# Gigabyte X99-Gaming 5 bios/booting issues



## THE_EGG (Sep 14, 2014)

Hey guys, so I bought this board on Saturday morning and I've been having bios and booting problems since I bought it.

Essentially after I completed the build I turn it on and tried to enter the bios. All I got was a blank screen with 'A9' written in the bottom right corner of the screen and then it went completely blank. So I restarted it and tried it again, same thing happened. So I let it boot up into windows (my previous win7 install still worked) and installed all the mobo drivers and stuff. Then I restarted and tried to enter the bios again, same problem. So I used @bios in Gigabyte APP center to update the bios to F6 (I backed up the original bios onto a separate drive in case the fan got hit). Restarted the computer and tried to enter the bios again, voila it worked!.... or so I thought. Anyway I checked out the bios just for fun (I didn't change anything though in case that broke it again) and got out of it again and started windows and it worked just great. I also went ahead and plugged in the rest of my peripherals ( I only had ethernet, mouse & keyboard and a display attached before this).

BUT when I shut it down overnight and went to turn it on again on Sunday morning and tried the bios again, same 'A9' blank screen problem and it would boot either - turns out it only boots with a mouse and keyboard and Ethernet and optical audio. I can't have anything else attached or else it won't boot let alone make it into the bios.

Also just some extra info; after it couldn't boot the first time on sunday morning I went and removed the second 780, unplugged all drives except for the dvd and ssd, took out 2 ram sticks, cleared the CMOS and removed the battery and replaced it after a minute. This is what made it boot up again on Sunday which was good.

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So I think I've narrowed it down to some fault with the motherboard where it can't 'hold' onto the bios after a restart.

I'm guessing I should just return the mobo to my local shop where I bought it from? Any ideas what else it could be?


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## cadaveca (Sep 14, 2014)

disable XMP. I will be testing this board later today; just working on a paper for school first.

I got a couple of beta BIOSes here, maybe one of them will have a fix. I'll let you know if I figure something out, as what you describe I ran into wit ha few boards already, nearly exact same thing, but each had issues fixed with BIOS updates, or lower CPU speed. I would stay away from OC until you get this sorted... if you are running an OC, that might be part of the problem. Verify that vCPU, vCache and VCCSA are at proper values.


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## THE_EGG (Sep 15, 2014)

cadaveca said:


> disable XMP. I will be testing this board later today; just working on a paper for school first.
> 
> I got a couple of beta BIOSes here, maybe one of them will have a fix. I'll let you know if I figure something out, as what you describe I ran into wit ha few boards already, nearly exact same thing, but each had issues fixed with BIOS updates, or lower CPU speed. I would stay away from OC until you get this sorted... if you are running an OC, that might be part of the problem. Verify that vCPU, vCache and VCCSA are at proper values.


 XMP is disabled but I'll try turning the OC off when I get home. The OC is only achieved through the APP center in windows but yeh I'll try setting it back to default in case if that's to blame. Because I use this computer for work along with personal use it is vital for me that I get it up an running properly asap. I'd like to install win8.1 for a fresh install because win7 is getting mad that I changed hardware and wants to deactivate itself in 3 days. However because I can't access anything (boot manager, bios, qflash etc) at the post screen, I can't change the boot priority which uber sucks.

Keen to find out what you think of the motherboard.

I really like the motherboard apart from this though. The build quality feels amazing and the onboard audio is fantastic (at least compared to the onboard audio of an Asus Z87-Plus).


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## OneMoar (Sep 15, 2014)

did you try reseating the proc ?


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## THE_EGG (Sep 15, 2014)

OneMoar said:


> did you try reseating the proc ?


Yeh i stripped it down and did a complete rebuild as well. I should've added that in the OP my bad.


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## cadaveca (Sep 15, 2014)

THE_EGG said:


> I can't change the boot priority which uber sucks.



Should be a "fast boot" tool to get you back into the BIOS, if you can get into windows.



THE_EGG said:


> The build quality feels amazing and the onboard audio is fantastic (at least compared to the onboard audio of an Asus Z87-Plus).



