GA-Z68X-UD3-B3 stuck power cycling.

[roman161]

Hello,

About 3 hours ago I rebooted my computer, and now its stuck power cycling. No hardware changes were made, just a normal restart.

After I press the power, I get a single short POST beep and then it restarts. I am unable to access the BIOS menu (DEL key does nothing), only the POST message menu (TAB). It continues this cycle until I pull the plug.

I checked the memory in another computer, no issues with the memory. Swapped it with some other sticks I had, same problem.
I replaced the GPU with another GPU, same problem.
I replaced the PSU with another PSU, same problem.
I disconnected all peripherals except CPU/GPU/PSU/Memory. Same problem.
I tried resetting the CMOS: Bridging the jumpers, leaving the battery out for 1 hour.

The only thing I haven't done is tried reseating the CPU. I'm at wit's end here, what else is there I can do?

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome.

I would recommend doing a prolonged clear olf the CMOS. Please follow the instructions exactly.

Remove the power cable from the mains supply and then press the power switch on the case for a few seconds just to drain any residual energy in the PSU capacitors.

Once done remove the motherboard battery overnight before replacing it.
 
Next plug back into the mains supply and boot.
 
You will now need to enter the BIOS by pressing DEL and load Optimised BIOS Defaults.

Make any other changes to the BIOS settings to suit your self like disabling the floppy drive, disabling the full screen logo and making the HDD the primary boot device and then press F10 to save and exit.

[roman161]

Hi and welcome.

I would recommend doing a prolonged clear olf the CMOS. Please follow the instructions exactly.

Remove the power cable from the mains supply and then press the power switch on the case for a few seconds just to drain any residual energy in the PSU capacitors.

Once done remove the motherboard battery overnight before replacing it.
 
Next plug back into the mains supply and boot.
 
You will now need to enter the BIOS by pressing DEL and load Optimised BIOS Defaults.

Make any other changes to the BIOS settings to suit your self like disabling the floppy drive, disabling the full screen logo and making the HDD the primary boot device and then press F10 to save and exit.

I did this exactly. I left the battery out for the duration of the night after discharging the PSU. I then disconnected the PSU from the board and the wall socket.
Same issue as before. No change.

EDIT: I noticed that when it reaches the post screen, it always restarts a second after it says "Memory test OK. Memory Frequency: 1600"

[roman161]

For future generations: Do not EVER enable Quick Boot by Gigabyte.

Well I fixed my problem a few hours ago. After taking the entire computer apart and debugging piece by piece, I remembered I enabled Quick Boot, from one of Gigabyte's softwares. From their demonstration, it basically skips the hardware tests and gives you a placebo POST beep. For some reason, that corrupted my BIOS and even resetting the CMOS didn't help (The reset from previous attempts DID reset because the BIOS clock was set to 2010).

So I forced it to detect hardware changes done by changing the GPU's position on the motherboard to a different PCI-E slot, restarting and editting the now working BIOS, then putting it back. Simply taking the GPU out didn't do anything. It was seated correctly, and there was no dust in the connector.

The POST screen after I made the GPU position swap showed that it detected hardware changes this time, and allowed me in to the BIOS finally.

Tl;dr Quick Boot broke my computer. To fix I swapped GPU's PCI-E positions on my motherboard, started, then swapped it back.

[Gloup_Gloup]

Hi roman161,

I suppose you communicate about :

http://ca.gigabyte.com/MicroSite/82/smart6.htm
http://gigabyte.com/MicroSite/76/index.htm

But again for the z68 mobo...

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3852#utility

About what utilities you refer?
I ask this ... just for clearly your message ...

Confirm utilities please or add infos ... Thanks for reply.

Gloup_Gloup

[spurst]

I have a pretty beefy PCP&C 760Watt PSU that is a month old. I'd tend to think that's not the issue, because it powered my e8400 & XFX board flawlessly for a week prior to my upgrade.

[mi_dad04]

Check you vtt/qpi voltage,  My ga-z68xp-ud3 does not properly apply the xmp profile voltage.

[Neil79]

http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,7895.0.html

Most likely it's this issue

Vtt/QPI voltage only decreases the risk of it boot looping, but it still will happen at some point

[roman161]

Hi roman161,

I suppose you communicate about :

http://ca.gigabyte.com/MicroSite/82/smart6.htm
http://gigabyte.com/MicroSite/76/index.htm

But again for the z68 mobo...

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3852#utility

About what utilities you refer?
I ask this ... just for clearly your message ...

Confirm utilities please or add infos ... Thanks for reply.

Gloup_Gloup

Followup, the utility is part of the smart6 set (Called Quick Boot). Since my issue I have done numerous restarts, stress testing, and overclocking to make sure my issue is truly resolved. I have had no problems since I stopped using BIOS Quick Boot.

[Dark Mantis]

As I have advised many times...steer clear of the bundled software! Most of the free software packages are just to give the impression of added value to the motherboard and more often than not will actuallly end up bring more trouble than they fix. The same goes for BIOS toys.