Gigabyte recalls x79 based motherboards

[mariushm]

Apparently the VRM mosfets are underrated and blow up when people overclock:

http://www.techpowerup.com/157543/Gi...herboards.html

Last week, a Taiwanese overclocker putting his OC workbench through an relatively laxed OC stress test saw its Gigabyte X79 UD3 motherboard go bust. Its CPU VRM couldn't cope with the stress, and blew a MOSFET.
[...] The issue was found to be widespread, among three of its main socket LGA2011 products, the GA-X79-UD3, GA-X79-UD5, and G1.Assassin 2.

Apparently, the issue is caused by a cocktail of bad firmware to complement the board's PWM circuitry, and bad quality PWM components. As an immediate remedy, Gigabyte issued a BIOS update for the affected products. This BIOS, however, will cripple the board's overclocking abilities. The new BIOS will throttle CPU when subjected to extreme stress, to save the VRM. The BIOS remedy is only for those who opt to keep their boards, or don't subject the board to extreme tuning.

The other remedy, is to return the board to Gigabyte, for a free replacement when the "right" boards are available. Gigabyte also announced a general recall of the GA-X79-UD3, GA-X79-UD5, and G1.Assassin 2, from the market.

The board releasing the magic smoke: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...4QWHjpc#t=223s

[c_hegge]

Re: Gigabyte recalls x79 based motherboards

That must be the first design issue Gigabyte hes had with an Ultra Durable motherboard (other than the sandy bridge chipset recall, which was actually Intel's fault).

[Mad_Professor]

Re: Gigabyte recalls x79 based motherboards

At least they admit it, unlike asus.

[b700029]

Re: Gigabyte recalls x79 based motherboards

Looks like an IRFH8330 blew up:
https://cdn.badcaps-static.com/pdfs/...670600d98c.pdf

Although you can see in the video that it took a few minutes before it happened, and there was no airflow around the heatsinks so I wouldn't blame it entirely on Gigabyte but also on insufficient cooling. Usually the CPU fan would provide airflow to cool the VRM too, but in this case they're left to cool passively. Maybe Gigabyte did not design those heatsinks to be used like that.

[Topcat]

Re: Gigabyte recalls x79 based motherboards

I'm surprised at this....never knew any company to honor warranties/recall parts when the system is intentionally being run out of spec (overclocked), which is typically a warranty killer.

That would be like Chevy recalling the Camaro because a certain crowd was blowing the engines drag racing them....

[mockingbird]

Re: Gigabyte recalls x79 based motherboards

[QUOTE=b700029;205882]Looks like an IRFH8330 blew up:
[url]

and there was no airflow around the heatsinks so I wouldn't blame it entirely on Gigabyte but also on insufficient cooling.

Someone mentioned this on the Xtremesystems forum and someone replied that these motherboards are designed for passive cooling for the VRM, even WITH overclocking which brings me to my next point:

never knew any company to honor warranties/recall parts when the system is intentionally being run out of spec (overclocked), which is typically a warranty killer.

I disagree. When Gigabyte started advertising their motherboards specifically for overclocking, it opened a whole new door of liability for them.

I once had a technician deny me a warranty on a budget Asus board that crashed with garbled video output on the integrated graphics every so often (In retrospect, it was probably the KZG - I didn't know about KZG at the time) on the basis that I was replicating the crash with an ancient version of 3D Mark. He claimed that the board "Wasn't designed for 3D". I think I still have his replies saved in the RMA report somewhere.

[Topcat]

Re: Gigabyte recalls x79 based motherboards

I disagree. When Gigabyte started advertising their motherboards specifically for overclocking, it opened a whole new door of liability for them.

Ohh absolutely....if they're advertising them that way, and they are going poof like that, yea....it opens the door....still kind of bizarre. I know if I were their legal staff, there would be lots of waivers and disclaimers attached with such a board..... haha

[weirdlookinguy]

Re: Gigabyte recalls x79 based motherboards

Honestly my respect for Gigabyte just went up alot. The ASUS way would have been to shove the issue under the door, regardless of how the board was marketed.

That and my LGA775 EP45-UD3P of two years has been a flawless, rock-solid motherboard. I know which manufacturer will be getting my money next time I buy a board.

[Uranium-235]

Re: Gigabyte recalls x79 based motherboards

I do see some unshielded mosfets on those models, but they're not the vrm's

I would figure as many phases they put in vrms now a days, this would not be an issue. I remember old systems using one to two phases, but these have 8 phases or so, each phase with solid caps, and what looks like two filters (not sure if they're ferrite, or iron), are they cheapening so much on each phase components?

[ratdude747]

Re: Gigabyte recalls x79 based motherboards

gigabyte went up in my book, as they were on my bad list (after lying about the chipset of my dualie board). at least they have improved since then.

[acstech]

Re: Gigabyte recalls x79 based motherboards

Honestly my respect for Gigabyte just went up alot.

You're not the only one. At least Gigabyte is trying to do the right thing here. I know if there's a system that I build for someone, that I find out about a known issue, I'll go fix it before it becomes a problem, or as soon as I find out about it. It's good to see a manufacturer that has the same theory.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Gigabyte recalls x79 based motherboards

At least they admit it, unlike asus.

The ASUS way would have been to shove the issue under the door, regardless of how the board was marketed

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[Scenic]

Re: Gigabyte recalls x79 based motherboards

That and my LGA775 EP45-UD3P of two years has been a flawless, rock-solid motherboard. I know which manufacturer will be getting my money next time I buy a board.

Same for my board, which is even older + OC'ed (EP35C-DS3R)
It even supports 8GB DDR3 even though it says 4GB DDR3 max. everywhere lol

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Gigabyte recalls x79 based motherboards

Asked this a while back but no one answered with anything definitive.
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Is there a way just from the model number to know if a GA board is one of the 'Durable' product lines?
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