GA-Z68XP-UD4 rev 1.0, Irregular boot loop issues with Gigabyte 7850 GFX card

[sam0t]

Adding my Gigabyte UK forum thread here for visibility:
GA-Z68XP-UD4 , Irregular boot loop issue after installing Gigabyte 7850 GFX card

Long story short, been having boot loop issues with my Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD4 rev 1.0 motherboard ever since I installed new Gigabyte GV-R785OC-2GD GFX a month ago. Boot loops are directly connected to the new card as the system passes all stress test I throw at it with the 6850 card. With the 7850 card installed, the system can work fine for days and passes all stress tests until another boot loop episode begins randomly when booting system (cold boot, sleep, hibernate, makes no difference). So far I have done the following to pinpoint the root cause for boot loops:

• Overwritten backup BIOS with Optimized Defaults settings for F6 BIOS.
• Disable CPU PLL Overvoltage BIOS feature with F6 BIOS.
• Increase CPU, memory and QPI/VTT voltages with F6 BIOS.
• Switch memory slots for my Corsair 8GB (2x4GB) Vengeance Dual Channel Kit, 1600MHz DDR3, Low Profile (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) memory.
• Ran 4 instances of HCI memory test up to 600% to verify memory stability.
• Switch Gigabyte 7850 GFX card to PCIe x8 slot with the GA-Z68XP-UD4 board.
• Updated motherboard BIOS to UEFI U1g and beta U1l BIOS.
• Updated the GV-R785OC-2GD GFX card with latest official VBIOS, F31.

I have an ongoing support case with Gigabyte and waiting their next advice, however I feel like I have pretty much tested every possible variation there is. Gigabyte support however stated that they have tested GA-Z68XP-UD4 board with Gigabyte GV-R785OC-2GD GFX and state that this combination should work. Currently I am back using 6850 card with MB with F6 BIOS, as this setup is working perfectly. After I install 7850 , boot loops always appear it is just a matter of time.

I have meticulously updated the UK thread with all the troubleshooting steps taken so far. Please have a look and comment, all tips/advice to solve the problem are welcome.

[Vinster]

Re: GA-Z68XP-UD4 rev 1.0, Irregular boot loop issues with Gigabyte 7850 GFX card

I read your other thread and I am leaning to a pcie 2.0/3.0 compatibility issue. it should work, but the fault there would be the GFX card as it is suppose to rev back to 2.0 when a 3.0 bus is not detected...

would you know anyone that has a z77 system? maybe see if they can run that GPU, then in there bis there should be a switch the change the PCI version from 3.0 to 2.0... if there is I'd switch it and force 2.0 and see if there is an issue with it....

but I'm leaning to the card, not the MB... also PCIe 3.0 is also dependent on the CPU, your 2500k doesn't support it pcie 3.0, so if you change the MB, you'd probably have to change the CPU too... may or may not work...

Vin

[sam0t]

Re: GA-Z68XP-UD4 rev 1.0, Irregular boot loop issues with Gigabyte 7850 GFX card

Appreciate your time going through the lengthy UK thread Vinster.

When the GV-R785OC-2GD card agrees to boot normally with GA-Z68XP-UD4 motherboard, everything looks OK with GPU-Z tool in windows. The Bus Interface section informs that the card supports PCIe 3.0 and works/switches between 1.1 or 2.0 mode depending on whether the card is on idle or under stress.

The UEFI BIOS updates (U1g & U1l) for the GA-Z68XP-UD4 board gave an option to force PCIe gen, but unfortunately forcing PCIe to 2.0 did not make a difference with the 7850 card. I previously took the card back to store for testing, but they claimed they could not find anything wrong with it. Granted they only performed few boots with it, I do not think they tested the card thoroughly enough and the MB model they used did not come up in the conversation.

Next Friday I get the chance to test the card at a friends place. Unfortunately I will only have access for an older system with Asrock G41MH/USB3 R2.0 motherboard. It's a Intel G41 chipset board that according to Intel only supports PCIe 1.1 , so probably not the best test candidate, but the only one available for me currently. Will update this thread with results.

In parallel I am waiting for Gigabyte to respond, so far they have advised me to update MB and GFX card BIOS which have not alleviated the situation.

[sam0t]

Re: GA-Z68XP-UD4 rev 1.0, Irregular boot loop issues with Gigabyte 7850 GFX card

Update for this case.

