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Weird EP45T-UD3R issue
I loaded W7 onto this board several times, it has an Intel Q9300 S775 cpu, and 8Gb of OCZ DDR3 memory - and everything runs at stock settings - or it did.
I upgraded the F5 original BIOS to F6, which proved stable.
Subsquently I went to F7 and experienced all sorts of strange issues, so reverted to F6.
Later I tried F8 when it replaced F7 (and I notice that afterwards F7 was removed from Gigabytes server, presumably because it was pants!)
Under F8 I started to get random BSOD's, but couldn't be bothered to read the dump files, I just figured a return to F6 was all I should do.
So there I am running F6 which was always stable, and I decided to reformat and reload Windows7 because I had switched from using Acronis TrueImage in favour of Macrium Reflect, and I wanted to make various stage restoration images with Macriums software as it's not compatible with Acronis' archivage.
After reloading the OS yesterday, and without anything on board except Live Messenger, Windows Security Essentials, and Macrium Reflect (all of which were test loaded in the past and have never caused issues) I noticed that some strange errors occurred on a Civil Service website I was on. I had to input information into the sites form fields; and when I did this I noticed the text I typed appeared from right to left and not how it should have!
Closed the site. Ran a few diagnostics, including a malware scan, and rebooted after doing a command line sequence for a complete chkdsk repair on the boot volume. Everything went perfectly.
However when the system rebooted I had issues.
The moment I hit the Windows desktop the start menu self-executes and the search field automatically fills with the alphabet, from A-Z, repeatedly - pushing CPU use to the gate, and preventing access to anything else on the start menu.
If I could manage to open specific folders they'd be overlaid with other files and folders I'd not opened or called.
In notepad documents the alphabet is repeatedly rewritten automatically.
I figured it was a virus.
Attempted to reboot in safe mode; same result.
Attempted to reboot using the W7 DVD to run setup again. It went so far, but within two minutes the Gigabyte 'Express Restore' function invoked, causing the W7 installer to be buried beneath other windows, and no matter what I tried I cannot access the W7 setup interface.
Attempted to reboot using Easeus Partition Manager Professional, from a CD-ROM. Same result, the alphabet constantly scrolls in the command form field and prevents me from reformatting the boot partition!
Now I removed the HDD, slaved it to another machine, and reformatted it as NTFS and wiped every section of the drive, I then destroyed the partition so that the Windows installer could reformat it according to what W7's requirements were.
Ran Setup from the W7 DVD, and I got the Gigabyte Express Recover screens overlaid on top of the W7 installer GUI.
This means something in the motherboard isn't behaving correctly.
I see no point in resetting the CMOS with the onboard pins, as I can access the BIOS from the keyboard perfectly OK, or at least I could until now.
When I go into the BIOS the MIT screen opens by itself and ESC does not get me out.
I reflashed another clean copy of the F6 BIOS from a USB stick I had just formatted and this made no difference.
I performed a reflash again, but killed the power during the process. I had hoped this would cause the BIOS ROM chip to self activate and reload the 2nd BIOS chip with the original factory BIOS; except it didn't - I still had F6 onboard!
I wondered if my keyboard was duff, so I swapped it out for another, same behaviour was ongoing - so I eliminated that from the possibilities.
What can I try next?
Is my mainboard defective? Has my CPU gone belly up? Is there a way to force (or are there special software tools?) the BIOS ROM to reprogram the active BIOS chip?
I have reached the point of virtually concluding the board has bricked, but if anyone can tell me about other steps I can try it'd be appreciated.
There's a short video clip of what happens uploaded here:-
I upgraded the F5 original BIOS to F6, which proved stable.
Subsquently I went to F7 and experienced all sorts of strange issues, so reverted to F6.
Later I tried F8 when it replaced F7 (and I notice that afterwards F7 was removed from Gigabytes server, presumably because it was pants!)
Under F8 I started to get random BSOD's, but couldn't be bothered to read the dump files, I just figured a return to F6 was all I should do.
So there I am running F6 which was always stable, and I decided to reformat and reload Windows7 because I had switched from using Acronis TrueImage in favour of Macrium Reflect, and I wanted to make various stage restoration images with Macriums software as it's not compatible with Acronis' archivage.
After reloading the OS yesterday, and without anything on board except Live Messenger, Windows Security Essentials, and Macrium Reflect (all of which were test loaded in the past and have never caused issues) I noticed that some strange errors occurred on a Civil Service website I was on. I had to input information into the sites form fields; and when I did this I noticed the text I typed appeared from right to left and not how it should have!
Closed the site. Ran a few diagnostics, including a malware scan, and rebooted after doing a command line sequence for a complete chkdsk repair on the boot volume. Everything went perfectly.
However when the system rebooted I had issues.
The moment I hit the Windows desktop the start menu self-executes and the search field automatically fills with the alphabet, from A-Z, repeatedly - pushing CPU use to the gate, and preventing access to anything else on the start menu.
If I could manage to open specific folders they'd be overlaid with other files and folders I'd not opened or called.
In notepad documents the alphabet is repeatedly rewritten automatically.
I figured it was a virus.
Attempted to reboot in safe mode; same result.
Attempted to reboot using the W7 DVD to run setup again. It went so far, but within two minutes the Gigabyte 'Express Restore' function invoked, causing the W7 installer to be buried beneath other windows, and no matter what I tried I cannot access the W7 setup interface.
Attempted to reboot using Easeus Partition Manager Professional, from a CD-ROM. Same result, the alphabet constantly scrolls in the command form field and prevents me from reformatting the boot partition!
Now I removed the HDD, slaved it to another machine, and reformatted it as NTFS and wiped every section of the drive, I then destroyed the partition so that the Windows installer could reformat it according to what W7's requirements were.
Ran Setup from the W7 DVD, and I got the Gigabyte Express Recover screens overlaid on top of the W7 installer GUI.
This means something in the motherboard isn't behaving correctly.
I see no point in resetting the CMOS with the onboard pins, as I can access the BIOS from the keyboard perfectly OK, or at least I could until now.
When I go into the BIOS the MIT screen opens by itself and ESC does not get me out.
I reflashed another clean copy of the F6 BIOS from a USB stick I had just formatted and this made no difference.
I performed a reflash again, but killed the power during the process. I had hoped this would cause the BIOS ROM chip to self activate and reload the 2nd BIOS chip with the original factory BIOS; except it didn't - I still had F6 onboard!
I wondered if my keyboard was duff, so I swapped it out for another, same behaviour was ongoing - so I eliminated that from the possibilities.
What can I try next?
Is my mainboard defective? Has my CPU gone belly up? Is there a way to force (or are there special software tools?) the BIOS ROM to reprogram the active BIOS chip?
I have reached the point of virtually concluding the board has bricked, but if anyone can tell me about other steps I can try it'd be appreciated.
There's a short video clip of what happens uploaded here:-
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