Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD3 Issues.

[Cezbleh]

Hello! Im new here and i hope to recieve some help.

System:
Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD3 @ Stock F3 Bios
Intel Core i5-2500k @ Stock
Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz 2x4GB CL9
Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2gb
Corsair CX 600W PSU
Windows 7 Ultimate x64

I have random reboots & freezes. I noticed tho in the beginning the system just rebooted randomly, after a few days it started to just freeze instead.
I have been trying the following solutions:
1. Enabling High Performance in Power Options, disabling all windows sleep/hibernating issues.
2. Running Windows Memory Diagnostic tool = 0 errors, as well as running Memtest86+ and same result, 0 errors.
3. Reinstalled Win7, installing most recent drivers.
4. Checking temperatures in Bios, Hwmonitor and everything looks fine. Besides pc usually freezes when browsing web, listening to music or watching movies.
5. Installing hotfix from Windows (didnt help)

Since the problem doesnt occur that often its not easy to find solutions, I dont even get any dump file in my windows folder because it just freezes. Checking Event Viewer all i can see is: Kernel power error 41 and that doesnt say much.

My BIOS settings are currently Optimized defaults, ACHI enabled. HPET: 64 - ACPI: S1.

Ive been trying to wait for last solution to update bios, since i have never done it and always heard it could cause pc to be unbootable. I've read instructions on how to update with Q-Flash but i also read that you cant update from F3 - to newest either because of a bug in current (F3) Bios? So i have to use @Bios to update first? That seems very risky to me.

Another problem i have with my system is that it sometimes (happened twice so far) system changed date from 2011 to 2000. Why does this happen?

Would appreciate any help very much, always frustrating when a new system is not working properly.

[Chike]

Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD3 Issues.

Updating BIOS is always a risk, but not that much now a days, you have DualBIOS.
To be safe set memory to run at 1333, Performance Enhance standard, and XMP disabled.
You need to use the latest @BIOS for GB site, or the flashspi.exe that comes with the BIOS with a bootable USB Flash Drive.
If you have ET6 installed, what is the target QPI/Vtt in Tuner -> Advanced -> Voltage tab?
For how to create a bootable USB Flash Drive, read at the end of this post.
The date change looks like CMOS battery issue, but it's new, strange.

[wazza300]

Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD3 Issues.

I would make a note of what qpi/vtt voltage is set to with auto on the bios and manually set one or two clicks higher,then see if the freezes continue

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD3 Issues.

System date changing could be from BIOS corruption from it crashing, or you need a new CMOS battery.

You can flash from DOS to the new BIOSes if you want, that is as safe as Qflash, much safer than @BIOS.

But, the dual BIOS recovery is very good in these P67's, so @BIOS would be fine to use if you couldn't flash via DOS for some reason.

[Cezbleh]

Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD3 Issues.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.

Well, My pc hasnt freezed or rebooted in a while so it's kinda hard to troubleshoot when it doesnt happen that often and there are no logs of any real errors.

The Dual-Bios feature seems indeed very helpful and i will try flashing to F6A later and see if i notice any improvement. If it doesnt help i will try adjusting some voltages, i will probably ask for more details then.

The date change havent happened again. But im still a bit worried, since its a new motherboard it shouldnt be a bad CMOS battery i think? Im a bit unlucky too since if its something wrong with my mobo i cant rma it until april/may when new working p67 mobo's are out.

Today after booting up the date was fine, even though my pc had been turned off for more than 10+ hours (PSU was off as well so no power at all) doesn't this mean this my cmos battery should be fine? But do you think its something i have worry about in general? I guess if it keeps happens my best bet is to exchange it for a new one when its possible.

[ROSESTEEL]

Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD3 Issues.

When I first flashed my X58A UD3R from FA to FB, the BIOS did reset my date just as in your case. This led to all kinds of subtle errors in the Windows environment when I installed the OS. When I realized that the date was wrong, I fixed the time in the BIOS, reformatted, and reinstalled. I just flashed from FB to FF2 a couple of days ago. But the date did not reset this time. Maybe this is just one of those things that can happen when you flash your BIOS. I don't know.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD3 Issues.

Ya, it shouldn't be a bad battery, just probably happened due to your settings failing before is all, or the CMOS clearing any number of ways. And ya, since you had it off for 10+ hours the battery is fine.

Sometimes when I am extreme benching I'll save CPU-z validations and then later see the date is way off, due to the same kind of thing as I am pushing the system very hard causing crashes.