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

[skinnyj]

Ok i got my rig about a week ago, everything was running stable and i was using a seagate sata drive, installed xp as ide i believe, it was coming up in bios everything was fine. Decided i wanted to add another fan into the case and as im doing this and i turn it on, my hdd fry's like smoke is coming up..........
I go get another drive and now i cant get it to see a sata drive PERIOD. ive messed with settings everything i dont know what else to do, i changed sata cable, power cable to the drives, used a new modular cable, and new spot on the psu. ive tried all the sata spots on the mobo. i need more than one drive in my rig this is ridiculous are the sata porst fried?
So now i have an ide hdd, and a dvd burner but thats it. and i would really like more does anyone have anysuggestions??

also im only clocked at 2.56 8x320 i believe how can i bring my temps down, core temp reads 49 idle 55-56 load. but bios always reads it at around 35. so anything? its a full atx, with 3 120mm fans, and has the big typhoon on it.

e6400 @ 2.56
2x1gb corsair 6400c4
evga 7900gs
corsair 520 psu
audigy 2 zs
thermaltake big typhoon

 

[crimson117]

Originally posted by: skinnyj
Ok i got my rig about a week ago, everything was running stable and i was using a seagate sata drive, installed xp as ide i believe, it was coming up in bios everything was fine. Decided i wanted to add another fan into the case and as im doing this and i turn it on, my hdd fry's like smoke is coming up..........
I go get another drive and now i cant get it to see a sata drive PERIOD. ive messed with settings everything i dont know what else to do, i changed sata cable, power cable to the drives, used a new modular cable, and new spot on the psu. ive tried all the sata spots on the mobo. i need more than one drive in my rig this is ridiculous are the sata porst fried?
So now i have an ide hdd, and a dvd burner but thats it. and i would really like more does anyone have anysuggestions??

also im only clocked at 2.56 8x320 i believe how can i bring my temps down, core temp reads 49 idle 55-56 load. but bios always reads it at around 35. so anything? its a full atx, with 3 120mm fans, and has the big typhoon on it.

e6400 @ 2.56
2x1gb corsair 6400c4
evga 7900gs
corsair 520 psu
audigy 2 zs
thermaltake big typhoon

Before you do any more troubleshooting, bring your rig back to stock speeds. Then make sure you have the correct SATA driver installed.

If at stock speeds you can't get a new, working SATA drive to be recognized (check that it works in another rig), then RMA your motherboard.

 

[skinnyj]

with the sata driver, would it show up in bois? because it did before but this new hdd i cant get it to show up.

 

[crimson117]

Originally posted by: skinnyj
with the sata driver, would it show up in bois? because it did before but this new hdd i cant get it to show up.

Nope, bios should recognize it without the SATA driver (drivers are so windows can recognize it). Sounds like an RMA.

 

[tomstevens26]

Originally posted by: crimson117

Before you do any more troubleshooting, bring your rig back to stock speeds. Then make sure you have the correct SATA driver installed.

Ok, now I think I'm confused again.

I didn't think those SATA drivers were needed unless one was using a RAID configuration. If he's just using 1 SATA HD shouldn't he be able to set the port to IDE, do the windows install, install the INF drivers, reboot and set the port to NATIVE? Where do those SATA drivers come into play? Sorry for the confusion...just trying to make sure I know what I'm doing when my stuff gets here Thursday.

Tom

 

[skinnyj]

thats what i thought tomsstevens, and thats what i was trying to do just run it as an ide, and it came up fine in bios but now i cant get anything to show up and think maybe my sata ports are fried or somthing

 

[tomstevens26]

Well, just with my limited knowledge, I would agree that you have a hardware issue if you can't see the drives in the BIOS with the port set to legacy/IDE. Have you tried a different cable/HD/power connector?

 

[crimson117]

Originally posted by: skinnyj
thats what i thought tomsstevens, and thats what i was trying to do just run it as an ide, and it came up fine in bios but now i cant get anything to show up and think maybe my sata ports are fried or somthing

Sorry for the confusion

If the bios doesn't recognize it, the ports or the HD or the SATA cable or Power cable is bad.

