SOLVED [Gigabyte G1.Sniper 5 LGA1150] Boot Loop Help

[skorpien]

Hey all. I've been trying to troubleshoot a problem with my motherboard but I've hit a pretty solid brick wall and was hoping to get some help from the experts here.

I have a Gigabyte G1.Sniper 5 motherboard with a stock 4770K and 16GB (4x4GB) of Crucial Ballistix Tactical Tracer 1333 RAM. When I first built it, everything seemed fine. Then I decided to update the bios firmware from the factory installed one to the latest. Now it constantly goes into a boot loop whenever I try to start it with a very small chance of actually booting into Windows on the main bios (it has dual bios).

I've tried reflashing the newest bios firmware (it won't let me revert to an older version), clearing the CMOS, loading the default bios settings, all to no avail.

I should mention that as soon as I switch it to the backup bios, everything works perfectly. There is no boot loop.

Other things I've noticed, since I have the tactical tracer RAM (with LED lights), whenever I boot in the main bios, it usually does not light up the RAM indicating that there's no RAM activity. This is also accompanied by a "Pre-memory North-Bridge initialization is started" debug LED code before it resets.

Some times, it will light up the RAM, but will show a "No Console Output Devices are found" debug code and then reboot.

I'm completely stumped. Both the main bios and backup bios are the F9 (latest version) bios. All settings are completely the same between the two.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[redduc900]

This post explains how to flash back to an older BIOS revision...

http://www.overclock.net/t/1397554/...5-m5-b5-owners-thread-club/1640#post_22260298

 

[Evilsizer]

when you can actually make it into the bios have you upped the dram voltage at all?

 

[skorpien]

This post explains how to flash back to an older BIOS revision...

http://www.overclock.net/t/1397554/...5-m5-b5-owners-thread-club/1640#post_22260298

Thanks, I didn't even know that was possible. Unfortunately it didn't fix the issue.

I even tried loading the latest beta bios (F10a) and I'm still getting the boot loop.

Only one noticeable difference; if I switch the mode to dual bios, it cycles through each one once, then boots with the main bios. If I switch the mode to single bios, it boot loops regardless of which bios is selected and won't work at all.

when you can actually make it into the bios have you upped the dram voltage at all?

No, I haven't played with any voltages or clocks at all. My goal was to get it updated and stable before messing with any overclocking.

The RAM is 1333 MHz at 1.50 V (stock).

I was able to find one person online with the same motherboard and symptoms. It turns out his was defective and he had to RMA. I've contacted Gigabyte and am waiting for their reply.

Not sure if this is relevant, but I have noticed that in Device Manager, there's always an exclamation mark next to one of the High Definition Audio Controllers (there are 4) in System devices. I haven't been able to make it disappear since I installed the board. Would that be indicative of a failure?

 

[Evilsizer]

no its not part of the problem your having... for some reason i have the same issue with my board from asus for my 920D. i have the drivers installed for the audio but i still have one that shows that. i dunno what it is either...

with the ram at the voltage there shouldnt be any problems with the ram not working. if someone else has the same issue, then it could very well be something with the board. this would be something im interested to know what the exact problem is. as i have never come across anything like this before.

 

[skorpien]

I tell ya, if only I had this much luck playing the lottery

I'll keep this thread updated when I hear back from Gigabyte (I'm suspecting it's a defective motherboard).

Thank you for your help, truly appreciated

 

[wingman99]

I had a boot loop with my Gigabyte 1155 board that I have now and had to send it in.

 

[skorpien]

Sorry for the late update.

Gigabyte responded asking me to try running it with only one stick of RAM and the onboard video with minimal peripherals. It works with only one stick, but as soon as I try to use two or more, it starts boot looping again.

I then remembered that I had purchased an extended warranty on my board and took it in to have them diagnose. They figured it might be the RAM so they used it on a new Sniper 5 board and it started boot looping too. My board didn't boot loop when they used different RAM.

This really sucks as I bought the RAM specifically for the green LEDs. Not to mention they were the only ones to have LEDs that actually reflected usage rather than pulse randomly or stay lit at all times.

I also figured as Crucial was on the list of approved RAM, these would work despite not being the same model as on the list...

Is there any way to fix RAM incompatibility without actually buying compatible RAM?

 

[Evilsizer]

Wait for a bios update but does each stick work on its own? Or is one stick actually dead?

 

[skorpien]

I've tried them all individually and they work just fine. The computer retailer also tested them on a different board (not a Sniper 5) and all four worked when used together. It just seems my board is incompatible with that specific RAM when more than one stick is used.

Good news is they swapped out my motherboard anyways since they had to open a new one to test (that and they're a really great company). I bought the same RAM they tested with which they confirmed to work so at least I'll have a stable system now

 

[skorpien]

Thought I'd share an update. As it turns out, the motherboard was fine from the beginning. It just didn't like my RAM for whatever reason.

After more troubleshooting with Gigabyte, they came to the conclusion that it must be my RAM. They said they'd pass along the model number of the Crucial RAM to their engineers, so hopefully if it is an incompatibility, it might be solved in a future BIOS update.

I also decided to contact Crucial to see what they might suggest. They suggested a few things to troubleshoot (all of which I had tried previously) and once all of their suggestions were exhausted, the agent helping me suggested an RMA. I've got four new sticks on their way to me and my RAM's all packaged ready to go out tomorrow.

I gotta say, I've been extremely lucky with getting great customer service. Gigabyte, Crucial and Memory Express (local retailer) have all gone above and beyond.

I'll post a followup after I get the new RAM. Hopefully it was just a bad batch of SDRAM that I got before and the new ones will work