[The motherboard got replaced]Gigabyte Motherboards and new 'App Center' and 'SIV' issues

[UsandThem]

Jesus...

Thanks for the info. I'm not sure what BIOS it is atm. I installed it but did not look at the revision. It should be listed in the BIOS though so I will have him check tonight.

Why in the hell would they not allow an older BIOS if mobo is upgraded to F2? That just seems odd to me.

I think it's because they changed the BIOS dramatically after going say from F5 to F20 (and adding Kaby Lake support). My UEFI was completely different after I upgraded. It's also why I waited so long to upgrade from version F5, which I ran for over a year. The only reason I did it was to get fan curve support in the BIOS.

It's definitely a big mess. From what I have read, even Gigabyte's AMD Ryzen chipset BIOS were rougher than their competitors at launch. A lot of those boards have some pretty rough reviews, and it seems like it is mostly BIOS issues. I have used Gigabyte for a long time now (along with Asus as well) and I love Gigabyte's hardware/design side, but I am just beginning to hate their software/coding side of their business, and unless it improves over the next few years, I will not be going with Gigabyte on my next build or my kid's next build.

If you take a look at another board, let's say the Asus Z170-A, and compare it to a Gigabyte board released around the same time, Asus typically releases more BIOS updates. The Z170-A has 18 BIOS updates. My GA-Z170X-UD5 has 7 (ignoring the 1 Beta BIOS they never finished). That's a very big difference.

 

[WhiteNoise]

Well I lucked out. The BIOS that is activated (dual BIOS) is F6 so it is an older one. I solved the USB issues by adding a USB 2 panel and plugged into mobo. Now all the older USB devices are working correctly. USB 3 devices seem to be working fine in the USB 3 ports.

 

[UsandThem]

Well, it's been a while since I updated anything in this thread, but just coming back to provide one last update.

After upgrading to the F22 BIOS, I begin experiencing jerkiness with my USB mouse. Sometimes I could get it working again by plugging it into a different USB port, while other times it would last for several hours (even after rebooting). I went and bought a new mouse thinking maybe the "old one" was having issues, however that wasn't the issue. So I just put up with it for several months.

After recently upgrading my BIOS to version F23a to fix the Intel HT bug, it became worse. Also, I noticed my scores on my Samusng 960 EVO had suddenly dropped by 600 MB/s read / 400 MB/s write when benchmarking it within Samsung Magician. So I decided I finally had enough of this board, and bought an Asrock Z270 Taichi. I plugged the same mouse in and plugged my 960 EVO in leaving my previous install intact. My scores shot right back up to where they should have been, and I have been enjoying playing Civ5 and Civ6 without my mouse getting "choppy" and scrolling smoothly. So based on my experience with this Gigabyte board, I will say it was a well designed board ruined by their BIOS/software team. I had zero issues with the F5 version, but since I needed fan control in my BIOS, I was forced to upgrade to their F2* BIOS. Despite using many different Gigabyte boards over many years, it will be a long time again before I consider a Gigabyte board again.

I am probably in the minority on this point, but I wish manufacturers didn't release 50 different motherboards of every chipset. For example, in the past they would have a couple entry-level ones, a few mid-range, and then the "ultimate" one. It just seems that there are a lot of BIOS issues/compatibility problems due to the shear number of products they release. From a business perspective I understand why they do it. They dress up a board a little, and add a few bucks worth of extras on it, and release it at almost double the price. I just wish they would put the same resources into their software team. Of course these are only my opinions/observations, and YMMV.