Gigabyte's G1 GAMING series of boards have LONG been fantastic, and yeah, the audio is really good. You can also change the sound of the audio on that board, since the OPAMP should be replaceable, too, although most decent OPAMPs do cost a fair bit.

Gotta eat some dinner; just finished my homework.. or at least, the stuff I have got to get done, anyway. Gotta take pics of the board, and tear down the EVGA out of my test bench. Having only one CPU while testing is rather annoying.


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## OneMoar (Sep 15, 2014)

cadaveca said:


> Should be a "fast boot" tool to get you back into the BIOS, if you can get into windows.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


not at all dave they are about 10 to 20 bucks 
this one is a really good value its what I put in my AMP
http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail...=sGAEpiMZZMvtNjJQt4UgLalm6EXZly/yucPtlNMTDKM=
you don't need it to be in the dip8 package you can pick up a ZIF adapter for like 15 bucks
http://www.adafruit.com/products/1284
since a lot of OP amps don't come in dip8 packages tis very handy
just make sure your voltages and input single ranges are kosher and you can run whatever


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## cadaveca (Sep 15, 2014)

voltage rating, lulz, that one you linked is 30V. ROFL.


But yes, there are some affordable OPAMPs, but the ones MY ears like...aren't that cheap. $40 is expensive, IMHO, for a single component.


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## OneMoar (Sep 15, 2014)

cadaveca said:


> voltage rating, lulz, that one you linked is 30V. ROFL.
> 
> 
> But yes, there are some affordable OPAMPs, but the ones MY ears like...aren't that cheap. $40 is expensive, IMHO, for a single component.


dave dave buddy friend homeslice check it dawg.. 
the AS8599 is a very good Opamp it will run just fine on 9V-12v    30V is the MAX the more voltage you give it the louder it will be and of course depending on the power supply the more noise you will have 

http://www.head-fi.org/t/256805/ad8599-is-bloody-good/45
most Op amps will function just fine on a wide variety of voltages I would't be surprised if the one that is in this board had a 24 or 30V max 
could you do be a flavor and get the IC number off the Op-amp that's installed
a Burr Brown OPA 2134 is about 6 bucks shipped


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## THE_EGG (Sep 15, 2014)

As far as on-board sound goes, I've wondered about stealing the op-amp off my Essence ST (especially seeing as nearly no modern mobos in my house have PCI slots anymore - at least the ones that I would use a sound card with) and sticking it onto the Gaming 5 and see how it goes. Although I want to get the bios/booting issue solved first and I'll probably keep it stock for the next month.

I'm going to call the shop I bought it from and see what they have to say about the issue as well but I'll do that after I get home and change the APP center auto-oc settings back to default.


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## THE_EGG (Sep 15, 2014)

I changed the auto-oc thing back to default and the bios problem still occurred. Also sometimes it won't get past the post screen either requiring a hard-reset and it seems to boot to windows ok. So I phoned the store and they asked me to bring in the whole system to show them the problem. I showed them and they asked if they could keep it overnight for testing and diagnostics. Apparently I should be expecting a call sometime tomorrow.

I am aware that they charge a service fee if no problem is found. My reaction will be....not pleasant to say the least if no problem is found. Not just for the fee but also because I would like to have a functioning mobo.


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## THE_EGG (Sep 17, 2014)

... I got a call from the shop and they say the problem is where the SATA cable comes out of the hotswap tray (the one squished up against the psu). And because of that, I need to pay $45 because of being 'user installation error'. I told them that the PSU and HDD and that area of the case have remained untouched since I installed them many months ago and didn't have any bios problems with my previous Asus Z87-Plus installed in it. They apparently say they will have another look at it tomorrow.......Kinda bs if you ask me. If they still insist on charging me the $45 I'll show them the photos and posts here on TPU as proof it was running just fine before I put in the X99 setup.


