Gigabyte GA-Z87-D3HP and CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9 - Crashes, Lockups, BSOD

[chrispy550]

Quick update here. I thought I was running 100% stable for days since I switched to using only 2 RAM sticks (2 x 4GB) and at the XMP profile so they were at 1600mhz. I had no problems for days until today.

 

It started with the USB issue that was already mentioned here (I am on the beta BIOS). And then the lockups / crashes / etc began.

 

I dropped the XMP profile but maintained 8GB and it appears to be "stable" again, but only relatively so. I am just limping along while I await my replacement sticks from Corsair and once I get those and no progress will be made (since my sticks aren't defective) I will be returning this Gigabyte board for an ASUS and washing my hands of it.

[bigfatron]

Quick update here. I thought I was running 100% stable for days since I switched to using only 2 RAM sticks (2 x 4GB) and at the XMP profile so they were at 1600mhz. I had no problems for days until today.

 

It started with the USB issue that was already mentioned here (I am on the beta BIOS). And then the lockups / crashes / etc began.

 

I dropped the XMP profile but maintained 8GB and it appears to be "stable" again, but only relatively so. I am just limping along while I await my replacement sticks from Corsair and once I get those and no progress will be made (since my sticks aren't defective) I will be returning this Gigabyte board for an ASUS and washing my hands of it.

 

Sorry to hear you're still suffering. Strange that you didn't get the USB issue until some time later, I wonder why that is?

[bigfatron]

Hmm, PSU was no real help in the end :[pouts:

 

EDIT:

 

Anyone got any suggestions then? To summarise...

 

- The RAM i'm using worked OK in an i5 750 rig for a few months, albeit at lower speed.

- I've Memtested said RAM as a quartet for about 3 passes on the new kit with no issues

- The BSODs i'm suffering don't appear to have a common pattern when I look in BlueScreenView

- The current system is more stable at 1333 than at 1600 but not acceptably so (still occasionally BSODs)

- I'm already running the current BIOS and the most recent BIOS only seems to make things worse

- CPU has been popped out, inspected and reseated. As has every other component at one point or another.

 

Of things I can swap out then the PSU has already been replaced anyway (needed a bigger one). The only alternative RAM I have is 4x2GB Crucial stuff thats only rated to 1333, so not sure if shoving that in will really prove anything?

 

The other odd thing is knowing what triggers the BSOD. The system can actually be fine for a few hours at a time (esp. at 1333 memory speed) but occasionally its taken a dump at the Windows login screen. Running Prime95 doesn't seem to cause an issue. Games sometimes set it off but not always. Sandra's burn-in test has caused a failure occasionally. Data transfers within Lightroom caused a couple. CPU temps barely hit 60 under load and idle at 30 so don't think its that either.

[chrispy550]

Update:

 

Received the new RAM from Corsair. They declined to give me a different part number, just a replacement of the same kit.

 

Put all 4 x 4GB (16GB) into system. Manually set timings to 9-9-9-24, 1.50V and 1600mhz. System was able to boot for the first time and appeared to run stable for a day or so. I thought my issue was solved. I originally believed the RAM to never have been the issue, but to humor Corsair I allowed the RMA for the same kit. I was starting to feel very silly that I had ruled out the RAM being defective since it was appearing as though the replacement RAM was allowing my system to run flawlessly...... Until today.

 

Problem persists. Given up on going the Corsair route for solving. It's not a defective RAM issue, its a board + CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9 issue. I wish that Corsair had been able to send me a different part number like I needed to get up and running, instead I have gone through a huge hassle with RMA'ing two boards, thermal paste reapplies 3 times and still don't have a stable system weeks later. Once the ASUS board arrives I will wash my hands of this Gigabyte mess and also rethink Corsair for the future.

[bigfatron]

Update:

 

Received the new RAM from Corsair. They declined to give me a different part number, just a replacement of the same kit.

