Official GIGABYTE Forum
Questions about GIGABYTE products => Motherboards with Intel processors => Topic started by: Argyll on April 29, 2011, 12:56:28 pm
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I just finished a build with this motherboard. After putting the system together I performed an initial power test to leak test my water cooling loop (two EVGA GTX580 FTW Hydro's in SLI) and to check that all of my wiring was complete and functional. I didn't have a monitor or keyboard hooked up as I was just checking to see that everything powered on, etc. I got a lengthy boot and received code FF on the mobo code display which I understand was a good boot. I let the system run for about an hour to bleed air out of the water cooling loop, etc. Everything appeared great.
Turned off the system with the power switch on the mobo. Went and got some dinner and came back, hooked up a monitor and keyboard and got ready to setup my drives, etc. Upon power up I got 2-5 second power cycle and then a re-boot with no code posting to the mobo display. I turned off the power supply removed the CMOS battery, pressed the power button on mobo to drain residual power and then held down the clear CMOS for 5 minutes. Put battery back, returned power and attempted to cycle the board. Same problem. I have searched the internet and have tried various suggestions found for clearing and resetting BIOS but they seem to have no effect. Additional things I have done in an attempt to get the system to POST:
1. Removed memory (except for one stick)
2. Removed graphic cards and used another air cooled one that I know works.
3. Used an alternate power supply that I know works.
4. Removed CMOS battery and let sit overnight with no power and pressing CMOS reset
5. Combinations of all of the above.
I did read and try some technique to flip to the backup BIOS but I am not sure what BIOS my board has as I didn't have the screen connected on the first boot, second I am not sure there is a second BIOS loaded to default to. I assume there is, I just don't have anyway to know.
Results are the same.
PLEASE, tell me that there is some foolproof way to get the BIOS / CMOS reset back to factory stock. I can only assume that the first successful boot somehow made some bad decisions about settings that are now preventing even a POST. Or that in my attempt to correct the problem with the CMOS resets that I have somehow gotten the board in some state that it can't POST.
I am a little freaked out right now given my time invested and would really like some help and insight. I feel good about the fact that the machine DID boot to an FF on first attempt and ran for over 2 hours so I just don't believe that there is a component problem but rather some kind of BIOS snafu.
Thanks in advance for your time and wisdom on this!
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Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum.
You made a bad call from square one. You shouldn't have had the motherboard conected to the power supply at all. You should have tested the cooling loop without having anything else plugged in. After you finished the only way to stop it was a hard shutdown. This is not good for the hardware.
You have definitely got a Backup BIOS along with a Main BIOS on the motherboard. Try this:
You can kick in the backup BIOS by shutting down the PSU from the wall, then hold down your case power button in and then turn on the power supply button, a few seconds later the board will start, shut off the power supply then. Then you can turn on the power supply again and power up the board normally and DualBIOS will kick in.
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Thanks for taking the time to respond, it is greatly appreciated. Although to be honest, I am not sure how powering down the HW with the power button on the motherboard is 'bad for the hardware', but perhaps I am simply missing something. This in fact is the procedure called for in the manual that comes with the motherboard for diagnostic testing and if deemed bad for the hardware it is a bit baffling to me.
Given that as it may, I will accept that I have somehow done something wrong from your perspective and attempt the solution you have provided. I do believe that this was one of the many solutions suggested in various places about the web, but I will definitely give this a try (a few times if necessary).
Without getting to a post code and a boot screen is there anyway to know what BIOS is on the board and what is in the backup BIOS out of the box? Presumably they are the same, but I just curious. Hopefully, I will know soon enough if this solution works.
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OK. Several attempts and still no joy.
I have read elsewhere that the timing of the PSU power switch off to the time the mobo starts to boot is critical in getting this to work. I am not trying to be 'dull' but is the sequence very specifically this?:
1. Turn power supply power off
2. Depress the mono power switch until the lights go out (count to 10 slowly while holding button down)
3. Flip power supply button on
4. As soon as the fans begin to whirr turn off power supply switch.
5. Wait 15 seconds
6. Turn on power supply
7. Await lights on mobo
8. Press mono Power switch
If there is something specifically wrong with this sequence can you please let me know as it doesn't seem to be working for me.