It sounds like you've tried everything but a new motherboard, and it still doesn't work. Therefor, I suggest a new motherboard

 

[koitsu]

Originally posted by: tomstevens26
Tessien: I've also read that the ICH8 does not support NCQ. I believe the ICH8R does? Regardless, is there any noticeable performance difference non-NCQ vs NCQ, or is it just a benchmark thing?

NCQ and TCQ apparently do very little good in general. You can read reviews and benchmarks stating this both at StorageReview.com, as well as at Tomshardware.com.

NCQ and TCQ will help with heavily-loaded disks (e.g. server environments) that're under constant use. The description of NCQ Tessien gave you above is correct -- but the scenarios in which it's useful are few and far between at this point in time. (Basically, for workstation usage, do not fall victim to the NCQ marketing hype.)

 

[koitsu]

Originally posted by: koitsu
So now it's time to rebuilt the rest of the box (software-wise) and run FFXI or WoW for awhile to see if it'll crash with C1E enabled. I sure hope not. I really like my DS3. :-(

Follow-up to this issue:

Re-built entire system (same components of course). Once again, same problem: C1E enabled results in random system lock-ups or reboots.

It seems I'm going to have to go piece-by-piece with replacing hardware until I manage to figure out what the problem is.

Can some other people (and please no "it works fine for me that is the way it is done do you not think so" fanboys) who do use C1E post their results? As I mentioned originally, most people in this thread seem to be disabling all of these features in the BIOS, so I'm hoping to find multiple people who use these features and state that things are stable.

Once I see some posts confirming that C1E is stable on their systems (and not just in games for an hour or two -- I'm talking heavy gaming sessions, 4-5 hours straight, maybe even leaving a game running for multiple days (FFXI players will know why this is done )), I'm going to start with a motherboard RMA, then a video card replacement, then a CPU RMA. My gut says this is some kind-of electrical problem with the motherboard (voltage fluxuating), or possibly with the CPU, but it's almost impossible to diagnose.

 

[imported_Stin]

New Audio Drivers on the Gigabyte website:

Drivers Here

 

[Tessien]

Follow-up to this issue:

Re-built entire system (same components of course). Once again, same problem: C1E enabled results in random system lock-ups or reboots.

It seems I'm going to have to go piece-by-piece with replacing hardware until I manage to figure out what the problem is.

Can some other people (and please no "it works fine for me that is the way it is done do you not think so" fanboys) who do use C1E post their results? As I mentioned originally, most people in this thread seem to be disabling all of these features in the BIOS, so I'm hoping to find multiple people who use these features and state that things are stable.

Once I see some posts confirming that C1E is stable on their systems (and not just in games for an hour or two -- I'm talking heavy gaming sessions, 4-5 hours straight, maybe even leaving a game running for multiple days (FFXI players will know why this is done )), I'm going to start with a motherboard RMA, then a video card replacement, then a CPU RMA. My gut says this is some kind-of electrical problem with the motherboard (voltage fluxuating), or possibly with the CPU, but it's almost impossible to diagnose.

I have C1E, EIST and TM2 enabled, only virtualization (or what's the name) off.

OCed to 450FSB (i. e. 3,15GHz with E6300).

No stability issues so far, 2xPrime95 ran for 48 hours straight, no problems in WoW whatsoever, I played max for 5 hours straight I think.

 

[imported_Someone2]

Hi

Has the problem with OCZ memory been solved yet? If not, what do you think of this memory:

http://www.mindfactory.de/cgi-bin/MindS...6273fc0a801ed067b/Product/View/0019776


The site says it is 4,0-3-4-8 @ 1,9V.. I wonder if it really is that good as it is cheaper than OCZ and has a lot better timings..

And will the board's IDE controller co-operate properly, if I use my Promise FastTrak100 PCI RAID card?

 

[htne]

Originally posted by: Someone2
And will the board's IDE controller co-operate properly, if I use my Promise FastTrak100 PCI RAID card?

I'm using a Promise Ultra133 with no problems.....

 

[Tailic]

I'm having a boot problem with my DS3, booting from cold or even with power to it, it will reboot muilitple times instead of just once. Sometimes it'll give one long beep (meaning memory error) but other times it'll just reboot like 4 or 5 times without the beep. I'm forced to lean on the reset button to get it to boot correctly or it would just hang there with the lights on but no bios.

