Power Cycling Gigabyte Z68 Board

[EuroFight]

Hi guys,

 

I am having an issue with a Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 motherboard. When I attempt to start it on a test bed by shorting the two PWR pins, the board begins to power up and fans spin up for less than a second, then the board shuts off. A second or two later without touching any pins the board attempts to start again and repeats.

 

Specs are as follows

Cooler Master Elite 500W PSU (known good PSU, runs in my AMD rig)

Intel Core i5 2320 (Not known if good)

4GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 (known good)

 

The board begins cycling even with no processor or memory installed, when I would expect to hear beep codes indicating this, instead the same issue occurs.

 

I noticed some of the pins on the motherboard socket were bent so I used the edge of a debit card to straighten them, and they are in line perfectly.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

Euro

[ccokeman]

If you do not have a speaker hooked up you will not hear anything. 

 

I have several of those boards and never experienced the issue. Do you or a friend have another board you can use to verify the CPU is good? Try with just a single DIMM in each of the sockets one at a time. 

[EuroFight]

If you do not have a speaker hooked up you will not hear anything.

 

I have several of those boards and never experienced the issue. Do you or a friend have another board you can use to verify the CPU is good? Try with just a single DIMM in each of the sockets one at a time.

I had a speaker hooked up but the cycling was happening even with no CPU installed. Is this normal?

[Waco]

This is exactly what my board did when my CPU died...

[EuroFight]

This is exactly what my board did when my CPU died...

Ah interesting. If I remove the CPU will the board POST with a beep code indicating no processor?

[Braegnok]

Back in the day,.. I would trim the socket tabs on my 775 boards and run socket 771 Zeon chips,.. and they would either run like a scalded ape or do the same power cycling at post,.. so could be CPU/socket issue,.. 

[wevsspot]

The dreaded Gigabyte boot loop......  I'm glad I've been lucky enough not to suffer through that on any of the GB boards I've worked with the last few years.

 

Have you tried the standard long CMOS clear?  Disconnect power supply from wall socket.  Drain residual power from the motherboard by jumpering the power switch pins.  Remove CMOS battery.  Disconnect all motherboard power plugs.

 

Let it sit for a while.  Reverse process with minimal hardware build. 

 

What speed RAM are you using?

 

When re-assembling make sure that all power connectors are connected (don't forget that pesky EPS12v near the CPU socket)

 

I think your motherboard has a backup BIOS?  If so (and if you can ever get it to boot to the BIOS) make sure that the BIOS version on the backup BIOS is the same as the primary BIOS.  We worked through this on another forum with a UD4.  Making sure that both BIOS versions matched helped cure that user's ills.

 

One other thing I remember from that experience is if you can ever get into the BIOS, disable the USB Storage Detect.  And since you're in there it wouldn't hurt to check and make sure you're running the latest BIOS.

[ccokeman]

Make sure you have no bent pins. I expect that kind of behavior with no CPU installed. 

 

I do not think I have heard a post tone in 5 years on any of the boards I have tested. Some have the option of turning the tone on but many of the boards I have tested have a Debug LED that tells you where the problem lies.  

[EuroFight]

The dreaded Gigabyte boot loop......  I'm glad I've been lucky enough not to suffer through that on any of the GB boards I've worked with the last few years.

 

Have you tried the standard long CMOS clear?  Disconnect power supply from wall socket.  Drain residual power from the motherboard by jumpering the power switch pins.  Remove CMOS battery.  Disconnect all motherboard power plugs.

 

Let it sit for a while.  Reverse process with minimal hardware build. 

 

What speed RAM are you using?

 

When re-assembling make sure that all power connectors are connected (don't forget that pesky EPS12v near the CPU socket)

 

I think your motherboard has a backup BIOS?  If so (and if you can ever get it to boot to the BIOS) make sure that the BIOS version on the backup BIOS is the same as the primary BIOS.  We worked through this on another forum with a UD4.  Making sure that both BIOS versions matched helped cure that user's ills.

 

One other thing I remember from that experience is if you can ever get into the BIOS, disable the USB Storage Detect.  And since you're in there it wouldn't hurt to check and make sure you're running the latest BIOS.

 

Thank you for the very exhaustive reply. I will report back when I have time to do this (possibly tomorrow). The RAM I tested with is Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz, but with no RAM installed the same issue occurs and there is no beep code to indicate the 'No RAM installed' error before the computer restarts

 

Make sure you have no bent pins. I expect that kind of behavior with no CPU installed. 

 

I do not think I have heard a post tone in 5 years on any of the boards I have tested. Some have the option of turning the tone on but many of the boards I have tested have a Debug LED that tells you where the problem lies.  

 

I have checked the socket and the only pin that is visibly bent is bent by a fraction of a millimeter (perhaps the width of the pin itself). Is this going to cause an issue? The motherboard has a number of lights labelled 'Phase LED'. When the board is powered on all four lights light, the sequence is red-orange-yellow-green (I assume these are the power levels), then when the fans stop spinning the lights turn off again.

[wevsspot]

Euro, one other thing on the bent pins.  After having the CPU installed and latched down, remove the cpu and inspect the contact pads on the bottom of the processor.  You might need a magnifying glass to get a real good look.  Check for any pads missing a mark where the cpu socket pins are supposed to have made solid contact with the cpu pad.  Also look for severely miss-aligned contact points.

 

Is this a used motherboard that had worked before with another processor, or did you find it new somewhere?

[EuroFight]

Euro, one other thing on the bent pins. After having the CPU installed and latched down, remove the cpu and inspect the contact pads on the bottom of the processor. You might need a magnifying glass to get a real good look. Check for any pads missing a mark where the cpu socket pins are supposed to have made solid contact with the cpu pad. Also look for severely miss-aligned contact points.

 

Is this a used motherboard that had worked before with another processor, or did you find it new somewhere?

The motherboard and processor were used before in exactly the same configuration, but had not been used for some time. I will check the contacts tomorrow. Thanks for all your help

[EuroFight]

The dreaded Gigabyte boot loop...... I'm glad I've been lucky enough not to suffer through that on any of the GB boards I've worked with the last few years.

 

Have you tried the standard long CMOS clear? Disconnect power supply from wall socket. Drain residual power from the motherboard by jumpering the power switch pins. Remove CMOS battery. Disconnect all motherboard power plugs.

 

Let it sit for a while. Reverse process with minimal hardware build.

 

What speed RAM are you using?

 

When re-assembling make sure that all power connectors are connected (don't forget that pesky EPS12v near the CPU socket)

 

I think your motherboard has a backup BIOS? If so (and if you can ever get it to boot to the BIOS) make sure that the BIOS version on the backup BIOS is the same as the primary BIOS. We worked through this on another forum with a UD4. Making sure that both BIOS versions matched helped cure that user's ills.

 

One other thing I remember from that experience is if you can ever get into the BIOS, disable the USB Storage Detect. And since you're in there it wouldn't hurt to check and make sure you're running the latest BIOS.

Despite all this the issue persists. I did notice however that when there is no RAM in the system it starts and beeps continuously for some time before rebooting. Looking up these codes it looks like either 'Graphics Card Not Installed' (unlikely), or more interestingly 'Power Error'. Any ideas on this one?