GA-MA790FXT & Virtualization - BIOS Errors

[Woleebear]

I built a new system for my son.
1) GA-MA790FXT-UD5P
2) Video -  MSI R4890-T2D1G OC
3) OCZ Intel Extreme Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit
4) AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W

We are running Windows Server 2008 w/SP2

We are using Hyper-V for virtualization. 

We received the motherboard with BIOS version F4 installed.  I'm using all the stock drivers from Gigabyte and MSI for the Video card.  We installed Hyper-v and 1 guest VM running IIS and all worked fine.

The problem is that under BIOS F4, AMD 955 BE only runs at 800 Mhz.  We needed to update the BIOS to F5C or F3L to get 3.2GHz.

After the proper upgrade (reset to optimized defaults etc.), the system would boot just fine.  When we changed the BIOS settings to enable Virtualization it would not boot.  It would hang at the Windows "progress bar".

If we changed the BIOS setting back to "Virtualization Disabled", it would boot just fine.  This was true for both BIOS versions F5C & F3L.

When we reflashed back to BIOS F4, all the problems went away and it would boot just fine and run virtualization.

I don't want to run at 800 Mhz and want to leverage the latest BIOS - any suggestions?

thx.

[Badbonji]

Does it say 800Mhz when it posts? Or after windows has loaded? Not sure how AMD cpu's do it but I believe CnQ can downclock when idle. Have you tried a beta bios? These can sometimes address more issues and actually work better than releases of earlier versions.

[mayebaza]

I built a new system for my son.
1) GA-MA790FXT-UD5P
2) Video -  MSI R4890-T2D1G OC
3) OCZ Intel Extreme Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit
4) AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W

We are running Windows Server 2008 w/SP2

We are using Hyper-V for virtualization. 

We received the motherboard with BIOS version F4 installed.  I'm using all the stock drivers from Gigabyte and MSI for the Video card.  We installed Hyper-v and 1 guest VM running IIS and all worked fine.

The problem is that under BIOS F4, AMD 955 BE only runs at 800 Mhz.  We needed to update the BIOS to F5C or F3L to get 3.2GHz.

After the proper upgrade (reset to optimized defaults etc.), the system would boot just fine.  When we changed the BIOS settings to enable Virtualization it would not boot.  It would hang at the Windows "progress bar".

If we changed the BIOS setting back to "Virtualization Disabled", it would boot just fine.  This was true for both BIOS versions F5C & F3L.

When we reflashed back to BIOS F4, all the problems went away and it would boot just fine and run virtualization.

I don't want to run at 800 Mhz and want to leverage the latest BIOS - any suggestions?

thx.

Your problem is caused by cool ‘n’ quite.  Your choice of OS may also be contributing to the problem.  BE chips are specifically designed for over clocking; therefore cool ‘n’ quite needs to be disabled to free the chips to run at speed.  Servers prioritise reliability over speed this could be why your chip is in conflict with your OS, Vista or W7 would be much better choices than your current OS.

[Badbonji]

When you apply load to the CPU, does it bump up to full speed on all versions?
You can run say prime95 with 4 threads, and check on a programme such as cpu-z.