 

Put all 4 x 4GB (16GB) into system. Manually set timings to 9-9-9-24, 1.50V and 1600mhz. System was able to boot for the first time and appeared to run stable for a day or so. I thought my issue was solved. I originally believed the RAM to never have been the issue, but to humor Corsair I allowed the RMA for the same kit. I was starting to feel very silly that I had ruled out the RAM being defective since it was appearing as though the replacement RAM was allowing my system to run flawlessly...... Until today.

 

Problem persists. Given up on going the Corsair route for solving. It's not a defective RAM issue, its a board + CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9 issue. I wish that Corsair had been able to send me a different part number like I needed to get up and running, instead I have gone through a huge hassle with RMA'ing two boards, thermal paste reapplies 3 times and still don't have a stable system weeks later. Once the ASUS board arrives I will wash my hands of this Gigabyte mess and also rethink Corsair for the future.

 

Ouch. Let us know how you get on changing boards. I'm still working through my problems too, although its not as bad as it was. My suspicion is away from the RAM as i've done a couple of overnight memtest runs that didn't turn anything untowards up. Plus I could still get the system to crash with alternative RAM installed (albeit 1333 stuff). So currently i'm ruling out other options, and one thing that did seem to reduce frequency of it going bump was ditching the Intel AHCI driver for the stock MS one.

[peanutz94]

Once the ASUS board arrives I will wash my hands of this Gigabyte mess and also rethink Corsair for the future.

Man, I really hate to hear you say that chrispy. I'm really not trying to sound like a fanboy or anything, but in this case, as bigfatron is finding out this is nothing but a MB issue. I really don't think it has anything to do with memory or even memory/mb comb,aand I would bet money you would have the same issue even using alternate RAM as Ron has found out as well..

 

Getting a second defective MB isn't that hard. Generally you get a refurbed board back even if you just bought a brand new board. Well, it's been that way with 2 out of 4 ASUS boards I've had. You never know what you get back. I'm sure you have seen them stories too on other forums...

 

I would keep your memory for now and wait for your ASUS board to come . I'm sure it will work just fine. But thats just my 2 cents worth.

 

Good Luck Chrispy! :)

[RAM GUY]

Hi chrispy550,

 

Sorry for the unpleasant experience you have with our product. This issue has caught our attention and would like to get more information from you. Can you provide the lot# on the RAM and the ticket# you opened with us? Thank you.

[chrispy550]

Hi chrispy550,

 

Sorry for the unpleasant experience you have with our product. This issue has caught our attention and would like to get more information from you. Can you provide the lot# on the RAM and the ticket# you opened with us? Thank you.

 

I am not certain of the lot# but there's two numbers on my packaging:

1st number is 848822

2nd number is 131100488

 

The ticket# is 6047798

 

As I've stated many times, I don't believe it to be a defective RAM issue. I currently have two kits from Corsair, one of them will be RMA'd tomorrow so I don't get hit with the 170 dollar replacement. My frustration stems from my belief that if I had been sent a different part number kit and not simply a replacement of the same kit, I'd be up and running. Obviously I'm no expert and have no way of knowing for sure, but I don't believe either of my RAM kits to be defective based on the testing I've done.

[sling00]

Gigabyte GA-Z87MX-D3H Here, completely unstable on shipped bios (F3) or F4D beta bios. Tried both corsair CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9B (4x4gb 1600 C9) and G.skill 1866 in both xmp and standard profiles with voltage bumps to 1.55 and no joy.

 

This _has_ to be bios related, or faulty hardware, I really hope its not the latter.:eek:

[peanutz94]

If you have tried two different kits, then memory is not the issue . It's either MB or CPU related.

[chunkymoney]

Just my final update on the issues I had with my Gigabyte H87 board, more specifically the GA-H87-D3H (which is similar to the Z87). I returned the board and exchanged it for an Asus Z87-A. I have not had a single issue since then. As much as many of the errors I had seen led me down the "memory error" path, it was a red herring. I have now been using my machine for 6 days now (not a single reboot, just putting it to sleep), and I have not had a single issue with it. I did get some video corruption the very first day, but flashing the BIOS seemed to fix that, or it could have been because I was reinstalling everything....never saw the issue again and it didn't crash the machine. That is the ONLY issue I had. All the blue screens of death, all the slow sleep times, the other ghosts in the machine are all gone.

