GA-EP45-DQ6 motherboard caught in boot loop + what do LEDs mean?

[pwl]

I have three GA-EP45-DQ6 motherboards and one had the same problem unable to boot or even POST with a three second boot loop that keeps retrying over and over and over again (the lights come on, the fan starts then stops, then other LEDs stay lit then nothing as it tries again). After troubleshooting the new system by essentially removing everything including the DRAM, VideoCard, Hard Drives, USB connectors, Front Panel connectors, and even swapping the power supply to rule it out it was obvious that it was either the CPU, the CPU fan or the motherboard.

So I got an identical replacement board and moved the CPU and fan to that board. No problems, worked the very first time! Then added back the DRAM, VideoCard, HardDrives, USB, Front Panel connectors, etc... system booting within minutes - just like it should be.

After a few hours of chasing down Gigabytes documentation for info on what the darn LEDs actually mean it's clear that the board was having "over voltage" problems and some other problems as the trouble diagnostic LEDs were showing by staying lit. The "MD1 LED" was green while the "MD2" LED was yellow with another two LEDs near the CPU lit up, one green and one yellow - unfortunately the label for that set of LEDs wasn't clearly marked (nor visible).

It sure would be nice if Gigabyte expanded on and more clearly explained what these LEDs mean so that we don't grope around in the dark looking for their meaning. Anyway, dead motherboard is now back at the distributor awaiting a replacement from Gigabyte.

I love the GA-EP45-DQ6 board for desktop and server applications. I'll likely end up with ten to twenty of them (or their offspring). (They also make great PC OSX boards).

In particular the diagnostic LEDs are very nice once you get what they mean. Very helpful while building the board. I have another board, an Asus P5K Deluxe, that also looks dead and it doesn't give any indications as to why.

The power switch that is on the GA-EP45-DQ6 is also awesome since it saves having to connect the case front panel to the board. This allows you to build the computer and test it BEFORE even putting it into a case, something that seems to be important especially when motherboards can arrive bad before you even plug them in.

It would likely be much cheaper for Gigabyte if they improved their quality control and caught these motherboard problems before the motherboard leaves the factory!

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: GA-EP45-DQ6 motherboard caught in boot loop + what do LEDs mean?

If you meant the below LED's they are the phase LED's for the CPU Power cycles. They are red, green, Orange and yellow. And there is 3 for color for each CPU Power Phase >>>



If those were the ones you are referring to they had Nothing to do with your issues. See below about MD1+2, Which also will not cause a Boot failure/cycle

As for your dead board I think You simply needed to clear your CMOS fully and properly on the board you sent back. Not trying to sound offensive or anything at all, just letting you know incase you have this issue again, which you very well might if you are a overclocker. I have had many boards in this cycle state and a Clear CMOS fully has always caused a CMOS checksum error which will allow you to correct the BIOS Bootblock issue that causes the cycle by choosing a Last Know Good BIOS setting, or several other choices.

The only LED's that indicate problems are single LED's, mostly Blue, spread around various places on the Board and they are labeled with a corresponding Hardware item.

Here is the image of all of the diagnostic LED's incase anyone wonders in the future >>>>



Sorry you had to RMA, I only wish you would have posted beforehand. I may have been able to help save you the hassle. But then again, you could be correct about your findings, and I am just misunderstanding the LED's you had in mind

Good Luck with your new board, and hope your RMA is fast.

*Pre-Post Edit* I did check your manual, and sorry for the above LED Business. I will leave it though incase Anyone later wonders about those LED's. I see do you have have a Specific MD 1 + 2 LED as you mentioned, sorry for my confusion amongst board models. Here is what each MD1 and MD2 LED means >>>>

MD1/MD2

There are two defined card lengths for low profile PCI cards: MD1 and MD2.
MD1 defines the shortest 32-bit card length available (121.79 mm) and MD2 defines the maximum card length of 169.52 mm and can accommodate 32-bit or 64-bit PCI Bus connector standards.

