GA-P55A-UD4 and SSD troubles

[indy911]

Hi all,

About a year ago I have built a system with the following components:

- Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD4, F15 BIOS. SATA Controllers in AHCI mode.
- Intel i7-860
- 4x Kingston KVR1333D3N9 (2GB each, for a total of 8GB)
- ATI HD4870
- Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB
- 500W Enermax powersupply.
- Win7 x64 SP1


Everything is running on stock settings, no overclocking, no manual voltage adjustments or anything like that. System used to be rocksolid with no hickups whatsoever. Until I added an SSD.

First SSD I have tried was a Vertex 2 120GB with the latest firmware (1.32). This introduced the following two problems:

- About 10% of the time, the system would crash and reboot at startup. Not even a BSOD (or at least not visible), just an immediate reboot just before the windows desktop appears.
- About 90% of the time, if the system would resume from sleep it would crash with a BSOD. Also instant reboot, despite the cleared setting for automatic restart in advanced system settings.

In both situations, the system would not recover after a reboot and would keep crashing and rebooting just after desktop appeared. Only a cold start would "cure" it.

However, if it did boot, I never suffered any random crashes or BSODs. Just the two situations I described above. Considering the countless reports about sleep and resume problems with the Vertex 2, I decided to change the drive for a different brand.

Now I have an Intel 320 160GB. The first problem still persists:

- About 10% of the time, the systems crashes just after startup, just before the desktop appears. No visible BSOD, just an immediate reboot. And again, if this happens, it keeps on crashing and rebooting just after the desktop appears unless I manually switch it off and cold boot it. If it *does* boot, it seems as stable as ever. Never any random lockups or BSODs.
- Resume from sleep works. Never had any immediate BSODs or lockups.
- After resuming from sleep, the problem I sometimes get at startup, also appears at shutdown. Again a cold boot is required to recover.


Things I have already tried without any effect:

- cleared the system of any unnecessary peripherals (HDs, DVD Burner etc.).
- tried both SATA controllers (Intel and Marvell), just the SSD on the first port.
- since the event log shows BCCode 124, manually set QPI/Vtt from "auto" to 1.17.

My guess is some voltage is -just- above or below what the SSD or SATA controller can handle. Im surprised that an SSD triggers this problem when a 7200rpm harddisk doesnt give me any troubles. Also surprised that a reboot is not enough and the systems requires a cold start to get going again.

Anyone have an idea what else I could try?

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum.

I would suggest making sure that your BIOS is not corrupt by downloading and updating it again. Also make sure that you clear the DMI when doing it. Afterwards make sure that both of your BIOSes match.

[indy911]

Thanks for the suggestion. Flashed the latest BIOS again (F15) and made sure that the boxes to clear DMI were ticked. Can't seem to manually update the backup BIOS for this particular motherboard.

Unfortunately, without positive result. The system has crashed several times again. I can add one more symptom to the list, as I was trying to find ways to trigger the crash so I could take it back to a repair shop.

I copied a large directory (StarCraft II) from the F3 to the SSD and it just instantly rebooted in the middle of the transfer. No BSOD. In fact, it didn't even show up in the eventlog. Though I have managed to let the system crash a few times this way, I can't seem to reproduce it consistently.

Either way, BSODs on resume from sleep were avoidable, BSODs on bootup were annoying, but BSODs in the middle of just using the computer are unacceptable. Taking the SSD back to the store and will stick to the F3 for now, till the next upgrade .

Incidently, the Vertex 2 seems to work fine in my HTPC (a GigaByte GA-P35-DS4) and loads Win7 so fast it made my jaw drop. Definitely something iffy going on with this GA-P55A-UD4 board...

[Dark Mantis]

To synchronise the BIOSes follow these instructions.


To check, go into the BIOS and on the MAIN page press F9 for system info.   You should see both BIOS versions listed, if they do not match please update the backup BIOS to match the current.

To do that, reboot and where you would normally press DEL to enter the BIOS, instead press Alt + F12, this will flash the Backup BIOS with the MAIN BIOS contents.   Do not worry when you see a recovery comment, that is normal and means it is flashing the backup BIOS.

[absic]

Just to add to what DM has said, you might find it easier to flash the back-up BIOS if you are using a P/S2 keyboard. Also note it can take several attempts of pressing Alt+F12 before it will enter the back-up process.

[indy911]

That wasn't in the manual - updated the backup BIOS from F4 to F15. thanks for that .

It shouldn't have been causing random reboots and BSODs tho, would it? Either way, it's done. Reverted back to the F3 which now seems painfully slow. Tempted to try and buy a new motherboard, but to be honest Im a bit scared replacing the P55A-UD4 with just another P55A-UD4... And what if it is some incompatibility problem with the RAM...

[Dark Mantis]

I don't understand why you have reverted to F3 ?

[indy911]

The spinpoint F3 - took the SSD out and put the harddisk back in. Both BIOS levels are at F15 now.

[Dark Mantis]

Whew! breathes a big sigh of relief! I thought you meant the BIOS had gone back to F3.

Is it working any better now ?

[indy911]

Without the SSD, my system is as stable as ever. Getting used again to regular hard drive speeds is a bit difficult though. As I mentioned in the previous post, I have given up on it. It's been 3 months of nothing but trouble since the moment of installing the first Vertex 2 to putting the Samsung F3 back in, and that's not what I bought that new system for :/.

Have to admit I can't stand not knowing what has been causing it. Options I have now are:

- using the system as is,
- replacing the motherboard with a different make/brand,
- upgrading to a new Sandy Bridge system

Considering the age and quality of my current system, I have a hard time justifying option 3. So it'll be option 1 for now... Alas...

[capnemo]

hi. just got me this mb whit F15 bios and loaded optimized settings. how should i set options for my ssd disk? greatfull for any help