GA-880GM usb3: constant restart/bsod

[savawa]

Alright, the onboard graphics has been disabled.  I put in the second stick of ram and it caused the same error as this morning.  It went into startup repair and tried to do a system restore.  I canceled that, shut it down and changed the ram settings.

It was originally at 1333 with 1.65V

I changed it to 1333 and normal voltage where I think it runs at 1.6 .

That had an error on startup as well so I changed it to 1066 and normal voltage.  It booted up fine this time.  I'll have to shut down for several hours to be sure since it seems to fail after a good night's rest.

By the way do you know any good places for linux hardware questions?  I'm looking for a way to get my infrared port on my IBM T23 laptop working on Linux Mint.

[Dark Mantis]

There are some dedicated Linux Forums around. I would suggest googling for them.

[savawa]

Yes, if you disable the On-Board Graphics you will probably find that you get better results from your 5770. Make sure your monitor is attached to the 5770 not the On-Board ports first. You will probably find that you have not been getting the full performance from your 5770 as it would have been throttled back to match the On-Board chip.

Let's try that first and see what happens then we will look at the RAM settings.

EDIT: Ooops! I forgot to mention, when you disable the On-Board Graphics don't forget to set the INIT Display to PEG2 (sorry)

I have PEG and PCI Slot in my list.  No PEG2.  It's already set to PCI Slot.

[Dark Mantis]

You must set it to PEG not PCI.

[savawa]

Ok, I set it to PEG and then shut it down for about an hour. When I started it up it restarted at the logo screen.  Going into startup repair it crashed with a Paged Fault in Non Paged Area; highlighting ACPI.sys was the problem.

[Dark Mantis]

Well I would advise changing to IDE mode because I find it more stable but to be honest absic is the expert on the AMD platform and he might not think the same so I would say wait and see what he says.

[savawa]

It's already in IDE mode, I think.  The SATA controller is enabled and mode is set to Native IDE.

[savawa]

The latest thing that's happening is it's giving me AutoFailOver errors whenever there's two ram sticks in it.

Sometimes it'll load Windows before it crashes, other times it'll crash at login.

[absic]

Hi there Savawa,

from the problems you are describing I think the problem could be, either with the RAM modules or the CPU's Memory controller. The fact that the system seems to run OK with just one stick of RAM but falls over when you add the second would point more to the CPU rather than the RAM, especially as both sticks have passed Memtest when you have run it. It is very unlikely to be a motherboard error but, of course, this can't be discounted and the options you are left with, to try and solve the problem yourself, are becoming more limited.

Have you tried running with your RAM in slots 1&3 or 2&4 on the motherboard? This would use only one channel of the CPU's Memory controller, rather than both and would be a good indication if the CPU is at fault. If the system runs OK in either configuration then it would seem likely that you have a faulty CPU.

[savawa]

I just tried it with the ram in 2 & 4 after a power down of 4-5 hours.  It allowed me to login but crashed when I started Mozilla.  I did this twice to make sure it wasn't a fluke.

The first time was a memory management error and the second time was a driver irq not or less equal error.

After the last time I did a clean reinstall I didn't install the chipset drivers from the gigabyte site.  I was afraid they might have cased some errors last time.

[absic]

I think it might be time to RMA the CPU as it would seem to me that you have a bad memory controller.

[savawa]

Damn.  I was hoping it wouldn't be that.  This build is only about a month old.

[absic]

Hi Savawa,

going back through the whole of this thread there are only two things that I can think of that would be creating this problem. One is the memory modules the other the CPU.
You say that you have run Memtest and that the RAM Modules have both passed but, something I have overlooked, is the RAM on the QVL for the motherboard. It could be that you need to swap the RAM for another type that is on the list or that is known to work. The only other item I can think of is the CPU's memory controller hence my previous post.

It might be worthwhile double checking the RAM modules before RMA'ing the CPU as this might be easier for you to do.

[Dark Mantis]

Just a comment on your post absic. Surely if the OP has run Memtest without any errors then that must preclude the faulty CPU scenario? As the memory controller is now on chip if it was faulty Memtest would fail.

[absic]

Not necessarily. As the RAM is running on one channel but not on two it could be that the memory controllers are not talking to each other properly. That's why I suggested trying to run the RAM in slots 1&3 or 2&4. By putting both sticks of RAM onto the same channel it would show if one or other of the memory channels are not working properly. The fact that the OP tried in slots 2&4 and the system fell over could well point to a faulty memory controller, hence the reason I suggested RMA'ing the CPU.

But, the problem could also be due to the RAM itself. Although it has passed Memtest individually it may not be fully compatible with the system and we all know how fussy the memory controllers are these days. That's why I made my last post asking if the RAM is on the QVL. If it is then the probable cause is the CPU, if it isn't then the best advice would be to swap the RAM to a couple of sticks that are known to be compatible.