Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 v2 UEFI Crashing

Hi!

I've been having some issues with my Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 v2 mobo previously and I've been considering to RMA it but haven't had the time. The problems have, among other things been that I could only use 1333MHz on my 2133MHz memory, I could not OC above 4.7GHz even though all voltages and temperatures were well within the limits and lastly it had a habit of resetting my settings every other time I turned off the computer.

So I decided to take the plunge and check out the UEFI bios before I finally sent the motherboard back. Flashing the bios proved to be no problem and to my surprise I seemed to be able to select 2133MHz for my memory and it would not stop and reset to defaults. However in Windows CPU-Z told me that the memory MHz was at something like 1000MHz.

I decided to start Battlefield 3 to check the performance out with optimized defaults and 2133MHz on the memory. Was a lagfest that lasted 10 seconds then froze up and restarted. I got back into Windows, again with optimized defaults but this time 1333MHz on the memory, started up IL-2 1946 (a 6-7 year old flight simulator that's really easy on the computer) and a minute or two later the computer once again froze up and restarted. After this it only got worse, I got reboots just from entering Windows and as of right now it's rebooting within the bios or even before the bios is started.

It's looking like I'm going to be returning this motherboard but I just thought I'd come in here for some last minute tips and suggestions. Any help appreciated

Yeah the temperatures are overall great I'd say.

Hmmm, you think the PSU could be the problem? Not impossible I guess, it's a rather old one and only 580W.

I will see if I can find another one somewhere. Thanks, at least I have something to do ;D

Ok I think you're right. It's most likely the PSU.

I wasn't able to get a replacement, but removing the GPU and running on the internal GPU I have now been running Windows for some 20 minutes. Will leave it running just to be sure.

I'm guessing that the PSU couldn't run it all. I will test OCing the CPU now as well and see if that works better now without the GPU.

My PSU is 580W and I'm guessing that was just barely enough to keep it running before and for some reason the new bios wouldn't do it.

What do you think, would a new PSU at 650W be enough or should I get something like 700+?

A friend had a 600W PSU that I borrowed and now everything is in working order.

However I am seeing a massive hit on FPS in Battlefield 3. Haven't had time to check out other games but I've lost like 50% of my FPS in BF3. In "non-intensive" situations I priorly had 80-100fps and now I'm somewhere around 40-50. And when it does get intense I before had 40-50 and now thats down to 15-25

I did notice that after I first flashed the bios that quite a few things in Windows were a bit dodgy. Would a format solve something like this? Or do you think it's the bios that is somehow inherently slower?

Well you were right

Formated and I still have horrible ingame performance. From what I can tell the gfx-card is working as it should and I do have the newest drivers. Sort of at a loss here. I could go and buy a new graphicscard but I'm not so sure thats the actual problem seeing how it wasn't a problem with the previous bios-version.