Gigabyte Releases BIOS Update To Squash Intel Skylake Bug

News
By Rexly Peñaflorida
published

Three days after ASRock updated the BIOS on its motherboards to squash a serious bug on Intel’s sixth generation (Skylake) processors, Gigabyte came out with its own BIOS update to remove the same bug that froze or crashed computers during complex workloads.

The problem was discovered with Prime95, a program that stress tests the CPU to solve complex prime number equations. However, the bug isn’t just limited to Prime95, as it could also affect other applications used for scientific and financial purposes.

Intel wants to nip the problem in the bud before it affects even more users, and it’s working with OEMs to get a fix out as fast possible. As it turns out, Gigabyte was one of the first companies to get the fix.

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13 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Gam3r01
    No fire this time around?
    Step up your game Gigabyte.

    Jokes aside, glad to see another manufacturer has updated their platform.
    Reply
  • Ronnie Dean Davidson
    And???
    Aren't you going to tell us just what the "fix" does?
    I mean...at $255 a pop (for the i5-6600) does the fix disable something were paying for?
    If so...then drop the prices of these CPU to make up for it...if not...then tell us how it fixes the problem!
    Reply
  • notsoswift1
    SO when is ASUS releasing the fix?
    Reply
  • hobbsmeerkat
    17404886 said:
    And???
    Aren't you going to tell us just what the "fix" does?
    I mean...at $255 a pop (for the i5-6600) does the fix disable something were paying for?
    If so...then drop the prices of these CPU to make up for it...if not...then tell us how it fixes the problem!

    The issue is related to very specific calculations involving "prime numbers" (3,5,7,11,13,17... etc.) that may occasionally cause the system to freeze or crash unexpectedly. It currently affects all current Skylake CPU's from the Core and Xeon E3 lines.
    However, it does not affect 99% of people running Skylake systems under normal conditions, and the update doesn't "disable" any features, or hurt performance, it just implements a fix to prevent crashing when running those specific kinds of complex calculations & workloads. (or those stress testing with Prime95)

    You can read more about the Skylake Bug here.
    Reply
  • Paul NZ
    17405047 said:
    SO when is ASUS releasing the fix?

    Have you updated the BIOS to see if the BIOS on the site fixes it?

    Reply
  • farlandprince
    fix or no fix no one likes to buy a buggy CPU ...

    If I buy a new Machine today it would be X99 with Haswel-E CPU ..
    Reply
  • eltoro
    This bug comes into effect when the CPU is heavily stressed.
    I'm curious if all of the released bios updates (first by Asrock, now by Gigabyte) to eliminate this bug do so by slowing the rate in which commands reach the CPU, thus lowering the performance too.
    Reply
  • Non-Euclidean
    SO when is ASUS releasing the fix?

    After they come up with their acid motifed graphic!
    Reply
  • SpAwNtoHell
    Yes assus did it also i done it myself on both skylake mb last week, tho was not in the news section, or maybe it did not cover all motherboards just yet. So best is to check your mb support page.
    Reply
  • notsoswift1
    17405047 said:
    SO when is ASUS releasing the fix?

    Have you updated the BIOS to see if the BIOS on the site fixes it?

    Looks like ASUS has released a BIOS Update.
    "Z170-PREMIUM BIOS 1602
    "Update Microcode and improve system compatibility."
    "
    http://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/Z170-PREMIUM/HelpDesk_Download/

    Looks like I can run some benchmarks now.
    Reply