Gigabyte Z77 D3H BIOS hell?

lemming3k

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Hi,

I've built the following machine:

Gigabyte Z77 D3H
i5 3570K
8GB Corsair Vengance 1600mhz
Sapphire HD7850
Antec Truepower 650w
3HDDs, 1 SSD.

I'm having some major issues with the Z77 bios:
Few system instability issues, so I Qflashed it to F14(from F10). It said this was successful but after that I just got a corrupt bios screen whenever I tried to get into the bios, use Qflash(any of the bios options on boot), although the machine could boot and function fine. It was a black screen with a bit of blue at the top with gigabyte UEFI dual bios written on it.

I've contacted support from the retailer and gigabyte and not had much luck solving it:
Can't flash it again because of corruption. Can't change any bios settings.
Tried booting from the second bios (ctrl F10 IIRC?) - no change.
Tried removing the CMOS - no change.
Tried various HD variations (individually and all together) - no change.

Was getting ready to RMA it, took all the cables off (CPU fans, Power LEDs etc) - Then had to put them all back in as my 3TB drive isn't recognised in my old system and I needed to back some data up. I hadn't removed the RAM, GPU or CPU at this point just the silly cables.
Tried the bios for some reason and it worked!

It's been running fine for 4 days, slowly building up the drivers and updates, able to get into the bios, confirmed F14 was installed on it and it's still detecting everything correctly - then today it's gone back to the black screen AGAIN! I booted up and SP1 was waiting if that's possibly relevant. I'm guessing it's a driver/software based issue but I have no idea what the conflicting object could be or how to restore the bios again. I can't believe taking the fan cables off made a difference but it seemed to?

Anyone experienced this? Is it really an intermittent or corrupt bios/board or am I right that it could be drivers or O/S based?
 
with cmos bios you need to go in order as each one as a small code change...i would go into the bios and use the f6 key..to go into the dos bios flash of the mb. i would then flash the bios back to f10 and then reboot..then flash bios to f11 then f12..f13..f14 and see if the error gone.
 

lemming3k

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Thanks Nikorr - yes it was a clean windows install(new hard drive), and this was repeated saturday after I found the bios working again.

SP1 is installed now, but obviously wasn't with a clean windows install.

I was having some bluescreen and graphical issues, looking at the bios updates list it showed F10 was released just before my ivybridge processor and F14 improved CPU stability so it seemed the two would be linked - it was much improved after the bios flash which it said was successful - and must have been since I do now have F14. I have no idea why it started to work again and then stopped again as I didn't flash it at that point.

I might try and clear CMOS again later, but it didn't help at all last time.

Smorizio - I can't get into the bios to change or flash anything, it just displays a black screen and freezes.
 

lemming3k

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Well I tried the CMOS again - get 3 options, Enter Bios, Load Optimized defaults and boot, Load Optimized defaults and reboot - all three just go to a black screen and do nothing. After reset I still can't get into the bios.
 
Can u try to make a run outside of the PC, with only CPU+FAN + RAM and PSU with connection to the LCD to see if it starts the BIOS?

All that installed to your mobo that is sitting just on the paper box it came in.

If that will be OK, than hook up the system drive.



That way we can eliminate any short in the case.

 
And do u do all that? -> Reset the CMOS memory the right way as is described in the motherboard manual using the clear CMOS link with the power cord unplugged.
And when the battery is out, press the power button to discharge all the electricity from the system.
 

lemming3k

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Yes I did all that.
I could try the CPU tomorow, although I didn't remove it last time when the bios started working again, and I would have thought a short would affect the machine after boot up rather than just prevent bios access?
I'm still thinking driver/software related in some way? Checking the log files it seems there was a shutdown issue last night shortly after SP1 first tried to install.
Tried a system restore but it failed to complete. Alt+F10 doesn't seem to do anything either. Think tomorrow I might try to repeat exactly what I did saturday and see what happens. The machine itself seems to be running beautifully.
 

lemming3k

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It's a 4pin on this board + 6pin for my GPU. Unfortunately I don't have another PSU with that kind of power but it's pretty new. Is there any reason a PSU wouldn't boot into the bios but would run everything else?

I'll see about a bios flashback tomorrow, but the current bios was working a couple days back, even if it hasn't lasted long. I'm just trying to go by what has changed on the system over the past couple days.
 
Can u try to make a run outside of the PC, with only CPU+FAN + RAM and PSU with connection to the LCD to see if it starts the BIOS?

All that installed to your mobo that is sitting just on the paper box it came in.

If that will be OK, than hook up the system drive.

It may be shorting inside of the case.
 

lemming3k

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Well, that's what I mean, the only current issue is getting into the bios, I'm not getting anymore BSOD's or freezes at any other time since the bios flash, and don't seem to have any issues booting or running the machine (even under load for gaming). If it was a piece of hardware I'd think motherboard or GPU, but removing the GPU made no difference last time so that should just leave the board.

Yes I did use the standoffs. I'll try tonight to disconnect some components and see what happens.
 

TenPc

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According the the Gigabyte motherboard Bios update version, the highest and latest is is F12 for Socket 1155 - Intel Z77 - GA-Z77-D3H (rev. 1.0)

http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/cpu-support-popup.aspx?pid=4140

I think you have corrupted your bios by flashing an incorrect version (unless the specs I've listed are not for your PC) and basically have "fried" your motherboard.

System instability is rarely, if ever, a bios problem (set at factory defaults and no overclocking) but more likely a driver issue if all the other components do comply equally.
 

lemming3k

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According to the gigabyte site F14 is the latest, with F15f being the latest beta(on another site).
http://uk.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4140&dl=1#bios

If you click through from your page it also takes you to this page so I think your link might be out of date.