Depending on which card length you have installed the corresponding light will be lit. I am not for sure how Gigabyte has them setup, but I do know for sure that this is a informative LED and not a indicator of any failure or issue. And I do not know how they would/should react if you are using a NON low profile card. Sorry this was all I could find

I see you posted at Tom's Hardware, maybe you can repost this information there for others. I know it is not very informative, but it was the best I could get.

What You should do is forward this thread and your question to Gigabyte Tech and hopefully they can provide you a direct answer. If they do, can you please post back incase anyone asks in the future. I would appreciate it much

[pwl]

Re: GA-EP45-DQ6 motherboard caught in boot loop + what do LEDs mean?

Hi, thanks very much for the extensive and excellent posting about the gigabyte LEDs.

There were a couple of other LEDs near the CPU next to the heat sink between the CPU and the slots. If there was a label for these I could not find it or it was covered by the largish capacitor that is next to it. These two were lit green and yellow.

I tried reseting the CMOS with the on board CMOS reset button. Could you confirm the correct procedure to ensure I did it right. I simply held it down for a few seconds on boot up.

I also left the motherboard battery out all night for at least eight hours. Would that reset the CMOS bios settings?

It's strange that the MD1 and MD2 LEDs would be lit even though there were NO boards installed! Could it mean that there was a problem with one of the slots since the LEDs were lit without any boards installed? There were boards installed but I removed them once the trouble shooting focused directly on the motherboard.

Thanks again for your excellent posing.

Peter

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: GA-EP45-DQ6 motherboard caught in boot loop + what do LEDs mean?

I have had mixed experiances with my Clear CMOS Button. Once I used it with the system plugged in and just held it in for about a Minute and it worked fine. Other times I had tried this with no luck. A few times I had it work with the PSU Unplugged, and again other times I had to remove the battery and press the button for a minute.

So to be sure you may want/need to try all of the above. You will know when it clears because you will get the CMOS CheckSum error screen. You will see this screen after a Proper CMOS Clear, the screen is black and will say Checksum error with a large box that allows you to choose Last known Good, Optimized defaults, ect.

Sometimes if you are doing the battery ONLY method that can take up to 24hours. Best to either use the button or a Jumper on the Clear CMOS Pins. You may also speed things up by unplugging the PSU and holding in the Case or Board Power Switch to drain remaining power out of the system

When you say boards, talking about the MD1 and MD2 leds, you meant Graphic cards right? I am really not sure, lit may mean no card or something else. Like I said above, I am really not sure how they are configured to be lit up or not , and that is for sure not a official Gigabyte Answer. Wish I could help you more with those LED's. You Did RMA the board already though right?

What you can do is contact Tech support and see if they will give you a Answer about these LED's, have you done that yet? They may take a few days to reply, but they should tell you. Try not to make it a Issue, just a short question about what those LED's are for, and how they should be lit. Shorter and non problematic question would likely get you a better answer as opposed to a long email about a problem that they would then translate and try to help you with. Get what I mean? Hope so, if not let me know and I will explain it again differently I suppose. Here is where you could email them to ask this >>>>
GIGABYTE - Support - Technical Service Zone

Good luck with your RMA, and post back anytime if you need some help. I will try my best to help you out.

[cnl18s]

Re: GA-EP45-DQ6 motherboard caught in boot loop + what do LEDs mean?

Hi,

I have the same issue as this person. Same LED lights, No video, no reboots, no sounds.

I posted another thread to this, to ensure my issues are handled separately:

New GA-EP45-DQ6 Motherboard may be DOA - TweakTown Forums

Please let me know if there are things I can do to resolve it.

Thanks!

[Dr. Paul]

Re: GA-EP45-DQ6 motherboard caught in boot loop + what do LEDs mean?

