Motherboard sent back - Still Broken...

[Soyeah]

So, let me thank everyone in advance for any help that is offered.  I'm extremely fustrated, so please forgive me if I spaz out a little.  I'm also not entirely sure this is in the right area, however my problem is with the RMA.

Ok, so I've had a X58A-UD3R rev 1.6 for quite some time, been very happy with it for probably close to 1-1.5 years.  I notice randomly that my folding@home scores are way lower than they should, and then I realized that my overclock is no longer holding.  I had a I7 920 at about 3.4Ghz, nothing too fancy, with 6gb of 1333 ram.  Everything is rock stable with this, can run prime/folding all day and have for years stable (and I routinely clean the heatsink).

So back to my story, I notice that my overclock settings aren't applied anymore, so I go back into BIOS and change them, reboot, and on reboot still not holding.  So I had a very old BIOS, so I follow the instructions to update the BIOS, thinking maybe that'd help fix it.

After doing so, computer brings up white gigabyte screen, screen goes dark, then white screen, goes dark, and just cycles, can't access any boot menus or the BIOS.  Call Gigabyte and explain this, tech says get an RMA, re-explaim this twice through various paperwork.  Get RMA, send board, wait forever to get it back, finally get it back today, reapply AS5, go through that whole process, hook up minimum parts (PSU/memory/CPU/Video), turn it on, and the gigabyte screen just cycles.  I didn't get any explanation that I saw on what was going on with the board, and I'm getting the impression this was just re-shipped back to me with nothing being done.  It took them 5 business days to work with the board, so I expected something was actually done, but at this point, I can't believe they confirmed the board was working.

Before I go emo-raging about this to their customer service people and various review sites, thought I should check here to make sure this hasn't been seen before, and to get some advice (and make sure this isn't my fault).  I have a hard time believing it's anything else than the BIOS flash or the board malfunctioning, as the video/PSU/memory are all solid and tested on another system.  In my years working with computers, I've never seen a faulty processor that was a retail boxed processor, which this one was.

I have a RAID through the motherboard, and would love to find a way to save that installation, if I end up having to buy another board

tl;dr I think gigabyte sent me my broken motherboard back to me after an RMA, what now?

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte UK Forum.

I can understand your feelings of malcontent at receiving the motherboard back with no paperwork on what was supposedly done to repair the board, but as you say it would be a good idea to check all other possibilities before ranting at their customer services.

I would suggest starting at the beginning and with a basic configuration. If that still doesn't work then we have less to go through.

Just leave installed the motherboard, cpu/heatsink/fan, buzzzer, ones stick of memory , GPU and PSU.

Now try and boot and see what beep code it emits.

[Soyeah]

Thanks for the welcome!

Have the basic setup you outlined at the moment (did originally).  I'm getting 1 beep upon hitting the power button, before the white screen and that is it.  Once the white gigabyte screen goes back to black, cycle starts again with 1 beep, then white screen, then black screen again.  According to the manual, means it is booting ok I believe.

After looking that up, is kinda reinforcing my belief that nothing was done here...

[Dark Mantis]

Yes one short beep means that it has completed POST (Power On Self Test) successfullly. So basically the computer has assessed that it is all working.

That means that we need to look at other options. Do you know your monitor is still ok ?

What about the monitor cable ?

Are you sure it is plugged into the correct  socket ?

Can you get into the BIOS ?

[Soyeah]

yeah monitor is still ok, it displays the gigabyte logo ok, but just to be sure, tried a completely separate monitor and cable and same result.  Both monitors work on another system

I'm unable to get into the BIOS, or any of the other functions the menu listed on the gigabyte screen.  I'm fairly confident something is wrong with the board that is beyond my control, but still open to any more ideas

Is it usual btw, to get some type of explanation from gigabyte regarding what they found?  As it is the weekend I can't call, but also found that odd to just receive the same board back  with no explanation.

[Dark Mantis]

Is it usual btw, to get some type of explanation from gigabyte regarding what they found?  As it is the weekend I can't call, but also found that odd to just receive the same board back  with no explanation.

I am afraid it is fairly much the norm although I fail to understand the reasoning behind it too. If you query them about it you might get an explanation of what was wrong and any repair done.

To be honest I do feel that the motherboard is ok but I think it might take a while to get to the root of the problem.

Perhaps you could just give me a list of ALL the components that are in fact in use. Makes and models please.

[Soyeah]

Sure, thanks again for taking the time to help!

Using a Corsair AX750 gold PSU
Patriot 3x 2gb kit PVT36G1333LLK
i7 920
EVGA GTX 570

I did just have a thought that might make some sense.  I wonder if after the BIOS update, they did something such that my memory is no longer compatible.  Its not a real popular brand of memory, and I know normally BIOS updates are suppose to make more memory available, maybe it happened in reverse this time.

If you think that is worth a shot, maybe I'll try to buy a stick from a local retailer..

[Soyeah]

Wow, also completely embarrassing, but the model number is this one, not the one I listed:
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3103#ov

The sent it back in the model number's box I listed, is why I thought that

[Dark Mantis]

Thanks for the updated list. At least we know exactly what we are dealing with now.

You might want to try this first before buying more memory. We will now try and re-animate the BIOS from the Backup BIOS and see if that helps.
Just follow these instructions.

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.

[Soyeah]

Doing that definitely made something different happen, now instead of just cycling on and off, the white gigabyte logo stays on the screen and doesn't restart itself.   Still can't enter the BIOS or see the POST screen etc..

I've just been letting it sit here like this, as I'm hoping maybe it is verifying memory or something along those lines?

Either way is relative progress

[Dark Mantis]

It might be worth trying to clear the CMOS again now and see if it has made any difference. If not please check your messages as I have sent you a PM.

[Soyeah]

I just wanted to send out a HUGE thank you to Dark Mantis!  We were able to get everything fixed, and system is back up and running.  1 million thank yous are not enough!

[Dark Mantis]

Oh, that's really good news. It is great when something works well and enables you to get back to normal.