Gigabyte GA-K8NS Pro

[Savarak]

i can burn with default winxp sp2 with nero6, no problems at all... what I do have problems with is cool and quiet, which crashes my computer

 

[Link]

Received an email from Plextor tech. He recommanded adding a jumper to the DMA pins at the back of the drive, and it fixed the problem!
So if you have a Plexotr CDRW and having a problem with nForce chipset try this. Also avoid using nForce IDE driver.

 

[rogelio]

The newly posted F4 is a Piece OF SH*! ...

I went to change the memory to 200 MHz and it froze to the point at reboot where I couldn't even enter the bios again! I couldn't reset the jumpers...

I figured the problem was it was stuck at 200MHz and couldn't auto-reset back to 166... so I pulled a stick of ram out... and then it was working at 200.... I then manually set the DRAM speed to 166... Reverted back to F2 .... and put the other stick of ram back in.

F4 has a serious problem where it can't enter the CMOS or revert back to factory defauly settings if there's a speed/hardware error.

BEWARE!
I'm sick of talking to the GigaByte techs... so feel free to pass the word along.

 

[theholyalex]

I've been having a problem with the gigaraid feature on this board. I've enabled it under the "Integrated Peripherals" section in the bios config, but I am not given any screen where I can enter the GigaRaid setup utility when the computer boots. I have tried bioses F1, F3 and now F4a which don't work. I have a master 80gb drive on IDE3 and another master 80gb drive on IDE4, with no slaves on either. These drives worked (with the same configuration) on IDE1. WinXP shows the controller in device manager but the windows-based gigaraid utility shows no drives.

Any ideas?

Thanks. Alex

CPU: A64 3000+
GFX: Radeib 9800 pro
PSU: 550W
RAM: 2x512 Geil @ 400MHz

 

[theholyalex]

UPDATE: I have found out that if I disable the onboard SATA (labelled "Serial-ATA 2 (Internal PHY)" in the bios), then nForce finds no drives and moves on to GigaRAID, where I can access the menu. However, with the SATA enabled, nForce displays the "Press F10 to setup blah blah blah" message, then goes straight to verifying the dmi pool, bypassing the GigaRAID menu.

Anyone else had a similar issue and/or have any suggestions on how to fix it. Updating to the latest F4 bios didn't help.

Thanks, Alex.

 

[LH2312]

Rogelio, since I got my K8NS Pro just 2 days ago I'm still in some kind of learning mode...
How can you change/modify the RAM freq in BIOS, i.e. to 166 or 200 MHz ? My 3 x PC3200 always default to PC166 mode and I was searching the BIOS options to change the DDRAM values but didn't find any. I'm running BIOS F4 now and had F3 before.
Thanks for your help!
Lothar

 

[imported_Jayl]

Just hit CTRL+F1 in bios to get to those options.

BUT I highly doubt that you will be able to use your 3X PC3200 memory at 200MHz because it just isn´t supported. The maximum is 2xPC3200, but you can always try...

 

[nippyjun]

There is now an official F4 bios available. It says:

"Fix BOOT sequence error after plugged some SATA HDD on silicon image"

 

[imported_Keevon]

UPDATE: I have found out that if I disable the onboard SATA (labelled "Serial-ATA 2 (Internal PHY)" in the bios), then nForce finds no drives and moves on to GigaRAID, where I can access the menu. However, with the SATA enabled, nForce displays the "Press F10 to setup blah blah blah" message, then goes straight to verifying the dmi pool, bypassing the GigaRAID menu.

I've been having that exact same problem, and Gigabyte said they are trying to replicate the problem in their labs.

As far as I can tell, it's because of the video card. When I had my old Radeon 64mb VIVO installed, the GigaRAID worked perfectly. When I switched to an AIW Radeon 9600, it was also working fine, but I returned the card (to get DVI support) and bought a 9800 Pro. As soon as I put that in, it stopped working. I stuck in my old Radeon 64mb VIVO and the problem went away.

So I returned the 9800 Pro and got a Nvidia 6800 instead. Same problem.

So something about newer video cards? I have noticed that the video card drivers and the ITE drivers are sharing an IRQ number, which should be fine with PCI, but maybe it's screwing things up for the detection process somehow?

Edit> Also, I am using two Maxtor drives for my IDE RAID as well. Perhaps an issue with Maxtor??

