*** Official Gigabyte P965-DS3 Thread ***

[AndyBoySmith]

Hello guys,

I recently got the Gigabyte P965-DS3 with a Intel Core Duo E6600 and Cossair Twinx 2gb 800Mhz 4-4-4-12 RAM and WD 150ADAF Raptor.

I am having some problems and would like some help.

My biggest problem is windows taking ages to boot, or should I say the POST to complete. Once the POST is complete, it goes to a black/blank screen and wait for about 15-20 seconds doing nothing. Then windows starts to load which takes about 20 seconds. I don?t understand why this is happening. I have lots of theories and questions in mind.

First of all, when installing the motherboard I used my water-cooling device which meant I had to install a bracket behind the motherboard to hold the waterblock in place. Now there are lots of little pins (solders) behind the cpu which I really did not thing something should be touching, but how else do you install the waterblocks on motherboards? So I went ahead and installed it, but did not tighten it too much, just in case damage may occur. I have a thermaltake shark case which has a removable tray which you screw the motherboard onto. The other problem came when I tried to but it on and the waterblock?s bracket was sticking out a bit so it did not allow to screw the mother board on too tight. I tried my best to make sure it was screwed on straight so no bending occurred on the motherboard.

That?s just some installation problems.

I went ahead after putting it all together, installed windows and other then the long wait at the start, which could be due to, at one point I only had 1 stick of the ram and a different dvd rom installed and no floppy which I put in after it installed the OS.

Also I used the BIOS version which came with the motherboard when installing, which I think was F1. Could a clean install fix the problem now that I have F5?

Also to patch problems, do you need to individually install F1, F2, F3 F4 etc? or by installing the latest BIOS it fixes all the problems the previous BIOS?s fixed? Like for example some things fixed in F3, now that I have F5, are those fixes applied?

Another thing I am suspicious and unsure about is which SATA connector should I have installed my SATA2 drive in. The Gigabyte SATA2 controller (GSATAII0) or the Intel ICH8 controller (SATAII0) I have mine installed in the Intel ICH8 controller (SATAII0) Please let me know if this is correct? Would the Gigabyte SATA2 controller be faster or better?


Also using cpu-z- v1.36 shows my ram running at 5-5-5-18 which is really getting on my nerves. cpu-z also identifies my ram is 4-4-4-12, but it shows it running at 5-5-5-18. It should be 4-4-4-12 which when I set manually on the BIOS instead of using auto detect a few days ago when using version F4 version of the BIOS it started causing programs to crash out, and even once the computer restarted. So I went back to auto which has it back to 5-5-5-18.

I have my cpu set at multiplier 9x266, is this correct? I want to just run my cpu on stock for about 6 months before I go for a overclock. Is that the most stable and efficient setting for the hardware I have?

I just want maximum stability at this moment. The overclocking fun can be had in about 6 months time when I go for my direct x 10 graphics card.

Any help would be greatly appreciated guys.

Thanks,

Andy


Edit: Just want to also say that I am using a Antec 480W PSU. Now I know this is not good for oveerclocking. But with everything at stock I think it should be fine. Does anyone think this could be casuing me issues?

 

[donnyjepp]

I assume you have your RAM in slots 1 and 3, the two yellow slots? Just leave the RAM timing at default until you can get the thing running stable. If you leave the timings on auto the motherboard will attempt to come up with the safest timings.

BIOS updates are cumulative, in that each subsequent release of the BIOS incorporates all the changes from the previous versions, plus some new code. Although sometimes a BIOS update can be a step in the wrong direction, introducing more problems than it fixes. But F4 and F5 are both considered to be pretty solid.

I haven't seen any benchmarks yet comparing the Intel SATA to the Gigabyte(Jmicron) controller. I get pretty good SATA2 performance off the Intel so I didn't see a need to use the Gigabyte controller for anything but my DVD drive.

You are correct that 9x266 is the stock setting for the E6600. Generally you would want to get the system running in tip-top shape before pushing the fsb above that.

I can't speak for the delay between POST and the OS starting though. Perhaps someone else knows what's up. I don't know about the water block either, is it specifically compatible with the DS3 or just "socket 775"?

 

[saymyname]

I'm having problems with my rig where it's hard reboot or just crash to the desktop while playing games. I thought it was only BF2 but it's other games as well (although much much less frequently). I've tried it with COD2, BF2, and GTA:SA and they all crash. I've changed the fans so they turn on much sooner but it still happens. It's tough to say what's helping and what's not since I think the 1.4 patch in BF2 helped a tiny bit with a lot of the stupid problems in that game.

The crashes aren't all consistant but on some of the reboot ones it makes a nasty electronic sound.