 

My recommendation to anyone with similar issues, once you have run memtest and you know it's not the memory, once you reformat you hard drive several times and reinstall windows, once you remove every component until you are left with a single stick of memory/motherboard/cpu/power supply....it's time to accept the fact that Gigabyte has an issue. I will never get the time I spent figuring this issue out back, and that's what aggravates me the most.

 

Good luck to anyone else still having issues.

[bigfatron]

Just my final update on the issues I had with my Gigabyte H87 board, more specifically the GA-H87-D3H (which is similar to the Z87). I returned the board and exchanged it for an Asus Z87-A. I have not had a single issue since then. As much as many of the errors I had seen led me down the "memory error" path, it was a red herring. I have now been using my machine for 6 days now (not a single reboot, just putting it to sleep), and I have not had a single issue with it. I did get some video corruption the very first day, but flashing the BIOS seemed to fix that, or it could have been because I was reinstalling everything....never saw the issue again and it didn't crash the machine. That is the ONLY issue I had. All the blue screens of death, all the slow sleep times, the other ghosts in the machine are all gone.

 

My recommendation to anyone with similar issues, once you have run memtest and you know it's not the memory, once you reformat you hard drive several times and reinstall windows, once you remove every component until you are left with a single stick of memory/motherboard/cpu/power supply....it's time to accept the fact that Gigabyte has an issue. I will never get the time I spent figuring this issue out back, and that's what aggravates me the most.

 

Good luck to anyone else still having issues.

 

I've pretty much hit the end of the line too. I had a ticket with them and got sent another beta BIOS for my board but that didn't work. 4 sticks of someone else's RAM and the BSOD continue. Take 2 sticks of the RAM out and the BSODs mysteriously stop. Put all 4 sticks back in and the BSODs amazingly start again. Switching between 1333 and 1600 speed on the RAM only makes it crash a bit faster/more often.

 

As their utterly rubbish RMA process doesn't cover advance replacement then i'm faced with either no computer for several weeks or burning a day off to go and take it back to the dealer and waste another hour of my life explaining under what circumstances it doesn't work and hope they can reproduce the problem and take the board back. Absolutely the last time i'm buying Gigabyte I reckon.

[drlecter]

Hello

 

Just wanted to say that I have this same problem with two gigabyte boards(p85 and z87).

We have tested and changed everything.

-Different sets of g.skills (4x4gb).(memtest no errors)

-PSU replaced

-Tried another hdd

-Win7 and win8 installations

-I7-4770k replaced to another

-Gigabyte mobo's

 

All that and the bsod keep coming. Running with two sticks of ram helps.

Waiting for the Asus z87-A to arrive currently.

[bigfatron]

I've sorted mine, sort of. When I spoke to the dealer they said they'd probably have to RMA the board, which I wasn't pleased at the prospect of. So I reluctantly ordered a 2x8GB RAM kit with the intention of sticking that in and flogging my Corsair stuff (which there isn't anything wrong with) to offset the cost. The deal I got with the Gigabyte motherboard (slight discount and bundled cooler which is actually quite good) meant I wasn't going to be much out of pocket versus getting refunded and buying a new notGigabyte board and cooler. And when you factor in the hassle (dismantle PC, take/send board back, wait several weeks with no PC possibly just for them to give you the same board back, re-assemble PC, etc) it was a bit of a no-brainer.

 

Gigabyte then came back with the suggestion of tinkering with C-state. Disabling C1, C3 & C6/7 actually worked a treat for me and i've had zero crashes in several days of running in that configuration. I was also able to leave EIST enabled (so I do have some power saving) and i've even managed to overclock stably (got it as high as 4.4GHz but have pegged it at 4GHz for the last couple of days to keep things nice 'n' quiet).

