Gigabyte Recalling X79 UD3, UD5, G1.Assassin 2 Motherboards

[cadaveca]

Wait. WTF?


This is true? Really? Translated statement from gigabyte says:

This statement is limited to Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu area, if its content updated, will be announced.
Sincerely, Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.

Of course, I have GA-X79-UD5 sitting here...is it gonna kill my CPU?

 

[btarunr]

Wait. WTF?


This is true? Really? Translated statement from gigabyte says:



Of course, I have GA-X79-UD5 sitting here...is it gonna kill my CPU?

All X79 board models from Gigabyte are made the same, it's not like they have a special revision for "Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu area".

It's just that at the moment they're soliciting free replacements from "Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu area". Soon they'll extend it to every other territory they sell in. They'll have to.

Yes, your GA-X79-UD5 is plotting to kill your CPU the same way its siblings from "Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu area" are.

 

[cadaveca]

Well I was wondering if perhaps they identified the problem to a specific batch of boards that were distributed in that area, or something.

I mean, if that's the case, I need to contact Gigabyte and get a replacement myself. I pushed 265W through my board's VRM for 5 hours, and my board is fine. So I must assume it's near death now then. I saw that video of the UD3 burning up last early week.

 

[btarunr]

Well I was wondering if perhaps they identified the problem to a specific batch of boards that were distributed in that area, or something.

I mean, if that's the case, I need to contact Gigabyte and get a replacement myself. I pushed 265W through my board's VRM for 5 hours, and my board is fine. So I must assume it's near death now then. I saw that video of the UD3 burning up last early week.

Again, they did attribute the issue to a firmware problem. They won't have a special firmware just for those area. This issue is chronic.

 

[dj-electric]

For the same price as the UD5 you can find the ASRock X79 Extreme7, a true masterpiece.
And yes dave, let the UD5 die muhahaha, i already got rid of mine.

Never freaking settle (If an asrock employee read this, i want some market share k10xbi)

 

[EarthDog]

is that true?

LOL... not in most cases, no. Well, not THAT much. There is a 2600k for sale somewhere with the user asking $4k but its a 59x multi so one of the highest PERIOD. I hope no moron pays that much for it. Point is thats unheard of.

Commonly 56x+ CPU's will bring far more than retail but 10x is not remotely common or paid for. 3-5x sure.


As far as who is responsible.. is giga supposed to test to 6Ghz? 5Ghz? 4.5Ghz? 150W/250W/350W? I hold giga responsible for this b/c of the shoddy performance and parts, but the testing part... I mean where (power level) does it happen? Is this part of their testing procedures to test that high?

EDIT: I did have a UD7 die mid review. It was benched hard (4.8Ghz, with peak 4.949Ghz), but then was set to stock speeds, left on for 2 days, then in the was dead.

 

[fullinfusion]

Wow that's a burn for sure.

 

[Jstn7477]

I quit buying Gigashit boards after my Phenom X4 9750 popped my GA-MA78GM-S2H within 3 months. Board was released rated for 125w CPUs, then they went back on their word and rated it for 95w CPUs. Whole VRM area on the back of the board was black by the time the board died.

Don't forget them faking PCIe lane counts on G31 boards, overheating 780G northbridges due to crappy heatsinks, or using tricks to make their 1155 boards PCIe 3.0 capable with PCIe 2.0 switches on the boards. I'd rather use MSi over them if I had to (seems like they've improved their standards).

I'll stick with ASRock/ASUS for now. My ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 is solid, my ASRock A770DE+ is a $53, practically unkillable board (runs 1.5v/3.9GHz 955BE + 5770 + 6670 non-stop folding/crunching), and my old Crosshair III Formula is retired currently after 2.5yrs, but is still as solid as it was from day one. I'm a bit surprised my dad's Gigabyte 790GX board and friend's Gigabyte P55A boards still work (although plugging a cellphone into the front USB headers on my friend's P55 board causes the computer to immediately shut off).

 

[newtekie1]

Then how come all the other manufacturers dont have a problem?? Cant see how you can use that excuse.

You have to read the rest of my post, I explain that pretty clearly.

The issue is a compound one, I'm not blaming Intel or using that as an excuse, I'm saying it didn't help the situation.

The real blame lands solely on the manufacturer of the mosfets that didn't meet spec.

 

[iLLz]

A meme is nothing without pictures!

http://i42.tinypic.com/21o0kmx.png

Needs some smoke in there and it would be just about complete.

 

[btarunr]

Needs some smoke in there and it would be just about complete.

Please don't post bongs or joints. In case any of you decides to get creative.

 

[neliz]

The real blame lands solely on the manufacturer of the mosfets that didn't meet spec.

If it was an issue of MOSFETs not meeting specs, it would be the first thing they notice when these boards go in the oven for temperature/OC testing.

The rumors about PWM issues where there for a long time, especially with with the boards missing the X79 launch, having no stock available for a launch like this isn't a small hick up.

Needs some smoke in there and it would be just about complete.

In the video I saw fire.. that would be more accurate

 

[iLLz]

If it was an issue of MOSFETs not meeting specs, it would be the first thing they notice when these boards go in the oven for temperature/OC testing.

The rumors about PWM issues where there for a long time, especially with with the boards missing the X79 launch, having no stock available for a launch like this isn't a small hick up.


In the video I saw fire.. that would be more accurate

One thing I give the guy in the video is he pulled the plug pretty quick, just not sure if it was in time to save the CPU. I don't speak Japanese but I bet he was saying something terrible when he seen the smoke and fire. He says something in a soft voice that almost sound like Sh!t.

 

[tomkaten]

Pity, I trusted Gigabyte's mobos, never had one that let me down.

