Motherboard on the way out? Some advice needed.

[Reece92]

A problem I've been experiencing recently (at least once/twice a day ranging up to 4/5 times)
is where I have to switch USB devices over to another port on the board. It's not just one device it's any of them it can happen too, and it'll just suddenly stop working.

Once switched it goes back to normal working order, then if I try plug it back into the same one too quickly it's as if it needs to "recharge" since it seems it's lost power to where it doesn't have enough for the device.

A couple times a device has lost power (According to windows logs) and I completely freeze, having to hard restart.

Looking in event logs it is actually the USB ports on the board that it's saying are causing critical errors. Tells me it stops working and gives windows an error causing a freeze/shutdown.

Is it just the motherboard or do you think it maybe something else related?

 

[animal]

Make sure you have the latest motherboard drivers installed.

 

[Reece92]

All latest drivers are installed, and it definitely wasn't a driver update that caused these issues either.
Lost for what it could be, my first thoughts was maybe somewhere it's shorting out? Then I wondered why nothing else would have shorted out so I assumed it wasn't that.

 

[animal]

What is your motherboard? and is this a pre-built unit or a custom built?

 

[Reece92]

Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3P

Custom built,
i5 2500K
Corsair AX760i
Corsair H80i
Corsair XMS3 16GB
Samsung 840 250GB SSD
Samsung Spinpoint 1TB
Asus GTX560Ti

 

[animal]

It's quite possible that you motherboard's USB circuitry could be the problem. Only bad thing about replacing the motherboard is that you might need to buy a new OS.

edit: It would mean some downtime, but if the motherboard is still under warranty, you might want to contact Gigabyte and see if you can RMA it.

 

[Reece92]

Is there a way to check if that was the problem with the circuitry or would I just have to assume? (Without RMA'ing the board of course)
I have no issue getting a new board and a new OS if needed just need to sort it out, it's becoming a serious pain in the backside.

 

[animal]

Only other alternative I can think of is to take it to a tech/shop and see if they can identify the issue, not sure how much they would charge, but might be worth looking into.

 

[Reece92]

I was planning to get a new one sometime this year anyway, and the cost of having it looked at/posting it for RMA may just give me a reason to buy a new one.

Could you recommend a good replacement? I'm not planning on getting a new CPU anytime soon, and my budget would be 250-300 max

 

[spooky2th]

If you have any of the gigabyte utilities installed, delete them. Sometimes they cause problems with devices and hardware.

 

[Reece92]

If you have any of the gigabyte utilities installed, delete them. Sometimes they cause problems with devices and hardware.

Yeah I had an issue with this a while ago, and I haven't had any of them installed since. Just thinking instead of RMA'ing it I'll just buy a new board then RMA it and give it to a friend or something

 

[animal]

anything from this list would probably do:

http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/motherboard/#s=14&c=52&R=5,4&sort=a8

although I'd recommend this one:

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-motherboard-z77agd65gaming

anything under $200 would allow you to buy a new OS and still be within budget

 

[spooky2th]

If you haven't already done this, reload the newest chipset driver which I think includes the USB 2.0 driver. Then the USB 3.0 driver.