Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H - Weird Power On Issue + DB Post Error...RMA?

[jaycj]

First post and just bought my first Gigabyte board. There seems to be several knowledgeable folks here, so I thought I would check here before RMA'ing the UD5H I just bought.

I am having 2 issues:

1. The system is powering on immediately after turning on the power supply (not pressing the power button). I thought there might be a short, so I disconnected almost everything but the power cables and CPU but it still does it. I don't see any bent pins or anything, has anyone ever seen anything like this?
2. Get a "db" error on post now. I was able to post after first putting the board in the case (F5), but haven't been able to after flashing to F8 which failed. Switching to the backup, clearing CMOS, removing the battery, etc - I cannot get the thing to post. I believe I have tried the usual troubleshooting tasks and I have disconnected everything but the keyboard, mouse, power supply, CPU/Cooler and 1 stick of RAM. Any other thoughts on what I am missing or should try?

My specs:
GA-Z77X-UD5H
i5-3450 (Ivy Bridge)
Corsair RAM CMX8GX3M2A1333C9 - 2x4GB (only have 1 stick in during troubleshooting, swapping made no difference)
Corsair AX-850 Power Supply (verified working fine with another rig)
OCZ Vertex4 256GB SSD
Haven't bought a graphics card in yet, but have an Radeon 6850 or old 8800GTS-512 I could put in if necessary (using onboard graphics for now)

Between these 2 issues, I am leaning towards RMA'ing the board. Thoughts? And thanks in advance.

[wazza300]

Re: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H - Weird Power On Issue + DB Post Error...RMA?

what does db error mean in your manual? does it list it?

tried long cmos clear by leaving motherboard battery out for 30mins or overnight if that doesnt work?

[jaycj]

Re: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H - Weird Power On Issue + DB Post Error...RMA?

Thanks for the reply. "DB = Flash Update is Failed" in the manual. It cycles to this code on the LED, then restarts.

I tried a long CMOS clear overnight last night, didn't work. I will try again overnight tonight.

[wazza300]

Re: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H - Weird Power On Issue + DB Post Error...RMA?

keep trying with the back up bios after another long cmos clear,cant think what else you could try

[Conners]

Re: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H - Weird Power On Issue + DB Post Error...RMA?

IDK could possibly be a corrupt OS. Might try a windows repair, running chkdsk /r and so on.

[jaycj]

Re: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H - Weird Power On Issue + DB Post Error...RMA?

Thanks wazza300, will give it a few more tries after tonight (battery is out now, along with power unplugged).

Thanks Conners, haven't gotten quite that far yet to even load windows. Given it won't post yet, I don't have a hard drive plugged in.

[Conners]

Re: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H - Weird Power On Issue + DB Post Error...RMA?

Oh mb, so you saying you've never had this board load the OS? Or Be at a point to load the OS or install it?

[2therock]

Re: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H - Weird Power On Issue + DB Post Error...RMA?

Pull the battery with the psu unplugged and then short the battery terminals for a few seconds. some like to hold the power switch in for a few seconds too. Its just making sure any static energy is not being held anywhere.

Good luck.

[wazza300]

Re: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H - Weird Power On Issue + DB Post Error...RMA?

It seems f8 BIOS is either buggy or its a bad/corrupted BIOS flash,he can't even boot into BIOS screen,gigabyte should have pullout BIOS chips like asus/asrock do,then it would be a case of pulling out bad BIOS chip and plugging a new one in,loads on ebay

You might manage to get the back up BIOS chip to kick in if you keep trying

What did you flash BIOS with? Qflash?

[Conners]

Re: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H - Weird Power On Issue + DB Post Error...RMA?

IDK man you may have a shorted board. I know its PITA but you might consider removing the MB from the case and testing...,

[jaycj]

Re: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H - Weird Power On Issue + DB Post Error...RMA?

Yes, I can't even get to the bios now so no o/s load. I wish they had a removable bios chip as well (or at least the backup worked). I used QFlash to try to load F8, but I am really surprised that the backup bios is not working.

The board came flashed with F5 and I was able to get into the bios with that version. However, it seemed like it was running the CPU in turbo mode (said 3.5 GHz on the bios screen vs. 3.1) and the Gigabyte website stated that my chip was only supported above F6. So I flashed to F8 using a USB stick, which did not complete successfully.

Also - I have had the power-up issue since I first powered it up, so I feel like something is not correct with this particular board. Voltages did look correct when I was able to get in the bios the first time.

I'm going to give it a few more tries tomorrow. Thanks for your replies!

[2therock]

Re: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H - Weird Power On Issue + DB Post Error...RMA?

Make sure you have the wires installed on the board for the power button?
Plug a wired keyboard in and hold the delete key while powering up?

[barkeater]

Re: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H - Weird Power On Issue + DB Post Error...RMA?

