THIS is support?

[BGood]

So I started having problems with my GA-P55A-UD4P about 2 months after I bought it.  One of the gigabit Ethernet ports would often flake out and refuse to connect to anything.  Tech supported wanted me to do a scratch load of Windows as one of my first steps.  Then pull out everything but a single stick of RAM.  Yeah, I guess I should have expected with my first home build that this is what I'd be asked to do at the first sign of problems.  Well, I updated my BIOS and all my drivers in Windows.  I still had issues with one Ethernet port, but I decide to live with it if that was the only issue.  Well, it didn't take long before I'd get a Win 7 x64 BSOD, hardware stop errors (STOP 0x00000124).  Once, twice, three times per week.  I spent some time in various BSOD fourms posting minidumps and diagnostic results.  What I kept hearing was that "some" piece of hardware is definitely causing these dumps.

Next, as a Christmas gift, I receive a WD 1 TB USB 3 drive and a Super Talent 16 GB USB 3 flash drive.  I note with the WD drive, when it's plugged into a USB 3 port that my machine will go into sleep, but won't resume without special effort.  I found that if I unplug the drive and press the reset button briefly, the machine will return from sleep (not actually rebooting).

Next I installed Linux Mint onto the USB 3 flash drive.  It won't boot from either USB 3 port.  It will boot from a USB 2 port.  Still more odd is that when I plug the device into the USB 3 port closest to the motherboard, I start getting strange video behavior, even on POST.  The screen becomes unreadable, with waves and lines everywhere.  Unplugging the device and rebooting fixes it.

So I call Gigabyte to see about exchanging the motherboard.  And the tech wants me to reload Windows and remove all but a single stick of RAM.  Yeah, I hear that reloading Windows often fixes Linux problems. 

Then I find out that their warranty process entails my shipping the motherboard back.  And waiting.  They have NO advance Exchange.  And seemingly no timetable for repair.

So, is this typical for these build-it-yourself motherboard companies?  Or did I just end up with the runt of the manufacturer litter?  Yes, I know ultimately this is MY fault for not bothering to check into warranty process before I purchased.  I need my computer and I don't think I'm going to ship out the motherboard and sit and wait.  I guess I'm stuck now buying a competitor's product and installing it, then sending this for repair.

IF this is the usual "customer support", I guess I'm done building my own.  If this is NOT the norm, then I guess I just have to find a better company.

Yes, again, I know this is MY fault.  But I hope this post will enlighten others who might be thinking of building their own computers, especially with Gigabyte products.  Forewarned is fore-armed.

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte forum.

Sounds like you got the really helpful tech out of the bunch.

You should have come on to the forum if you needed help first and we would have done our best to sort it out.

The BSOD stop code that you got to start with is normally to do with memory. It is usually incorrect QPI/Vtt voltage ( to much/not enough) that causes it. I would suggest checking that out to start with. Try between 1.2v and 1.4v as a general rule.

If you still can't  get free of them try Mmetest86+.


Memtest86+        http://www.memtest.org/

Insert one stick of memory in slot 1 and run Memtest on it for at least 10 loops and if there are no errors then swap it over with the next one and continue untill you have checked all  modules.

If you have any errors the module is faulty.

If you have any faulty modules you will have to return the whole kit as they are matched.

Post back when you have done that with the results.
 

[BGood]

Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte forum.

Sounds like you got the really helpful tech out of the bunch.

You should have come on to the forum if you needed help first and we would have done our best to sort it out.

The BSOD stop code that you got to start with is normally to do with memory. It is usually incorrect QPI/Vtt voltage ( to much/not enough) that causes it. I would suggest checking that out to start with. Try between 1.2v and 1.4v as a general rule.

If you still can't  get free of them try Mmetest86+.


Memtest86+        http://www.memtest.org/

Insert one stick of memory in slot 1 and run Memtest on it for at least 10 loops and if there are no errors then swap it over with the next one and continue untill you have checked all  modules.

If you have any errors the module is faulty.

