Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P - Freezing

[stuart]

Hi Thanks for the figures, but if I want to run this at 1333 i think their figure is 1.5v - however the base figure for the DDR3 voltage within the BIOS is 1.6v and there are only options to add to this, I cannot subtract. Is there a way to select 1.5v?

http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,588.0.html - it doesn't look like it, but if you find a way please let me know.

One area that I am still unclear on is alhough the board can support 1600, can the processor (phenom II 955) support 1600? And therefore should I be running the memory at 1333 or 1600?

Officially, Phenom II processors support DDR3-1333 (166MHz * 4 * 2) memory.  Unofficially, they can also handle DDR3-1600 (200MHz * 4 * 2), which is sometimes erroneously listed (by Giagbyte, for example...) as DDR3-1666 in order, presumably, to look faster.

In real-world tests, the Phenom II range gains very little from the additional raw memory speed - there was a small enough difference between DDR2 and DDR3 speeds in the first place.

Finally, could I ask you to do a quick test for me?  Power on your system from cold, whilst holding down the F12 button (which is supposed to bring up the boot menu) and don't release the key until the system has POSTed.  I've gone through two different boards with two different processors, and even though Gigabyte Tech. Support claim to be unable to reproduce this, on my system following these steps locks-up the board with a green square and an "N" showing on-screen.  I'm wondering if there's some odd interaction with some other hardware I have in the system, or whether this is (another) BIOS bug...

[blocks_off]

Hi Stuart

(Sorry for not replying sooner) I think I know the behaviour that you mean - I have seen it alot if I get a key stuck on boot. However, strangely, I don't get it with F12. How weird!!

Carl

[blocks_off]

Hi All,

What I am now noticing is the system freezing/needs a reboot due to becoming sluggish in the first few minutes use of each day.

e.g. Friday, one freeze after 5 mins - then 12 hours of solid use - flight sim x - moving data - ultimate defrag etc. 

So even though I still don't have an answer from giga-byte re: the ram voltage, I am suspecting that the ram may not be at fault.

Any more thoughts on this please?

I do leave my pc off when not in use.

Thanks

Carl

[stuart]

Hmm - I've noticed on my system that Gigabyte's brain-dead BIOS will not spin up the CPU fan when the system is (literally) cold-started, and then it's own hardware monitoring system will sound the system alarms because the CPU fan isn't spinning fast enough.  This never happens on warm-boots, because the CPU is already up to temperature.  The only solution I've found to this is, unhelpfully, to disable CPU fan monitoring support(!)

Anyway - back to your problem   If the problem is reproducible from cold-starts only, that's probably significant - and the question is what's different?  Two things I'd try immediately - do you still get a crash if, after having used the computer for a half-day without problems, you turn the computer off for 10 minutes before turning it back on?  Also disable Cool 'n' Quiet in the BIOS, and see if this makes any difference.

Even though it's highly unlikely, if you have very good cooling then I'm wondering if Windows boots and finds the system and CPU fans either stopped or running slowly (because the system is cold), interprets this as a problem and clocks-down your processors cores - resulting in the sluggish performance.

[blocks_off]

Thanks for the reply Stuart.

Significant breakthrough - I was able to borrow a Quadro FX-3450 and had no problems whatsoever whilst running with this graphics card.

Now I've been a little silly - before removing the card, I looked at the SPD settings of the RAM and noticed for 1333 i need 9-10-10-25

I set that in the BIOS between a power down taking out the old card and refitting the Radeon 4870.

The reason I say I've been a little silly is because I've introduced two changes...

I've still not had any issue. I perhaps need to change the settings back and see if this makes the fault reappear. However, I'm just enjoying the system at the moment! I plan to move to Win 7 64bit next.

Cooling - I have the issued processor fan. I've read somewhere that it's a good idea to replace the issued fan, so when I order a new disk I'll look to a new cooling fan.

"do you still get a crash if, after having used the computer for a half-day without problems, you turn the computer off for 10 minutes before turning it back on?" No i would not get a crash having done this.

Also disable Cool 'n' Quiet in the BIOS, and see if this makes any difference. I'll see what setting I have.

Thanks

Carl

[mark rumsey]

I've got a similar spec to you, but don't have any real problems. My machine is as follows.

GA-MA790FXT-UD5P board with Phenom II X4 955BE
8GB (4 x 2GB) Corsair DDR1600 RAM manually set to 1600 with timings and voltages detailed by Corsair.
Gigabyte made ATi HD4670 graphics card
2 x IDE hard drive
3 x SATA hard drive
1 x solid state SATA hard drive
2 x DVDROM (1 is BluRay capable)
1 x Adaptec 29320A U320SCSI controller with SCSI ZIP drive

I very occasionally get a freeze during POST (normally when checlking the memory or drives) or during initial Windows boot, but a reset always fixes the problem. I suspect this is BIOS related as I'm still on F5 and I think its a clash between the SATA and SCSI drive controllers as I had to remove the SCSI hard drives and CDROMs I originally installed as they would go into a continual bus reset loop slowing the machine to a crawl, but that's another story. As my configuration is now it almost always boots first time and freezes and crashes are very rare. I'm running Windows7 RC1 64bit (will be upgrading to the official release in the next couple of months) along with Windows XP 32bit and SuSE Linux 11.1 4bit. I've also got a tiny partition with MS-DOS6.22 housing the boot manager!

