Hi there, I'm having massive issues with the mentioned board, which is only 1 month old. I've been in touch with gigabytes technical support about this. The've ran me round in circles for weeks, doing various tests that has done nothing to help the situation and is actualy responsible for the death of my spare cpu and further degragation of the board. Since then, they refuse to answer any further questions posed and I'm extremly angry now at the service I've received.
Let me highlight the issues, post picture proof of them all and link reviews and problem posts that show that the issues I'm having with this board are not isolated.
Issues started with massive misreads from variouse temp sensors and fan readings plus signs of instability ( hard lock during gaming ). Ie 82 degrees max temp for mother board, cpu, aux etc. Even the cpu fan shows as the power fan in the bios.
Screen shot of log generated by everest ultimate showing temperature missreads.
http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/5923/log2g.jpgPlease note that in the above pic, the max temps for most items are confirmed as missreads. Also, what reports as motherboard isn't the motherboard temp. What reports as AUX is infact the motherboard system temperature.
Following comunication with gigabyte, I've tried flashing with several bios revisions. At some point during this something went massivley wrong as the ppm stoped volting the cpu with the correct voltage. I didn't notice this and proceded to try a spare cpu, as advised by gigabyte support. This lasted less than 5 minutes in the system before it was killed completely.
Following the failure of my spare cpu, I've since noted several severe voltage issues with the board including the fact that normal voltage settings for cpu are not only unstable, but a normal setting on a 1.35v cpu is giving 1.45v vcore.
Long and short, through testing I've discovered...
If vcore is set at normal ( stock ) I get a vcore of 1.45 volts ( 0.1v deviation )
If vcore is set at [+0.025v] I get a vcore of 1.412 volts.
If vcore is set at [-0.025v] I get a vcore of 1.35 volts exactly ( stock vcore )
Stock voltage settings screen shot from bios settings.
http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/126/stockvoltagebiossettingw.jpgResulting voltages screen shot from bios/pchealth
http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/1485/stockvoltagebioshealth.jpgIf set at [-0.025v], the cpu still wasn't stable although the resluting vcore was bang on. So at a hunch, I set the cpu nb vid to [-0.025v]. This stabalised the cpu again.
Stable voltage settings screen shot from bios settings.
http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/2158/stablebiossettings.jpgResulting voltages screen shot from bios/pchealth
http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/3859/stablebioshealth.jpgAs if that wasn't bad enough, I've since logged in desktop and watched in pchealth, with my own eyes, the board surging the cpu all the way up to as much as a reported 2.60v for a split second now and again. It's surging it to a huge degree. Although only lasting a few miliseconds, this is still very dangerous. I wouldn't think it possible if it werent for the fact that the bios pchealth shows it happening and instability seems to tie in on the timing of the surges.
Picture of log showing vcore surge.
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/6333/logwn.jpgI'm having loads of stability issues with this board that tie in with the voltage issues.
To answer the odvious questions, I've ruled out my psu. Infact I bought a new psu once I started getting issues thinking my 1000watt server grade psu was faulty.
I've ruled out every other component as I've tested it with variouse ram dimms, gfx cards etc...
I want to know why gigabyte support have refused to respond to any questions since I complained in a civel manner, about the death of my spare cpu.
I want to rma this board but I beleive I need them to autherise this, which is impossible since they wont respond any more.
If they hadn't ran me around for so long I could have returned this board to the trader I bought it from and got my money back but now I'm stuck with this.
To further add to this, I've found proof online that not only is this mother board known to give those insane temperature readings, but also that other gigabyte users are having issues with the voltage of there cpu's.
A review of my board that shows the reviewer having the insane temp readings. Please note that in this reveiwers case, he beleives that the temps are caused by a lack of air flow wherre they are infact missreads.
http://www.trustedreviews.com/motherboards/review/2009/04/16/Gigabyte-GA-M720-US3/p2A case of a gigabyte user getting the same voltage issue. Please scroll down to madness 3d's post midway down the page.
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/page-258103_10_0.htmlThere's loads more examples of this out there. Better ones than I've linked. I just link these two for quickness.
I realy strongly believe there is a design + component issue here. This is probably the worst example I've presented to you but it isn't an isolated issue. There loads of issues similar to this out there if you search with google properly.
To cap it all...
The board is reporting temps wrongly.
The vcore and cpu nb vid are deviating strangely.
The board seems to be surging the cpu.
It has killed my spare cpu.
I may add that I'm disapointed with this. I've had this board for about a month now and it's this bad already.
Look, 50,000 hour solid state capacitors and a 2oz copper pcb are pointless when components on the board can go down as quick and easily.
Sorry, rant over. I'm sure you can understand why I'm upset though.
Could someone please help me initiate rma for this board?
Edit: Just found an rma email on this forum. Should have read the forum first.
