losing bios settings every few boots

[ferk]

Hello, a few weeks ago I managed to kill my old motherboard, a Gigabyte Z87x-UD3H, while trying to change the thermal paste. After looking at the used parts market and their high prices, I decided to buy a motherboard off Aliexpress with some discounts.

I got a Gigabyte B85-HD3. Everything seems to work fine except that every few boots, the pc does two beeps (non-consecutive, it would be like 'beep, reboot, beep and succesful POST'). When that happens the BIOS settings are set to default and no error message is showed. The BIOS version also changed, the board came preinstalled with the latest version (F11), I tried flashing different versions (F9, F10) but when I have this issue, the board comes back to version F11 automatically.

Now, tonight I turned off the pc, but it inmediately turnet itself on (I didn't press any button), same two beeps behavior and my settings lost. I tried two different batteries, flashing like a ton of times (when it's like this I have to remove battery or clear cmos, if not it won't flash), and I don't know what else to do.

Important thing to mention: my old motherboard had the same behavior when I bought it from a close friend. He claimed that he didn't have that issue, I ended up fixing it with a bios flash, but these two motherboards have two bios and the old one had a hardware switch to change between them, so it may be that I fixed it by disabling the second bios (which I think can be showing up in my new motherboard), I don't have this feature in the new motherboard and I have no way to know which bios I'm booting from.

It seems strange that I'm having the same issue with two different motherboards from the same manufacturer, I don't know if something in my pc is malfunctioning but I don't know what it could be, or if it's the motherboard. I'm literally lost.

Lets hope you can help me. Regards.

 

[Paul NZ]

Is the mobo a revision 1 mobo then?? Since, there's 4 revisions of this mobo

And did you reinstall windows, since you replaced the mobo?

 

[ferk]

Is the mobo a revision 1 mobo then?? Since, there's 4 revisions of this mobo

And did you reinstall windows, since you replaced the mobo?

Yes, it's the first revision. I did reinstall windows, I also renamed the file 'mcupdate_genuineintel.dll' that Intel pushed through a Windows Update to prevent overclocking on non-Z boards, I don't know if it makes a difference because it also happens when the bios is totally by default with nothing changed.

 

[Paul NZ]

I thought the install installed that file. You did save the settings after you configured the BIOS settings right?

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

Gigabyte motherboards have two BIOS chips and market this under the feature branding of DualBIOS. The behavior you are seeing is normal when the first BIOS fails to boot the system, the second BIOS is then used as a backup, rather than having a non-booting system you have to then reset the BIOS on. When you see the wrong BIOS version, that is because you have booted with the backup BIOS, which has not been changed yet.

Sounds to me like you have a configuration that is incorrect, resulting in the main BIOS not booting, but the more conservative settings in the backup BIOS do boot. Figure out what's wrong with your configuration and you should be able to sort out the seemingly odd boot situation.

 

[ferk]

I thought the install installed that file. You did save the settings after you configured the BIOS settings right?

Yes, I also saved a profile that I think is lost too. The file is something that was updated via Windows.

Gigabyte motherboards have two BIOS chips and market this under the feature branding of DualBIOS. The behavior you are seeing is normal when the first BIOS fails to boot the system, the second BIOS is then used as a backup, rather than having a non-booting system you have to then reset the BIOS on. When you see the wrong BIOS version, that is because you have booted with the backup BIOS, which has not been changed yet.

Sounds to me like you have a configuration that is incorrect, resulting in the main BIOS not booting, but the more conservative settings in the backup BIOS do boot. Figure out what's wrong with your configuration and you should be able to sort out the seemingly odd boot situation.

The 'optimized default' config also fails, I also don't change that many things in the bios; I have a 4770K that I set 3.9 ghz (stock clockspeed) on all cores and I also undervolt a little (it's stable at 1,08/1,09v and the motherboard sometimes goes up to 1,16v on auto).

Perhaps it's some ram incompatibility. I have two G.Skill sticks and then two Kllisre running both at 1600 mhz, CL11. In my old motherboard I could set them to work at CL9 without issues, not in this one but I didn't test it extensively.

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

3.9 GHz is not stock speed for a 4770k. 3.5 GHz is the stock frequency, with 3.9 GHz being the opportunistic turbo frequency, not the frequency guaranteed.

Stop undervolting until you find the source of your problem. It could very well be this, as in my own experience with undervolting, 1 out of 10 boots will fail as a result, but resetting a few times allows it to finally boot fine with my undervolt. Since you're here about similar behavior, undervolting may not be a solution you're willing to compromise to live with, or you're simply undervolting too much.

Also, stop mixing RAM until you find the source of your problem. The only other issue I run into that causes DualBIOS to kick in is surrounding memory and timings. This could easily be the source of your problem as well.

From your description of things, you are configuring two different aspects of your system that could easily be the source of your problem. You need to stop doing that until you find the source of your frustration. Dial things back to actual stock, not perceived stock, with auto settings, auto voltages, and only a proper matching set of RAM modules. Once you have corrected the behavior, then change one thing at a time. Changing one thing will allow you to determine whether it's your undervolt or your RAM causing the undesired behavior. It could still be something else, but you can't troubleshoot a system that is being intentionally run out of spec, so until you make those changes, it's going to be hard for anyone to give you spot on advice, unless they have seen your specific case and have a good idea what is the culprit.

