Z68XP-UD5 GD2 nstability = excessive overvoltage

[Aussie Allan]

  You got it!

     we'll just have to take it one step at a time .... sadly.....I wish I could say it's CPU/M-Board 100%.......but it's probably 95%

  We're dealing with the PC God here!....

  Aussie Allan

[Deathchant]

hehe, yeah, I know. You got to give me credit for not posting: "hey my motherboard doesn't boot, please help me" 
Well it could be another thing....cpu-cooler-tension.
I have a prolimatech mega shadow, and as you can see on the pics, the bar on which the cooler gets mounted, covers three powerphases. Maybe due to pressure, it might cause the motherboard to bend.....it has a firm backplate, so I don't think so, but you never know.

I did test it once without tightening the screws, but no improvement. But I will also test the boxed intel cooler just to be certain.

[Aussie Allan]

 It never hurts to test everything you can think of.....especially when there little or no cost!

  Aussie Allan

[Deathchant]

Ok, I got a mail that the CPU will be delivered tomorrowmorning, so that's good.

I also got a reply back from gigabyte about the excessive overvoltage:

There is a latest beta BIOS F5a as attached, which could let you choose to enable the excessive overvoltage or not. Maybe you could keep it firstly, and try it later on when your board is back to you again.

Have a nice weekend!

Kind regards
GIGABYTE-Team

I cannot understand the last sentence.....do they mean that I should flash this bios onto my motherboard now, or should I wait for a new motherboard IF I do an RMA? Sometimes their english sentences are not that fluent
And do I understand correctly that that bios beta version allows me to choose to enable overvoltaging? That sounds like other bios versions do not allow you to do that....but it sounds like I could choose the GD2 led to go on or not....

[Aussie Allan]

  Considering you don't have a stable platform, .... I think you should wait for the CPU, .... if you try and flash it now and it crashes during the write

  I think they were just trying to be nice and got another case mixed up with yours......just take it at face value of.....you got an answer, you got a new BIOS, .... and you got a "........Have a nice day"....not bad for a Friday afternoon

  Aussie Allan

[Deathchant]

hehe, that's right! I'll wait with the beta then. First things first. CPU!!

I was worried about the 3 different-colored transistors (or how do you call them) on the back of the cpu itself, but I found out that this is normal:
http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/intel_corei7_2600k_and_corei5_2500k/images/14.htm

I was a bit worried about those things but it seems to be fine
I'll make some macro pics of the socket and you will hear from me soon

[Deathchant]

Well, I've got news. I've just build in the G530 celeron.

What dit I do:
- I made some macro pictures. It looks like the socket is ok.
- celeron G530 installed
- prolimatech mega shadow (+MX4) installed, but without putting tension on the screws (my pc lays flat on my desk)

Then the exciting moment: will the GD2-led go green/stay out, OR does it stay orange like always...
Too bad......oranje it is again
I must say there are no hickups or boot problems since bios F4, but the random shutdowns and reboots could be because of the bios F1 that I had. But I'm not sure of it. Since I have to troubles anymore booting, you could say the excessive overvoltage and the random reboots are not directly related.....But again, I'm not sure.

Then I turned my pc off, trying again with the Tagan and coolermaster PSU that I have, but it results in the same. Vcore is lower on this celeron than it is on the 2600K (1.12V <> 1.22V).

OK, some pictures then:














Photo's couldn't get any better since I do not have a proper macro lens. I just borrowed it from a friend.

So I think I've ruled out the CPU succesfully.
The socket seems fine so I can only think of 2 options:
- powerphases (or the distribution from it to the CPU)
- or a faulty bios again (but I cannot seem to find any users that have such trouble with this F4 bios)

So I think there is almost no change that my supplier will find other issues.
I would love to assume the orange GD2-led is just fine, but I don't want to risk other components to be in danger.
I'm very tense when it comes to overvoltage messages...

So.....what next?

[Aussie Allan]

  Deathchant

    It's amazing what better photo's can do ...Good job Gungadin!...... the nest seem to be fine!