First post and just bought my first Gigabyte board. There seems to be several knowledgeable folks here, so I thought I would check here before RMA'ing the UD5H I just bought.

I am having 2 issues:

1. The system is powering on immediately after turning on the power supply (not pressing the power button). I thought there might be a short, so I disconnected almost everything but the power cables and CPU but it still does it. I don't see any bent pins or anything, has anyone ever seen anything like this?
2. Get a "db" error on post now. I was able to post after first putting the board in the case (F5), but haven't been able to after flashing to F8 which failed. Switching to the backup, clearing CMOS, removing the battery, etc - I cannot get the thing to post. I believe I have tried the usual troubleshooting tasks and I have disconnected everything but the keyboard, mouse, power supply, CPU/Cooler and 1 stick of RAM. Any other thoughts on what I am missing or should try?

My specs:
GA-Z77X-UD5H
i5-3450 (Ivy Bridge)
Corsair RAM CMX8GX3M2A1333C9 - 2x4GB (only have 1 stick in during troubleshooting, swapping made no difference)
Corsair AX-850 Power Supply (verified working fine with another rig)
OCZ Vertex4 256GB SSD
Haven't bought a graphics card in yet, but have an Radeon 6850 or old 8800GTS-512 I could put in if necessary (using onboard graphics for now)

Between these 2 issues, I am leaning towards RMA'ing the board. Thoughts? And thanks in advance.

Yes, I can't even get to the bios now so no o/s load. I wish they had a removable bios chip as well (or at least the backup worked). I used QFlash to try to load F8, but I am really surprised that the backup bios is not working.

The board came flashed with F5 and I was able to get into the bios with that version. However, it seemed like it was running the CPU in turbo mode (said 3.5 GHz on the bios screen vs. 3.1) and the Gigabyte website stated that my chip was only supported above F6. So I flashed to F8 using a USB stick, which did not complete successfully.

Also - I have had the power-up issue since I first powered it up, so I feel like something is not correct with this particular board. Voltages did look correct when I was able to get in the bios the first time.

I'm going to give it a few more tries tomorrow. Thanks for your replies!

Bolded added by me.

I'm confused. You say you can't get into your backup bios, then you say you can. If you can get into your backup bios, then the first thing you should do is repair the main bios using qflash. To do this, with the system off, insert your usb drive with a copy of the latest bios on it into a usb port. The latest official bios is F8 but you could also try and use the most current beta. Move the switch to the backup bios position, boot and enter bios. Once in backup bios, move the switch to the main bios position. Now go to qflash and load the current bios from your usb drive. Once you have completed that and it reboots, enter bios and load optimized defaults. Once that is done you should then install OS and drivers.

If all that goes well, move on to addressing the power issue. Take the board out of case and put on cardboard box. Install just the minimum components (i.e., 1 stick of ram, mouse, keyboard, monitor, etc.). For this I would use a known working discrete graphics card. Plug in power supply to wall but do not turn on. Pull cmos battery and install upside down. short the cmos jumpers with a screwdriver for 5 min. Push power button on board and hold for 5-10 seconds. Reinstall cmos battery. turn on power supply and turn on system (power button on board). Enter bios and immediately load optimized defaults. Report back results.

[jaycj]

Re: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H - Weird Power On Issue + DB Post Error...RMA?

Thanks all. barkeater - I was able to get in the bios the first 2 times I booted up on Saturday with F5, but once I flashed to F8 I was unable to get into the backup bios either. I have done all of the steps suggested with results below. FYI, Gigabyte support responded with the cardboard box suggestion that you mentioned as well.

1. bios and cmos clearing - I was able to get into the backup bios by clearing cmos with the battery removed for a while as suggested by people here; I have been holding delete for good measure as I turn on as it seems to go very fast. I tried re-flashing to F8 using barkeater's exact steps, but had the same problems as before. I cleared cmos again, removed the battery, waited a while then I tried to flash to F9d which appears to be successful. I believe I am stable on that version on the main bios now as I can boot every time into the bios now.

2. Power issue - the power issue remains even with everything on a cardboard box with or without a discrete graphics card. With a discrete graphics card (8800 GTS-512), it wouldn't post but I am going to try again. Also of interest, it will not power down without turning off the power supply. Holding down power for 4+ seconds does nothing except dark the monitor and the bios lights flash back and forth between main and backup. I am going to load Windows as well to see how that behaves with the power issue.

Thanks everyone for the help so far!

[barkeater]

Re: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H - Weird Power On Issue + DB Post Error...RMA?

Glad to hear that you were able to successfully get F9d loaded and you are able to boot. Did you load optimized default settings after loading the new bios? Good luck installing your OS and post back. Also, seems strange that the graphics card would prevent the computer from posting. Did you try it in a different slot?