Possible mainboard issue

[Earlstreetblue]

Recently purchase a Gigabyte GA-Z97MX Gaming 5 mainboard, and have been having issues with it right from the start.
Its paired with a new i5 4590, a Be Quiet 630 modular PSU, a 320Gb and a 1tb hdd, a new Sapphire Dual X R9 270X graphics card, DVD/RW and 2 x 8gb ballistic sport memory.

Right from the start, I couldn't get the R9 270X to power up the monitor, but it worked when changing over to the onboard gfx. After a while of disconecting and reconnecting, it finally worked. And so far its still working, so result of that is why did it take so long to work? Just one of those things maybe, I was beginning to have my doubts.

Anyhow, the BIOS is only showing one of the two hdd's, namely the smaller 320Gb, which I managed to install Windows 7 Pro onto. Suddenly after hours of installing and rebooting mainboard and graphics drivers and software window updates, the second 1 tb drive suddenly appeared in the BIOS/Windows. Needless to say, that didn't last long, as it suddenly dissapeared from the BIOS/Windows after another reboot, doh!

The DVD/RW is also missing from the BIOS/Windows, just like the hdd's it suddenly appeared in the BIOS/Windows, and as far as I know, is still there, but for how long?

Needless to say, I had/have tried all the other SATA ports for the missing second hdd and DVD/RW, to see if that helped, but again to no avail.
One other thing regarding the BIOS, the load screen stays on for a good 20 seconds or so before either going into the BIOS or windows starts to load. In fact on a couple of occasions the splash screen will go off then come back on two or three times before either loading windows or going into the BIOS. That can't be right can it?

What do you guys think may be the problem? My money is now on the motherboard.
Are there any other things I could try?

TIA

[gupsterg]

Out of curiosity what is the bios revision?

I don't think you're OC'ing system as just trying to get it setup, but please state if you are or not currently.

[Earlstreetblue]

The BIOS rev is F4 there is one newer option, but thats beta.
No overclocking involved, as its just getting eveything together in a basic build, at the mo.

[Earlstreetblue]

Been in touch with Gigabyte, and all they can come up with is swapping the psu and or updating the BIOS, lol.
The psu is ok, as I've just put it into a similar speced pc and its working fine. Which just leaves this beta BIOS. I somehow doubt that will cure the issue(s), but who knows.

What should I do Scan? send it back to you under RMA or try something else first?

[gupsterg]

I really doubt if BETA bios the route to go for fix, I'd be inclined to RMA TBH.

It seems you have known good other components plus faults come across as mobo IMO.

Perhaps you've all ready done this but have you cleared bios? ie with the jumper on mobo.

[Earlstreetblue]

Well I've updated the bios to the latest, stil no joy. Already cleared the bios umpteen times, lol.
So yeh looks like a rma. Just wish someone at scan would reply.

[Earlstreetblue]

This is the reply I have now had from Gigabyte after explaing to them what issues I've had.

Dear Customer,

No definite answers for you I’m afraid. It's one of those cases that would need to be physically checked.

Please return to your dealer for 2nd opinion or RMA. Sorry for any inconvenience

Go figure.

[Mark@SCAN]

Hi,

You had contacted us via our live chat facility and we offered some suggestions however the live chat was ended before we got a response.

Our advice was to disconnect the 1tb drive, do you still get the 20 delay on startup?

Regards

[Earlstreetblue]

Mark, unfortunatley by the time you replied I had gone onto do other things.
But so far I have tried the 1 tb drive in another pc which recogines the drive. I was asked by one of your team maybe I should look in Computer Management --> Disk Management because windows would not actuall see it untill it was given a drive letter etc. Which would have been the case, if the drive in question was a new bare drive. But this drive was already formatted from another pc. In fact this 1tb drive already had data on it.

I have also used the same psu that was used whilst building this new pc setup in another pc, installed this 1tb drive, and on bootup, the drive was recognised.
The only setup where its not recognised is when using the Gigabyte Z97MX. Well apart from one time when it was, but then on subsequent reboots it disapeared, with it not showing up in the BIOS.

I now have a RMA number, but I'm now wondering wether to go with another board, as apart from this issue, another one for me, and it only became apparent when installing the parts, is the placement of the SATA ports, which for the case I'm working on, restricts connecting the SATA cables due to the very close proximity of the drive bays. Having the SATA ports pointing upwards would have been better, and as this board is matx, you would have thought, this would have been better for access given that most people would be puttings this size of board in smaller cases. But on looking, there appears to be only a few that have the SATA ports pointing upwards, hmm.

[Mark@SCAN]

Other than the 1tb you were having problems with did/can you try another make/model of HDD or SSD to rule out a compatibility issue as the cause of the problem?

I understand the drive works fine on another PC but i'm assuming that pc does not use the same type of motherboard?

Regards

[Earlstreetblue]

Mark, thanks for the info, just been trying another 4 drives, and finely I have found one that works!!! This board must be very fusy about what drive it likes, as I have tried 3 sata hdd, and two ssd drives. It finally settled on a Crucial ssd MX200.

Luckily, I had UPS phone me this morning saying that they wouldn't be able to pick up this returns (RMA ******) till later today after 4.30pm. Can you cancel this return and let UPS know.
I'll see how it gets on over the coming days, to see if its still ok.

[Mark@SCAN]

Hi,

I can confirm the RMA/return will expire automatically after 14 days. Glad to hear you seem to have got to the bottom of the problem.

Regards