Yes, I have the OLQ reference, which I've kept safe. Oddly the reference number for both my Technical Support and both RMA queries is the same number.
Regards Gigabyte patching/fixing the BIOS, it doesn't look good.
From another fellow musician user that raised the issue with Gigabyte:
"Quick update regarding the P35-DS4 motherboard and DPC spikes relating to BIOS versions >F5. I had a reply from Gigabyte who say that I should stick with the F5 BIOS and that they aren't planning on fixing DPC spikes in later BIOS releases because they are now just adhering to Intel's specifications!
If this were really so then surely many other boards would suffer the same issues? Also unless this is a specific hardware design issue (quite possible) then what does this say about the suitability of Gigabyte P35 motherboards for DAW use? Here are the responses from Gigabyte: Originally Posted by Gigabyte "We discovered this status is caused by south bridge settings and those settings are followed by Intel ICH9R specification to modify. It means that BIOS before F5 version had not been added Intel’s spec and we just followed Intel. Stay with F5 BIOS is the best solution."
Q: Are you likely to "fix" the issue in a later BIOS release?
Originally Posted by Gigabyte "Sorry but we will not to modify a special version BIOS for this issue since we had followed Intel’s specification already."
(DAW = Digital Audio Workstation).
However, there are many more of us with the problem now, so Gigabyte may be forced to issue a fix.
But, again, I don't have that time to gamble on whether they will or whether they wont.
A great shame, as it's a great motherboard with excellent connectivity (12 x USB, 3 x native Texas Instruments firewire, 8 x SATA channels, 3 x eSATA on PCI, 3 x PCI-Express x1 slots, S/PDIF in and out) and has great enthusiast clocking features.
It initially appears that it is GA ranged, with P35-DS4, P35C-DS3x, P35-DS3R, P35-DS3P, P35-DS3L, P35-S3G, P35-DQ6, G33-xxx, X38-DQ6 and X48-DQ6 motherboard users being affected. All show the same patterned DPC latency spikes. The problem is not with the Intel P35 chipsets, as other manufacturer boards using that chipset work great. It's local only to Gigabyte.