 

So in the meantime the Crucial 2x8GB sits unopened on my desk. I may yet use it and flog off the Corsair 4x4 (the timings are slightly better for one thing) but it seems I can get by perfectly well for now if i'm not too bothered about C-state being enabled.

[nillion]

I also have CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9 x4 (16gb) and the Gigabyte Z87-D3HP-CF and a haswell i5 4570, I was experiencing BSoDs in windows 8 X64 with random issues, like literally every time a different reason why. I expected that I was missing a setting in the bios and I have turned EVERYTHING on and off and a combo of the 2 including power states and manually set the ram including under/over clocking, and volting. This rig will not stop BSoDing. I cannot make it though 1 round of League of Legends with out a crash. Then I took out 2 sticks and magically everything worked 100% flawlessly. I took the other 2 sticks back to compusa/tigerdirect and got 2 more, I slapped it in and same issue. I am on the newest F5c bios. This board will not work with 4 sticks of this ram period. I have tried a grand total of 4 different sets. I'm Fairly sure this has nothing to do with corsair ram, and is a bios issue with gigabyte. This kinnda pisses me off. BAck to Asus / MSI for me.

 

On a side note I just bought a K70 Silver, with cherry MXs. This is the best Keyboard I have ever owned.

[GigabyteSucks]

Want it stable with 4 DIMMs occupied? Lower your DDR3 frequency to 1066 MHz.

 

http://i39.tinypic.com/161jejo.jpg

 

Is that unacceptable? Return your Gigabyte motherboard.

[MAMware]

im on the same mobo with the same bad experience but with another brand of ram

system is GH-H87-UDH3 with F3 stock bios, i5 4670 cpu, 500w solytech psu

but, with kingstom hyperx 1600mhz

 

bsod, freezes, random restarts, video errors.

 

memory at 1600mhz system runs unstable, memtest restart

at 1333mhz system runs better than 1600mhz, random freezes, memtest restarts

at 800mhz, memtest is able to run, 1 pass so far, no windows run yet. still testing

[bigfatron]

im on the same mobo with the same bad experience but with another brand of ram

system is GH-H87-UDH3 with F3 stock bios, i5 4670 cpu, 500w solytech psu

but, with kingstom HyperX 1600mhz

 

bsod, freezes, random restarts, video errors.

 

memory at 1600mhz system runs unstable, memtest restart

at 1333mhz system runs better than 1600mhz, random freezes, memtest restarts

at 800mhz, memtest is able to run, 1 pass so far, no windows run yet. still testing

 

Are things magically better with just two sticks in rather than four?

[nillion]

I just wanted to add that I returned my gigabyte pile of trash and picked up an asus z87-pro. all 4 sticks plugged in that was making the gigabyte board crash, and even got them the do t1 timings @ 1600mhz @ 9-9-9-24 0 crashes, been playing games all day long. If you own the GA-z87-D3HP toss that crap.

[MAMware]

Are things magically better with just two sticks in rather than four?

 

just got one memory module KHX16C9/8, at the recomended position by manual

[flarp]

Hello fellow,

another victim here.

 

I have Gigabyte GA-Z87M-D3H and CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9 (Vengeance 16Gb 4x4Gb) and i facing exactly same problems. I first thought a source of the problem is my GPU witch is factory overclocked, but after doing some research i'm satisfied it's memory or mobo. Luckily i can run the system stable at 1333Mhz, but it will turn unstable immediately i turn on XMP profile or set memory manually to 1600Mhz.

 

I noticed some other manufacturers use 1.65V voltage for memory modules when XMP profile is enabled. I will try this even the memory kit is specified for 1.5V. Also i read from some other forums that may need to increase processors system agent (Vccsa) voltaga little when all 4 DIMMs are populated. Tried this but no luck with +0.015V.

 

I think i'm going to get some other mainboard and 2x8Gb kit of memory if i won't find solution for this issue. :sigh!:

[peanutz94]

I noticed some other manufacturers use 1.65V voltage for memory modules when XMP profile is enabled. I will try this even the memory kit is specified for 1.5V. Also i read from some other forums that may need to increase processors system agent (Vccsa) voltaga little when all 4 DIMMs are populated. Tried this but no luck with +0.015V.