I've changed the PCI frequency to both 100 and 103.

Any other suggestions? I'm trying to determine if it's the x1900xt or not.

E6400
DS3
Sapphire x1900xt
Patriot 2GB kit
Enermax 535W

 

[River Side]

I just quick tested mine.. came with F3 bios.. should I upgrade the bios? everything seemed to run fine the first time.. Also would I need to have a floppy to upgrade it?

 

[AndyBoySmith]

Hello donny, yes my RAM is in slots 1 and 3

Thanks for the info.

But I need more info guys. Anyone got a clue as to what's going on?


Edit:

I just did some research. I think the RAM only runs at 4-4-4-12 on EPP enabled motherboards. I dont think that this motherboard detects EPP does it?
This means I have to set the voltage to 2.1v on the ram my self.

 

[donnyjepp]

afaik EPP is only available on boards with NVidia SLI

 

[Ausm]

Originally posted by: River Side
I just quick tested mine.. came with F3 bios.. should I upgrade the bios? everything seemed to run fine the first time.. Also would I need to have a floppy to upgrade it?

Mine also came with the F3 BIOS and I flashed mine to F5 using the Windows based utility @BIOS should be on the disk. If not can be easily obtained from gigabyte's website.


Ausm

 

[Ausm]

Originally posted by: saymyname
I'm having problems with my rig where it's hard reboot or just crash to the desktop while playing games. I thought it was only BF2 but it's other games as well (although much much less frequently). I've tried it with COD2, BF2, and GTA:SA and they all crash. I've changed the fans so they turn on much sooner but it still happens. It's tough to say what's helping and what's not since I think the 1.4 patch in BF2 helped a tiny bit with a lot of the stupid problems in that game.

The crashes aren't all consistant but on some of the reboot ones it makes a nasty electronic sound.

I've changed the PCI frequency to both 100 and 103.

Any other suggestions? I'm trying to determine if it's the x1900xt or not.

E6400
DS3
Sapphire x1900xt
Patriot 2GB kit
Enermax 535W

I would try updating your video driver and also make sure th cooling fan is working on the GPU.

Ausm

 

[brent007]

Originally posted by: AdamK47 3DS

Originally posted by: littlebrownbird
Well I deleted the non-working one and did the update thru device manager. Now I have 2 entries for Gigabyte GBB36X. One has the yellow sign by it, one does not. Still don't see DVD drive. I'm lost.

OK, try this. Uninstall the one with the yellow sign next to it. Update the driver on the working one. Instead of using the one from Windows Update, use version 1.12 (previous version). This driver can be found on the GigaByte website. Reboot Windows after that. Hopefully when you reboot you'll have the DVD drive working again. If it's working then try updating the driver to 1.16 from Windows Update like I described above. If I remember correctly, this is how I fixed it on my system (not totally sure).

Okay Adam or whoever can help. I used the standard windows update to get the latest driver before seeing the warnings of doing so in this thread. I previously had my BIOS setup to use IDE and hadn't tried AHCI yet. When I did try AHCI my system could not see my DVD drives. I tried unstalling the second contoller with the "!" as described and putting in the older 1.12 driver, but a reboot didn't find the drives and wants to install that second defective controller again. I have tried several things such as installing the latest driver to the good controller through device manager, etc. and nothing seems to get my DVDs recognized under AHCI.
Can someone who has had this problem please post a detailed explanation of how they fixed the problem and answer whether once they got things working were they able to install the latest 1.16 driver and have it work?
Also, I don't know much about the advantages of AHCI over IDE. Am I not able to use my SATA2 HDs at full speed with the BIOS set to IDE or is there speed but a loss of some other advantages?
Thanks!

 

[brent007]

One thing to note with my AHCI not seeing my DVDs in Windows is that I didn't preload drivers using F6 before installing Windows, as the standard installation found my HD no problem. Maybe I would have to re-install Windows with F6 driver preload to get the AHCI function I want? Also, a little bit of investigating has me thinking most of what is lost using my SATA2 NCQ drive in IDE mode instead if AHCI is the NCQ won't function. If that is the case I'm thinking IDE isn't so bad and will wait for Vista to come out instead of going through the pain of reinstalling Xp with the F6 load.

 

[JayhaVVKU]

Can someone help me get my SATA hard drive working on here? I have 2 IDE drives with Vista installed and I want to replace them with my SATA drive. However I can't seem to get the bios to detect the drive, and I have the F4 bios.

Can someone please help?

