Even I faced the same issue… My GA EX38 DS4 motherboard died after pressing the reset button. I have just sent it back for a replacement. Please can you tell me how the problem was resolved??
Thanks..

Regarding the BIOS corruption, it’s actually very unlikely. You’re monitoring the /WE pin aren’t you? That’s for writing into the buffer and sending in command. Before it can write into the EEPROM/FLASH itself, after filling up the buffer of cause, it need to send a specific instruction with 2 or 4 bytes of fix code before it can start writing, which is normally 0xAA and 0×55 or combination of both. Miss out one of the important step, the data goes no where. Sometime it’s even a ‘tough’ time for me to get my embedded dev board to write to the eeprom properly.

As for the capacitor, I do agree with you. But I would like to add some points here. Every brand and model of capacitor comes with a operating life figure. Normally around 2000 hours(if you run 24×7, it will start failing after 83 days) and up. These capacitor are under high stress due to the high current pulses and the nature of switching power supply. Those “solid core capacitor” usually has longer operating life, around 5000 hours (24×7 = 208 days). You can also get 10000 hours (24×7 = 416 days) or even more than that, but double in operating life doesn’t mean double in price, it’s usually much much higher in price. So, which is ultra-durable, 5000 or 10000 or more? It’s all about budget. These lifespan figure are normally not published, and don’t expect to find one.

Example of one with operating life of 1000 hours
http://my.farnell.com/1244342/passives/product.us0?sku=PANASONIC-EEEFC0J102AP

Please cry more.

However, I guess it’s possible that it’s the 16-bit low-level code (or perhaps system-level ASM) that’s susceptible to it - that would cover both the pre-POST environment and the memtesting. But I’m not certain.

We hooked up the X38-DQ6 to the workbench and were surprised to find that prior to the POST procedure, the X38-DQ6’s BIOS EEPROM chip actually is open to writing - a huge no-no. Turning off the power at certain points can corrupt the BIOS since it’s in read-write mode instead of read-only. If it weren’t for the dual-BIOS, the board probably wouldn’t have made it through the first day for us.

Unfortunately this is a very severe problem for those attempting to OC, since they’re very likely to hit that reset button before the POST procedure completes, thereby making the BIOS susceptible to write corruption.

If you reset your PC when the BIOS was being accessed, there’s the chance that the BIOS chip was corrupted - the dual-BIOS feature should protect you in that case though.

However, if both BIOS chips are corrupted (I believe both are susceptible), then you could end up with an infinite power-cycling behavior.

Send it back to Gigabyte and get a replacement. And make sure your next board isn’t a Gigabyte - the P35-DQ6 had its share of faulty design problems as well.