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Short story: Bought gigabyte H170M-DS3H, i3 6100, 8GB RAM. Both Windows and Linux would freeze on boot. Borrowed ASUS motherboard; Linux worked fine on that. Returned faulty gigabyte H170 motherboard, and bought a gigabyte B150M-D3H and it has the exact same problem as the first gigabyte motherboard.

Now I don't know whether I have lucked-out with two dud gigabyte motherboards, or have a CPU that, for some reason, doesn't like gigabyte motherboards.

Things I'm pretty sure aren't the problem:

  • RAM: I can boot memtest86 on the gigabyte H170. Left it running for an hour or so. No problems.
  • PS: Tried with a no-name 450w and a corsair 850w.
  • BIOS: Upgraded the H170 from F4 to F20. The B150 came with F20.
  • OS: I get a screen with a random pattern of green and black pixels a few seconds into booting, with both windows (from SSD) and Linux (Ubuntu 16.10 from USB). Multiple boots of Linux in text-only mode show a freeze at different points, at around the 4-5 second mark, and once I got a kernel panic.

Which leaves:

  • CPU: I booted Ubuntu 16.10 on USB on a borrowed ASUS motherboard (same CPU and RAM) and ran a couple of infinite loop programs to tax the CPU. It was working fine a few hours later. So I know the CPU works with a non-gigabyte motherboard.

  • Motherboard: Perhaps I just got two broken gigabyte motherboards in a row?

  • Something else: Any other suggestions as to what might be wrong?

[edit]

I returned the gigabyte B150M motherboard and got an identical replacement, and it had exactly the same symptoms. So CPU bad right? However, I then returned the gigabyte motherboard and got a ASUS B150 motherboard. And the i3 6100 has been running flawlessly with the ASUS motherboard for over a week. So somehow I've ended up with a CPU that doesn't like gigabyte motherboards. Which seems pretty unlikely, but every other explanation is even less likely.

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  • "Freeze on boot" doesn't indicate a CPU problem, a CPU problem wouldn't even POST. More suspect of either the memory or the firmware bit your motherboard would have came with a firmware that already supported that CPU out of the box
    – Ramhound
    Commented Dec 19, 2016 at 13:58
  • The part that concerns me is the "random pattern of green and black pixels." And you stated that it freezes in text-only mode. This sounds like a graphics related problem. Since the graphics are integrated aka, built into your CPU I would point my finger at that. I'd RMA the CPU and go from there.
    – DrZoo
    Commented Dec 30, 2016 at 20:01

1 Answer 1

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Hi the first thing is to check gigabyte website if they support the cpu . I checked it is supported gigabit support list for H170 - GA-H170M-DS3H

Also seek their(gigabyte) thoughts on what may be the issue.

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  • you can also check this link [link] (cpu-upgrade.com/mb-Gigabyte/GA-H170M-DS3H(rev._1.0).html#cs)
    – arthur kay
    Commented Dec 19, 2016 at 7:13
  • "Check the list" don't disagree but the CPU is on the list so it's silly to suggest to the author to check the list besides Intel socket design is universal meaning that any motherboard that supports that socket can run any CPU that uses that socket.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Dec 19, 2016 at 13:57

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