in CA
1-626-854-9338

The official US Gigabyte forum is here, but it does sound like you need to RMA to me.
http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/

[shimon]

Ah, okay makes sense.  I saw that CES ends on the 9th, should I expect a reply around the 12th or a bit later?

Thank you for the insight, forgot that people are still taking vacations and didn't know anything about this CES thing.   

[Lsdmeasap]

Hard to say, maybe they will get back to you before the end of this week, if not I'd say early next.

Ya, many of the support and sales staff are busy with CES related stuff, or on vacation.   I know my contacts have been super busy the past 2 weeks leading up the CES even.

[shimon]

Yay, I got a notification in the email that it's being shipped back to my home.  But in the email I didn't see any notes if the motherboard was replaced, fixed, or anything else.  I created a question to ask more details if possible, but I'm assuming that I'll probably need to wait till Monday to receive a response.  I'm always curious to know stuff about that.

Thank you again for all the help everyone! 

[Dark Mantis]

Yes I agree. It should be company policy to send out a repair account with all boards that have been returned so that the owner can see exactly what has been done/or not to the merchandise.

[shimon]

I got it back, I went ahead put it back together without the usb bracket.  I turned it on and I was too excited that didn't change anything on there.  So I received a OS not found error.  I went ahead and held the power button to turn it off, but now I when I turn it back on again I am receiving bios error codes C1 -> C3 -> 18 then repeats.  I don't think turning it off that way would kill the cpu, so I took out and examined the pins, and reset the cpu in it's socket, but still am receiving the same sequence of codes.  The bad part is that the piezo electric speaker only half chirps and then when it hits the error 18, it does not make any sound.  It only makes a half chirp when it goes back to C1.

Right now I am doing the process of turning the power off from the power supply, removed the button battery, pressed the power button for over a minute just in case.  I'll leave it overnight, but I'm kind of sad right now.    Is it a blown cpu now?

[Dark Mantis]

Hi

No I would doubt it very much from what you have said happened. You have done the right thing in clearing the CMOS and don't forget to load the Optimised BIOS Defaults as well as change any other settings you need to before you do anything else.

[shimon]

  I am so sad.  It unfortunately won't get past post and still receiving the error code C1 -> C3 -> 18 then repeats the sequence again... I'm not sure what to try when I get this sequence now.

I looked at the pins pretty carefully, but I'm sure that the pins should be fine if it gotten past post once before?

[Dark Mantis]

Another thing to check is that it isn't the processor going into a thermal shutdown mode through overheating. Make sure that the heatsink is firmly fixed all round and the fan is running. What heatsink/fan have you got?