If you have any faulty modules you will have to return the whole kit as they are matched.

Post back when you have done that with the results.
 

I guess I assumed the "fail safe defaults" in the BIOS would give me the most stable system!  I checked QPI/vtt and it was "Auto" at 1.100V.  My choices were:

Auto
Norm
1.050
1.100
1.170
1.190
1.210
1.230
(and more higher ones).

Everything from 1.230 was purple, which seems a bit ominous.

So on your advice, I selected 1.210V, which was the highest non-purple number that fell into your advised 1.2-1.4 range.

You can probably tell this is all Greek to me.

Now, so far I have not removed any RAM.  Instead, I ran MemTest+ v4.1 from a Linux-bootable USB flash drive.  It ran all night and most of today and after what appears to have been 17 passes, there were 0 errors.

So do I just wait for the next crash?  Or do I really need to test each memory module individually?

[Dark Mantis]

That is really up to you and how certain you want to be.  You can stop now and just wait and see what if anything happens. It is fairly safe to assume that the tested module is ok so I would advise marking it to stop confusion.

[BGood]

That is really up to you and how certain you want to be.  You can stop now and just wait and see what if anything happens. It is fairly safe to assume that the tested module is ok so I would advise marking it to stop confusion.

Actually, I ran MemTest with all 4 memory modules still installed.  Won't this test them all?

[Dark Mantis]

Obviously it will test them but I am not sure if it has any bearing on the thoroughness of the testing. Normally we advise testing singlularly  as if there is any problem at least you know which module it is.

[BGood]

Obviously it will tesat them but I am not sure if it has any bearing on the thoroughness of the testing. Normally we advise testing singlularly  as if there is any problem at least you know which module it is.

I'll admit I'm confused on this issue.  It seems to me if I run MemTest for 17 iterations with ALL my memory modules, and it finds NO errors, that I should also expect repeating the test on a single module at a time would also find NO errors.  Either that, or the test doesn't really test all the modules.

In any event, could you please explain why the QPI/vtt range of 1.2-1.4V you recommend appears to be "dangerous" or "serious" in my drop down box where all the values above 1.210V are in purple?  Only values from 1.210V and lower appear in the "normal" black color font.

[Dark Mantis]

I would think that your memory is ok after you tested it all together and it passed. We shalll find out for sure shortly.

Often the BIOS has a certain range of settings that it expects to be used and they can be quite restrictive. It doesn't necessarilly mean that you can't use any settings outside of these but just colours them differently as a warning. You probably needn't go anywhere near 1.4v but try around the 1.2v end. A lot depends on the other settings  involved.

[BGood]

I would think that your memory is ok after you tested it all together and it passed. We shalll find out for sure shortly.

Often the BIOS has a certain range of settyings that it expects to be used and they can be quite restrictive. It doesn't necessarilly mean that you can't use any settings outside of these but just colours them differently as a warning. You probably needent go anywhere near 1.4v but try around the 1.2v end. A lot depends on the other settings  involved.

OK, thanks for sticking with me.  Just to be clear, I had reset everything in the BIOS using "Fail-Safe Defaults" and still had problems.  I'm not a tweaker or over-clocker.  I just tried to build a better Core i7 system that I could order from Dell.  And so far, I'm not entirely convinced.  True, I *love* having USB 3 ports, but I can assure you that had I had even 10% as many BSODs with a Dell as I have had with this, Dell would have replaced something major well before now (motherboard, CPU, or RAM) with far less work on my part.

If these problems persist, I may just get a new motherboard from another company.  I just don't see why bad RAM would cause ethernet ports to quit, inability to boot from a bootable flash drive connected to a USB 3 port, video "static" to appear on screen when a device is connected to only the "leftmost" USB 3 port.  These things, to me, seem like a motherboard problem.

Now to find out I must ship my motherboard back and wait some indeterminate amount of time for it to be "checked" is perhaps the final insult.

Thanks, though, for your time!!!

[Dark Mantis]

You are welcome I am just sorry we couldn't sort out your problems.