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## THE_EGG (Sep 18, 2014)

Ok, problem solved. Apparently it was a poor 'handshake' where one of the 3TB Black drives was causing the issue. The technician didn't know why and I didn't know either. But they replaced it with a newer drive (newer as far as being built this year versus last year). The older one still passed SMART tests and other test but just for some odd reason, a newer drive fixed the problem. I requested a data transfer which wasn't part of the warranty thing but I paid the $20 for it just because I have literally 0 time being full on studying for mid-semester uni assessment (my brain wants to explode) for this week and the next week. I just wanted the computer back ASAP so I can still do some work for my boss away from work and still earn some bucks. They also threw in a full copy of Acronis True Image 2014 as an apology for taking longer than 2 days. Not too shabby.

I also asked to be shown what happened with the old hdd vs the new one and yeh it fixed it (either having the new hdd connected or having no drive).


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## OneMoar (Sep 18, 2014)

shop sounds like they are full of shit and didn't really know whats wrong so they just started changing parts

that being said A9 indicates its waiting for a option rom at E000:0 Witch *should* be the SATA controller option rom
one thing I don't t think was tried was moving one drive off the intel controlled sata ports and onto the secondary


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## THE_EGG (Sep 18, 2014)

OneMoar said:


> shop sounds like they are full of shit and didn't really know whats wrong so they just started changing parts
> 
> that being said A9 indicates its waiting for a option rom at E000:0 Witch *should* be the SATA controller option rom


I agree, but in the end I just wanted it back asap. If I had more time I would have done more testing myself and isolated the problem to one component - hopefully just one. And besides the free (free + $20 I guess) copy of Acronis was kinda cool I guess.

I really hated walking in there with my whole system looking like 'derp mah computa broke, pls fix' when I could have probably found the issue myself. Anyway, that's all in the past now so no point dwelling on it.

Thanks for looking up what the A9 thing meant.


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## S1ivv3r (Oct 2, 2014)

THE_EGG said:


> I agree, but in the end I just wanted it back asap. If I had more time I would have done more testing myself and isolated the problem to one component - hopefully just one. And besides the free (free + $20 I guess) copy of Acronis was kinda cool I guess.
> 
> I really hated walking in there with my whole system looking like 'derp mah computa broke, pls fix' when I could have probably found the issue myself. Anyway, that's all in the past now so no point dwelling on it.
> 
> Thanks for looking up what the A9 thing meant.




Hi

I have the exact same problem!!

I have six 60GB SSD's in a RAID stripe on the first SATA controller and my Optical drive and 2TB Western Digital Hard Drive on the second controller.. tried the hard drive by itself on all 4 SATA ports too.. and i get the A9 error every time i try to go into the BIOS with the 2TB drive attached.

Its a real pain in the arse removing the cover to remove the 2TB drive everytime i want to go into the BIOS!

Must be a BIOS update coming to resolve this issue!!

On a side note.. it also refuses to let me disable CSM support when the operating system is set to WINDOWS 8.. therefore forcing me to use the legacy raid controller which increases boot up time dramatically!!


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## THE_EGG (Oct 2, 2014)

S1ivv3r said:


> Hi
> 
> I have the exact same problem!!
> 
> ...


hmmm interesting. Well I guess it is kind of comforting it isn't just me. When I got the PC back I actually still had issues with the bios which I discovered when I had some time to look around in the bios. Updating the bios to F7c (this is the second time I've used a 'beta' bios - bad experience with the first time when I was running an 1156 setup years ago) seems to have kind of fixed the issue. The F6 bios fixed it a bit but I had massive lag on the MIT page every time the CPU speed and other monitoring specs refresh and it would still occasionally refuse to enter the bios. It would also completely lock up after a few seconds in the bios when I'm viewing info on the MIT page. I also found that by swapping the drives to different SATA ports on the motherboard resulted in me being able to enter the bios (even on F6). I think there is still something quite flaky with the bios and perhaps some other bits on the mobo. I'm still considering a full refund for the mobo but I'll keep using it for the next two weeks and decide then.


