I'm thinking. "dud" MoBo.. Thoughts?

[Mychael]

I might get 4 or 5 straight cold boots with no issues, then next time It will come up BIOS CHECKSUM ERROR and re-start then want to do a repair which always fails.
I can power down and re-boot again and it will be fine.

I replaced the CMOS battery just to be sure although this board is only 3 weeks old. I've made sure I made no BIOS changes between boots but still it happens at random.

Apart from this issue everything will otherwise run fine and it might go another 3 cold boots before it happens again.

NEVER happens when just doing a hot re-boot/re-start.

So I'm thinking it's a suss board.

 

[cybercore]

Bad CMOS battery is the most likely cause. Other possible causes I can think of:

-- bad bios version needing reflash
-- ESCD configuration data needs to be cleared
-- bad PCI device
-- bad board

You asked for thoughts, right?

 

[Mychael]

Yep, Well battery was replaced. I can reflash the Bios (I think).
No PCI cards fitted.
How would I clear ESCD?

 

[cybercore]

There should be such setting up the BIOS, "Clear ESCD configuration data" or something to that effect. This resets the CMOS stored device data. If no such option, load setup defaults, save, and reboot.

 

[Mychael]

Ta, I'll give it a go.

 

[Nibiru2012]

Having a "dud" motherboard is extremely rare... unless you buy ECS motherboards. You have a Gigabyte which are rated amongst the top three motherboard brands, along with ASUS and MSI.

A BIOS firmware update may be necessary, check to see which BIOS firmware is currently installed on the board.

Out of the box failure rate for quality brand-name motherboards is less than 3%, if that, especially for the top three.

 

[Mychael]

I know mine has the Intel Sandy Bridge issue with the SATA controllers and I was aware of that prior to purchase. For that there is the short term workaround until until the replacements come into stock and we can get an exchange. That issue is not supposed to extended to any other part of the operation of the board.. but then again,,,,

 

[Nibiru2012]

The issue with the Sandy Bridge chipset was one that popped up during "accelerated aging" tests run by a couple of motherboard makers. Supposedly, the issue won't appear until after about 3-4 years of use. Plus it only affects the first 4 SATA ports on the 6 Intel ports only.

 

[Mychael]

Yeah, the shop told me which ports to use and which ones not to use. They also indicated a full replacement will be forthcoming once Intel and the MoBo makers catch up with their backlog of hopefully good boards.
I would have preferred to wait or even better not have needed a new board at all but my other one failing forced me into an early purchase. I tried hunting down an end of series model pre- sandy bridge saga but they seem to disappear off the shelves very quick.