But like other guys said, this is clearly a case of rushing products to market and lack of sufficient testing. I know they do that with their video cards, cause coil noise runs rampant on their higher end products... Plus an entire series of early 6850's that were all duds... Black screen, wrong fan setup in the default BIOS. Too bad it's catching on to motherboards now.

 

[neliz]

One thing I give the guy in the video is he pulled the plug pretty quick, just not sure if it was in time to save the CPU. I don't speak Japanese but I bet he was saying something terrible when he seen the smoke and fire. He says something in a soft voice that almost sound like Sh!t.

What I heard is he fried both CPU and MEM there, although the mem seems unlikely as the VR for that is near the DIMM sockets, not near the CPU.

And yes, pulling everything when the system crashes was very ninja, certainly not my first thought.

 

[Steven B]

let's put it this way, this recall is about a bit more than that dudes VRM burning. THere have not been many reports of this happening, at least not in the USA. I have some people say it happened to them, but you can find many more cases of the PWM throttle back the CPU frequency when someone runs prime for 50 mins without a fan over their VRM.


My theory is, ASUS paid Chil to sabotage IR taking CHil's firmware.

FYI is GIGABYTE didn't believe in their products they would have never offered 5 year warranties on the UD3, UD5, G1 Assassin 2, and UD7 in the USA.

 

[ensabrenoir]

What I heard is he fried both CPU and MEM there, although the mem seems unlikely as the VR for that is near the DIMM sockets, not near the CPU.

And yes, pulling everything when the system crashes was very ninja, certainly not my first thought.

Total loss......every o.c.er's worst nightmare. Fried p4s left and right learning myself. Goodwill computer shop had em for a few dollars though. And always a bunch on side of the road on trash day.

 

[cdawall]

And let's not forget those who didn't turn their rigs off in time, and ended up with fried CPUs. Pro overclockers pay 5-10X market price for good chips.

or they just order 5-10x as many chips and bin them. Most of the current records are held by retail chips that have been heavily binned.

 

[mtosev]

ASUS is just as bad.

manufacturers should stop making boards in china.

my asus mobo says MADE IN TAIWAN, not china

 

[newtekie1]

If it was an issue of MOSFETs not meeting specs, it would be the first thing they notice when these boards go in the oven for temperature/OC testing.

The rumors about PWM issues where there for a long time, especially with with the boards missing the X79 launch, having no stock available for a launch like this isn't a small hick up.


In the video I saw fire.. that would be more accurate

Depends, they don't test every board through the process just like the manufacturer of the mosfets don't test every one that goes out their doors.

If they have a part that is just marginally out of spec a good amount of samples will pass, likely enough to pass quality control, and a fair amount will go up in smoke when pushed hard.

 

[cadaveca]

I read the translation to say earlier BIOSes were recalled, not boards. The option is there for boards with earlier BIOSes to be RMA'd, so the newer BIOS can be flashed on.

If you check Gigabyte site, earlier BIOSes are no longer listed, and the affected products all have Bios ver. "F7" listed.

Just my thoughts.

 

[buggalugs]

Well its 9:15 AM on the 28th (first day shops are open after Christmas break)and the Gigabyte boards have been pulled from sale at one of our local stores.

I doubt it just needs a bios flash, its a major recall.

 

[DannibusX]

Well its 9:15 AM on the 28th (first day shops are open after Christmas break)and the Gigabyte boards have been pulled from sale at one of our local stores.

I doubt it just needs a bios flash, its a major recall.

Of course they're off the shelves, they need to have a BIOS flash and have been recalled for it. You can't have a store open the box, flash the BIOS, repackage and then sell as brand new.

 

[cadaveca]

Well its 9:15 AM on the 28th (first day shops are open after Christmas break)and the Gigabyte boards have been pulled from sale at one of our local stores.

I doubt it just needs a bios flash, its a major recall.

Gigabyte, in BTA's link in the OP, says this(translated from Chinese):

1.GIGABYTE full recall on all sales channels for a particular version of the X79 motherboard firmware (BIOS) update, or by consumers to conduct its own firmware update, to ensure the best interests of consumers.

2.GIGABYTE X79 for the protection of consumers to use extreme overclocking performance, where the updated version of the BIOS F7 (including the later version), still caused by overclocking the phenomenon of burning models are given a lifetime warranty (GA-X79-UD3, GA-X79 -UD5, G1.Assassin 2).

3. Products of the company's X79 still worries consumers may be unconditional return policy (please contact the Customer Service Center Gigabyte).

Seems to me:

1: Boards with specific model BIOS are recalled from retail shops.

2: Users that already bought the board can flash to the "F7" BIOS, and boards now have lifetime warranty(instead of 5 years in NA)

3: Users that are still not comfortable with the BIOS flash have unconditional return policy.


I've touched base with Gigabyte to get clarification on the issue. I'll update as info comes in, but in the meantime, it seems that Gigabyte has found fault in the BIOS itself, and not the hardware. I doubt they'd extend warranty to lifetime on products that have faulty hardware. Remains to be seen if the BIOS update affect clocknig or anything, but as I am also working on a review of the GA-X79-UD5, you can bet that I'll check it out.

 

[newtekie1]

Needs some smoke in there and it would be just about complete.

Something like this?

I've touched base with Gigabyte to get clarification on the issue. I'll update as info comes in, but in the meantime, it seems that Gigabyte has found fault in the BIOS itself, and not the hardware. I doubt they'd extend warranty to lifetime on products that have faulty hardware. Remains to be seen if the BIOS update affect clocknig or anything, but as I am also working on a review of the GA-X79-UD5, you can bet that I'll check it out.

The reason I think it is more than just a firmware issue is the reasoning behind what they fixed in the BIOS. They changed the BIOS to throttle the CPU to save the faulty PWM. That is still a hardware issue, and the BIOS just makes the situation of overloading the weak PWM components never happen.