EX58-UD3R Rev. 2 Infinite Boot Cycle Hell

[man_bites_dog]

Hi all

I have torn almost all my hair out because of this issue:

My UD3R Ver. 2 based system won't post. It just reboots itself. That's all it can do. In fact, it's an expert in rebooting. I have read at least 50 forum posts around the internet (including this one) documenting this amazing no-reason-but-to-reboot feature, but it seems there is no way to turn this amazing feature OFF!

Here are my components:

750w Corsair TX power supply
12 gigs (6 x 2gigs) Corsair XMS 3 Triple Channel RAM
i7 950 CPU
BFG Nvidia GTX 280 GPU

I actually returned the board last week to Gigabytes tech centre (UK). Their service was actually very good - they responded to my email very quickly and sent me an RMA no. once I provided an invoice and I was really happy with their service. I received the board back late this afternoon (wow! their service is very good!) and put all the pieces back together. Low and behold! It worked! Yay! Oh, wait, aaahhh....f**k...after about 15 mins on my test bench (not in my case, as some people give a bizarre reason it reboots is because the board may short in the case), it rebooted itself and I never got her back again.

I've tried every conceivable solution I've found on the forums. No, I DON'T HAVE BENT PINS. NO, MY POWER SUPPLY IS FINE, I'VE TRIED 2 DIFFERENT GPU'S and I know they work. MY RAM IS FINE. I'VE TRIED 1 STICK, 2 STICKS, 3 STICKS, ALL STICKS, Effing STONES. NOTHING.

The thing is, it was working very well for about 2 months. In fact it was flawless. I had it overclocked to 4.01 GHZ and was smiling smugly to myself about how brilliant my build was when all of a sudden, the reboot "feature" kicked in.

There is something wrong with a batch of these boards. Please Gigabyte, own up and replace the boards of people suffering with this malaise. It's making me crazy.

I have sent an email back to the RMA team and see what they say. I'll report back when I hear. It better be good news...

Regards
The Man with the Bald Patch

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum baldy!

I agree there are quite a few instances of this problem around the net but there again there are litterally hundreds of thousands of these boards sold and most have no problem whatsoever. Obviously that is not much comfort if you are one of the unlucky few.

You seem to have covered most of the obvious things already. I thought when reading your account that I had it sussed when I saw that you had filled all the banks of RAM. Then you spoilt that too.

If you are 100% sure that there are no bent pins I would suggest sending the CPU for RMA as it could always be that even though they are generally very good.

[man_bites_dog]

So Dark Mantis what now? Do you think Gigabyte will give me a new board? It's only 4 months old? What should I do? I really don't think it's the CPU.

[Dark Mantis]

So Dark Mantis what now? Do you think Gigabyte will give me a new board? It's only 4 months old? What should I do? I really don't think it's the CPU.

Well with respect it doesn't pay to guess. I agree that as a general rule the CPUs are very reliable unless abused but that doesn't mean we don't see faulty ones here. If you bought both motherboard and CPU from the same place I would arrange to RMA them both together and let the retailer sort it out for you.

[Fatman]

Are you trying to run 12 gig of Ram at it's rated speed? I'm not sure all that will run @1600, try it at 1333 and up your VTT a little more and bump up your IOH as well maybe to 1.2. Check also that your memory voltages are correct and the timings are set right as well. Give that a shot.

[man_bites_dog]

Are you trying to run 12 gig of Ram at it's rated speed? I'm not sure all that will run @1600, try it at 1333 and up your VTT a little more and bump up your IOH as well maybe to 1.2. Check also that your memory voltages are correct and the timings are set right as well. Give that a shot.

Like I said in my OP. I can't even get into my BIOS! It will ONLY reboot. Even if I could, I know that some people reported that using all 12gigs may be a problem. However, it WAS working perfectly for 2 months. With 12 gigs. I only wish I could jump ship back to Asus (had a Quad Core Commando setup which is still purring nicely), but my system was a beautifully set up dual boot Win7 and Hackintosh. Asus boards don't play as nicely with OSX, so I'm stuck with Gigabyte for now.

[Fatman]

So what if you took the cmos battery out for a while and booting back with just one stick of ram in slot one, will that get you into bios?

[man_bites_dog]

So what if you took the cmos battery out for a while and booting back with just one stick of ram in slot one, will that get you into bios?

Tried that. FAIL.

[man_bites_dog]

Just thought I'd update you all on what's happening.

RMA service got back to me and said I need to check all my other components first, before I send it back. They offered to check it for me if I send the CPU and a stick of RAM with the board (great offer, and good service again). Unfortunately, because this is my work PC, I'm desperate to get it working again ASAP and I don't want to risk the postal system wrecking my stuff.

I went to 4 different PC repair places around my neighborhood (all rubbish), and none of them would (or could) just test my RAM and CPU - you just can't find that kind of service it seems. So, I've ordered a new UD3R board which will arrive tomorrow. I'll plug everything in and see what happens. If it fires up with no problems, then I know the old board is to blame and I'll demand a new one. If not, I'll apologise profusely and beg forgiveness from the Lords of Gigabyte. However, I'm almost positive it's the board - in 15 years of building PC's, I've never had a CPU fail for no reason. Also, for 2 different pairs of top quality (Corsair) triple channel memory, bought independently, to be faulty would be better than winning the lottery. My Corsair 750 has a 5 year warranty - they just don't give up after 4 months.

I'll keep ya all posted.

[Dark Mantis]

While I would agree with the PSU warranty and quality (I use one myself) I have know them to be faulty on the forum here so don't rule it out. It is simple enough to test it at least. Just add a load (fan or something) and short out the green and any black wire on the(disconnected) 24way plug from the PSU. If it fires up and runs smoothly chances are the PSU is ok.

[Lsdmeasap]

Have you tried an extended Clear CMOS?   If not try that now, unplug the PSU from the wall then press and hold the case power on button for one minute, then remove the board battery and let the board sit for 8 hours or so.   While you sleep would be good so you aren't tempted to try it early.

If that fails, try kicking in the BIOS auto-recovery and see if that will get it going

1. Shut off the power supply using the switch on the back of the PSU, wait 10-15 seconds.
2. Press and hold the case Power On swtich, then while still holding turn on the power supply from the switch on the rear.
3. Still holding the case power on switch, the board will start, once it does release the case power on switch and shut off the power supply via the switch on the read of the unit. (Do the latter two parts as quickly as you can once the board starts)
4. The board will shut down.
5. Turn the power supply back on using the switch on the rear of the unit.
6. Turn on the motherboard by pressing the case power on button.

Once the board starts this time you should see the Gigabyte splash screen, or POST page, then the Auto-Recovery from Dual BIOS will kick in. You will see a checksum error, and then recovery from BACKUP BIOS will begin. Once it is done reboot your machine and enter the BIOS and load optimized defaults then save/apply/reboot back to BIOS.