 

[donnyjepp]

Originally posted by: brent007
Okay Adam or whoever can help. I used the standard windows update to get the latest driver before seeing the warnings of doing so in this thread. I previously had my BIOS setup to use IDE and hadn't tried AHCI yet. When I did try AHCI my system could not see my DVD drives. I tried unstalling the second contoller with the "!" as described and putting in the older 1.12 driver, but a reboot didn't find the drives and wants to install that second defective controller again. I have tried several things such as installing the latest driver to the good controller through device manager, etc. and nothing seems to get my DVDs recognized under AHCI.
Can someone who has had this problem please post a detailed explanation of how they fixed the problem and answer whether once they got things working were they able to install the latest 1.16 driver and have it work?
Also, I don't know much about the advantages of AHCI over IDE. Am I not able to use my SATA2 HDs at full speed with the BIOS set to IDE or is there speed but a loss of some other advantages?
Thanks!

I went through the same thing but for the 2nd controller when the driver wizard popped up I had to install it as a "standard IDE device" or something like that, which was one of the driver options that XP gave me. DVD drive works dandy now. I think flipping the BIOS into AHCI mode essentially splits the JMicron controller into 2 separate logical devices, one for SATA, one for IDE, and it just treats the IDE like a generic controller.

Can't answer your other questions though. I have my SATA-2 drive on the Intel controller.



Edit: Anyone have thoughts on the ArcticCooler Freezer 7 Pro? Is it as easy to take back off the board as it is to put on (reviews say just snap it on)? Thank you,

 

[brent007]

Thanks for your help donny. I unistalled the second fouled controller with the good one using the old driver, rebooted, let windows find a driver for a standard IDE controller found and that took care of finding my DVDs in AHCI mode. I then went into the device manager and updated to the latest driver (only one controller was showing), crossed my fingers and rebooted. I now have the latest controller driver and all my DVD drives showing in AHCI mode- cool! I assume I now have NCQ working on my SATA2 drives for the first time, as I had previously been using the default IDE mode in my BIOS.

 

[bart80]

Can anyone tell me how to activate Sata II mode in bios - i can do it only with the gigbayte controller. There is no such option for the intel controller. I cant install my sata drive as sata drive, it work as ide drive. I installed windows xp integrated with sp2, during instaltion i also installed the drivers for intel sata from floppy. My system started, I installed the intel inf update drivers, i tried to instal the matrix storage... but i couldnt. Information appeared that my computer doesnt meet the minimum requirements for this application. My sata drive still works as ide drive.

 

[AndyBoySmith]

I am not sure. But when installing Windows XP with my WD Raptor 150 GB Hard Drive. Do I need to install any drivers by pressing F6?

I am not runing any RAID, just the single drive which windows recognises. If I needed to install any drivers, please point me in the righ direction.

Thanks.

PS my RAM problem is fixed now. It seems I had to up the voltage to 2.1 v for the cossair RAM to work at 4-4-4-12 as that's what EPP would have done if it was supported by the motherboard.

Still not sure why it takes ages to start loading windows xp though. Any other advice on that?

 

[Mogadon]

You don't need to install extra drivers for your raptor.

Your problems may be BIOS related and may be solved by an update, if you're running the F3 or lower BIOS and have problems the first thing you should do is update it to F5.

Once windows is installed check your drive is not operating in PIO mode, that could also be your problem.

 

[saymyname]

Originally posted by: Ausm

Originally posted by: saymyname
I'm having problems with my rig where it's hard reboot or just crash to the desktop while playing games. I thought it was only BF2 but it's other games as well (although much much less frequently). I've tried it with COD2, BF2, and GTA:SA and they all crash. I've changed the fans so they turn on much sooner but it still happens. It's tough to say what's helping and what's not since I think the 1.4 patch in BF2 helped a tiny bit with a lot of the stupid problems in that game.

The crashes aren't all consistant but on some of the reboot ones it makes a nasty electronic sound.

I've changed the PCI frequency to both 100 and 103.

Any other suggestions? I'm trying to determine if it's the x1900xt or not.

E6400
DS3
Sapphire x1900xt
Patriot 2GB kit
Enermax 535W

I would try updating your video driver and also make sure th cooling fan is working on the GPU.

Ausm

I just found that one of my sticks of memory was bad. So I'm going to hope it's that for now. Been gaming for an hour or so but it'll take a bit longer to figure out if I'm still crashing.

 

[AndyBoySmith]

How do I check that my drive is running in PIO mode.

Also I found that in the BIOS I was running in IDE, not SATA mode. though when changed it stull took the same time for it to get to the windows boot up.

Edit. From what I can tell I am not running in PIO mode.

What is the "SATA Port 0-3 Native Mode" under "Integration Peripherals" item ?

Does everyone have it enabled? Is that the NCQ?

How do you change between TCQ and NCQ?

I have a WD Raptor 150gb which would you guys recommend?