Similar Problem. System 9 months old. Antec 1200 case, Gigabyte GA-EP45-DQ6 (BIOS F12) MB with Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 Eo stepping with fanned TRUE. Corsair Dominator 2X2GB 1066 8500 C5DF (5-5-5-15 2T) with Corsair fan, ASUS EAH 4870 DK/HTDI/1GD5, Seagate Barracuda 7200.22 SATA 1TB, SAMSUNG DVD Burner SATA SH-S223F, Pioneer Blu-Ray Reader SATA BDC-2202, Corsair HX1000W and Vista Ultimate64 bit.
Originally OC to 4.2, but not at optimized BIOS settings 3.3.
For past several days, develooped similar problem with a continuous loop after a normal shutdown where system would start to the Logo and then recycle Unable to POST. However, if I turned the power switch off for 15 to 30 sec., the system would boot normallyand function normally. AVASTI! scan normal. After normal shutdown, same loop would develop unless I turned the power off. Today, the monitor shows no signal from the computer. The M1 LED is yellow, M2 LED is green. The Gi & G2 appear to both be yellow intermittantly. Also the PCI_LED intermittantly is blue.
Changed the power connectors to the video card without any benefit.
A new video card, MB or PSU seem like the solution, but I am open to ideas. I will try a CMOS clear procedure. Now that the monitor does not recognize the computer connection makes me thing more along the video card being the culpert.
Thanks for the help.
Paul

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: GA-EP45-DQ6 motherboard caught in boot loop + what do LEDs mean?

So you can't enter the BIOS anymore now? Does the system stay running? Do you get any error beeps or just the normal 1 beep at startup?

Yes please try to clear the CMOS as I outline in Post #2 of this thread >>

http://forums.tweaktown.com/f69/bios-flashing-how-qflash-guide-27576/

If you are seeing a logo or anything on your screen then it is not too likely the GFX Card is bad, at least I do not think anything you have said leans this way yet.

If you need more help after that and do not have any luck post back and I will give you some other suggestions.

[Dr. Paul]

Re: GA-EP45-DQ6 motherboard caught in boot loop + what do LEDs mean?

When I start up, the system opens to the G. logo, then shuts down and then starts a continuous loop back to the G. logo and off again.
However, when I shut the system down and turn off the power for 15 to 30 sec. and then start up, the system works normally and I can get into the BIOS and also can get into Windows where everything appears to work normally.
When I shut down normally again, the restart, the loop occurs. The only way to get into Windows is to shut the power off.
Spoke with Corsair tech. He thinks that it is a capacitor problem with the PSU and I am having it replaced.
Hopefully, this will solve the problem.
BTW, I also did a CMOS clear without any changes in the above problem.
Thanks.
Paul

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: GA-EP45-DQ6 motherboard caught in boot loop + what do LEDs mean?

Let us know if the new PSU Solves things. If not I will have a look at your settings and help you test your memory to be sure settings or faulty memory is not to blame.

It could just be settings, if they are incorrect this could happen. And yes, Auto or Defaults can be incorrect.

Let us know when you get the new PSU if things are fixed or not

[Dr. Paul]

Re: GA-EP45-DQ6 motherboard caught in boot loop + what do LEDs mean?

Sorry for the long delay in responding to the starting problem.
I spoke with Corsiar Tech and they finally send me a new HX1000W PSU that arrived last night.
Once connected, the problem of the start up loop has completely gone away.
I retrospect, I think that there was a capacitor problem where it was not completely discharging at shutdown. Then with restart, there was overvoltage to the MB. The GD1 & GD2 and MD1 & MD2 LEDs were yellow consistant with overvoltage. They do not light up now and everything seems to be working.
Thanks for the help.
Paul

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: GA-EP45-DQ6 motherboard caught in boot loop + what do LEDs mean?

Great to hear back on this, and nice to see your issue is resolved!

I see more and more PSU issues these days, somewhere quality control is lacking!

[edleen]

Re: GA-EP45-DQ6 motherboard caught in boot loop + what do LEDs mean?

I am sorry to post in this old thread, but I have the same problem as the original poster with the bootloop, and from the answers throughout the post, it was hard for me to find the explanation and possible, solution.

When I power on the computer, the MD1 and MD2 (green and blue) lights light up shortly and for everytime the system reboots, the lights flash again.

I also have 2 LED's flashing near the CPU as the original poster and I have tried removing hardware from the motherboard as well.

What I am most interested in finding out is, does the LED's mean anything useful in this coherence, and if the problem was with the motherboard or the PSU in the end? (so I know which one to replace) :)

Sry for the bother!