Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 - Restarting several times before boot

[Bicceh]

Hi

You'll have to forgive me with my 'noobishness' in this area of computers but i'm a complete beginner when it comes to motherboards so i thought i'd try my luck here to see if anyone could advise me on what to do. I purchased a custom built PC just before xmas using the Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 and, over the last week, i've started having problems booting.

First of all i would try to turn on my computer and, after about 5-6 seconds it would just shutdown. I wouldnt even get to the first boot screen or anything like that, it would shutdown before my monitor would even start working. This would happen about 5-10times and then after that my computer would boot and be 100% fine after that. I could shut it down and reboot it and it would work, but after long hours of it being off it would do the same as above.

Since finding this issue i've changed the power cables + 4 way adaptor with no effect, and yesterday i tried resetting the CMOS by removing the battery. The difference now is it gets through the boot but now turns off just before it starts to load windows. This still happens after about 5-6 seconds so the timeframe hasn't changed.

I've seen that the new BETA BIOS build says that it 'Improves Power On Issue' - would this be something i should look at getting? I'm not really fond of flashing the BIOS as i know how wrong things can go with it. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Full system Specs below.

Many Thanks

Tom

CPU:  Intel Core i5 2500K
CPU Cooler: Corsair H60 Water Cooler
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium (64 Bit)
Motherboard:  Gigabyte Z68AP-D3
Memory: 8GB Corsair 1600mhz Vengeance (2x 4GB)
Hard Drives:  500GB S-ATAII 3.0Gb/s
Graphics card:  AMD Radeon HD 6870 1GB
Sound card:  Onboard 7.1 Audio
Case:  Zalman Z9 Plus
PSU:  650W Corsair TX Ultra-Quiet

[absic]

Hi there,

yes, updating to the latest BIOS is the best way to try and resolve this issue as it does seem to pretty common, I have been suffering the same thing with my own GA-Z68x-UD3P-B3 board.

I would recommend that you use QFlash to update the BIOS. If you're not sure about using this utility check here: http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,2441.msg13929.html#msg13929 Remember to disable the "Keep DMI Data" option on the QFlash homescreen before running the update.

Once you have flashed the BIOS and made the necessary changes I would also recommend copying the Main BIOS to the Back-up BIOS chip as this can also help. To do this shutdown the PC and restart after about 30 seconds. Press the "Alt + F12" keys simultaneously as the PC starts up (as you would the "Del" key to go into BIOS. and then follow the on-screen prompts. You may have to shutdown the PC and restart several times before the key sequence registers and it is often better to use a PS/2 keyboard for this, if possible.

After the Main BIOS has been copied to the Back-up BIOS chip shutdown the PC, wait about 30 - 45 seconds then start as normal.

[Bicceh]

Cheers for the advice i'll crack on with that tonight and post how i get on. Do you suggest flashing the BIOS before backing up my current BIOS file?

[absic]

Being totally honest I have never bothered with backing up a BIOS file.

If you want to go back to a previous version of the BIOS it is just as easy to do as flashing to a newer version, using QFlash and I just download the BIOS version I want to use. Why make things too complicated. 

[Bicceh]

Makes sense to me! I'll see what happens tonight and post back here. Hopefully it fixes it anyway, been driving me mad the last few days.

[Bicceh]

Well that was painless! Bios was updated without any problems however i went through the QFlash several times before doing it as i couldnt find the 'Keep DMI Data' option for the life of me - anyone care to say where it is? If it's a big issue i guess i can do it again but i honestly couldn't see it anywhere

I'll update tomorrow on if this has fixed it

[absic]

The "Keep DMI Data" Option usually appears as the first item in a list of four on the QFlash homepage. You need to use the up and down arrows on the keyboard to highlight it and the "Page Up" or Page Down" keys to alter it from Disabled to Enabled.

It is not essential to disable this option (which can also be found in @BIOS) but it can help eliminate possible issues with the hardware being recognised incorrectly, especially if you have added new components such as RAM in an effort to resolve a problem prior to updating the BIOS.

[Bicceh]

Yea i opened my eyes and noticed it straight after i flashed the BIOS went in and did it again with it disabled just to make sure.

Turned the computer on this morning and had no issues. Booted first time which it hasn't done in ages

[Lsdmeasap]

Hopefully that new BIOS will sort this out for you for good now!!

[Bicceh]

Been a week since i did the BIOS Update and can confirm i've had no issues since Cheers for all the advice, hopefully i'll never have to raise a post about it again

[dhrkotsemmer]

I've had the same problem with my system which I just bought not a week ago and which came with the newest BIOS (FB). After a couple of reboots it would lower the memory speed from 1600MHZ (the memory IS 1600MHz and nothing's overclocked) to 1333MHz and everything would be fine. After a few minutes I could go into the BIOS, raise memory speed again to 1600MHz and boot into the OS.

I think it's memory related.

[absic]

Actually the latest BIOS for your motherboard is FCc and it would be worth updating to this version as it says it addresses the power on issue. You can download it from here: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4015&dl=1#bios and I would recommend using QFlash to run the update.

[cjapeterborough]

Thought I would chime in as although a newbie to this board I have been trawling the forums for a while having just put together a rig with a Z68AP-D3 +2600K and have had a few issues .

BTW I have a Rev1 board(F7C) -note the post above refers to the latest bios for the Rev 2 not the Rev 1 (OP may have either)
My observations are that there does seem to be bios issues with the board finding it difficult to hold overclocking changes.

Ironically I had similar issues with overclocking on a GB P45 chipset board with a Q6600 but that is another story.....

It definately improves stability using latest bios and copying the main bios to the backuo bios.

At present I am still forced to leave everything on auto and use the turbo multiplier to overclock to maintain settings
and am happy enough with a 4.4Ghz stable overclock.

Manual voltage changes invariably result in the overclock failed message with reversion to defaults on 2nd boot

Strange..... but if the first failed overclock message is ignored the bios setting hold for that particular boot but are then reset
on the next boot.

I have updated to the etron USB 3.0 109 and have the latest Intel ME version.

There  seem to be similar issues with the Z68 chipset boards across the Gigabyte range and there are other posts recommending that users avoid using the reset or ctr/alt/del to reboot......proper shutdown and start has reduced the overclock failed messages.

Hope the above observations help!

Regards

Chris from the UK


Full system specs are:

Z68AP-D3 Rev 1
2600K
Coolit Eco ALC 120 (Twin12cm CM Sickleflow in push pull)
4x4Gb Crucial Ballistix Sport 1600
On chip graphics (hdmi)
OCZ Stealth-X-Steam 600W
2XSeagate 500GB Raid1(W7U 64Bit)
1X2TB Seagate
Corsair 60Gb Cache

[Lsdmeasap]

Please see my post here, for any user with this board and issues
http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,8263.0.html