Why I avoid Gigabyte

[pfrcom]

Looks perfect, mainly Rubycon with some G-Luxon

But won't P.O.S.T. - with or without battery fitted

Possibly corrupted firmware in BIOS chip

Any other board, pull the chip and rewrite with EEPROM burner

Not an option with Gigabyte - they save what ? - maybe 5 cents per board, by soldering it direct

Another Gigabyte to be cannibalised !

[stevo1210]

Re: Why I avoid Gigabyte

Is the chipset fried by any chance? That would also cause what you said.

I had a board similar to that one also by Gigabyte with a fried ICH5 southbridge and it exhibited the same issues. Fans would run but no POST.

It too had Rubycon, Sanyo, Nichicon and G-Luxon caps on it.

One sign that it was running was the fans spinning and the incredibly hot southbridge chipset.

And yes, I also avoid Gigabyte boards because I've had a variety of boards from them which are utter crap.

Thanks.

[Newbie2]

Re: Why I avoid Gigabyte

The board is probably dead. A failed northbridge or southbridge is probably the problem.

I've had good experiences with GIGABYTE motherboards actually.

[pfrcom]

Re: Why I avoid Gigabyte

Southbridge does not go over mildly warm - not the problem where you can burn your finger after a few seconds

My issue with Gigabyte is when you do have corrupted BIOS firmware, there's nothing you can do about it, unlike most other makes, even cheapies like Jetway and PC Chips where the BIOS chip is socketed

[willawake]

Re: Why I avoid Gigabyte

yawn

[davmax]

Re: Why I avoid Gigabyte

Perhaps you need to consider the current Gigabyte boards. In terms of bios they have dual bios so if one is corrupted the board will auto boot off the other. A leader in multiphase power and solid caps.

[yanz]

Re: Why I avoid Gigabyte

Is dual bios really works?

[kc8adu]

Re: Why I avoid Gigabyte

that board is known for failures in between layers under the nic or i/o chips.
i have several in my scrap box.
look for bubbling or discoloration under the chips.
they also stink when they die.

[stevo1210]

Re: Why I avoid Gigabyte

that board is known for failures in between layers under the nic or i/o chips.
i have several in my scrap box.
look for bubbling or discoloration under the chips.
they also stink when they die.

Wow, I didn't know that failures between layers actually exist. I thought they were a myth. I guess I have now been proven wrong.

As for discolouration of boards. I have seen many boards like that. In particular, Gigabyte boards. Though I have a Trigem board here with a similar issue as well. Usually they discolour under chipsets or MOSFETS probably due to the excessive heat those components emit.

[Wizard]

Re: Why I avoid Gigabyte

Poorly cooling with or without heatsink or using wrong TIM or not enough copper plane in ounces per inch.

I had a MSI board (socket 462 athlon) with MOSFET array (mosfet pull up x 3 and mosfet pull down to ground x 2), all gauged together by one controller IC, I THOUGHT it was 2 or 3 phase but it is NOT, just push-pull! Because it was hidden under a orange heatsink soldered down with double sided sticker tape. NO TIM! It went into trash after parts yanked off. VIA chipset also. Was working pull but wasn't 100% perfect. Occasionally annoyances.

Cheers, Wizard

[davmax]

Re: Why I avoid Gigabyte

Yes dual bios does actually work. It happened to me last week. The bios had an error and boot was stopped with an error message then the system booted on the second bios. After that experience I reflashed the bios to make sure that I did not run out of bios.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Why I avoid Gigabyte

Looks like HM ?? on the board too??
i845GV was a bad time/vintage to have HM's.

Gigabyte is same as Asus in my eyes. - Average.
Some good, some junk.

I have two GA-8IPE1000MK in service ~ a year and they are doing fine.
One had KZG in VRM Vcore side - replaced with MBZ as precaution before service.
Other had MBZ on Vcore as original.

.

[pentium]

Re: Why I avoid Gigabyte

Yes dual bios does actually work. It happened to me last week. The bios had an error and boot was stopped with an error message then the system booted on the second bios. After that experience I reflashed the bios to make sure that I did not run out of bios.