  Now you have 4 dimm slots ..... are you using just  two ?..........with your 8G (KHX1600C9D3K2/8GX) and there in the correct slots for population from your manual ?

  Are you getting any monitor related issues anymore ?

  What is the difference in operation with the new CPU compared to you original one .... what is the same ....what is improved ....what is different ?

  I'm tiling a bathroom today but I'll do My best and check in when I can!

  Aussie Allan

[Deathchant]

That's a lot of questions.

Yes, the manual says DDR3_1 & DDR3_2, in which they are currently situated.
I'm not getting monitor related issues (I've never had those....)
Difference between the 2 cpu's? Totally none, apart from the other multipliers, different voltages and corespeeds, nothing is changed and nothing is different. The christmas-tree-like phaseleds also lit up fully with this new celeron cpu. So really, I don't notice anything different.

[Aussie Allan]

    Right ! is the Rig stable enough to Flash with the new CPU (Q-Flash) ..... if you think it is ....follow this!.....Strip the board down to:

  PSU

  CPU and cooler

  GPU

 Memory (put in just one dimm in the master slot for now)

 Main drive only :C

 optical DVD/XXXXX

  Now flash the board with the new BIOS file you got your hands on .....remember to tick "Clear Data Pool" for the flash process ...... reboot/Delete/Bios window...... and set to "Optimized Defaults" and save and reboot again.

  This will set the board up to go into hunting mode for ALL the equipment you have connected and not rely on what it thinks or was connected the last time

  DELETE key and back into BIOS and make all changes necessary for your system ..... now leave as much as you can in AUTO .... except the Memory.....your memory is  rated at 9-9-9-27 @ 1.65V ..... input these parameters manually ...... now try and reboot the machine and see if it's stable .... if it's stable  ..... run memtest for at least an hour .... if it passes ..... shut down and insert second memory dimm and repeat.

  If you get a BSOD .... write down the 00000x000 error code if it's up long enough

  This should get us into the home straight if you get this far 

  Aussie Allan

[Deathchant]

strange, I cannot put it manually on 1.65V, only on 1.64V and 1.66V

I've set it at 1.64V. Memtest ran for an hour and 1 memstick is clean
The other is now running....
But I have great news! When I came back and the first stick was done, both powerphase leds and GD1&GD2 leds are out!!!
The only LED that is on is the mobo-state LED.

I really have no clue why. Maybe it is because it is on for like 3 hours now? I don't know? The reason I never found this out was because I did not want to risk leaving the computer on for more than a couple of minutes. But now with this memtesting, I did not think about the fact my computer would stay on for a long time.

As soon as my 2nd memstick is ready, I will reboot and I will try to see when and if the leds go out.

If this is the case, then I can't imagine the motherboard is broken, but that it was just a faulty bios (F1).
And if that is true, then I feel really stupid, because it is just how the motherboard works.

But hey, no one on 4 forums including Gigabyte could tell me that those LED's go out after x-minutes, so I feel partly guilty hehe:)

[Aussie Allan]

  Good! .... I suspect it will go out after the full boot phase runs it's path ... this is normal ..... meant to ask earlier, do you still have a bootable install to boot into Windows or have you not got that far yet ?

  Aussie Allan

[Deathchant]

well no. The reason was that I did not dare to go any further, so I did not come to W7 install....
I think I can risk it now. I will first try to reboot and then check how much time it takes to go out.

Maybe it is not time-related, but activity-related. Maybe if I let the motherboard go after the post, to the part where it says: insert bootable drive or something like that.

[Aussie Allan]

 Even my machine will light up like a Xmas tree until it gets into Windows well and truly ... this is normal .... could be an Idea to load up windows so you can download and install something like OCCT for stress test ..... stay away from Intel Burn for now .... a little to aggressive just yet........

  Remember what where trying to do though

 Prove the system will run stable with the present setup .....

 then reload the old CPU (i7) and see if it will fire up like the Celeron and stable ..... one step at a time 

[Deathchant]

so you suggest I do everything with the celeron now, install windows, stress it with OCCT and if everything is ok, replace the CPU with my "old" 2600K?