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## S1ivv3r (Oct 2, 2014)

THE_EGG said:


> hmmm interesting. Well I guess it is kind of comforting it isn't just me. When I got the PC back I actually still had issues with the bios which I discovered when I had some time to look around in the bios. Updating the bios to F7c (this is the second time I've used a 'beta' bios - bad experience with the first time when I was running an 1156 setup years ago) seems to have kind of fixed the issue. The F6 bios fixed it a bit but I had massive lag on the MIT page every time the CPU speed and other monitoring specs refresh and it would still occasionally refuse to enter the bios. It would also completely lock up after a few seconds in the bios when I'm viewing info on the MIT page. I also found that by swapping the drives to different SATA ports on the motherboard resulted in me being able to enter the bios (even on F6). I think there is still something quite flaky with the bios and perhaps some other bits on the mobo. I'm still considering a full refund for the mobo but I'll keep using it for the next two weeks and decide then.



Flaky is an understatement.. lol

I am running the F7c beta Bios and it makes no difference!.. it came with F3.. same problem.. put F6 on.. same problem!!

@bios will only run via the Gigabyte App Center.. took me 100 minutes to update App Center.. a 32Mb product.. and couldn't even move it from the middle of my screen or minimise it until it finished!

Really hope Gigabyte sort this rubbish out!

Oh well.. things can only get better.. lol


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## Dippyskoodlez (Oct 2, 2014)

Update to the F8c bios that came out on the 18th, it should solve all of your issues.

It seems all of the X99 boards are going through rapid BIOS iterations and gigabytes was a bit rushed.


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## S1ivv3r (Oct 2, 2014)

Dippyskoodlez said:


> Update to the F8c bios that came out on the 18th, it should solve all of your issues.
> 
> It seems all of the X99 boards are going through rapid BIOS iterations and gigabytes was a bit rushed.





Dippyskoodlez said:


> Update to the F8c bios that came out on the 18th, it should solve all of your issues.
> 
> It seems all of the X99 boards are going through rapid BIOS iterations and gigabytes was a bit rushed.



latest Bios file on Gigabytes website is F7c???


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## Dippyskoodlez (Oct 2, 2014)

Oh sorry, the X99 Wifi has the F8c, was looking at the wrong board. My G1 had similar issues for a while.

Does the Gaming 5 have the POST LED?

My Wifi was always sticking at "64" indicating CPU initialization until F8c finally hit.


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## THE_EGG (Oct 3, 2014)

Dippyskoodlez said:


> Oh sorry, the X99 Wifi has the F8c, was looking at the wrong board. My G1 had similar issues for a while.
> 
> Does the Gaming 5 have the POST LED?
> 
> My Wifi was always sticking at "64" indicating CPU initialization until F8c finally hit.


No unfortunately not. The Gaming 5 doesn't really have any of that kind of stuff. To clear the CMOS you have to short 2 pins with a screwdriver like the good old days. It has been a while since F7c came out so hopefully there will be a new bios soon.


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## THE_EGG (Oct 13, 2014)

Hmm still having many issues with this board. I've now brought it into the shop (just the motherboard) for the 3rd time now and am requesting a refund. The BIOS (legacy and UEFI) freezes all the time, doesn't save all settings and it also suffers many 'boot loops'. I want to like this board, but I'm now wanting to exchange this and pay the difference and go to an X99-Pro or X99-S by Asus.


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## Lubna (Oct 14, 2014)

I also have problems with Gigabyte BIOS. 
They are unpolished


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## THE_EGG (Oct 14, 2014)

Ok well my nightmare is finally over, 1 month later. So I requested a refund for the board and used ACCC terms and I had to use the Australian Consumer Law to show that I had the right for a refund (the shop was refusing to give it to me). Received my refund and went to get an Asus X99-Deluxe from a different shop. I got it home and found that it looked like it had been used before, along with having a bent CPU pin.......I took it back this morning, explained the situation and I had to show time-stamped photos as proof (I can understand why because the shop might have thought I caused the damage). I received a refund from those guys as they did not have any other Asus X99-S, Deluxe or Pros in stock so I went to a different shop yet again and got the last Deluxe they had. It is now working like a dream. I think I should've spent the extra $140 to get the Deluxe over the Gigabyte board now.


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