Why I'd Never Use Gigabyte Products Again

[fatguy1992]

[Psycho101]

Re: Why I'd Never Use Gigabyte Products Again

Sorry you're unhappy with what you've bought. I completely understand your frustration.

I just wanted to say that although you have had bad experiences, others are very happy. As with any manufacturer, it's a double edged sword. Seems like you unfortunately got the side that cuts.

I've been perfectly happy with my EP45-UD3P. It's been the easiest board to get stable that I've ever used, and |I|'m no stranger to over clocking systems.

As for your 9400GT, there are several different versions of the card available. For instance there is a version with GDDR2 RAM and a 128bit memory bus, a version with GDDR2 and a 64 bit bus (the half size HTPC card) and the best version with GDDR3 and a 128 bit memory bus. The reference design specs state that which GDDR RAM is used is up to the manufacturer. Likely you bought the GDDR2 version. Unfortunate but not Gigabytes fault. See the specs list in this review for VRAM options:

[randomness]

Re: Why I'd Never Use Gigabyte Products Again

Dont worry...i had the same issue with 2 EP45-DS3P's.

Even worse than ur situation.
First board was fine...FOR ONLY A WEEK! until i got an unrecoverable BIOS checksum error which kept making the backup bios flash the main bios. It was in an infinite loop which i had to RMA.

Funnily enough, new board arrived and i used it fine for a day. NEXT day i turn it on, i hope no BIOS checksum errors. BUT guess wat?? a BIOS checksum Error. I got extremely pissed off and ive used gigabyte parts for the past 4 years and no problem.

SO, i RMA again and this time i used an ASUS board wich is still running perfectly now.

sigh to gigabyte and their "dual bios" =.="

[BoombasticSloth]

Re: Why I'd Never Use Gigabyte Products Again

Like Psycho mentioned, there will always be lemons for all manufacturers. It of course does not take anything away from the bad experiences that some have had to deal with. I have 2 ud3p boards, and that was after using about 6-8 mobo from asus prior to that. I just wanted to try some other brand and gigabyte was on the short list. Up to date, of all the computers I have built, the ud3p is my favorite.

[SHSPVR]

Re: Why I'd Never Use Gigabyte Products Again

Here a hint stop overclocking the carp out of your motherbaord and maybe it last longer then a few months
You know I own min Gigabyte motherboard even some dating 20+ year ago.
The way I look at it that your problem for Overclock it in frist place.

[Psycho101]

Re: Why I'd Never Use Gigabyte Products Again

In a way it may be our faults if things go belly up when over clocking. I agree with you to an extent SHSPVR.

Gigabyte and most other board manufacturers are just as guilty though for perpetuating peoples want and compulsion to over clock. The OC scene is now taken advantage of by countless manufacturers of boards, RAM GPU's & Graphics cards, CPU's PSU's etc etc. You name it, they brag about it being in some kind of world record attempt. "The CPU that stays stable at -200c" etc.

They milk over clocking, but in an instant if you mention OCing and a failed component, repeat the age old mantra: "You overclocked, so no warranty for you". A bit hypercritical in my book. Not too serious though, mostly it's a "don't ask don't tell" thing when it comes to RMA's.

With component quality the way it is today I can say with 99% certainty that fatguy1992's hardware was not damaged due to over clocking. He cools everything well (think I read about / saw pics on XS of him using phase change. If it's not safe to over clock with a freezer strapped to your CPU then I don't know what is. How do you make it more component friendly than that? I suppose liquid Nitrogen or liquid Helium would keep board temps much much lower, but still...

[yoshi68]

Re: Why I'd Never Use Gigabyte Products Again

What does it achieve jumping onto a forum about Gigabyte products, not to ask for advice or any questions only to have a rant about some problems that you immediatly dump straight onto Gigabyte.

Your first board is an intermittent fault. Who charged you the testing fee (was it gigabyte or the shop you took it to)? I work in IT and we charge a testing fee for testing a product that works. The warranty service is there for faulty products. If you present me with a video card that is not faulty and I spend time testing it, the fee covers my time. As stated before, if you can prove it is faulty, you are entitled to a refund. but until they can get it to fault, it works.

Second board, regardless of what cooling you are doing. Getting a 2.4GHz to close to 5GHz and then complaining that it doesn't get the same result next time. It starting and stopping is typically it trying to load its backup BIOS due to failing POST due to settings.

The 9400GT is your own fault for not looking at model numbers, or the fault of the place you bought it from for not having enough product information advertised. Gigabyte make different versions. Read which one you are buying.

Your mouse, probably can't be helped as tight as quality checking can be, it is 3 months of use. When they tested it, it obviously worked.

People generally don't appreciate the technology you are buying for such a (relatively) small amount of money. A lot (understatement) can go wrong with a motherboard and a return rate of x% is expected when you manufacture thousands of items.

As a comparison for poor quality assurance, I built a PC this afternoon which was dead and it turned out to be the Motherboard after a few quick tests. I went and grabbed another one, which also turned out to be dead. I started mixing parts to make sure, and yes I had 2 dead boards, so I grabbed another one, same result. I then grabbed the whole stack from the shelf and tested them all. 13 Dead boards, consecutive serial numbers, don't POST. Until I sort this out with our rep from the manufacturer I won't go bad mouthing them, it's not Gigabyte, and it is a large manufacturer. That would be something to complain about.

Saying you hope they go out of business..grow up and have something constructive to say

[kg4icg]

Re: Why I'd Never Use Gigabyte Products Again

Well i do believe this is the 4th site he has posted that in, he/she might be a hit and run flamer. Extreme overclocking knocks the life down for every component that's involved, so don't be surprised if you have a failure. Currently I have a EX58-UD3r with my I7-920 overclocked to 3.2ghz on 1.20v with my mem set at 1600 24/7 EL WU's from F@H with my temps maxing out at 68'C under a CoolerMaster Hyper N520 hsf and I couldn't be happier.