 

[nboy22]

I got my RMA board yesterday, hooked everything up and the ram is running at 200 mhz fine with just the default bios. I have two sticks of Corsair 2-2-2-6 default timings, of course PC3200. I don't seem to have the problem all the other people were having with the default bios only letting 166 mhz pass through. I checked both WCPUID and EasyTune 4 and both said it was running at 200 mhz.

 

[theholyalex]

Originally posted by: Keevon

UPDATE: I have found out that if I disable the onboard SATA (labelled "Serial-ATA 2 (Internal PHY)" in the bios), then nForce finds no drives and moves on to GigaRAID, where I can access the menu. However, with the SATA enabled, nForce displays the "Press F10 to setup blah blah blah" message, then goes straight to verifying the dmi pool, bypassing the GigaRAID menu.

I've been having that exact same problem, and Gigabyte said they are trying to replicate the problem in their labs.

As far as I can tell, it's because of the video card. When I had my old Radeon 64mb VIVO installed, the GigaRAID worked perfectly. When I switched to an AIW Radeon 9600, it was also working fine, but I returned the card (to get DVI support) and bought a 9800 Pro. As soon as I put that in, it stopped working. I stuck in my old Radeon 64mb VIVO and the problem went away.

So I returned the 9800 Pro and got a Nvidia 6800 instead. Same problem.

So something about newer video cards? I have noticed that the video card drivers and the ITE drivers are sharing an IRQ number, which should be fine with PCI, but maybe it's screwing things up for the detection process somehow?

Edit> Also, I am using two Maxtor drives for my IDE RAID as well. Perhaps an issue with Maxtor??

Could be a maxtor thing. I've got one maxtor drive in there, and one hitachi one. Not sure really, though. I've never seen a problem as weird as this before.

How long ago was it you reported the problem?

 

[imported_Keevon]

I've been talking with them through e-mail for 2-3 weeks. Supposedly they've been trying to reproduce it since I believe thursday of last week. Hopefully they will find something soon. I'm going to try the official F4 BIOS tonight and see if anything happens.

 

[Link]

I've tried F4a and F4 final. Both don't like my setup. At first everything runs fine, then all of sudden system hangs. So I'm stuck with F2.

 

[rogelio]

I've tried F4a and F4 final. Both don't like my setup. At first everything runs fine, then all of sudden system hangs. So I'm stuck with F2.

Lol... my system doesn't even get past the memory detection screen when I tried to change the DRAM clock to 200MHz manually. I've tried F1, F2, and F4 ... none have solved the 166 MHz DDR "underclocking" issue with my 2 sticks of Corsair PC3200.

This was the tech/help request I sent to Gigabyte regarding the lockup issue with F4:

There appears to be a serious lockup issue with the CMOS when addressing the DDR Ram (or possible any error upon boot) for the F4 bios.

I used the advanced chipset menu in the bios (by pressing ctrl-F1)to manually configure my DDR 400 to a speed of 200MHz ... since the default speed with two sticks is underclocked to 166MHz.

Upon rebooting, the bios initialization would freeze at the memory test, and I was unable to get into the actual bios (using DEL) or the recovery feature (F9). I tried clearing the CMOS via the jumper, however... that did not work.

I believe the Bios was unable to reset the memory back to the default setting (of 166MHz)... and would keep booting at the manually set 200MHz speed.

I know that the motherboard is able to effectively run at a DRAM clock speed of 200MHz when there's only 1 stick of DDR... so I pulled out my second stick of RAM and was finally able to go into the bios. I then changed the DRAM speed back to 166MHz, put the second stick of ram back in, and reverted back to the F2 BIOS.

It appears that F4 has a problem reverting to factory default Bios settings if there's an error on boot... this problem renders the actual bios inaccessible.

I hope this information will be passed along to the Bios beta development programmers.

I am a fairly knowledgeable system developer/tester. If possible, would I be able to have the contact info (email) for the bios development team?

In case they make a new Mobo revision which does 2 sticks of DDR at 400MHz... does Gigabyte do "pre-ship" RMA's (where they first send you the new board before they ask for you to ship back the old one... i.e. like how Crucial does memory RMAs)

 

[Etrnaly]

I've tried F4 bios. Mines boot fine with ram at 200mhz working. The tabs to view temp and stuff in ET4 also works. However, multipliers still don't work, and the system crashes after a few minutes in windows. I'm back to F2 again....