I'm currently using the latest bios (F6) and I have increased the memory +0.1 in the bios to make it 1.9v that the memory is speced to be. Gigabye techsupport is just telling me to increase the voltage to what the ram is speced for but it already is.

Could the ram be going bad?I'm using some Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400 memory. I havnt gotten around to booting in memtest yet. But it seems to me that the motherboard is to blame since my pc has been booting fine for around 2 or 3 weeks. It would boot fine with only one stick of ram. I'd hate to have to get a different kind of memory now that prices have sky rocketed from when I bought mine.

Rest of my system is
Core 2 Duo E6700
Sapphire X1900XTX
Maxtor HD (forgot the exact specs)
Antec TrueControl 2.0 550watt PSU

No overclocking yet.

Also it seems like everytime I boot up it becomes harder and harder to boot correctly.

 

[TheSlamma]

I am also running the TWIN2X2048-6400 and have started to see problems. My issues are only with games though when I play them longer then about 20 minutes on average I will get a hardlock or in Company of Heroes the game all of a sudden loses all audio and runs very slow.

Last night I ran Memtest86 and on Test #7 came up with a bunch of errors. I bumped the Voltage up by .1 and left the test running again while I'm here at work... I'll report back on how it did when I get home this eve.

 

[modestninja]

Originally posted by: Someone2
Hi

Has the problem with OCZ memory been solved yet? If not, what do you think of this memory:

http://www.mindfactory.de/cgi-bin/MindS...6273fc0a801ed067b/Product/View/0019776


The site says it is 4,0-3-4-8 @ 1,9V.. I wonder if it really is that good as it is cheaper than OCZ and has a lot better timings..

And will the board's IDE controller co-operate properly, if I use my Promise FastTrak100 PCI RAID card?

I had problems with my original kit of OCZ platinum and RMA'd them. The ones I got back have been running smoothly since yesterday. I OC'ed to 3.2ghz, (8x401 with 2:1 memory divider so memory was at 801mhz) and forgot to bump up the voltage. However, it still passed a couple hours of memtest and Orthos overnight. So, it seems to be working well now.

I tightened the timings and increased the voltage to spec (2.1V) and left it running Orthos today, so I'll see how it is. But it seems to be working better for me (and considering it was $135 AR (and I've received my rebate) you can't beat that with the way that ram prices are now.)

 

[modestninja]

Anyone know how accurate the sensor and EasyTune are? The reason I ask is that mine is reporting that my e6600 (@ 4x801 = 3204mhz) is at 40C under full Orthos load. I am using an Ultra-120 and haven't bumped the CPU voltage up much (reported as 1.310 in both CPU-Z and EasyTune).

Anyway, it's been running the test stable at that temp for a while but it just seems a little low compared to what I've seen other people have (although my room temperature is probably around 18C).

 

[koitsu]

Originally posted by: Tessien
I have C1E, EIST and TM2 enabled, only virtualization (or what's the name) off.
OCed to 450FSB (i. e. 3,15GHz with E6300).
No stability issues so far, 2xPrime95 ran for 48 hours straight, no problems in WoW whatsoever, I played max for 5 hours straight I think.

Thanks for providing this -- it helps greatly! We have different CPUs (E6300 vs. E6600), but I really don't think that matters much here.

Like you, I have absolutely no issues running system benchmark utilities like Sisoft Sandra (ran for something like 48 hours -- no crashes or weirdness). I have *not* tried 3D benchmarking or stress-testing apps though, and this whole ordeal seems to always involve 3D gaming. I might snag Aquamark or something and let it run overnight while I sleep to see if that does it.

I called Gigabyte's Technical Support line a few days ago and talked to one of their techs. I felt kinda bad for him, since I had already "covered all my bases" with troubleshooting techniques (every idea he had I had already tried myself, haha). He too was baffled by the problem. I asked him if an RMA would be OK, and he said they'd gladly file an RMA, but it's almost guaranteed that the guys who test the boards would send me my board back stating there's no problems with it. Argh -- I appreciated his honesty though.