Yes, please do. Going to 1.55 or even 1.6v isn't going to hurt the memory. The modules them selves are good to about 2.0v before you could potentially damage the modules or void the warranty. But you would fry your CPU long before you hit that much voltage. :P

 

But that little bit isn't going to hurt. I hope this helps you, but i do to fear your another victim of the Gigabyte boards.

 

I think i'm going to get some other mainboard and 2x8Gb kit of memory if i won't find solution for this issue.

A 2x8 gig kit would actually be preferable. It's less strain on your IMC and less heat too. Unless you really need to max out your memory or even just want to populate all your slots, it's highly overrated. The newer Intel CPU's really seem to do better with 8 gig modules anyway.

 

Let us know how you make out!

[flarp]

Gigabyte made new F8 bios version available during the weekend and give it a try on yesterday. There was no word about improved memory compatibility but instead some PCI-E improvements.

 

First i tried with XMP profile 1600Mhz 9-9-9-24-2T @1.5V but got BSOD after playing some WoT. I increased memory voltage to 1.55V and so far i've been able to run system stable. Just played Dead Island 4 hours straight and some WoT before that. No problems so far. However, i'm not fully satisfied that memories are working at 1600Mhz because bios doesn't change multiplier to 16 after switching to XMP profile. Instead multiplier stick on 13.33 which has been previously stable. Checked memory frequency on windows with CPU-Z which show 800Mhz but i'm still bit unsure.

 

A 2x8 gig kit would actually be preferable. It's less strain on your IMC and less heat too. Unless you really need to max out your memory or even just want to populate all your slots, it's highly overrated. The newer Intel CPU's really seem to do better with 8 gig modules anyway.

 

I bought this 4x4Gb because it was in sale and i thought it doesn't matter is there 2 or 4 sticks. Sometimes would be good to do some research before make a hasty decision.

 

EDIT: False alarm. Still crashing.

[KonsG]

I just wanted to add that I returned my gigabyte pile of trash and picked up an asus z87-pro. all 4 sticks plugged in that was making the gigabyte board crash, and even got them the do t1 timings @ 1600mhz @ 9-9-9-24 0 crashes, been playing games all day long. If you own the GA-z87-D3HP toss that crap.

 

Just registered on this forum to confirm that there is indeed a problem with this motherboard (Gigabyte D3HP) that causes it to malfunction when 4 memory slots are used. I bought a brand new PC with all new components that included this board and 32GBs of RAM in 4 modules. Was getting frequent BSODs (Blue Screens). Struggled with this for two weeks, trying to figure out the source. The mobo was the last suspect. Memory was tested and re-tested, then swapped. Sound card removed. All drivers updated and re-installed. Graphics card disabled in favour of on-chip video. OS reinstalled. Colossal waste of my time, considering that it's quite limited.

 

The epiphany came when I realised that the system was stable with just 2 slots filled, but kept crashing with 4. I searched Google for anyone experiencing this and, to my amazement, similar experience was cited by other users, only for the Gigabyte board. I tested it some more to be sure. Used the PC with just 2 RAM modules for a whole week (7 days) without a single crash. Placed the remaining two in and got a BSOD within 20 minutes, then another one.

 

Got back in touch with the shop that built the PC for me requesting they swap the mobo with the one I originally asked for (and actually paid for) - ASUS Z87 A. They agreed that the Gigabyte board was faulty and performed the replacement.

 

Not a single BSOD after using the Asus board for two days with all 4 memory sticks.

[peanutz94]

Sorry to hear you too went through this frustrating situation. However, I'm glad you decided to add further information to this post. I'm sure others will also find it useful too.

 

Have you by any chance talked to gigabyte about this? I was just curious because I really haven't kept up on their products (never was a fan) but have they acknowledged any sort of issue with these boards? There's too many of them to not be noticed.