Not only is the system stable with the processor at a stock 3.2GHz, if I change the multiplier I can get up to 4GHz and remain stable, although I'll admit I've only done this a few times for no more than an hour under normal loading. Possibly stress tested it would fail or get a bit too hot, but at stock speeds its quick enough so I'm saving overclocking for later on when it begins to feel sluggish.

I'm also running the stock AMD cooler as most replacement coolers are too big and overhang the memory slots, which is no good to me as I'm using all of them. The CPU generally sits around 30-35DegC, pushing up into the low 40's when worked hard. I may change the cooler later on if I can find a comact one, but I'll be specifically looking for one that blows air over the mainboard heat sinks. After all, there's little point having a cool CPU if the chipset begins overheating!

I've not had the fan not running problem, but I'm on BIOS F5 which does appear to use the minimum fan speed from EastTune6 (I'm set at 31%). I will probably upgrade the BIOS in the future, but as things are stable at the moment I don't see the point of messing it around. Just one thought. Have you tried installing EastTune6 (latest version) and manually set the fan controls to see if this has any effect on the fan? I'm just wondering if the settings in EastTune6 get written into the CMOS to be used when the machine is next booted. Certainly if you enable cool'n'quiet it uses the reduced voltages and processor speed controls on the next reboot even if you don't have cool'n'quiet installed or boot into a different operating system where cool'n'quiet is switched off! Again, this might be to do with the F5 BIOS, so manually setting the fan control using EasyTune6 may not work for you.

[umutsirin]

If you are using Easy Power Saver software then try the system after uninstalling this software. I had same problems before and resolve this problem with uninstalling this product.

[Dark Mantis]

I would recommend NOT installing any additional software supplied by Gigabyte  with the motherboard. Most of it is fairly cr*p and will usually only add to your problems.

[ex58]

New beta BIOS:

GA-MA790FXT-UD5P - F8k

[Dark Mantis]

That should make a fair few people happy

[runn3R]

New beta BIOS:

GA-MA790FXT-UD5P - F8k

Thanks ex58

[autotech]

The 3450 uses a whole lot less power than a 4870. That power supply is a really cheap model and for the life of me cant find the 12 volt rail amps. You need 22 amps to power a 4870 and with the rest of the system id say a good 35 amp 12 volt rail would do.

Do you have a different psu that you can try that isnt so cheap?

[Dark Mantis]

The 3450 uses a whole lot less power than a 4870. That power supply is a really cheap model and for the life of me cant find the 12 volt rail amps. You need 22 amps to power a 4870 and with the rest of the system id say a good 35 amp 12 volt rail would do.

Do you have a different psu that you can try that isnt so cheap?

You are quite right. It must be one of the most common underlying problems with computer builds. People buy all the best components and then expect some really cheap crappy power supply to run them all smoothly. I cant understand what makes them think that way as it is one of the most important parts in the build.

[RatsAss]

I found these specs for the High power 800w. Doesnt look very promising.
4x12v rails@20amps each. I dont think thats enough for a 4870.

I also have a similar system with no problems at all.
I have a Corsair TX850 for my 4870's. 70 amps on a single 12v rail.

You should try a different PSU.

Output rating:
OUTPUT VOLTAGE OUTPUT CURRENT REGULATION
MIN(A) MAX(A) LOAD LINE
5 0.5 30 ±5% ±1%
3.3 0.5 30 ±5% ±1%
12V1 1 20 ±5% ±1%
12V2 1 20 ±5% ±1%
12V3 1 20 ±5% ±1%
12V4 1 20 ±5% ±1%
-12 0 0.5 ±10% ±1%
5VSB 0 3 ±5% ±1%

[Dark Mantis]

I found these specs for the High power 800w. Doesnt look very promising.
4x12v rails@20amps each. I dont think thats enough for a 4870.

I also have a similar system with no problems at all.
I have a Corsair TX850 for my 4870's. 70 amps on a single 12v rail.

Exactly! I had a very similar experience with this rig i am using now. I bought a Zalman Heatpipe 750 quality PSU and had no end of throubles trying to get a stable platform and in the end I swapped it out for a Corsair HX850 and no more probs. This I put down to the fact that the Zalman had 4x12v rails rated at 20amps each whereas the Corsair has one 70amp rail.