 

[ferk]

3.9 GHz is not stock speed for a 4770k. 3.5 GHz is the stock frequency, with 3.9 GHz being the opportunistic turbo frequency, not the frequency guaranteed.

Stop undervolting until you find the source of your problem. It could very well be this, as in my own experience with undervolting, 1 out of 10 boots will fail as a result, but resetting a few times allows it to finally boot fine with my undervolt. Since you're here about similar behavior, undervolting may not be a solution you're willing to compromise to live with, or you're simply undervolting too much.

Also, stop mixing RAM until you find the source of your problem. The only other issue I run into that causes DualBIOS to kick in is surrounding memory and timings. This could easily be the source of your problem as well.

From your description of things, you are configuring two different aspects of your system that could easily be the source of your problem. You need to stop doing that until you find the source of your frustration. Dial things back to actual stock, not perceived stock, with auto settings, auto voltages, and only a proper matching set of RAM modules. Once you have corrected the behavior, then change one thing at a time. Changing one thing will allow you to determine whether it's your undervolt or your RAM causing the undesired behavior. It could still be something else, but you can't troubleshoot a system that is being intentionally run out of spec, so until you make those changes, it's going to be hard for anyone to give you spot on advice, unless they have seen your specific case and have a good idea what is the culprit.

I don't think undervolting is the issue, optimized default settings also fail, with auto frequency and voltages. Memory is another story, will try with the G.Skill ones as they might be easier to work with since the other brand, Kllisre, is some low value chinese brand (don't even have XMP).

Problem is that it seems random; sometimes I can boot like ten or so times with no issues, sometimes 3 or 4, so it takes a while to figure out something.

 

[ferk]

Sorry to double post but I have some news. I've been trying to boot without my GPU (EVGA GTX 1060 SC) using the integrated one and did like 20 or 30 tries without issues, everything perfect.

Could this be the issue? A faulty/badly configured gpu? I can say that sometimes one of my screens goes black for like a couple of tenths but I never gave it much importance.

Perhaps something with some UEFI boot or whatever in the bios?

Regards.

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

A screen going black could be a mode change or a result of the TDR (Timeout Detection & Recovery) event taking place and Windows resetting part of the graphics driver stack. In Windows 7 and earlier, the whole driver was reset, but in 8 and newer, only parts of the driver need be reset, so may only see one screen would go blank. You should get an entry in Windows Event Log for a TDR event so after any odd screen blanking, I would check the Event Viewer for any error messages. These can be triggered by a poor 12 V feed going to your graphics card.

It also may not be a faulty graphics card but instead could be related to lowering the power requirements of booting your machine. The GPU uses the 12 V rail of your power supply, so does your CPU. If your power supply is cheap and using the same 12 V rail for both, you could be getting too much droop the moment the system tries to power on.

Do you know what power supply make / model you are using in the system?

 

[ferk]

A screen going black could be a mode change or a result of the TDR (Timeout Detection & Recovery) event taking place and Windows resetting part of the graphics driver stack. In Windows 7 and earlier, the whole driver was reset, but in 8 and newer, only parts of the driver need be reset, so may only see one screen would go blank. You should get an entry in Windows Event Log for a TDR event so after any odd screen blanking, I would check the Event Viewer for any error messages. These can be triggered by a poor 12 V feed going to your graphics card.

It also may not be a faulty graphics card but instead could be related to lowering the power requirements of booting your machine. The GPU uses the 12 V rail of your power supply, so does your CPU. If your power supply is cheap and using the same 12 V rail for both, you could be getting too much droop the moment the system tries to power on.

Do you know what power supply make / model you are using in the system?

Thanks for your answer again. PSU is XFX Pro 750W Black Edition, it has a few years but I think it was a good one back in the day. I don't think it's the issue, voltages have also been fine although software reading is obviously not totally accurate.

I don't see anything similar to TDR event in the log viewer, but I'm not good at using this part of Windows. I have errors but with no similar names, I'm not sure.

Now about my issue, I've been the past few hours testing things. Bear in mind that my testing methodology is a bit rudimental, I'm just changing something and then turning off and turning on the PC until it fails. I'm doing this for about 20-30 times each setting, so it's also not 100% fail-proof, something could have worked for 25 times straight and then failed the 26th if I kept trying, but I think it's a good number to be at least 90% sure (and it's pretty boring and time consuming).

So after testing 20-30 times with the integrated graphics and no issues, I decided to plug the GPU (EVGA GTX 1060 SC) and try again. I normally use a dual monitor config, one connected with HDMI and the other one with DisplayPort. I tried 20-30 times with only HDMI plugged in, no issues. As soon as I added the Displayport cable with the second monitor, at the second try I suffered the issue. Since I only have this DP cable I decided to use another DP port of my GPU to test for a faulty port or something, but it failed again after two boots. As I said I can't be 100% sure but I think this is the reason for my issue, I don't know why but the system seems to fail when DP is plugged in.

Do you have any idea why this could happen?

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

No idea about DP causing issues like this, but it sounds like you're on the right track, eliminating one thing at a time.

XFX is a good brand and I would not suspect it as the source of your problem, unless you get more symptoms that directly implicate it.