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There are times when doing a hard shut down is inevitable but it is not the best idea. Hard drives etc especailly can be damaged by it.
As for the BIOS crossflash try following these instructions. It might take more than once.
1. Turn off PSU from wall
2. Hold case power button in and turn on at wall.
3. As soon as board shows signs of life turn off at wall.
4. Turn on at wall again and press power button.
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Good point about HDs.
I greatly appreciate your help and patience on this, but alas still no joy after 15 tries. (btw disconnected power to HDs ;) )
I am sorry to be so specific but just want to make sure that there isn't something small and silly I am missing.
When waiting for the mobo to show signs of life I am still holding down the mobo power button, right? Also, does it matter if I drain the mobo power by keeping the mobo power button depressed after killing the power with the Power Supply switch?
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No I can't think that what you are doing would present a problem. I am just wondering if this technique will work with these newer BIOS chips. It always worked fine on the standard ones. How many pins have you got on your BIOS chip ?
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I had the same kind of boot loop and nothing worked until I did this:
1 - Power off PC
2 - Unplug PSU from wall
3 - Press POWER button to dischargee
4 - Put a physical jumper on the CLEAR CMOS jumped on mobo -- I left it there for a least at hour
5 - Take off jumped and press POWER button again
6 - Plug in PSU
7 - Power up
It power cycles once.. then BAM, good to go!
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Dark Mantis, thanks again for your persistence on this one. I will have to dismantle the two graphics cards to get to the actual BIOS chips. Being that they are water cooled they are only single slot cards so I can see the top half of the BIOS chips just not all of the chips.
I will try Digitalforce's suggestions first, (assuming I can find the CMOS CLEAR jumper). Is there such a thing on this mobo since it has a CMOS_Reset Button? I hope so!
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It really makes no difference. If you want to make sure that you clear the CMOS (which basically is all he has done) follow these 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 for at least two hours 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 Opimised 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.
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OK. I just finished having the reset CMOS button down for an hour and still no joy.
I am now doing what you suggest to clear the CMOS by removing the batter and disconnecting power from wall for at least two hours.
Once I have completed this trial I will dismantle the video cards (I have to remove them simultaneously because of the water cooling) and tell you how many pins are on the bios chips. Are you thinking that I might be able to short something on the bios chip to force a reset?
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One more question... if I can't get to POST can I do anything with the keyboard that would make a difference?
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I will PM you regarding your BIOS chip tomorrow if you tell me how many pins it has here.
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I just took the video cards out... there are eight pins each on the two BIOS chips.
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Obviously there is something drastically wrong with this board and my recommendation would be to return it to your retailer for an RMA as it is covered by the warranty for three years.
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Yes, I am afraid I have to agree. I am contacting the Newegg as I type this to get an RMA.
Thanks again for all of your time and persistent help, it was greatly appreciated!
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No problem buddy. Please let us know how things progress though. ;)
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Well... trying to keep a good attitude about all this, but man it is certainly hard.
OK, I received a brand new GA-P67A-UD7-B3 yesterday in the mail. Installed in case, hooked everything up and first power-on goes 2 seconds on-->re-cycle, 2 seconds on->re-cycle. No post code and no screen as it doesn't get that far. Re-checked connections. Tested components in another computer one by one and they all let that computer boot up, so I see how it is the other components. The first board booted to FF with all of these same components on first boot. But subsequently got stuck in the power-loop no post thereafter.
Now last time I tried random stuff I found by googling around the internet regarding this board and boot-up loop problems. Perhaps something I followed last time got me into the state I ended up in and had to RMA the board. Therefore, before I start trying stuff again, please advise.
Remember this is right out of the box, first power on. Whatever you suggest next will be my second power on.
Any and all help and suggestions greatly appreciated!
