Boot Error from USB

Yes I changed the boot order to first boot device USB-HDD. No go. I even tried unplugging the SATA hard drive. No go.
Yes Legacy USB storage detect is enabled.

I went into Q-flash and reset those things and when that didn't work I reset the CMOS. And that didn't work either. I hope my board is not defective.
Here is my hardware:
AMD Athlon II 3.0Ghz
1.0TB Caviar Green 5400rpm (new)
2x2GB DDR2 800DIMM G.SKILL
270W power supply integrated with hEC case.
Micro ATX Gigabyte 785

FWIW I read USB woes and that doesn't seem to be the problem either. I do have a wireless logitech keyboard plugged into a USB port. Maybe Gigabyte is trying to boot that?

Kind of a busy day, but I can give it a try, later, if Murphy's Law doesn't "expand job to consume all available time and resources". I have Ubuntu d/l's here, and at least one bootable USB (by that I mean - one that won't corrupt my CMOS if I forget, leave it in, and inadvertently reboot the machine!)

Here's another thing to try (someone 'picked this up' from GB tech support, and I haven't a foggy clue how it can work - only that it sometimes does): set your first boot item to your USB, and set the second one (and I'm vague here, as I can't look up the wording GB manuals don't document the item, but all have it...) to "bootable disk controller card" - again, wording likely different, but I'd have to boot to see it, and I'm in the middle of a largish TechNet d/l...

Have you tried something like the HP format tool to make a 'plain vanilla' DOS boot stick? Will it boot?

Am making a test stick as I post. Did you enable 'persistence'?

I'm just trying to recreate the problem, here... 'Persistence is an option in the universal USB installer - appears to set up the drive so it will retain changes made to the Ubuntu config while running it, so the same changes 'persist' through the next boot; just concerned that it may make changes to the boot structure, which is what I want to examine...

Ok - made the bootable Ubuntu, but used this installer from windoze to save a reboot and 'groping around' in Linux, which I don't use often enough. Set BIOS to boot from "USB-HDD", with "Legacy USB storage detect" enabled - booted straightaway. Examined stick's MBR - pretty standard, 'plain-Jane' boot record. At this point can only recommend a few things: try the same installer with any convenient ubuntu.iso you have; try the 'old faithful' HP stick format utility to create a DOS bootable to double check; try a different (or, a few different) stick(s) - might just be a case of the well-know USB 'pickiness' that GBs in general exhibit... I can tell you a couple that won't work: don't bother with OCZ 'Deisels', or SanDisk 'Cruzers' - known incompatible...

Lacking an 'inside contact' with GB who could explain the phenomenon, I can only guess at the root cause, but I suspect GB BIOS are just more demanding of strict compliance with the USB specs - I guess at this, as a few cases of known 'non-working' devices (specifically some WD USB external backup drives, and [can't recall the manufacturer] a USB CD/DVD drive were later 'fixed' by new firmware from the mfgs... I have never been particularly put out by this, as I'm a fossil - I think we were on win95 or 98 when USB was first introduced... Then, if you could get any USB device working at all, you were considered both lucky, and a 'wizard' - and to get two working at once, on the same system - plainly impossible!

...do I take that to mean you don't have windoze on your system? If you give me a quick tutorial on where to find the 'stick maker' in Ubuntu, I can try that - would prefer 32bit, as 64 sometimes breaks one of my 'fakeraids'; only sometimes, and only one of the three RAID pairs, so I've been avoiding it until I can get around to putting in 10.04 - current version is 9.1 here...

Perhaps I need clarification here - if you posted basically to have a place to b!tch about it - I can respect that, but don't want to invest any more time if you're not really in search of a solution!

I exactly know your feeling. I have been trying to solve the gigabyte usb problem for about two months. It is the bios but what they don't tell you it is the brand /make of the usb if the bios sees the usb. Once the motherboard detects a likable usb then all is like one would expect..