Has the latest BIOS completely redone the style of the BIOS screen?
Gigabyte Z170X-Gaming 7 Owners Thread.
- Thread starter stulid
- Start date
Yes, but some 8 beta (8o) if I do not remember wrong has already the new (terrible IMHO) graphical layout.
Soldato
Whole new GUi in f20 bios. I gave it a blast to see if I can get my boot times up. But still the same. Winds me up it takes 20+ seconds to cold boot. My 5 year old laptop takes 7 seconds. Grrrr
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Did they add a GUI for fan control?
Yes there is a new GUI for fan control. IMHO this is the only one thing good on new layout.
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There is something broken on fast and ultra fast boot.
25 seconds for me from start to login screen of Windows 10 (with a SSD). I had disabled everything, SSD a part. This is about the same time needed for standard boot with all peripherals enabled.
There are some complaints about this on many Gigabyte boards.
Soldato
There is something broken on fast and ultra fast boot.
25 seconds for me from start to login screen of Windows 10 (with a SSD). I had disabled everything, SSD a part. This is about the same time needed for standard boot with all peripherals enabled.
There are some complaints about this on many Gigabyte boards.
Really minor but really bugs me. I have tested all sorts of bios settings. I am using a m.2 and haven tried a regular ssd and get the same result
Yes, me too. It seems that fast boot doesn't speed up the system boot. It is better the standard boot option.
My short list of priority bugs to fix on F20 is:
1) more consistent default voltages. For normal and auto Vcore and so on. I will read Vcore with a multimeter but I am sure that the voltage reported by motherboard it is not real. Also there is only 20mV regulation steps on DDR voltage. My DDR4 XMP profile requires 1,35v but the Voltage can only be set to 1,34-1,36-1,38. Anyway it is not clear why the "profile1" use 1,38v. Anyway setting voltage at 1,36 the real voltage go to 1,356v that it is near the correct one. I made many test and there really no need to overvolt my DDR4 and also 1,34 it is good (I never made test with voltages lower this).
2) All core go to lower clock frequency rarely (dispite the fact that there is no activity).
3) I cannot manage different core turbo speed. For example: x46 with one core enabled and x44 with more core enabled). The CPU never go to x46 dispite the fact that CPUZ correctly read the x46 multiplier.
4) Really buggy App Center software (and the services installed). Bugs a part I think that the early software release that come with Gaming 7 was more functional and the graphics was better (more consistent with the apps). Also I'm not able to have anymore the app launcher on notification bar.
I think that many issue are due to many tricks used to grant OC stability for not luky CPUs.
I hope that Gigabyte will fix the bugs instead of working on unuseful graphic updates.
I already cleared CMOS before the update. Tbh, I have rolled back to the f8. I only tried the f20 to see if it would improve on an adaptive voltage overclock (not overshoot as much as f8). Now I know that isnt improved for me, plus the few nuances I had. I went back.
Thanks for your reply though. I will keep this in mind if I have the same kb and mouse issue in the future.
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the software is pretty buggy. sometimes it clones the controls for the h115, and in the current profile the controls dont work and values show 0. not sure how to fix in the new GUI. you tried reinstalling the software?
Soldato
Yep I am not that impressed with the bios and support from gigabyte. I may jump ship and get a new 270 chipset mobo from someone else.
If I were to buy another board I would try definitely something else. Gaming 7 wasn't bad, fairly stable, but every year others have it better, better memory XMP, better support, better software (like fan controls, overclocking etc).
Not to mention z270 dosn't look interesting with design to me.
Not to mention z270 dosn't look interesting with design to me.
I've just open this ticket to Gigbyte support becasue I don't see any new beta bios after official F20 and this one is really bugged (there is the risk that with new Z270 board the "old" Z170 will be no more updated, at least with the usual frequency:
I'm not overclocking the CPU and I have loaded Default settings on UEFI.
There are some severe issues on the motherboard that can burn the CPU:
1) VCORE at default (Auto) go over 1,4volts that is too much high for a 6700k at standard speed. I need set VCORE at "Normal" and VDIV at -0,185volts to reach more standard tensions and temperatures.
2) According to the Intel specifications the standard clock for i7 6700k's it is 4Ghz with only one core at time at 4.2Ghz turbo speed. Insted the 4 core of the CPU go at 4.2Ghz at the same time. Manual setting the Turbo multipliers at 42x 40x 40x 40x doesn't work.
3) SIV app is bugged. When I suspend PC and reactivate SIV do not read anymore the CPU temp and the CPU FAN/OPT stop to work correctly and do not manages correctly the speeds. In attach there is a picture of SIV. Please note that I've attached a PUMP to the CPU FAN that is not speed controlled so it goes anyway at max speed. I've attached a voltage regulated fan to the CPU OPT connector and it stop to work. CPU pump stop to works if attached to CPU OPT and this is really dangerous because many people use this config!!!
Also there is a medium severity bug that compromise my system reliability:
4) Creative Audio Service (ctaudsvc.exe) crash a lot of times as you can see on Windows Reliability Monitor. I am using the last old Creative drivers and there are no update available on motherboard support site.
I'm also sure that the mb sometimes do not use stored settings. This appens in different situations that are really difficult to replicate.
As a summary I think that this board have a good hardware but that the firmware/software still to be not so good. With some effort this motherboard can be works ok and I know that other brand mobos also have troubles.
