Gigabyte GA-M57SLI-S4 Random Issues

[reservoirdog]

This board has been running brilliantly up until about 5 months ago.
The problems I have are intermittent and I would get random blue screens.

The most common one I get is "that the motherboard is not ACPI compliant and I should disable it during installation"... but I'm not installing anything
and the other BSOD I get is the "standard one" where Windows says there's an issue with newly installed drivers, software or hardware... but once again nothing was/is being installed

I've tested memory, upgraded PSU and changed SATA cables. BIOS and drivers are up to date, and there's no temperature, i.e. overheating issues.
Windows has probably been re-installed about 5 times over the past 3 months (fresh copies on partitioned/formatted drives). Everything seems fine in the beginning, then things just go hay-wire again.

I have been able to do succesful load and benchmark tests at one stage without any issue.

The board has been RMA'ed, but the company claims to have load tested the board and CPU without any problems.

I disagree with their findings and think there is an issue with the board. Or am I crazy?
Any help/suggestions/experience would be very welcome please

 

[auscanzukus]

The mobo maker can't and won't guarantee 100% compatibility with zillion pc parts. So they will test their products with some common parts and that's it. Unless they can get their hands on your parts, their test will check out every time.

Could be software as well. Did you clear cmos for 10 mins & load bios default?

 

[reservoirdog]

Thanks for the reply.
Hmmmm, I've done the whole clearing thing BIOS thing already. Makes no difference.

I read in one of the posts on this board that USB devices could cause random issues as well. Could that be a possible culprit?

I have got several USB devices connected.
If so, would it be the cable or device itself? Both my keyboard and mouse are USB connected.
The more I think about it, and the sudden randomness of the problem given in the other post, it sounds likely. Or what?

 

[auscanzukus]

The USB device itself could be the culprit. Stay away from cheap-o ones like card readers. Gen-speak, if you buy brand names, you should be ok. i.e. Logitech/Microsoft.

Unplug all but USB keyb/mouse & try again.

 

[reservoirdog]

Yep, I have determined now that it's definitely my external card reader. That is UNBELIEVABLY annoying, 'cause I've spent so much time and money now, just to find out it's some cheap dingey USB thing that's causing the issue.

I've got a different motherboard in now, and as soon as I plug the same device in, the system goes all haywire
Well, one more piece of "electronic equipment" for the recycling dump.

The funny thing is though, I never go no-name brand or cheap when it comes to my setup, but when I bought the card reader I kew it's something I'm not going to use very often so there's no point spending the extra bit. Serves me right.

Thanks so much for all your help mate. I salute you!