[Psycho101]

Re: Why I'd Never Use Gigabyte Products Again

At the end of the day, it's clear to everyone that Fatguy1992 has done himself no favours in the credibility stakes. The message's contents are rude and inappropriate. If his concerns/annoyances were put forward in a more constructive and civilised way, people would have read and listened to him. The conclusion however would be the same. 10% Extreme overclocking + 90% bad luck is probably to blame. And yes, as said, it's always vital you look at specs of what you buy. That 9400GT is a perfectly legitimate product.

For every one problem with any companies products there are 100's if not 1000's that are very happy. The problem with internet forums etc is that most come here with problems. that's the nature of a support forum. I hear lots of statements from new posters asking for help for example with their RAM and saying something like "I hear there's a lot of problems with my board and xxx model of RAM". This isn't usually true. The only posts one is likely to find if searching the motherboard and RAM combo owned will be about config problems etc. I have seen a couple of posts where people just pop in when extremely happy with their components. That's always really nice to see. Mostly it's issues though, which can usually be resolved.

I don't think the OP has damaged Gigabytes rep in any way, just his own, sadly...

**EDIT*** Yoshi's completely correct. If it works for them, what can they do? They have to pass it as working. If it's genuinely an intermitant fault, taking the matter up with customer services can help. They can use their discression, over riding the need for the item to be tested again etc. Has happened to me for instance with a BFG PSU that whined like a badly beaten dog. The first time they found no problem, I re-submitted and they then heard it (sent me a sound recording of the noise and an appology).

All manufacturers have their failures which as said are taken into account, which is why RMA stock is kept back in case it's needed. Returns are swapped out then the faulty returns are refurbed and themselves used as RMA stock. Perfectly legitimate. 13 bad boards is a lot and hopefully you'll never encounter that again. I have a feeling the rep will be doing some major sucking up to you. Well done on keeping your cool too, that IS an issue to be annoyed over.

[SCSIraidGURU]

Re: Why I'd Never Use Gigabyte Products Again

I have heard good things about Gigabyte lately from staff at Micro Center. I use Intel boards for lowend computers and Supermicro Server boards for workstation builds.

A lot of build issues are incompatibility issues. It is also mismatched components. Users buying the wrong RAM spec for their board and CPU. They buy overclocking ram that does not have a tight timing so builds fail. A lowend power supply that is too small or poor quality causes a lot of issues. Many boards don't properly set the voltage for the RAM. Many undervolt it by 0.1V. You have to verify that your RAM voltage is set correctly.

In his case, I would have started bare bones. Reset the CMOS to default. No overclocking. Installed the CPU with a single stick of RAM that was properly timed and had the voltage set correctly. I would install a PCI video card that is vanilla and very generic. Nothing that would conflict like the newer higher end cards. Install a few items as possible even disable on-board sound. Make sure you install the latest chipset drivers that are matched to the SATA RAID drivers. I have seen this conflict cause his problems. Verify his correct video card BIOS and the motherboard BIOS don't conflict.

This is why I stay with Intel and Supermicro. Less compatibility issues.

[dbee]

Re: Why I'd Never Use Gigabyte Products Again

All manufacturers produce countless motherboards every year. Sucks you had to be the one that got the lemons. Perhaps if u didn't go around everywhere crying about it you would have a bit better luck.

Psycho has said it all, and Fatguy has said nothing but " i complain about a manufacturers products yet still use an ep45-ud3p" If its so bad go on ahead and replace it with a no-name brand. Pretty hypocritical .

[Psycho101]

DINNER.

[SCSIraidGURU]

Re: Why I'd Never Use Gigabyte Products Again

Gigabyte does have a good reputation.

1.) Don't overclock for 3-4 weeks after a build. Make sure its stable on spec.
2.) Use a quality power supply. I only use PC Power and Cooling
3.) Make sure your RAM is tested and recommended for your board. Kingston and Crucial do test on many boards
4.) Start barebones: CPU/HSF, one stick of RAM, video card, no hard drives, a few fans for a load. Use a PCI video card to really limit compatibility issues.
5.) Verify on forums and manufacturer web site that your hardware is compatible.
6.) I start by going to the latest BIOS rev and downloading the latest drivers.
7.) Keep good notes of settings and configurations so you can back track on problems and don't recreate the same problems.

[R_Hollandtekk]

Re: Why I'd Never Use Gigabyte Products Again

Yes, I have been having issues since i first got my v 1.6 ga-ep45-ud3p. slot 1&3 doesn't work but only on 800mhz . FDa bios came out and tried it. It would not pass memtest86+ 4.00 optimized defaults. I've been 800mhz since.

I thought about running mch at 1.30 - 1.36v to run 1066 but i hesistated when i read the specs for the p45 chipset's max voltage at 1.21v

Will be trying bios FC soon on GIGABYTE - Support&Download - Motherboard - BIOS - GA-EP45-UD3P (rev. 1.6)


SCSIraidGURU, very, very nice rig. Seriously jealous. lol. Can we see pics?

[qwertylesh]

Re: Why I'd Never Use Gigabyte Products Again

the OP has pasted word for word the exact same thread on other forums.
Maybe instead of spam complaining OP, you should just CHOOSE A DIFFERENT BRAND?
im sick of seeing repeat vendor verdict threads about how bad such and such brand is.

I already had your OCAU thread removed. IMO this one should have the same thing done.