GA-970A-D3 3.0 powers off after BIOS change, doesn't restart, BIOS corrupted.

[robertsmith]

I am running an FX-6300 CPU on a GA-970A-D3 rev 3.0 board.  It came with the FB BIOS installed, but I had updated to the latest FD BIOS.  I was looking to do a small OC on the machine (to 4.0GHZ), but when I make certain changes in the BIOS which require the motherboard to "power down," it doesn't power back up.  Pushing the power button on the case to get things started doesn't help.  I have to manually turn the PSU off via its power switch or unplug the machine for 30-60s.  When I restart, it says the BIOS was corrupted and restores the backup BIOS back to FB.  Even if I try to make changes in the FB BIOS I get the same problems.

Even after the backup BIOS is restored, if I manually set everything to stock, the board powers down again and doesn't power back up.  In this case, however, when I turn the PSU off/on, it maintains the settings, doesn't say the BIOS is corrupted and boots into Windows.

At stock, I'm not making any voltage changes other than to set the RAM to 1.55V as it is undervolted with AUTO.  The PC will boot into Windows with a 4.0GHZ OC just by increasing the multiplier, but its not stable in Prime95.  Its actually kind of strange, I can set the NB Core and CPU voltage without the motherboard powering off, and I have increased the voltage to +0.1V for each and tried even a 3.7GHZ OC without stability in Prime95.  Its like any change from stock speeds is not stable.

In any case, I want to be able to experiment with the OC.  Any idea why the board would refuse to power back up after changes to the BIOS?

[autotech]

Just a suggestion would you be so kind as to fill out the following.

Motherboard:
CPU ( Brand / Model / Is the computer Overclocked, if so list CPU speeds, FSB, Memory speeds, Voltages etc. etc.):
RAM ( Brand / Model / Tell us the number of sticks and if you´re using different brands):
Video Card ( Brand / Model / Is it overclocked, and if so, to what speeds and using what utility ):
PSU ( IMPORTANT !!! Brand & Model / Link to webpage with specs / manufacturer's website or picture of unit label ):
Monitor ( Brand / Model / Connection used):
Hard drives:
Optical Drives:
Additional PCI cards:
Number of fans present:

Operating System :
Video Card Drivers in Use ( and tried ):
Motherboard Drivers Used:
Apps/Games causing issues ( and if they've been patched ):
All major components check 100% after thorough testing ( eg. Memory & Memtest86 ):
System clean of viruses / spyware etc:

This may help troubleshoot the problem.

[robertsmith]

Sorry mate, for some reason I had thought I had entered that in my profile, looks like it was a different forum

CPU - FX-6300 at stock, AUTO voltage (about 1.26V)
RAM - Patriot Viper 3 Series DDR3 8GB 1866MHz 9-10-9-27 Timings
Video Card - PowerColor ATI Radeon HD 4850 OCd to 650/1100 using Catalyst Driver 13.1
PSU - Enermax Noisetaker EG701AX-VE
Monitor - ViewSonic VX2025wm 20.1", DVI connection
Hard Drives - WD Black 1TB WD1001FALS (Boot Drive), Seagate Barracuda 3TB ST3000DM001
Optical Drives - Samsung SH-224BB
Operating System - Windows 7 x64

RAM passes memtest86+.  System stable at stock with Prime95.

[Vezina]

What memory sticks  are you using ?!
Nevermind you already posted in same time  

PS: The board on which you are overclocking is a low end /budget stuff as such overclocking is done with the risk of killing the board for real as it has a low limit for TDP out of the box.
If you want overclocking get something better as board.

[robertsmith]

NP

One thing about the memory that may help.  I can select Profile1, but it defaults to 9-10-10-27 timings instead of 9-10-9-27.  If I manually enter the latter, its not stable in memtest86+ with both Channel Interleave and Rank Interleave Enabled.  However, if I leave Rank Interleave to AUTO, its stable.

I have the same RAM in another similar machine with a GA-990FXA-UD3 3.0 board and its stable with at stock with Rank Interleave on.

In any case, I am wondering about a RAM/motherboard issue as well.

I'm aware the GA-970A-D3 is a lower end board.  I wasn't planning to do any major overclocking on it, that is why I bought it.  But its the 3.0 revision with heatsinks.  I would imagine a small OC to 4GHZ wouldn't be a problem.  I've OC'd the FX-6300 to 4.7GHZ on my other machine.

[robertsmith]

So after some more testing.  The problem occurs everytime you power off the PC.  If you press the power button, shut down from Windows, or make any change in BIOS that requires a shut down before reboot, the PC does not start.  It takes about 1 minute or so and then the power button will work.

I even tried reflashing the FD BIOS, shut down the PC, reset CMOS via jumper, load optimized defaults, reboot, pressed power -> wouldn't start back up

I tried unplugging the HDs and took each memory stick and swapped their slots as well.

Any idea what could be causing this.  I imagine this suggests a motherboard or PSU issue.  I could have sworn it was working fine a few months ago when I put together the rig.

[Vezina]

Have you swapped that RAM and CPU out.
Bad RAM can cause such issues.
If doesn t get any better with some other RAM sticks or CPU just  RMA the board.

[robertsmith]

I don't have other components to swap out.  I did try each RAM stick separately and it didn't make any difference.

I'm going to buy a different PSU and try that first.  This one is probably 8-9 years old, so I'm thinking it must be the issue.  The PSU has a feature where when the PC is turned off, the fans run for a few minutes before stopping.  It seems like the PSU can restart only after the fans stop.  The PSU may also be why I can't OC past stock.

The only thing is that I would expect stability issues if the PSU was going, but at stock the PC is completely stable, I don't get any errors in Prime95 or any other stressing application.  Its easier to test the PSU though so I will give that a go and report back.

[Vezina]

I'm going to buy a different PSU and try that first.  This one is probably 8-9 years old, so I'm thinking it must be the issue.

No wonder you have issues

The PSU design has evolved a lot since then.I wouldn t have imagined that such an old PSU would start that system.
It may be possible the mobo to be damaged by now.If some voltage in there went nuts (overshots), who knows ,maybe even some HDD is damaged.

[robertsmith]

You're such a "worst case scenario" type of person lol!

Why would you think the PSU wouldn't power up the system?  Its a 600W Enermax and exceeds all the boards requirements.  They made great stable power supplies.  Its possible one of the rails is probably failing, which I can understand due to its age.  And yes there is newer PSU technology, but nevertheless this PSU should be more than fine to run things.  You can look at the specs here:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817194001

Regardless, I'm looking at these PSUs.  Which one would you suggest.  The Thermaltake 600W would be almost $20 cheaper than the rest.

Thermaltake TR2 600W (TR600)
Thermaltake 700W (TR700)
Corsair CX Series 600W (CX600)
Antec EarthWatts Green 650W (EA650GREEN)

[Vezina]

You're such a "worst case scenario" type of person lol!

Yes indeed ,i am quite a pessimistic person.

There is nothing wrong with the brand ,i know Enermax did great stuff ,opposed to the things they are doing now .I am using an Enermax 450 made by CWT as we speak , in the 5600K based PC .Maybe they ve made the fan :

Nevertheless there are changed parameters regarding amperage per each rail  ,efficiency and  some other minor improvements related to stand by voltage.

In any power supply you will find capacitors and the quality of this components will determine the proper functionality of the power supply.Excellent capacitors like the ones made by Rubycon may last more than 5 years ,even 8 years ,but over this it s already to much to ask.What to say about  the "casual" caps

I have used the CX 600  personally and used 2 of them for making other people builds.They can have coil noise depending on your luck ,but they work nevertheless.

From those i would take the cheaper one .