You make it sound like it's a commodity.

[Newbie2]

Re: Why I avoid Gigabyte

Every GIGABYTE motherboard has the dual BIOS feature. IIRC, older GIGABYTE motherboard had two physical BIOS chips, but now on some motherboards (primarily the cheaper ones) it is "Virtual Dual BIOS" which works in a similar way but I don't see two physical BIOS chips on my GIGABYTE GA-P35-S3G motherboard.

IIRC, the newer motherboards (primarily the "Ultra Durable" series) still have the original Dual BIOS.

[Scenic]

Re: Why I avoid Gigabyte

not really...

D = Ultra Durable (II)
L = Lite version of the board/bios
R = onboard RAID


i've got a (dead) G33-DS2R board. one 8MBit (1MByte) bios chip -> "virtual Dual-BIOS".
my new board (P35-DS4 Rev.2.0) has 2 chips... so a "real" Dual-BIOS

and it works fine
tried to put a new picture for the BIOS process (instead of the POST) in there with the gigabyte tool..

but the picture was somehow corrupted.. irfanview could still open it, but there was something wrong with it.. (but not the resolution or color depth)

well.. flashed the new bios.. no post... nothing...
turned off & on again.. waited a few seconds and it told me not to shut down the comp. because the backup bios is copied to the main bios chip...
after a "soft reboot" everything worked fine again...

[davmax]

Re: Why I avoid Gigabyte

My current board has two seperate chips. I am wondering if the single package boards have two bios chips in that package.

I do have some Gigabyte concerns
1. The CPU temp reads low in bios eg 16C for 18C ambient with the base of the heatsink at 25C!!!!
2. My ICH10 chip runs at 50C with 18C ambient. Plenty of system fans. Not one on this chip, YET.
3. My other Gigabyte board had a memory controller error. Did not matter what memory modules were used or in what slot, always the same error. Replacing the board with my current one removed the problem. The faulty board is being claimed under warranty. Because the turn round is too long it forces the purchase of another board and sale of the warranty return.

[stevo1210]

Re: Why I avoid Gigabyte

Replacing the board with my current one removed the problem. The faulty board is being claimed under warranty. Because the turn round is too long it forces the purchase of another board and sale of the warranty return.

I know exactly what you mean. I put my Gigabyte GA-8i945P-G motherboard into repair last year and it took 2 months to come back. Once it came back it was in a worse condition than before (even though it booted this time through). What they had done was melt the plastics in various sections of my board. I got fed up and bought an Intel DP965LT instead. Never been happier after that move. The new Intel board just.... works.

Thanks.

[bgavin]

Re: Why I avoid Gigabyte

I picked up several Intel D875PBZ boards on a recommendation from Will... great boards. They are obsolete now, no longer leading edge performers. But.. they seem to just run forever. For business machine use, one can't ask for more.

[toastygoodness]

Re: Why I avoid Gigabyte

i have enjoyed gigabyte's new ultra durable boards, mainly the P35 ones and the MA790X or MA790FX ones. the AMD chipset ones really do have physical dual bios, which are socketed on the many builds i have used. One time a customer was flashing his bios in the middle of a storm (yeah not too smart, but he kind of lost track of time) and the first one got corrupted. booted up, said there was a problem with the first bios and proceeded to boot from the second. i think it reflashed by itself. seems cool to me.

to the OP, a lot of those 845 chipset boards (not just gigabyte) seem to have problems with the southbridge burning up.

[stevo1210]

Re: Why I avoid Gigabyte

I picked up several Intel D875PBZ boards on a recommendation from Will... great boards. They are obsolete now, no longer leading edge performers. But.. they seem to just run forever. For business machine use, one can't ask for more.

I agree with you on that one. Intel made boards run practically forever. I've never had one dead before. I even have an Intel SE440BX-2 Motherboard from 1997 still running well until today.... and that's powering an internet firewall.