 

[AndyBoySmith]

Also, what are you guys running your 150gb WD Raptors on? I have mine on the yellow port and I have IDE set in my BIOS.

Some report better performance when chanaging to AHCI and attaching their hard drive to the purple controller instead.

 

[Baked]

Heads up on where to connect your HD on the DS3. I OC my system as you can see in my rig, and have my boot HD connected to the purple JMicron port. Twice upon bootup, the system can not find the boot drive. Doesn't matter if I choose AHCI or IDE mode. If I connect the boot HD to the orange Intel port, this doesn't happen. The stats you get from the HD when connected to the purple port w/ AHCI is not accurate.

 

[skinnyj]

Originally posted by: AndyBoySmith
I am not sure. But when installing Windows XP with my WD Raptor 150 GB Hard Drive. Do I need to install any drivers by pressing F6?

I am not runing any RAID, just the single drive which windows recognises. If I needed to install any drivers, please point me in the righ direction.

Thanks.

PS my RAM problem is fixed now. It seems I had to up the voltage to 2.1 v for the cossair RAM to work at 4-4-4-12 as that's what EPP would have done if it was supported by the motherboard.

Still not sure why it takes ages to start loading windows xp though. Any other advice on that?

I am going to run this board with the same memory question is why do you have to bump up the voltage to 2.1 when the ram is rated at those times @ 1.9v?

 

[$pade]

anyone else experience this problem with their ds3?

When I overclock the fsb to lets say 400 mhz, and then reboot or just turn off the pc and then turn it on, the computer will attemp to boot (fans turn on, but no display) and then turn off again. It will either do this for an indefinte time or will actually manage to boot after the 2 and 3rd attemp. Usually, when it manages to boot, it will reset the overclocked settings. Note this happens randomly. In some cases I change FSB to 400 and reboot without any problem.

Here is the strange thing. At 400 fsb it often manages to boot and load into windows. Once I am in windows i can run dual prime for hours and everything seems pretty stable.

What is the issue here?

Here is the rest of my system
e6600
2* 1GB Patriot Extreme PC6400 Ram / 2* 1GB OCZ Platinum Revision 2 PC6400 Ram (i am testing both sets rigt now and both seem to be about equal.
Antec Neo 550 PSU
ATI X1800 XL 512 MB
Antec P180 case

 

[AdamK47]

Originally posted by: $pade
anyone else experience this problem with their ds3?

When I overclock the fsb to lets say 400 mhz, and then reboot or just turn off the pc and then turn it on, the computer will attemp to boot (fans turn on, but no display) and then turn off again. It will either do this for an indefinte time or will actually manage to boot after the 2 and 3rd attemp. Usually, when it manages to boot, it will reset the overclocked settings. Note this happens randomly. In some cases I change FSB to 400 and reboot without any problem.

Here is the strange thing. At 400 fsb it often manages to boot and load into windows. Once I am in windows i can run dual prime for hours and everything seems pretty stable.

What is the issue here?

Here is the rest of my system
e6600
2* 1GB Patriot Extreme PC6400 Ram / 2* 1GB OCZ Platinum Revision 2 PC6400 Ram (i am testing both sets rigt now and both seem to be about equal.
Antec Neo 550 PSU
ATI X1800 XL 512 MB
Antec P180 case

I hear that happens with all 965 boards.

 

[Hardtale]

New to the forums, but just wanted to chime in on how helpfull some of the post have been here while putting mine together.

Specs:
E6400
2* 1GB OCZ Platinum Revision 2 PC6400 Ram
XFX 7900GT
DS3 (shipped with BIOS F3)


I was really concerned from the various reports of RAM and motherboard issues, but I was on a very fixed budget so decided to take a chance with the OCZ plat Rev.2 (noticed newegg upped the price right after I bought mine).

I installed and booted right up using defualt settings.

Updated BIOS to F5 and kicked it up to 400FSB and ran just fine without any voltage changes using stock HS/F, although the temps where high for my liking.

I've backed everything back down to stock for the time being while I read up more on overclocking (new to it), and decide on a what cooling option I should go with.

So far I am pretty happy with everything.

 

[$pade]

What board revision does everybody have? Not sure if multiple versions are out yet, but mine is version 1.0 (indicated on the pcb) and I got it from directron. So I know that I have the very first version.

Seems like I'm experiencing more issues than most ppl:
boot/ turn on problems at 400 fsb. Some fsb settings like 415 simply don't work, while I can benchmark at 425 and 433 fsb.

I am a fairly experience user but this board has been the most frustrating to overclock. Certain fsb settings just dont work while higher ones do. Certain bios settings that were rock solid one day, suddenly no longer work the next day when I switch back to them.

btw, i am also using ths f5 bios...