Just received a word from Gigabyte support stating that they have now twice tested the issue with matching components and BIOS levels. Gigabyte support could not reproduce the boot loop issue in their lab ruling out any incompatibility issues with GA-Z68XP-UD4 motherboard and GV-R785OC-2GD GFX card. They are starting to lean towards GFX being the culprit for boot loops in my particular case.

For the sake of it, I will test the GFX card with another system to see if I can reproduce any issues.

[wazza300]

Re: GA-Z68XP-UD4 rev 1.0, Irregular boot loop issues with Gigabyte 7850 GFX card

what amount of dram voltage did you test with? and when it loops does it do it at startup or anytime from within windows,and does it lock up and freeze ect?

you can try setting the power control slider in ccc/overdrive to 20% and see if that helps

last resort of a clean windows install to rule out driver issue?

[sam0t]

Re: GA-Z68XP-UD4 rev 1.0, Irregular boot loop issues with Gigabyte 7850 GFX card

what amount of dram voltage did you test with? and when it loops does it do it at startup or anytime from within windows,and does it lock up and freeze ect?

you can try setting the power control slider in ccc/overdrive to 20% and see if that helps

last resort of a clean windows install to rule out driver issue?

In my tests I upped the Mem voltage up to 1.60v, which the board BIOS showed up as ~1.63v after saving the settings. Also uppend QPI/VTT memory all the way to 1.2v and disabled CPU PLL Overvoltage feature. These tweaks do not make any difference for the issue.

The boot loops occur only during system POST, this is when resuming from Sleep/Hibernate state or when the system cold boots. Some 70% times when the system manages to get past POST and load Windows with the 7850 installed, the system is 100% stable. Been running Furmark and HCI memory tests with it plenty and no errors occur (There once was a single HCI memtest error, but this has not reproduced itself again. I belive it was a fluke).

I believe this rules out Windows out of the equation. The issue is only seen during system starting up, before Windows loads.

I could try to up the voltage for the PCI-E connector in BIOS , if possible, but unsure which Gigabyte AWARD BIOS setting controls this.

[Vinster]

Re: GA-Z68XP-UD4 rev 1.0, Irregular boot loop issues with Gigabyte 7850 GFX card

err.... what?

Vin

[sam0t]

Re: GA-Z68XP-UD4 rev 1.0, Irregular boot loop issues with Gigabyte 7850 GFX card

Update from the tests I performed with the GV-R785OC-2GD card with tests systems:

My own system, Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD4 rev 1.0 motherboard, Intel i5-2500K
processor:
* Boot loops occur randomly during boot with GV-R785OC-2GD card installed.
* Works alright with the older Sapphire 6850 GFX card

Friends older system, Asrock G41MH/USB3 R2.0 motherboard, Core2Duo processor:
* With GV-R785OC-2GD system produced graphical corruption on one boot out of ~20.
* System works alright with older Nvidia 580 card.

Loan system, Dell Aurora R4 with Intel mATX X79 motherboard, Intel i7-3939K
processor:
* System does not give picture from DVI connector with GV-R785OC-2GD card installed.
* System works fine with its own NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 card installed.

So far the 7850 card now has now demonstrated out of normal behavior in three different systems. The Dell Aurora R4 system's no display being the strongest indicator that there is something wrong with the card. I will bring this up with the reseller where I got the 7850 card.

[Vinster]

Re: GA-Z68XP-UD4 rev 1.0, Irregular boot loop issues with Gigabyte 7850 GFX card

ya, that is pretty definitive. I'd call it cooked too.what else would they want you to do with it? 3 completely different systems, and current generation system tested.

great work

Vin

[sam0t]

Re: GA-Z68XP-UD4 rev 1.0, Irregular boot loop issues with Gigabyte 7850 GFX card

Thank Vin, Must say this has been the most problematic IT issue ever to investigate. The fact that the issue is random in nature and that it occurs differently with different system was really confusing. Luckily the test with Dell Aurora system was the clear "smoking gun" needed to pinpoint the issue to the GFX card.

Took the GFX card back to retailer and going to receive a new card in a week or so. Will update this thread once I have had few days to test stability with the new card.

[sam0t]

Re: GA-Z68XP-UD4 rev 1.0, Irregular boot loop issues with Gigabyte 7850 GFX card

Update as promised,

Received a new Gigabyte 7850 card last Wednesday, 27 March and system has been stable with the new card. I believe it is safe to say this problem is now resolved.