The reason I'm focused on the motherboard is because I DID try out an Asus P5B, which had C1E enabled, and I had *absolutely no issues* with gaming (I had tons of other issues with the Realtek NIC though ;-) ).

Oh, something I forgot to mention: my DS3 is a Rev 1.0 board.

If I buy another DS3 and it works great, I have *no idea* what I'm going to do with the bad one. I can't sell it unless the individual buying it is made aware of the problem (I don't want anyone else to go through all this either), and ZZF (where I bought it from) won't take it back since it's outside of the return duration. Gigabyte won't RMA it because they probably won't find anything wrong with it. Seriously -- would anyone (here maybe?) want to buy this board, if it does turn out to be the problem, knowing it works fine as long as C1E is disabled? *sigh*

Time to place an order for another DS3 board and see how that goes...

 

[Tailic]

Well, now I'm thinking about sending back just the ram, I started swaping sticks and I noticed it would only have a problem booting on one stick, not the other. If I just RMA the ram in then I really hope it isnt a problem with dual channel on my motherboard but by the looks it shouldn't be.

I havnt had any problems in games, Company of Heroes and Oblivion would run fine hours on end. I have noticed some weird windows app. crashes but nothing serious, at least not by the look but it could attribute to a ram error.

I'm going to run memtest89 tomarrow, I don't have a working floppy drive around so it looks like I'll need to burn a cd of it.

 

[skinnyj]

Originally posted by: crimson117

Originally posted by: skinnyj
thats what i thought tomsstevens, and thats what i was trying to do just run it as an ide, and it came up fine in bios but now i cant get anything to show up and think maybe my sata ports are fried or somthing

Sorry for the confusion

If the bios doesn't recognize it, the ports or the HD or the SATA cable or Power cable is bad.

It sounds like you've tried everything but a new motherboard, and it still doesn't work. Therefor, I suggest a new motherboard

rgr, i have an external sata-> usb case coming today just to make sure the drives im working with are good. if thats the case then yes i believe its the mobo, and ill prolly just get a pci card as its not that big a deal everything else is running fine

 

[skinnyj]

Originally posted by: Tailic
I'm having a boot problem with my DS3, booting from cold or even with power to it, it will reboot muilitple times instead of just once. Sometimes it'll give one long beep (meaning memory error) but other times it'll just reboot like 4 or 5 times without the beep. I'm forced to lean on the reset button to get it to boot correctly or it would just hang there with the lights on but no bios.

I'm currently using the latest bios (F6) and I have increased the memory +0.1 in the bios to make it 1.9v that the memory is speced to be. Gigabye techsupport is just telling me to increase the voltage to what the ram is speced for but it already is.

Could the ram be going bad?I'm using some Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400 memory. I havnt gotten around to booting in memtest yet. But it seems to me that the motherboard is to blame since my pc has been booting fine for around 2 or 3 weeks. It would boot fine with only one stick of ram. I'd hate to have to get a different kind of memory now that prices have sky rocketed from when I bought mine.

Rest of my system is
Core 2 Duo E6700
Sapphire X1900XTX
Maxtor HD (forgot the exact specs)
Antec TrueControl 2.0 550watt PSU

No overclocking yet.

Also it seems like everytime I boot up it becomes harder and harder to boot correctly.

are you sure its 1.9? cuz i know my 6400C4 is 2.1 but advertises as 1.9, i had to go +.3 v, on the ram and it works great never one problem try that

 

[TheSlamma]

In my BIOS it is saying my "Normal CPU Vcore" is 1.32500V isn't the E6600 supposed to be 1.34?

I also have the 5-5-5-12 Corsair 6400 and it is rated at 1.9. I tried 2.1 and major crash issues. Without setting it though it ran at 1.8 and had problems, I did 1.9 and all my memtest86+ errors went away.

Are there any other voltages I should just set manually on this thing? (E6600 stock speeds)

 

[Pabster]

No. That is the correct vCore. 1.3250.

 

[Tailic]

Well, I did try going +0.2v but everything started to become unstable. Now my pc wont even boot with the bad stick installed. I guess its time to RMA.