GA-M57SLI-S4 (rev. 2.0) & Phenom 9850 Black Edition?

[antonyfrn]

Hi does anyone know if this board can take a 9850 BE ive been searching for a while with little luck finding any info i emailed gigabyte all i got was reply stating they are testing them atm. would like to know if i can get one running on my board as im planing to get one before the Nforce 780a mobos come out

[runn3R]

Hi antonyfrn

Your MB - GA-M57SLI-S4 (Rev. 2.0) with bios FG can support 9850 CPU as it was confirmed by our testing dept. Our website is not updated yet but soon this info will be included there also.

[antonyfrn]

shame i didnt know about this 3 weeks ago i ended up getting a 9600 what now im quiet disappointed with now.

[Phenomenaloverclocker]

I have tried this combination myself using the FG BIOS.
It works with the CPU at default settings.
Trying to tweak anything in BIOS almost always causes it to be unstable and fail to POST and give you a error beep code. Even chnaging the most minor of things like disabling logo screen let alone trying to overclock.

So right now this motherboard is stable at default settings. You will be disappointed if you are hoping to overclock though.

Maybe a BIOS update will make it more stable.

[brian]

I have this motherboard with the latest BIOS and got the Phenom 9850 X4 today, it only sees 2 cores. Can we expect a new bios to fix this?

[brian]

[Gpower]

Are you using the FG BIOS? You can use the Qflash to update the BIOS 

[brian]

I was able to solve this, it was a windows problem.

[Paul213]

Just wondered if there is any news of a bios update which would replace FG?

Similar problems for me.

I'm using a M57SLI-S4 Rev 2 with FG Bios and a Phenom 9850 Black Edition. I did at first use the later FHD bios which seemed to make the PC run slightly slower than my previous X2 5000 CPU. Also there was a problem with the Lan which rendered my Ethernet connection to my Home Hub useless. After much head scratching and the promise of a new Home Hub from BT, then searching the internet I found a few others had the exact same problem. This was fixed by using the FG bios.

All seemed fantastic, until I tried to overclock the 9850 through the multiplyer, 14X200 gave me a nice 2800 clock speed and still everything worked brilliantly, I was so pleased. Then I switched off the PC only to find it would not restart, just continual clicking sounds could be heard, no video but fans etc were all working. Finally I replaced the 9850 with my old X2 5000 and all was well. I replaced the x2 5000 with the 9850 again and to my surprise all was well with the default clock.

So, the 9850 works well with the M57SLI-S4 Rev 2 with the FG Bios, but forget about overclocking. The strange thing is you can overclock, restart the PC and all is fine. Switch the PC off and do a cold start and it just won't boot up.

If only this problem could be overcome with a Bios update I'd be well happy, it's a shame that overclocking is ruled out by what seems a slightly faulty Bios.

[runn3R]

Hi

have you tried to overclock by software called EasyTune (from Windows) ?

[Paul213]

Thanks for the reply Andrew, no I haven't tried Easytune, although I did think about it but was unsure which one I should use. I'm using Vista Premium 64 bit

Do you think this could be a way around the problem or do you mean I could go back to default settings through Easytune before shutting down?

I'm a little aprehensive of overclocking the 9850 now because it means removing the CPU after overclocking, replacing it with the old CPU, then reverting back to the 9850 before it will boot up again, that's using the multiplyer in the Bios.

[Paul213]

One other point, I really think there should be a warning about not overclocking a 9850 on this Motherboard with the FG Bios. It would have saved a lot of frustration and annoyance with me, plus I probably would have thought twice about buying the 9850 in the first place. My first thought when it wouldn't boot up was that the CPU was fried, it wouldn't surprise me if others had come to that conclusion if they had overclocked like me.

Not being sarcastic, just a little more information regarding upgrading CPU's would go a long way in keeping loyal to Gigabyte perhaps?

[Paul213]

Tried EasyTune and it won't allow the Multiplyer to be changed. 

[Paul213]

Sorry to ask this again Andrew, but do you think it's possible that there will be an updated Bios that could eliminate the problems highlighted in this topic?

If not, is it a possibility a third party may have already worked on a Bios to overcome these problems? Not sure how difficult and time consuming making new Bios software is.

[runn3R]

Yes it's possible i think. we are working now to solve this issue.