Very Strange Motherboard Issue

OGAlex4D

Commendable
Jan 17, 2017
15
0
1,520
Gigabyte Z170X Gaming 3 Motherboard
Intel Core i5 6600k CPU
16GB DDR4 RAM
Gigabyte GTX 1060 6GB Graphics Card
250GB Samsung 850 EVO

So I am having a strange issue with my motherboard/bios that I can't seem to explain...

To give some backstory, this PC is a custom build, built about 2 months ago. I was having some issues with Windows/Chrome freezing, and I decided to bring my computer to a local repair shop where a friend works, and he ran a hardware test on it, and he said the results were "Motherboard DMA controller" and "Motherboard System Timer" failed but he did not seem to think these were a result of a failing board, and may be false negatives.

I got the computer home and simply unplugged the SATA and POWER from my SSD and plugged it all back in to another SATA port just in case. After this, the computer would not post at all. After fighting a bit with the unit, and taking out the graphics card, and resetting the CMOS battery, the system decided to post. I updated the BIOS next, as I wasn't sure if this was causing issues.

At this point, the computer boots just fine, with the "Gigabyte" splash screen and boots both into the bios AND Windows without my graphics card plugged in. When I plug in my graphics card, I get no "Gigabyte" splash screen, and I get just a black screen for a moment, then it loads to Windows. During this black screen, if I decide to hit "DEL" to load into the bios, the screen stays black, and does not load into Windows either. Almost as if trying to get into the bios prevents Windows from loading at all.

I'm not sure if I'm looking at a failing motherboard, a graphics card issue (which according to my friend, passed the hardware diagnostics) or some weird settings issues.

I have the BIOS set to load from PCI slot 1, which is what my dedicated graphics card is plugged in to, and I seem to be able to use my computer.

Not sure if my original issue will be fixed or not but now this appears to be a much bigger issue. While my computer is usable, I absolutely can not load into my BIOS (which, to be fair, I may not need to often) without taking out my dedicated graphics card.

Any issue is greatly appreciated.