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Hello again
Right well I think the best thng is to start by removing it from the case and laying it out on the motherboard box. Connect just the CPU/heatsink/fan, PSU (24 pin and 8 pin), one stick of RAM in the first slot and the buzzer. When done try and boot and see what happens.
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No joy... same cycle... 2 seconds-->cycle no post code.
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OK then. Next clear the CMOS as it might still have factory settings in it.
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 for at least one hour 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 Opimised 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.
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My 2 cents, replace the CPU. If its in the 30 day return, do it now. If its outside of that start with Intel's Live tech chat. Have your components info with you, specifically board & memory model numbers.
I had this very same problem with a GA-P67A-UD3 board and after a replacement board seemed to make the problem worse I opted for the buy back from NewEgg until the B3 boards were out.
My problem was: reboot during any OS install, reboot during any flash attempt (dos flash), reboot before POST completion and finally reboot cycling before bios could be loaded, before video could be enabled.
I ended up going with an Asus P67 Evo once the B3 boards were hitting the shelves, partly due to another build using an Asus board, and partly due to fear I was going to have another issue with the Gigabyte (their tech support wasn't supportive). Assembled everything on top of a box and I have the same damned problem.
Only the Evo board has helpful LED's that indicate where the board is having an issue, CPU, Memory, PSU. And the Memory LED was steady on. So now I've swapped out memory, again, to a verified QVL module and no change. At this point in the game I"ve replaced everything except CPU. Got online with Intel's Live Chat, suspecting the CPU is bad but really hoping that they'll tell me its a hardware mismatch. In less than 5 minutes I have a ticket number to get a replacement CPU. Next day on the phone to complete that ticket and the following week I have a working system.
The ease in which the tech at Intel concluded the CPU was bad was surprising. He basically asked me 3 or 4 questions about hardware, setup, ect and issued the replacement ticket number, which leads me to think there's an internal bulletin concerning this problem.
It will mimic a memory fault and I suppose it is a memory fault, but not with the DDR memory but the cpu's pathways to that memory.
Date of original order: Jan 17
Date of working, stable system April 14
Number of components used: 3 motherboard, 3 power supplies, 3 memory module sets (all 1.5v), 3 video cards
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I wouldn't be surprised Odiebo as that was the way I was heading if the last effort didn't work.
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This is killing me...
OK, I contacted NewEgg and RMA'd the CPU. Still confused how it booted once in the original board if it was bad, but I will just take it on faith that this must be the problem as the new board has not booted a single time and all of the other components have been tested separately and the motherboard wouldn't boot even with just one stick of ram in the cardboard holder.
It will take about 7-8 days total turnaround until a new CPU arrives here. I will let you know what happens after that.
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Thanks we will look forward to hearing if we were right in our diagnosis. It is quite possible the processor was alright to start with and then just went. Sometimes the inital startup will be ok and then if it is not quite up to scratch it can just give up.
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Thanks we will look forward to hearing if we were right in our diagnosis. It is quite possible the processor was alright to start with and then just went. Sometimes the inital startup will be ok and then if it is not quite up to scratch it can just give up.
To be really honest, I had my doubts. But I did get the replacement CPU from NewEgg and for a few heart stopping minutes the machine continued to cycle without posting. Then magically after about the fifth cycle it posted!
I was able to then lay down Windows 7 on the RAID 0 drives, load device drivers from the website and get a stable and consistent boot. I have subsequently flashed the BIOS to F4. Made changes to the BIOS to turn the RAID 0 back on (ironically the RAID Bios remembered, but the main BIOS didn't).
For those who may find this message, if after flashing the BIOS the machine won't boot to the OS, use the Win 7 DVD or as in my case, thumb-drive to boot, select repair from the menu and select boot repair. It appears that the flash mungs up the boot block on the HD or RAID, but after doing the 1 second repair machine booted right up.
I still find the BIOS on this board and it's posting process a bit 'twitchy' but it IS working and so I am greatly relieved.
Thanks to everyone how continued to help even after all of the twists and turns this adventure took. I greatly appreciate your time, thoughts and efforts!
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No problem and thanks for returning to let us know how things eventually turned out. ;D