I'm not overclocking the CPU and I have loaded Default settings on UEFI.
There are some severe issues on the motherboard that can burn the CPU:
1) VCORE at default (Auto) go over 1,4volts that is too much high for a 6700k at standard speed. I need set VCORE at "Normal" and VDIV at -0,185volts to reach more standard tensions and temperatures.
2) According to the Intel specifications the standard clock for i7 6700k's it is 4Ghz with only one core at time at 4.2Ghz turbo speed. Insted the 4 core of the CPU go at 4.2Ghz at the same time. Manual setting the Turbo multipliers at 42x 40x 40x 40x doesn't work.
3) SIV app is bugged. When I suspend PC and reactivate SIV do not read anymore the CPU temp and the CPU FAN/OPT stop to work correctly and do not manages correctly the speeds. In attach there is a picture of SIV. Please note that I've attached a PUMP to the CPU FAN that is not speed controlled so it goes anyway at max speed. I've attached a voltage regulated fan to the CPU OPT connector and it stop to work. CPU pump stop to works if attached to CPU OPT and this is really dangerous because many people use this config!!!
Also there is a medium severity bug that compromise my system reliability:
4) Creative Audio Service (ctaudsvc.exe) crash a lot of times as you can see on Windows Reliability Monitor. I am using the last old Creative drivers and there are no update available on motherboard support site.
I'm also sure that the mb sometimes do not use stored settings. This appens in different situations that are really difficult to replicate.
As a summary I think that this board have a good hardware but that the firmware/software still to be not so good. With some effort this motherboard can be works ok and I know that other brand mobos also have troubles.
Have you tried F8? F20 was really buggy for me, F8 has been really stable for me with no bugs. Only reason why i looked at F20 was to see if it had added more overclocking options eg LLC steps.
Yes I have tried F8. I agree with you, F8 it is more reliable than F20. I never thought that F20 was so bugged. Probably there was a peak of development activities to manage 7th gen Intel processors, new UEFI graphical layout, speedfan 5 and the new Z270 motherboards.
I want to avoid to downgrade using a non standard procedure. There is a lot of chance that some bugs will be early solved. I know that several Gigabyte Z170 boards have the same issues about Turbo Core, vCore etc. I also discovered that after installing F20 the diagnostic display on modo show C0 code. This in another bug and I don't know what it means.
Yesterday I spent a lot of time to solve the Creative Audio Service bug and shutdown problems that I have discovered via Windows Reliability Monitor. This bug cause some games crash (BF4 and others).
I solved with this workaround:
- installed the RC2 Creative audio driver provided by Gigabyte website (avoid to install last Creative driver update that come via Windows Update and rollback if already installed)
- disabled Windows 10 fast startup(not the fast boot into bios, that is unuseful, but the one present into the control panel->power management).
- do not install HDMI audio driver that come with last 16.12.2.2 AMD Radeon Crimson Drivers (this need a custom setup). AMD driver maybe also bugged but I think that Creative one is the real cause.
I made a lot of test starting from a Windows 10 setup from scatch (no overclock to grant hw stability and any system corruption). Drivers was installed one after each other in a lot of combination to discover which one was bugged. I made different images of the system for all combinations and several recovery was needed to discover these things.
Obviously these things can change with different bios, hardware and drivers but in the case you share similar problems you can try a similar approach.
I want to avoid to downgrade using a non standard procedure. There is a lot of chance that some bugs will be early solved. I know that several Gigabyte Z170 boards have the same issues about Turbo Core, vCore etc. I also discovered that after installing F20 the diagnostic display on modo show C0 code. This in another bug and I don't know what it means.
Yesterday I spent a lot of time to solve the Creative Audio Service bug and shutdown problems that I have discovered via Windows Reliability Monitor. This bug cause some games crash (BF4 and others).
I solved with this workaround:
- installed the RC2 Creative audio driver provided by Gigabyte website (avoid to install last Creative driver update that come via Windows Update and rollback if already installed)
- disabled Windows 10 fast startup(not the fast boot into bios, that is unuseful, but the one present into the control panel->power management).
- do not install HDMI audio driver that come with last 16.12.2.2 AMD Radeon Crimson Drivers (this need a custom setup). AMD driver maybe also bugged but I think that Creative one is the real cause.
I made a lot of test starting from a Windows 10 setup from scatch (no overclock to grant hw stability and any system corruption). Drivers was installed one after each other in a lot of combination to discover which one was bugged. I made different images of the system for all combinations and several recovery was needed to discover these things.
Obviously these things can change with different bios, hardware and drivers but in the case you share similar problems you can try a similar approach.
This question was asked a while ago - but in case anybody else has this issue. On my Gigabyte board I had the same issue when I enabled XMP. I found that I could drop the temps back down if I selected "Relax OC" under Memory Enhancement Settings.Yeah i hear you, im just not sure what setting is best.....
Standard RAM setting = Max Temp 59°C (Lower Performance??)
XMP Setting = Max Temp 70-72 °C
Soldato
i bailed and switched to asus hero z270 and fast boot works!
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Fast boot works fine for me. Around 9 seconds.
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Or you can set the vcore manually. I ran a series of stress tests progressively lowering the vcore until it failed then bumped it up one notch to remain stable.
Soldato
What type of ssd do you have ? Seemed to be a common issue with lots of people.