 

[theholyalex]

Originally posted by: Keevon
I'm going to try the official F4 BIOS tonight and see if anything happens.

No change on mine with it T_T

 

[imported_Keevon]

No change on mine with it T_T

Same here.

 

[Confusednewbie1552]

When is the next bios coming out? Will it fix all the problems?

 

[rogelio]

This was the response I got to my inquiry:

We'll go ahead and forward this message to the correct department and will continue to run further testes. Please note that the memory controller is built within the processor itself so, if you force the system to run at 200fsb then it can cause system instability.

Lol... "run further TESTES"
I knew the memory controller was on-CPU, but didn't exactly relate it to why I couldn't even get into the Bios ... hmm... maybe setting the DDR Clock to 200MHz made the processor temporarily inoperable. If so... that's REALLY scary to know... that the F4 bios doesn't automatically revert to the last working config... if the memory wasn't the issue, and I wasn't able to pull out the Ram, I may have had to pull out the battery cell on the mobo (since shorting the pins didn't seem to work).

 

[imported_Keevon]

Well somehow my GigaRAID is working again. I'm not quite sure what did it though.

First, I set my BIOS to optimized defaults. This caused the F4 BIOS to freeze when I tried to bootup (since I tweaked the memory to run at 200 MHz). So I tried what a person in here said previously, and pulled out a stick of my RAM. When it booted, I could see GigaRAID fine, but the system had managed to screw up my main RAID (nvidia sata) drive. GigaRAID would sometimes work when I wasn't booting into Windows. So I created a new RAID-0 array (it wouldn't let me rebuild) and re-installed Windows. Magically GigaRAID is still working. So my advice is... Try random stuff.

 

[tOiRb]

Originally posted by: Link
I've tried F4a and F4 final. Both don't like my setup. At first everything runs fine, then all of sudden system hangs. So I'm stuck with F2.

for Linkand others interested) have been using f3a(beta?) and it is super stable. Can't comment on the sata issue since I run only one sata as c: and other drives ide. CPU running at 229 w/ambient 87, yes the hottest summer we've ever had. Have run hard benchmarks at 240-243, will do some things, but might crash and I tire of resetting CMOS's.

THIS IS hard to type SINCE I HavE A NEW KEYBOARD (ZIPPY ILLUMINATED FRONM NEWEEG OF COURSE) BUT THE KEYS ARE IN WEIRD PLACES...I AM NOT SHOUTING......cna't type on this yet but UT works pretty good on this kb.

man, the delete button is hard to find.

My question is how can I post my CPU-Z, etc settings in the forum. caLL ME IMBECILE. gIVE LINK, PLEASE..... FOR INSTRUCTIONS ON DOING THIS, I'M SURE I HAVE THE PIC CAPTURE SOFTWARE HERE,
would love to share my settings.

This is a great forum. Thanks to all...the best forum I have ever seen.

 

[TaiJohn]

Hello,

When I start my comp. I see GA-K8NSP F2 (that's right because I updated teh bios ) , If I look in CPU-Z/SiSoft/Everest or programs like this They give Bios version F1, so i even don't know what biosversion I Have.

I thhink F2 because temp in bios is now 35C (before 70C) and Easytune do not give me the temp anymore.

But i'm not sure. Can anyone help me?

(and I doubt if CnQ is working but I don't know how to test that)

 

[Etrnaly]

Originally posted by: TaiJohn
Hello,

When I start my comp. I see GA-K8NSP F2 (that's right because I updated teh bios ) , If I look in CPU-Z/SiSoft/Everest or programs like this They give Bios version F1, so i even don't know what biosversion I Have.

I thhink F2 because temp in bios is now 35C (before 70C) and Easytune do not give me the temp anymore.

But i'm not sure. Can anyone help me?

(and I doubt if CnQ is working but I don't know how to test that)

If you see F2 when you start, then it should be F2.

To see if CnQ is working, right click My Computer, and click on properties. If your cpu speed is like 800 or something like that, then it's working.

 

[TaiJohn]

CPU speed is 1.79 Ghz, (energy (screensaver) as low as possible). I'm a bit disappointed about that

 

[Etrnaly]

did you remember to install the cpu drivers and then set the power settings to minimal power management?